Jaclyn & the Big Blue

Final Days

2009-05-09T12:24:00.001-04:00

The day after we left Guatemala I had my last finals. I said goodbye to all my professors and got their emails. After classes were over SAS turned into Spring Break 2009. I mean, we didn’t have classes or anywhere to be. All we had to do was eat, sleep and hang around the pool.

After the last finals day was when we transited the Panama Canal. We had a professor narrate what we going through and seeing as we did the 9 hour haul through the canal. We went through three locks saw a lot of other boats. I thought it was really cool seeing the personal sailboats passing by, they were traveling so far! We are the last voyage to completely circumnavigate the globe, the one next semester is starting in San Diego and ending in Florida, once we found out it was $150,000 to go through the canal it all made sense why.

It was SO hot in Panama and there was no sign of a breeze from any direction. We chilled around the pool all day and I thought I was in a frying pan. We were all trying to soak up the sun and last bits of Semester at Sea. There was a ping pong tournament going on and at one point I got up to get some water, I was walking with my bag and I guess I navigated a bit too close to the ping pong table, the ball went into my bag hahaha WHOOPS! The guys are REALLY serious about ping pong, or any intramural sport, so they were not happy with me. They had to start over, I thought it was hilarious.

That night was the Ambassador’s Ball. All the girls get snazzy, the guys wear their Vietnamese suits and we all have a 5 course dinner followed by a night of dancing! The meal was SO good; I had coconut shrimp, French onion soup, Caesar salad and a steak. We were allowed two glasses of wine at dinner but the staff that was serving my table loves me so I got poured a wee bit more, yes! After dinner we all went to a room to have a little “pre-game party.” My friend snuck two bottles of vodka on the ship by pouring them into ziplock bags and stuffing them in her bra. She went from A cup to DD, but hey it worked! We had music playing and once again everything was bitter sweet. After our little party we went up to the dance floor. It was so CROWDED and the ship was rocking like crazy. It was one of the funniest things I have ever experienced, we were all sardines on the dance floor and when a wave would come we would all, as a group, fall completely in one direction and then sway back the other. Feet were bleeding and elbows were thrown, every time I fell on someone I would say, “Sorry, sorry! It wasn’t me it was the wave!” There is always a point in the night when things wind down and people start pairing off as “couples for the night” and disappear. That’s usually when it gets awkward for me, so I just went to bed. The Ball was fun and a good way to begin to say goodbye to everyone.

The next day was packing day. It didn’t take me too long to pack but I had 4 huge suitcases, more than anyone I had seen. I 100% over packed but oh well, I had everything I needed. Once I was done packing I went up to the pool. We all stayed at the pool, grabbed dinner and watched the sunset. I couldn’t believe it had been 4 months already. One more day on the ship…

The last day was called “Re-Entry/Reflecting/Convocation.” At 10am we had a graduation ceremony for seniors and an official alumni celebration. We were welcomed into the Alumni association for Semester at Sea, which includes a 5 day voyage to Cabo san Lucas in January. I emailed my Mom about it saying I wanted to go and she wrote back, “I know you are.” I think it’s good that my parents have accepted that I “ask” for permission but really it is a rhetorical question, the answer is already known. We went back to our rooms when the ceremony was finished and when my sea, the Yellow Sea, was called we had to bring our luggage down to deck 2 in preparation for the next day. After that it was another day at the pool. It was the last day on the ship and it was all we could talk about. How did all of this happen so quickly? I can’t even begin to digest all I have seen.

Everyone had their cameras out for the whole day, taking all the pictures they could in 24hours. We all planned to stay up the entire night to watch the sunrise and see the lights of Florida approaching. I lasted until about 4am, went to sleep for two hours and then got up to meet those who made it through the whole night. We were on the seventh deck and I saw the sunrise, and then I saw the lights. I was excited but sad. I couldn’t wait to see my dad but I didn’t want to leave my friends. There’s something different about friendships when you go through something like this together. We always say how SAS is like a secret society because anyone can go abroad to a country but ONLY SAS can come on the ship and ONLY we know what goes on.

The lights of Florida got closer and closer. My phone picked up AT&T service from shore and that’s when I knew it was really over. We were all piled on the decks to see the parents as we rolled in. I called my mom as we went through the jetties of Ft. Lauderdale Port Everglades harbor. The girl who won the raffle for blowing the horn as we pulled into port made it sound. Literally, she must have pulled it a thousand times; I thought my ears were going to blow off. My dad said that after two horn blows it means you’re in danger, well anyone who was listening would have thought we capsized or were about to go under.

We turned the corner into port and we saw the parents standing waiting for their little Magellans. There was my dad, front center at the gate like I knew he would be. Really, what time did you get there? 6am? Have to get their early. I told my friends to watch him because I know his love for boats; he wouldn’t look for me on the deck until he watched the ship dock. And that’s exactly what he did; if it was his boat and I throw the lines out to early I would get the standard “Don’t throw the lines out yet! Don’t let the guy pull us in from the dock! I’ll do it and then you throw them!” Well no one was going to pull this ship on manually so we didn’t have to worry about that.

Finally he saw me and he lifted his hand out of his pocket, gave me an under the chin wave. I pointed him out to my friends and he gave them a salute. I also told them I feel like our friendships went to the next level because my friends rarely meet my dad so that means we were extra close.

P.S. we were woken up this morning to another ridiculous America song, I just can’t remember what it was because I was sleepless and delusional.

We had a little while before we could leave the ship. When customs was cleared a fellow student came over the loud speaker to say an amazing speech, at the end he said, “DING! You are now free to roam about the country,” wow it was over. My friends and I sat around on the 7th deck outside. They called everyone off by their seas, we were the fifth sea to be called so we all said goodbye to those who left before us.

It was cool that all my closest friends were in my sea so we got to walk off together. Most of my closest friends were guys and it was only me and them left, no tears were shed we were all just sitting together. Finally Luke came on the speaker and said, “Yellow Sea you can now disembark.” We immediately looked at each other and started crying, yes… guys were crying. We all hugged and said our goodbyes, which were some really nice things. We went down to our rooms, grabbed our backpacks then went to the gangway. I got a picture of my last swipe out and we were all just really quiet together. The bag claiming process was intense but we all met up again before customs. We walked through customs and we were outside, on land, in America. It was like a little waiting area in front of the parents once you walked outside so they could see who came out and tell if it was their child or not. I met some of my friend’s parents as I looked for mine. We all did one final hug goodbye and I saw my Dad come through the crowd to hug me. I made it, without a scratch on me. I was so happy to see him and now I was in “home” mode. I just wanted to get back.

Semester at Sea was the most amazing thing I have ever done. Less than 1% of the world’s population circumnavigates the world. I saw poverty up close and experienced current events first hand. In 108 days I saw 12 countries, traveled 34,319 miles, changed my clock 26 times, lost an entire day through the date line and circled the entire world. I recommend this program to any other that is offered, I love being a SAS Alumni. I have made friends I will keep for a lifetime. None of us said goodbye, we just said “See you soon.” Thank you Mom and Dad for the most incredible experience yet. I can’t fathom how I am going to begin to put this on my resume.

Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.

The theme for our voyage was “Ubuntu.” A person is a person through other persons, no one can be human in isolation.

Thanks for reading,
Bon voyage
Jaclyn

Monterrico, Guatemala City - Guatemala

2009-05-09T11:33:00.002-04:00

I have to say that before getting off the MVeX I imagined the worst place on Earth. I had been to Costa Rica which is not far so I couldn’t imagine how it got that bad that fast. About 12 of my friends and I rented a beach house in Monterrico... It was the cutest little bungalow right on the beach and it was only $100 a night… divided by 12, insane! Monterrico has black sand beaches from volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes were erupting AS we were there, I knew some SASers who roasted marshmallows over lava, really!!

Day 1

We left the ship after it cleared customs around 1030am and found a cab. This was quite the headache because they were trying to charge us about $140 for one way; that is absolutely insane, it was 20 miles away. I told them that the price they gave was more expensive than NYC and we bargained it down to about $10 a person. We had two drivers in the front, one was 22 one was 19, and they took us to Monterrico. My friend Gabby who was with me speaks fluent Spanish so we were doing pretty well so far.

Side note: Guatemala is known for highway carjackings and robberies. About 2 weeks earlier 11 Michigan students had their bus hijacked and were taken to a remote field, robbed at gun point and then left. I was pretty nervous to be on the highway but it was daylight and well, I had to get there!

On the way to the house the driver pulled over in an abandoned area and they both got out of the car. I looked at Gabby with a FREAKED out face, I know she speaks Spanish but I guess I thought she read Spanish minds also, and she looks at me and says, “This is the part where we get robbed.”

They stood behind the trunk for a bit, where all our stuff was, then gets back in the car and says, “JUST KIDDING!!” Okay, I’m laughing, sort of… ha…ha…
We got to the house and a couple of the others were already there. It was gorgeous, it slept 12 people, had a pool and 3 hammocks on the roof. It was clean and there was a Guatemalan woman there who said she would cook every meal for us for only $10 a day total! Beach house and personal chef? I think so!

We unloaded our stuff and asked the cab driver for one of his CD’s so that we can really divulge ourselves in the culture. We got a Daddy Yankee CD, hahahahaa really surrounding ourself with the culture. We all hung around the pool, went in the ocean and just relaxed for the day. This was our last port so we all wanted to have a really good relaxed time.

Later that night I had to get back to the ship because I was leaving early in the morning on a SAS trip to Guatemala City. Our cab friends came to get Caitlin and I and we got back to the MVeX.

Day 2

Today we head out to Guatemala City. We were going to check out a non-profit organization called “Camino Seguro” or Safe Passage. What the company does is it rescues one child from a family, which is usually around 8 people, and puts them through school from first grade to 12th, no matter how old they are. The reason they do this is because the entire family works in the Guatemala City central dump. If one child is put through school they can get a good enough job to support an entire family with one person.

They parked the bus we were in at the cemetery and we had armed guards surrounding us. We were at the cemetery because it had a great view of the dump, since we couldn’t and shouldn’t go in. We got off and walked towards this cliff, the second I got to the edge I was overwhelmed. I saw vulcher’s swooping low over hundreds of men and women digging through a dump that seemed like the size of Texas. There was so much trash and so many trucks coming into the dump nonstop at an alarming rate. The guide that was with us told us that the people dig day in and day out for glass, plastics and cardboard to sell to recycle companies for money. Around 200 pounds of cardboard can be sold for $5 U.S. He also said that most people die of lung related illnesses and diseases to that degree from the fumes and toxicity of the dump.

The people are destitute and can never escape the life of the dump unless they have a child who can support them, which is where Camino Seguro comes in. Some of the things that they are digging through are hospital waste, hotel waste, dead animals from the zoo (they found and elephant tail once) and dead bodies from the cemetery. As we were standing there the guide pointed out a toxic waste truck that was pulling in. The truck literally backed up right where people were digging, then the men driving opened up about 10 barrels and dumped this hot blue toxic hazardous liquid right where men and women were, I can only imagine what the substance was. I was watching all of this in silence, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, no words can describe the magnitude of it.

The man from Camino Seguro told us that besides the toxicity of the entire dump the people’s biggest threat were dogs and vulchers. He has seen these men and women be attacked by both.
We watched the surroundings for about 30 minutes and then went back to the bus. The next stop was the school in which they take them to.

The school was absolutely beautiful. It was in the middle of the slums and seemed to be almost a sanctuary. The University of Washington had come down several times to donate things such as gardens and supplies and the playground they had even made me jealous! The kids were cute, I am not good with kids, and all the people who worked there seemed really into the cause. The woman who started it was an American woman from Maine who went to Guatemala, saw the dump and immediately sold all her possessions to start the organization immediately, she later died in a car crash but her vision has grown tenfold since.

We went up to the top floor classroom and looked out at the surroundings from the balcony. I saw houses that were barely standing and they were all clumped together. It reminded me of the townships of South Africa. Houses were made out of anything and everything they could find. It was one of the most impoverished places I had seen. There were so many homes in such a small area it seemed as though they were squeezing hundreds of people into a garage. I saw a wall of one house made out of the tarp of a Twister game, seriously. There were bags and bags of soda cans on top of some of the houses and the guide said they collected them and are waiting for the price of cans to go up so they can sell them for some money.

The last stop was with the mothers of the children. They were all so happy and greatful for the Camino Seguro program. They told us they created little businesses for themselves by making jewelry from items in the dump, I bought a bracelet from them and I love it!

After and exhausting and emotional day I went back to the MVeX, called my cab man and got back to the beach house. While I was waiting for the cab to get there a storm rolled in and took about .5 seconds to start torrential down pouring and the wind was blowing at about 300 mph. I wrapped a shirt around my head and sat in a corner until my man got there.

Back at the house it was a lot of what was happening before… partying, hanging out, lots of laughs, good conversation, celebrations of friendship and just overall good times.

Day 3

We all woke up and got our bathing suits on. We had to be back at the MVeX around 6pm so we had breakfast made by the cook and just relaxed. The waves in the ocean were SO big and after about 10 minutes I had to get out because I was exhausted from staying afloat. We swam in the pool for most of the day and had some of the biggest laughs yet. It was a bitter sweet day because we were happy to be together but sad it was the last port and to be leaving soon.
We got a can cab and squeezed about 20 people into it.

We got back to the MVeX in one piece and went up to the 7th deck. SAS was giving us a BBQ! After I ate I noticed they were undoing the lines from the docks and our pilot boat was guiding us out. I went to the stern of the ship and watched us leave the last SAS port. I’m not going to lie, I got a little emotional but I still had quite a few days left. As I saw the lights get further and further away I went down to my cabin for a good night’s sleep.

Honolulu, Waikiki - Hawaii

2009-04-25T20:28:00.000-04:00

AMERICA!!!!!!!

We got into Honolulu around 8am and had to do a face to face immigration. The assistant academic dean woke us up at 7:30am over the loudspeaker blasting “Living in America.” I woke up laughing; when it was done I looked at Caitlin and said, “I am not even mad.” We all looked like zombies coming out of our rooms to smile for the immigrations men while holding our passports up.

Day 1

When I walked down the gangway and got to the bottom step I did a flying leap off, USA soil!

My friends and I walked out of the port and the first thing I noticed was that everyone who was from Hawaii was being greeted by their moms and dads. I was so jealous! I want my mom and dad; mine are way cooler than yours anyway!

We were all staying at my friend Amelia’s “beach house,” a 7 bedroom mansion on the water, not to be confused with her “real house” 3 blocks down. There were about 12 of us and we all piled into her mom and dads cars, after her mom gave us Hawaiian flowers for our hair, and headed out.

On the way we passed Waikiki beach and a Cheesecake Factory, mama mia I’m home.

Her house was absolutely insane. We all unloaded our stuff and relaxed by the pool. We didn’t have any where to be and not a care in the world. Her mom gave us chips and salsa and other fabulous American things. This seems like not a big deal but you have no idea the joy it brought us, you would have thought we hadn’t eaten in weeks.

A couple of us went to Waikiki beach. I am more of a beach person. When I was there I got in contact with an old Northport friend, Chris Zorbo! He met me at the beach and we went to grab some lunch. We walked into this outdoor bar and I saw something I haven’t seen in 3 months, Blue Moon on tap, this day just kept getting better and better!!

Good conversation followed and we caught up on life. He has been living in Hawaii for 6 years and I could see why, the island was beautiful. After grubbing we went back to the beach where our stuff was and all my friends got back from surfing. I was supposed to surf that day but I was nervous so I decided to kick start the tan first.

Chris squeezed 7 people into an old school VW golf and took everyone to a great Hawaiian BBQ joint and then brought us back to Amelia’s.

It was Amelia’s 21^st birthday so her Mom was making a big dinner. There were so many delicious things to be eaten and I made it my mission to get it done. I can’t wait for my Mommy to make me food… hmmm…

After we ate, more SASers started showing up for the party. The weather was gorgeous and the house was all open to the outside. It turned out to be a great night of drinking, friends and poolside fun. Oh, her birthday cake was cheesecake so you know who was smiling! :)

Day 2

We woke up and Amelia brought us to a bagel place. Seriously, I have been craving an American bagel since 1976.

I got “the works bagel.” Eggs, cheese, sprouts, avocado and spinach on a scooped out toasted everything bagel. On top of that, fresh squeezed orange juice. I could have eaten 56 of them but I was going to the beach and I didn’t want to look like a bagel.

Back at Waikiki beach I rented a surfboard with a couple of the buds. I paddled out and my arms almost blew off my body, did I sign up for this? There were 80 year old men out there with 6 foot look beards who thought they owned the ocean. Every time I would start to paddle to catch a wave I would see them already up and coming right at me. Kamikaze pilots of 2009, lets leave Pearl Harbor in the past. I would scream and just fall off my board to hide and wait for the next one.

FINALLY, I caught a wave. I can officially say I stood up on a surfboard in Hawaii, cool! I paddled in after that because my arms were chaffing from rubbing against the board. I laid in the sun for many many hours, got some sushi, laid out some more and then went back to the ship.

No big things happened in Hawaii, just a lot of American food and down time. Almost everyone I know went skydiving in Hawaii, I don’t know why but I have ZERO interest in ever doing that. I have on life on this planet, why would I throw it out of a plane? The people who did go went on “4/20” (April 20^th) and they had “I got higher than you on 4/20, 14,000 feet!” written on their bodies. Baahaha

We are off to Guatemala now! We have a lot of days on the ship and a lot of finals.

There are serious government warnings for Americans in Guatemala and so SAS put an 11pm curfew on us. I read the warnings and basically it has one of the highest violence rates, the roads are filled with carjackers, it said to bring cash just encase you need to bribe the police, don’t travel at night, don’t take pictures of children, don’t breath, don’t go to Guatemala City, don’t hike volcanoes (there known for their volcanos) and don’t independently travel, great, going to be a really good time. We WERE going to Costa Rica which would have been amazing. I went abroad their last summer for 3 weeks and it was one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen.

I am not sure what I am doing their yet but I am getting Teflon, packing heat and practicing my roundhouse kick to the face.

Mahalo

Jaclyn

Charity Auction and Talent Show

2009-04-25T20:04:00.000-04:00

Charity Auction

The ship help a charity auction to help raise money for scholarships and things of that nature for SAS, is that charity?

They sold all sorts of things and students got to bid, auction style, using their shipboard accounts aka their parent’s money. Don’t worry… I didn’t buy anything.

Some items:

4 Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies - $55

Map of the route of the ship signed by the captain - $270

A chance to blow the ships horn - $250

Raise the American flag pulling into Florida - $200

Chinese Stamps (what??) - $42

Plate of quesadillas - $50

Book signed by Desmond Tutu - $290

And on it went…

Talent Show

The next night was the talent show! Wee!

You had to try out and I made it doing a contemporary solo. I was waiting all voyage for this. I practiced a couple times in the Union late at night and the man who would clean the room would watch. If he saw me during the day he would say, “Are you going to dance tonight? I want to see you fly!” Yes, I will be flying tonight.

The ship was rocking SO BAD the night of the show so I knew it was not going to be an easy feat. All my friends came to watch and went on 4^th. I am my own worst critic so I was not really happy when I came off, I was getting tossed around. The best part about dance is that if you don’t do it, you don’t know what’s going on. I had good praise from everyone so I guess I fooled them into thinking it was something good. Ha!

Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Yokohoma - Japan

2009-04-16T01:11:00.000-04:00

No Plan Japan

The funny thing about Japan was that buzz around the ship before we got off. Everyone was asking the same question, “What are you doing in Japan?” And everyone’s answer was the same, I have no idea! Every one of us is becoming poor college students and being that Japan is so expensive we were all wondering how we were going to do it. Like China, the ship goes to two ports in Japan and you had the option of staying on the ship between or going inland, I chose to go inland this time.

I was exhausted the morning of Japan and the people I was traveling with had 3 hours dock time because they were 8 minutes late getting on the ship in Shanghai so I decided to sleep in a bit. I slept through all the morning announcements and woke up to learn we had an even weirder customs process than China. We had to wake up and go to the Faculty lounge, we were then told to walk through the room and there was a camera videoing us as we walked, oh, and we had to hold our passport while doing it. So you pick your passport up at one end, walk across and hand it back in at the other. The man who was taping was wearing a serious Japanese military uniform and I was kind of confused by the whole thing. Next we had to walk off the ship, all 700 of us and go into the port customs building to clear. This took forever and it was too early. I didn’t realize how long it would take so I didn’t brush my teeth. My breath was KICKING and I am sure everyone around me knew that as well.

Once I woke up I realized that Japanese phone carriers don’t support blackberries, no phone for a week.

Also, there were 2 Japanese students who traveled on the ship with us from China to Japan. I asked them what “Domo irrigato Mr. Roboto,” and they looked at me like I had 5 heads. BUT, irrigato means “Thank you” and domo irrigato means “Thank you very much.” Quite the useful saying I figured out.

Once you got up to the customs man they took your fingerprints, photo and then asked you questions. This was my question:

“Are you carrying any cigarettes?”

“No.”

“Thank you, go ahead.”

WHAT? Good thing they didn’t look in my bag and find my hand grenades, but all that matters is that I was cigarette free. Completely confused I went back to the boat and got ready for the day.

Day 1 – Kobe, Osaka

The ship was right near the train station which was convenient so we all bought our rail tickets and made our way to the center of Kobe, where the ship was docked. It was a city but nothing too overwhelming. The guys I was with heard about a Jack Daniel’s Bar in Kobe so that was our mission. I Googled it, nonexistent… next. We were hungry so we tried to find some sushi, believe it or not it was impossible to find. We found a restaurant that could hold all 12 of us and we sat down. We asked the man for a menu and he pointed to a sign that said something in Japanese and we said, “OK! Twelve of those and 12 beers.” We had no idea what we ordered and what they brought out was not what I was expecting. Out came 45,643 egg puffs with some mush inside and an octopus tentacle, gross. I took the tentacle out and ate the egg puff which wasn’t that bad but that was not going to be my lunch. We all ate a couple, paid and left. Next stop… food.

We tried another place and the waiter knew a bit of English, he knew enough to get me some edamame so I was excited. After a food tour of local restaurants in Kobe we hit up McDonalds and got on the subway bound for Osaka.

Osaka was another pretty big city and we had huge backpacks on so we wanted to find our hostel first. NO ONE spoke English or knew what I was talking about. We finally found someone to take us; this was the beginning of me learning how hospitable Japanese people are. The taxi driver, which by the way starts out at $7 just getting in, took us to the area, parked his car and walked us to the hostel. The place was really nice, there were 6 of us and it was like a mini apartment. When I opened the door the first thing I saw was 6 pairs of sandals you were supposed to wear when inside the room, so cute. We put our stuff down and head out in search of dinner.

We stopped at 7-11 first, which in Japan is called “7 & iHoldings,” whatever that means, because it’s the only place to take money out with U.S. banks. We found a little restaurant that had menus with pictures, score! They also said they were having a drink special, get ready for this. For $15 you get all you can drink for 90 minutes, where do they come up with this stuff? Ok, start the clock!

After dinner we went back to change for the night. I was SUPER excited because I bought an awesome dress at a little boutique during the day; it was so Gossip Girl I could barely hold in my excitement. There were a lot of people staying in the same hostel and I have this habit of always saying “come to my place before!” A room made for 6 was now holding about 25. Everyone and their mom were going to “Club Pure,” going to purely be a SASsafrass party. The cabs didn’t really know where we were trying to go but I said irrigato a few times and they dropped us off as close as they could. We must have looked pretty lost because this African American man on a bike came up to us to help. He spoke perfect English and I asked him where he was from, he said New Orleans. I told him my dad lived in Kenner, Louisiana at one point and he said he knew it. We reminisced about Rally Burger and the insanity of Bourbon St. as he led the way to Club Pure. At one point he pulled out a flier for the club that he opened in Japan, Bubba’s. Of course it would be called Bubba’s, we were not going there.

Upon arrival at pure we found out that if you get in before midnight you don’t have to pay for a cover. Have you heard of those stories when crowds push and people get trampled, it was about to happen. There were so many of us and the guys were all pushing forward for fun, dumb girls were saying “Oh my god! Stop pushing, you’re hurting me!” I had my hands straight up above my head just riding the wave, it was honestly really funny. We all got safely inside and I went up to the bar and bought the first round, or tried. I looked really cool saying “three Captain and Cokes please.” The man poured them, told me it was around $18 and I handed him the Visa. “We don’t take credit cards.” I could swear the DJ screeched the record and time stopped for a second, say that one more time sir!? I didn’t have much cash on me so my generous buying the first round maneuver turned into me just taking one for the team and ordering it, but not paying.

While I was standing there someone came up to me and pointed to the end of the bar, free tequila, okay! I danced the night away and saw some of my favorite SASers, it was a really good night, I think I went home somewhere around 4:30am.

Day 2 – Kyoto, Tokyo

We all woke up starving. We packed our backpacks and headed out for the train station. We found lunch on the way at this cool futuristic Japanese restaurant. Basically, you walk up to a vending machine, put in money and click the buttons for food you want. I clicked shrimp, edamame, white rice and miso soup. You then walk over to a table and the waitress brings it out to you, no interaction, no language barrier or confusion, just lunch.

We got to the train and bought our subway pass for Kyoto. We were told you have to go to Kyoto because its an older part of Japan with more Japanese culture and most importantly, cherry blossom trees. Once we got to Kyoto we had no idea where to go and had about 3 hours. We asked a man who was driving a van buy drawing what would look like a temple and cherry blossom tree, he knew exactly what we were saying. We asked if he could take us, he was not a taxi, and he said okay! Literally, 15 of us crammed into this little van that had no back seats just the driver and passenger and went to a Japanese temple.

I don’t really care for those sorts of things so as everyone wandered around the park I sat on a bench and read “Gold Coast,” by Nelson DeMille. It was a gorgeous day outside with perfect weather I could have sat there forever.

After some time in the park we had to get back to the train station to get to Tokyo.

The slow train to Tokyo takes 9 hours, but the super cool super new and advanced Bullet Train takes 2 hours. The tickets were around $130 but it was totally worth it. This train went SO FAST. We all got on and just as I was about to fall asleep I notice an interesting magazine in the holder on the back of the chair in front of me. I took it out to investigate, Japanese porn, of course. I literally laughed myself to sleep, I slept the entire way and we arrived in Tokyo just in time for dinner.

We had no idea where we were going to stay so we had to figure that out first. We were going to the Shibuya district of Tokyo, p.s. Tokyo is the largest city in the world. Tokyo was also the cleanest city I have ever seen but whenever I had garbage I could not for the life of me find garbage pales anywhere. We really wanted to stay in a “Capsule” hotel. Japan is known for these efficient hotels, it’s like sleeping in a space ship. You literally sleep in a capsule. We found one and then find out they don’t allow girls, cool.

Next plan, get a nice hotel room and cram as many people in it as possible to save money because Tokyo is SO expensive. We found this 5 star hotel who tried to sell us a room for $400 a night. We told them we were poor students and they gave it to us for $200. There were 6 people to a room and when we opened the door we saw 4 double beds, SCORE! It was only about $30 a night which is absolutely unheard of in Japan.

After unloading all our stuff we set out for dinner. I really wanted to find a rotating sushi bar because there is one in Towson and it is my absolute favorite place to eat. After some aimless roaming we found one and it was $1 a plate! I went to TOWN, the sushi was absolutely amazing, I think I might have eaten 7 plates.

After dinner we got the night started. We found a karaoke bar and the man told us it was $7 for the room for an hour and everyone gets a free beer with that. All 12 of us were stuffed into this room and I have honestly never had so many laughs or laughed so hard in my life. I requested Eminem “Kill You” and rapped the entire thing without looking at the screen; people were definitely impressed and maybe a little scared. I did the same for System of a Down “Chop Suey!” and Sum 41 “Fat Lip.” Of course there was some Michael Jackson thrown in the mix and everyone seemed to agree that my voice may be absolutely terrible but I am SO good at karaoke.

The workers gave us another hour because one was no where near enough and they were feeding us beers like it was going out of style. When the two hours was up we went down to pay our bill thinking it would be like $20 a person. The total was around $400, we started freaking out on them because they basically scammed us. We all decided we were going to throw in $10 and leave (about $150) because that is MORE than enough for karaoke. We threw the money down and walked out, one of my friends stayed behind (we didn’t realize it at the time) and the cops came in and tried to arrest him. He charged around $250 on his credit card and they let him go. We all paid him back, so in the end, karaoke won.

So I am sitting here thinking really hard about what happened after karaoke and I cannot for the life of me remember. So anyway, around 3am the Manchester United game was playing so we went to this sports bar called “Rooney’s.” I was dead, I lasted about 45 minutes and then went back to the hotel. The next morning I wake up and find out that 2 of my guy friends passed out on the bar, beer in hand, and slept at Rooney’s. Now there is a joke that will live on forever, “Hey! Where you staying tonight!?,” “Oh, this place up the road called Rooney’s. You know it?” hahaha

Day 3 – Tokyo

I woke up today and was not feeling it. We packed up all our bags and went to breakfast. We went back to the rotating sushi bar for round two; afterwards I decided the only way I was going to make it into the night was if I took a serious power nap. The only thing was we didn’t have a room anymore; we were going to try to sleep somewhere a little cheaper, stupid idea. After an hour of looking all we could find was “Love Hotels” that you rented by the hour and the mattresses had liners on them, GROSS.

We head back to the original hotel and asked to stay another night, they gave us a room and we went to unpack again. My day consisted of a 4 hour nap.

At night we showered and made our way to the Tokyo Dome for a baseball game. The game was awesome; definitely something I wanted to see in Tokyo. The game was going on forever so we left a little early to go back to the room and change for the night.

Everyone was REALLY indecisive on this particular night so we had no idea what we wanted to do. We saw some SASers on the street and decided to go where they were going, a club. We told the bouncers we were poor college students so they didn’t make us pay the cover but when we walked in the door they said in order to get in you have to pay $10 and that got you 2 drinks, aka a cover.

The place was cool but the DJ was playing hardcore rap music that you couldn’t dance to. I had some good conversations but was getting bored quickly. My friend was really drunk so I decided to take her for a nice Margarita pizza at Rooney’s, the go to place. At Rooney’s she rambled to me about the most ridiculous things it was hysterical and fed her and took her home. I was on the computer sending an email to Alberto when all of the sudden something slimy fell on my feet, the drunk dropped her ice cream on me, the end of day 3.

Day 4 – Yokohoma

The phone rang in our room (the girl’s room) at around 7am. I could hear Lily talking on the phone and I head “Hey this is Robert, is Jaclyn there.” I went into panic mode; I thought it was my dad! I was thinking how on earth did he find me and holy $%^# what’s wrong? It turned out to be my friend Robert who we were traveling with and he asked if I could be packed in 30 min, meet him in the lobby and go back to the ship with him. I thought something was really wrong so I said of course, packed in about 2 min and went downstairs. When he got to the lobby I was kind of nervous and asked him what was wrong, he said “nothing.” Basically, he hadn’t slept night and was still going from the night before. Completely exhausted and out of money all he wanted to do was get back to the ship, thank you for the heart attack. So I told him I would take him, side note, I am the only person out of the group who can navigate trains and subways so they just follow every move I make and he figured if anyone could get him home, I could. We go to the train station and take the train to “Yokohoma.” I was hoping that we walk out of the station there and see the ship, I thought wrong.

We walked out of the station and I could not see any water. All we wanted was a Subway sandwich and our beds on the ship. We asked some locals if they knew where Subway was and they pointed to where we were, in the subway. So I made a hand gesture like I was eating a sandwich and they looked at me like I had 12 heads, why is this girl eating the subway station?

We ended up walking around for 2 miserable hours in the hot sun with backpacks on. I can’t even describe to you the feeling when I saw the beautiful MVeX docked in front of me. I dropped my stuff in my room at 11am and slept until 5pm.

At dinner we met with other people who were on the ship and decided to do some bowling. We took a cab to the bowling lanes and grabbed some vino to accompany a couple games. The bowling shoes in Japan were AWESOME. They were patent leather and black and white. When was the last time the U.S. updated their bowling shoes, never. I was against 2 of my guy friends and it turns out apparently I can bowl, because I won! I got a couple strikes to, I am ready to take my game back to the states. Thank you Ronald McDonald bowling league at Larkfield Lanes!

I was so exhausted from Japan in general that after bowling I crashed hard in my bed.

Day 5 – Yokohoma

No big plans for the day, just a little exploration of the city.

We walked around, did some shopping. I found the most AMAZING pair of Nike Dunks high-tops but since Japanese people are so small the largest size they had was an 8, when I told him my size the man said, “oh, very big!” Thanks man. So it was probably for the best because then I would have impulsively bought them. I did get a really cute dress on sale and this was also one size fits all, everything is ok except it’s a little tight on my massive butterfly stroke swim team for years back, but I make it work.

After wandering we found and internet café and did some necessary online maneuvers. After, we went back to the ship. Sianara Japan!

I really loved Japan. It falls at number two on my list behind South Africa. Plus, I love sushi!

We have 9 days in between Japan and Hawaii; we also cross the International Date Line on April 12^th and therefore turn our clocks back a full 24 hours. We had two Easters and went from 15 hours ahead to 9 hours behind.

During the week I tried out for the talent show and made. I am doing a solo tomorrow night in front of the ship and I could not be more excited!

I cannot believe I am going to be back on U.S. soil in 4 days, insane.

This was a huge week of school work but I am almost through it, I get to see my family soon!

Miss everyone,

Love

Jaclyn

Hong Kong, Shanghai - China

2009-04-11T04:38:00.000-04:00

China!

First: Something cool about Vietnam. Semester at Sea is the biggest group of Americans to go to Vietnam post Vietnam War. Cool!

I didn’t know what to expect from China but all I knew was that the ports were crazy looking! We got in to Hong Kong and it was at that moment I realized Hong Kong was an island, who knew? We were attached to a shopping mall which was pretty cool/dangerous and we didn’t have a lot of time. What happens in China is that the MVeX docks in Hong Kong for 2 days, leaves at 8pm the second day and travels 2 days north to Shanghai where it docks for another two days. Students had the choice to get on the ship for the in between time or travel in country and meet up with the ship in Shanghai, I stayed on the ship.

Also, in our pre-port lecture the dean told us that China monitors emails, phones and other public communication systems so we should watch what we say, God Bless the USA.

Day 1 – Hong Kong

Before we got off we had to be “quarantined” and had a face to face customs situation. The crazy socialists of China required every single person on the ship to have their temperature taken, I really wanted to know WHAT would happen if we did have a fever? No dimsum? Only two dumplings? Well, I didn’t have a fever, I don’t think. The lady called out my temperature in Celsius and I looked at her and said, “So, Am I alive?” She said yes, I am seriously considering having a sit down talk with America about why they really ruined our lives by not teaching us the metric system. “It’s 30 degrees out,” so I prepare for snow, walk outside and internally combust.

We got off the ship and took this little ferry over to the main Hong Kong (HK) Island. China has really funny signs everywhere. The U.S. has your standard “pedestrian crossing” symbol sign and here I saw a sign that looked like the ones for no smoking, the red circle with a cross through it but instead of a cigarette there was a trumpet, guys seriously… leave your trumpets at home. Caitlin and I are hungry, no surprise, so we want to try some local cuisine. We find this Chinese restaurant and they tell us it’s on the 2nd floor. There was a really big language barrier; barely anyone spoke English so you could catch sight of me doing the most ridiculous sign language. We walk up a flight of stairs and the sign says “Floor 3,” huh? So we keep going and the next one was “Floor 4,” is this a trick? We decided the elevator might be the best way and getting in it we see the buttons showing floor 2 on the 5^th floor, makes perfect sense to me.

We order a couple things to try and be cultural, gross. Seriously, there is only one thing that I have done in absolutely every country, eaten McDonalds. After our dim-puke-sum and dump-vomit-lings we headed out for a wonderful day of shopping. I believe I bought a cool pair of pants from H&M and then we wandered for a bit more. We head back to the boat and on the way I purchased my new camera, hooray, my life is getting back in order.

The Rugby 7’s was in Hong Kong so all the SASers were going to the same place at night. Apparently, the Rugby 7’s is a huge deal and a huge party so it was pretty cool that we were here for it. I ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen, a nice Chinese cuisine, and got ready for the night.

We show up at Yingbow Ching Cowdun Street (something like that) and it was PACKED. My first thoughts were that someone sent out a message to every fat hairy man to wear a ridiculously small costume and scar every woman’s eyes for life. People were flooding the streets and to be honest, there was not one Chinese person there, really soaking up the culture. It was about 90% SAS and 10% drunk old men. What I didn’t know is that the Rugby teams, the real deal ones, go to the party. I met the Australian, Canadian, Kenyan and Samoan rugby teams. When I met the Samoan one I asked where they were from and they said “Samoa,” my response: The only Samoa I know is a Girl Scout cookie, nice Jaclyn. I googled it when I get home, apparently there’s Girl Scout cookies off the coast of Australia, way to go ladies… globalization at its finest!

Had a good night at Rugby 7’s and since they can’t speak English SAS hands out these little sheets of paper with Chinese characters on it that say, “Please take me back to the MV Explorer.” Haha! I don’t know why but I find that so funny. So every time you get in a cab you just extend your arm out into his face, no words are exchanged, and off you go.

I got back around 3am which meant it was 3pm in the states! I took my computer to the free wifi zone and got down with Skype. I called my wife, Dana, about 24323 times and finally she picked up with a really concerned, “Hello?” After I said hello she goes, “OMG! I didn’t pick up because it was a weird number and I thought it was Blockbuster calling for the movie I have had out forever!” HAHAHA has anyone ever gotten that mysterious “000-000-0000” phone call? Don’t pick up, it’s B-Buster and they’re on to you. I got to talk to lots of friends and then I went and crashed.

Day 2 – Hong Kong

I have a friend, Anders, who is absolutely in love with knock off markets. We went to a huge open air market that he had been to a day earlier. We pay for the ferry to HK Island and then get in a cab. The cab was pretty long and expensive and I realized we were going under a tunnel. Anders didn’t know where he went the day before so essentially we ferry boated to HKI, then took a cab back and went to a market about 10 feet from the boat, awesome.

The market had SO much stuff, white flags were shooting out of my wallet…I was wearing tinted glasses that day so they appeared brown, what do brown flags mean? Shop! We did some serious damage then

Short day, back to the ship, ate California Pizza Kitchen again and we left port around 8pm.

Day 3 – At Sea

In Hong Kong the family of the man who founded Semester at Sea boarded the ship and we had to impress them because they were making a pledge to give the program 1.75 million dollars over a 10 year period. We found out that we would be getting 5-course meals on both nights, SCORE! Who needs the Great Wall when you have fine dining? There were only about 70 of us on the ship and there were no classes, I felt like I could have run around every deck screaming at the top of my lungs. I got a lot of school work done then got dressed up for our evening of class.

I had a table with great people and they served us fruit salad, soup, salad, fish, and dessert. We also found out that there would be free wine with dinner and Les McCabe (head honcho on board) would be footing the bill, this could be a rumor but it’s still pretty cool. I got my server over and asked him what the limits were on this fantastic deal and he said there weren’t any, I asked for a little special attention at table 7. A fantastic dinner and 6 glasses of wine later we were finished. A few of us were talking about what we should do that night because we were on the ship and we decided, dance party in the union!

A friend of mine went up to Les, as he was sitting with the family of the founders, and asked if we could use the sound system and have a dance party, he looked at me and gave me a thumbs up, WOO!

We dance partied until midnight then I went to bed.

Day 4 – At Sea

Not much going on today, the weather was too cold to lie out, my tan was fading and it was stressing me. They played great movies on the TV loop and I got to see Role Models, which was hysterical, and Seven Pounds.

After a day of leisure I got ready for classy evening take two. I had Salmon, salad, soup, dessert and something in a peanut sauce, it was amazing.

Shanghai and my Blackberry in the morning!

Day 5 – Shanghai

I had to do some FDP’s on the first day. What is an FDP? Well, every class I take 20% of the grade is “field work.” They want to incorporate the classroom with the journey. You have to do 3 per class and write papers on them, I am a bio major, I haven’t written this many papers since high school! Pretty soon they’re going to ask me to do DBQ’s. Hey Dana, remember in high school when you were taking the History Regent’s Exam and in your Document Based Essay you forgot and didn’t site ONE document, hahahaha so glad you made it to college. Loyola has gotten a gem.

The first FDP was a Kindergarten Visit. Kids scare me so at breakfast I was asking my friends for some tactics to use to make sure they like me. We took a bus ride through the city, which is the largest in China, and were brought to the school. All the kids were waiting at the gate screaming for us, heart attack. They all grabbed our hands and walked us inside.

We sat down and they told us they were going to put on a show for us. The show was a dance routine that was high energy and lasted about 20 minutes; I would have needed an inhaler. These kids were crazy but so smart. They memorized such a long routine with dance moves, formations, partner work and other things that I still have trouble with and they were 5 years old. This is why China’s 14 year old gymnasts are ready for the Olympics before they reach the regulated 16 year old mark, who needs rules when you have boot camp Kindergarten.

After the routine a little boy came over to play with me, I asked him his name and he said “Davie #1.” Why are you Davie #1? “Because there’s 5 Davies,” Oh, Hi I am Jaclyn #1. The entire time I was trying to speak to Davie he was bouncing up and down, I was getting sea sick. I drew a picture for him, of him, and it consisted of a stick figure with a head and hair. He laughed at me. I then asked him to take a picture with it and I said “Say cheese!” They could barely speak English, what he said back to me was, “Cheese? WHAT ARE YOU FRENCH?” hahahahaha I could not handle this kid. We didn’t have long with them and when I was saying goodbye, in between 3 foot jumps that he had been doing for the past hour he said, “BYE BYE YOU FORIEGNER!” Bye Davie.

Back to the ship and onto another bus for FDP #2. This was one was with my favorite professor, Prof. Harmon from Northport! We were going to a community center to have an open discussion about the one child policy.

In China you are only aloud to have one child to try and control the population growth. This leads to many problems like infanticide, forced abortions and child abandonment. Since China is a country of hierarchy they take a lot of time caring for their elderly. When a couple has a child they want to have a boy so that they can be taken care of when they are older and the family name will live on. A lot of times a girl child will be aborted or abandoned. Almost every adopted child from China to the U.S. is a girl. On the other hand there is a problem with child kidnappings for boys. Many couples will pay a high price for a black market male child.

The women were very open with us but every answer was very by the book.

After the Q&A we went to see the community center. They had a fitness room that measured height, weight and a few other things. I volunteered to do it so I stepped on the scale and a little bar came from the ceiling and bopped me on the head. The machine started to make a game show noise and there was “calculations” on the screen. Turns out my height weight is 5 out of 5 and a thumbs up, cool, so am I going to live?

Back at the ship I ate dinner and got ready for the night. A couple friends and I went to a karaoke place…Asia loves karaoke. We sang songs for a while and the man who worked there gave me a tambourine, I was in heaven. It was a pretty low key night, we were all exhausted.

During the first day in Shanghai many high power Chinese business had dinner on the ship. The 1^st and 4^th richest men in China were on the MVeX, don’t ask me where the 2^nd and 3^rd were. Semester at Sea is creating a program that will make a University in China a sister school so they had to rub elbows with the top.

Day 6 – Shanghai

Last day in China and I still haven’t received my package with my Blackberry. I got one from Dana and DHL said the Bberry one was in China but they weren’t turning it over to the ship. My Mom contacted DHL and the lady said that I had to prove the package was mine. Well, I haven’t gotten it yet so technically it’s still China’s. I had to have the port agent call DHL and the number wasn’t working. I was starting to panic. I love democracies and this whole China government thing was not working out for me. We had about 2 hours until we left China and I had been trying to make contact with my package for hours when all of the sudden the gangway lady comes in and says, “There is a man with a package at the bottom of the gangway asking for a signature!” I screamed “That’s mine!” and ran for it. This random man was standing there holding only my package; it was the weirdest thing ever. I signed for it and was the happiest girl ever. I think I told the port agent that this was the equivalent of Christmas in April. I ripped my Blackberry out of China’s socialiast censorship loving hands. Roar!

After 6 days of China it was time to go. China falls somewhere at the bottom of my list for countries I have visited so far, the language barrier made things very difficult and I didn’t see anything that really excited me.

Japan is next and I am excited!!

Update you soon

Jaclyn

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

2009-03-27T09:41:00.001-04:00

Soooo I am back on the ship after 5 days in Vietnam. It’s pretty cool because now I can officially use the saying “Back in Nam…” I remember growing up Nick Parker used to love that saying. Well, if you ever get to read this I hope your just dieing of jealousy haha!

I slept on the ship the entire time and just did a lot of day trips. I was going to travel up the east coast for a couple days but I thought I had an FDP (mandatory field program for a class) in the middle of the week. Apparently I just made that up in my head because there was no such thing, how is your ADD Jaclyn?

Day 1

The first day Caitlin and I got off the ship to do a little shopping. I thought Thailand was hot, holy oven. If you told me I was sitting in an oven I honestly would have believed you. There’s really no point to makeup or showers.

We got dropped off at the Rex Hotel, which was really exciting for me because that’s the hotel Paul Brenner stays at in “Up Country,” love Nelson DeMille. I HAD to eat at the rooftop restaurant like he did in the book so I made reservations and then we hit the town.

We walked all up and down the streets and everything was pretty cheap. I got a couple of those hats that look like obtuse cones. That was a pretty serious description… there circle hats with a cone-like point, get it? I also got some gifts for my Mom, grandma and a couple others. There was an embroidery store; it was screaming, “buy your grandmother something here.”

My absolute favorite thing is eating outside, as long as its not windy otherwise I just end up eating my hair, so we stopped for a little roadside beer and relaxation. Asian people are inherently tiny people so going shopping in a clothing store is always fun. I asked the woman if she had a skirt in any size bigger than a 26 and she said that was the largest, awesome.

I really wanted to get a skirt made so we stopped at a bunch of tailors but most had really corny fabric. I was about to admit defeat when I walked into the last one; they had the most beautiful pattern. I picked it up and matched it with a dark green and designed a high-waist pencil skirt. They took my measurements, I thought they were going to have to take out 2 measuring tapes to get around my waist (because they are SO tiny) and then they told me to come back in a day for a fitting. A custom made skirt for $35, crazy! It was three women and one of them asked my age. After telling them I was 22 they said I was so young and that they were all around 28. They asked what I was doing there and when I explained the ship she asked, “You work on the ship?” and I said no I take class on it as a student. She then said, “You saved money from working to travel on it?” When I told her no, my dad paid for it, she giggled and her eyes went wide. I am guessing that doesn’t happen a lot there….

After a day of retail therapy we went back to the ship to change for dinner. We met up with about 10 other girls and went to the Rex Rooftop Restaurant. I opened the menu and almost died, salmon with mango sauce. If I were stranded on an island I would only ask that I get three meals of salmon with mango sauce, not too much to ask, right?

Dinner was really good and a little pricey but it was worth it, I planned on eating most of my meals on the ship to save money anyway. After dinner we went back to the ship again real quick to change for the night. Everyone was going to “Apocalypse Now,” this also got me really excited because Paul Brenner goes out their in the book also. One thing that I heard which made me a little mad was that if you were “white” you didn’t have to pay to go in, but if you were “local” you did, kind of messed up.

Caitlin and I took motorbike taxis to the bar and it was EVERY SAS kid ever. There were so many of us that the TV screen said, “Welcome to Apocalypse Now Semester at Sea!” They played really good music and I had so much fun. Our little taxi men were waiting for us when the night was over and we were craving some street food. They took us to a little vendor and we sat down for some delicious pho noodles. They were SO spicy and the next morning I woke up with swollen lips. If you know me well, you know my lips are very sensitive so it looked like I got botox lip injections. We ended up buying our drivers some noodles too and the man told me he was a catholic and gave me his rosary beads because he was so thankful. Back at the ship I gave him about $5 and he was giddy with excitement, great way to end the night.

Day 2

I had a SAS day trip to the Mekong Delta today. I woke up, got my little Nam cone hat on and set out for the buses. It was about a 2-hour drive to the delta. On the way was stopped at a local market, oh my. There were pots everywhere filled with live fish swimming around and so many women sitting on the ground cutting the fish up, the smell was absolutely disgusting. I don’t know how they sat there all day, I practically ran through. Once we got to the delta we climbed onto a riverboat and drove out to an island.

At the first stop we tried some local fruit and tea then climbed onto smaller canal boats. We waded through the maze of canals, I felt like I was in Forrest Gump. It was really cool and seemed to be something really authentic to Vietnam. I got to see what the men and women who live on the island do on a daily basis.

The next stop was a local coconut candy factory; this is where it got weird. SAS always takes their trips one step too far. I wanted to see the delta and ride in the boats, that is all. We sat at this candy thing for a bit, then a random boy came out with a python around his neck and asked if someone wanted to hold it for a small price, what? No, get me home. After coconut candy and python boy we piled back in the little boats and finally got some lunch. It was at a really low-key family restaurant on the island. The food was decent; I was starving so it probably tasted better than it really was. That was the last stop on our Mekong journey, back to the bus than back to the ship.

I went out with my friend Shayna that night because we found a rotating sushi bar. YUUUMMMM It was so good; I really miss my sushi. Afterwards we went to a night market where I got some cheap t-shirts. We passed a really cool jazz club on the way back so we stopped in for a little bit.

I was so beat from being in the sun all day I passed out pretty early.

Day 3

Didn’t really have much planned for today. At around noon my friend Allison and I got on our motorbike taxis and went to the “War Remnants Museum.” In Vietnam they call the war “The American War,” and basically we went in there and messed them up pretty bad. The museum was filled with American artifacts and was a visual tour of the war from start to finish. I wasn’t really fazed by what I saw because war is war. I know we are still a little confused as to why we went over there in the first place but there isn’t much you can do now.

That was until I got to the chemical warfare section. The pictures were so graphic and it was unlike anything I could have imagined. Agent Orange was sprayed all over Vietnam and it caused birth defects, and is still causing them. They had fetuses preserved in tanks that showed deformations, it was gruesome.

After the museum we went to a local café to grab a nice iced coffee. All I could think about was that I was sitting there with not a care in the world and no real place to go. Everyone had business suits on and was on their lunch break, when we were just sitting there wasting time. My life is pretty sweet.

After a day of nothingness, we went back to the MVeX to get ready for the night. I went to dinner in the dining hall and then went to m room to put myself together.

We went to this place was on the second floor of a building with a pretty good view of the city. There were a lot of us and the staff was really overwhelmed. After that we all went to “Apocalypse Now” again. It was full of SASers again, and I may or may not have had a dance floor battle.

Oh! I got my skirt that was made and was wearing it that night, I was asked 1,000 times where I got it from and I got to say “I designed it and got it made,” how cool am I?

So, this is where my night goes down hill.

After a long night Allison and I got on motorbike taxis. We were on our way back to the MVeX and all of the sudden another motorbike pulls up next to me and he reaches over and grabs my bag out of my hand. I started screaming at them and told my guy to speed up. He was going so slow, I didn’t realize until later when I could collect my thoughts that my driver was totally a part of the whole scheme. I was getting so pissed that my driver wouldn’t go fast so I reached forward and squeezed the throttle. He was not having that so he pushed me back and I starting screaming “SPEED UP NOW!!!” I might have hit his back a few times but whatever he deserved every punch. I then screamed at him to take me back to the ship immediately. In my bag was my camera, blackberry, credit card, MVeX card and my shore pass. You need the shore pass to get into the port but I was not about to stop, I was on a rampage.

The customs man came out to check and I didn’t even glance his way, I just walked right through and onto the ship. The first person I called was my Dad, then Mom then Berto. I was a hot mess. It is the worst feeling ever to be stolen from and it was not settling well in my stomach. Thank god Allison let me use her phone, I think I might have thanked her a million times.

I got myself together and went to sleep. I had to put things in perspective, I have basically been around the world now and have seen the worst conditions, I realize that me not having a blackberry for a month is not life or death, but its still brutal. My mommy overnighted me a new one and I’ll have it in a week, how’s that for perspective? No but really, I just find comfort in being able to call my family if something happens, I am on the other side of the world!

Day 4

I woke up today feeling pretty down, my chest was also peeling from sunburn so I thought the best thing to raise my spirits was to lie out on the top deck. I grabbed my book, The General’s Daughter and got some rays. I also could’t leave the ship until they got me a new customs shore pass so it wasn’t like I had any other choice. It was good downtime, I just wanted to lay by myself and sit in silence, I was subconsciously having a moment of silence for Sherry the Blackberry. Also, the bag that I had was my awesome blue clutch from my cousin Jennifer, I mean really dude; can I at least get the bag back? You know you don’t want that!

Tonight was the last night to go out. There was a cute outdoor restaurant right in port so a couple of use went their for some cocktails then we went out and essentially did the same things we did every other night. The only difference was tonight we through a little karaoke into the mix.

Asia LOVES karaoke, there are so many karaoke bars its insane. What they do is give each party a private room and for one hour you pay $7. I killed it with Mambo #5 and Spice Up Your Life. It was so funny; we need to get those in the U.S. We invited the cab drivers into the room but they didn’t want to sing! I bought my guy a little container of Pringles and he was ecstatic, I get the same feeling about sour cream and onion, don’t worry buddy.

Day 5

Today was the last day in Vietnam. A couple of us head an hour north to the Cu Chi tunnels. I burned a CD for the ride and it CLEARLY had at least on Britney Spears song on it.

The first thing you do at the tunnels is watch this Vietnamese propaganda video from the war. It was absolutely ridiculous. I know we were probably wrong for doing the things we did but this video made us laugh. I have never seen such a biased video in my life. There was a Canadian and Australian in our group and even they were like woah, that was a bit much.

Next we got to see some of the hidden tunnels. The entrance was literally about 1x.5 feet, if that even make sense, it was really small. I got to climb into it and close it off and you would have never known I was there. The tunnels were for the Vietcong to fight against the Americas, they stayed down there for days at a time with parasites and poisonous bugs. They said about 90% of the Vietcong had intestinal parasites. They had a lot of U.S. tanks that had been left and we took a couple pictures on one.

Next the guide showed us the bamboo spear traps that the Vietcong made to kill Americans. It reminded me of booby traps from Indian Jones. There were all different kinds of terrible contraptions and when he was showing us I said, “Oh my god that is terrible.” He looked at me square in the eyes and said, “not as bad as your bombs.” Woah there buddy, maybe you’re enjoying this a bit too much.

They brought us to a few more tunnels. We went into one that was about 40 meters long and we had to crawl through it. They installed lights into them and I could honestly not imagine being in there for more then the time it took to crawl directly through. It really was mind-blowing thinking that people lived in these for years. Makes my blackberry seem even less important.

At the end of the tour they take you to a shooting range where you can shoot an AK47, never. I absolutely hate guns and even the sound of them makes my heart speed up. The people I was with fired the guns and I sat in a chair near by having mini panic attacks. The noise was so loud I jumped every time.

Back at the MVeX they were having a BBQ for us starting at 6pm, I was there at 5:59pm with a plate in hand. I absolutely love their veggie burgers and when they are free its like Christmas.

Vietnam was awesome; I really liked everything about it. I didn’t go too far outside of Ho Chi Minh City and although I know the countryside is still very under developed, the city itself was more modern than I would have ever thought. I could see myself going back to Thailand and Vietnam, south east Asia is definitely a place I could see again.

Next stop China, good thing because I need a new camera and this is the camera capital of the world. I cannot believe I am already at China and it’s basically April, these were the fasted 2 ½ months ever.

Really excited for Hong Kong. The Rugby Sevens are going to be there when we get there and I hear that’s wild!

Glad I survived Vietnam, and Dad I know your probably crying on the inside from the stolen bag story. If I could do it again I probably would not abuse the driver, but I was enraged.

Only 4 more ports to go…

Talk to you all soon
Jac

Laem Chabang, Pattaya and Bangkok, Thailand

2009-03-23T12:04:00.000-04:00

Oh Thailand, where to begin.

I guess… I’ll begin at the beginning… derrrr

Before taking my first steps off the boat I got so many emails from friends who have been to Thailand telling me that I will have the most amazing time. I was so pumped for it, I had a great travel group set up and I knew it was going to be one of the top countries on the roster.

Day 1

I laid out on the ship the first day for a couple hours, yea I know, how cultural of me. I had a SAS trip to a Tiger Zoo at around 1 pm. I walk down the gangway and there was a street vendor at the bottom selling beer, I like this place. I got a nice cold road bevy and got on the bus. The ride wasn’t too long and when we pulled in to the parking lot it was screaming “TOURIST TRAP!” I always fall for these SAS schemes. We get off and it is SO HOT. The forecast was 98 degrees and so humid it was practically raining. I thought New Orleans was bad, we weren’t even below sea level and I was on my hot and humid deathbed. The first thing I saw at the zoo was an elephant, a huge one, standing in the middle of a crowd and it was lifting people up with its trunk. It was hot; I wasn’t waiting so I did the “get over excited to get peoples attention” thing. I jumped up and down with my hands in the air and the guy pointed to me, YES. Excuse me pardon me… Yea, I am going in front of you, your heart just wasn’t in it. So you wrap your arms around its trunk and he scoops you up into the air, it was so cool. I think if I had a bucket list for my life that would be something I could cross off. A couple minutes and 5 buckets of sweat later we went inside an arena for the tiger show. The tigers looked miserable. This was totally a mom and pop “zoo” and I realized I paid for this ticket and essentially supported the maltreatment of animals. They did standard tiger performance things and after we were told to walk to the next show, the crocodile show, what? I never envisioned crocs to be entertaining.

We all piled into a different stadium and there were about 10 clearly highly sedated crocs laying on a stage. This was getting too weird. Two “performers” came out and did some sort of crocodile dance, even weirder, and then the “show?” began. The people opened the crocs mouths, pulled their tongues out, stuck there heads in between the jaws, pulled them by their tails, rode them like a surfboard and did many other offensive crocodile maneuvers. At one point a crocodile got a little mad and snapped at the male performer, it pulled his pants down, I had a good laugh at that one.

Next stop, elephant show, this was the worst. Basically the elephant tamers had sticks with spikes on the end that they jammed in the elephant’s heads to get them to respond to the task. I put my camera down, I didn’t even want pictures of this.

The next thing we did was feed a baby tiger; this was cool! The tiger was so adorable, it was lying in my lap and I just wanted to take it home with me. Side note: on the way into the zoo some random people with cameras were snapping pictures of us and I knew they were going to ask us for money for them at the end of the day so I made the most ridiculous face. After going through a couple of these countries where they try to get as much money out of me as possible, I was on to them.

On the way out we passed a bunch of plates sitting on the ground, I look closer, they put our pictures on plates. WHAT? Why would I want a picture of me on a plate? And my face was as ridiculous as I thought, no sale. Here mom, here’s a plate of my face, no.

The next stop was a place called Mini Siam. I didn’t know this was part of the day tour but apparently it was. Mini Siam: Tourist Trap of the Century. It was a little park filled with miniature replicas of all the historical buildings of the world. Pyramids of Giza, Pantheon, Eiffel Tower etc, I didn’t even go in, I went to McDonalds and got fries. Why do they do this? There was a go-kart place there also and I was totally about to do it until I realized it was LEGIT racecar go-karts. They went 80mph, I could just see my Dads face if he was there, it would have been that one eyebrow raised, “What are you smoking?” look. And not the standard Bob Bouchard “no” aka you’ll get it but after I get to say no, a real “no” are you crazy Jaclyn? Haha! Twenty-two years later, I have you all figured out Dad.

After that little excursion I wanted to request that wasted hour of my life back, but we got on the bus and headed to the “Largest Jewelry Store in the World,” seriously, just take me home. I didn’t get off the bus, and convinced the driver, with everyone else agreeing, to skip over that store and drive back to the MVeX (my new name for the ship).

Once back at the ship I changed really quickly for the night and headed out to Pattaya, a little city of Thailand. We hit to a few different places and I saw some interesting things. The sex industry of Thailand is EXTREME, I will leave it at that, if you would like specifics shoot me an email and I will scar your life forever as mine has been.

Day 2, 3 and 4

Today was the day, Bangkok! We all packed our backpacks and caught a 2-hour cab ride to THE city. We had no idea where we were sleeping or what we were going to do but we had high hopes. We got to the city and I knew I would love it immediately. It was honestly one of the cleanest cities I have ever seen. We got out of the cab (2 hours - $15. Oh ya) and wandered. We went to the Silom area and found Hotel Nirai. It was $70 a night and with 6 people in a room that comes out to be $11 a night, score! After we dropped our bags we headed out for some street food dinner. We sat down at this local place on the road and I had the most delicious seafood pad thai. The best thing about street food is that it’s great for $1. We also had spring rolls and fried rice, I ate SO MUCH. We had a lot of leftovers so I got it in a to go box and gave it to a homeless man on street, sweet! Back at the hotel we got ready for the night and we were off!

Bangkok nightlife, a lot like Pattaya, there’s no escaping it. Fast forward to the end of the night. We realized there were about 200 SAS kids staying in the same hotel so we all decided to go swimming. The pool was so chlorinated I thought my eyes were going to burn out of my head. After a million laughs and an hour later we all ran back inside. The door to our room was up a couple steps that got wet and slippery. We all waited at the top of the stairs and all of the sudden we heard the loudest crash EVER. My friend Jack went through the glass door. At first it didn’t seem like a big deal, we were all just freaking out because the hotel door was broken. You get the death penalty in Thailand for drugs, what do you get for glass doors? We all started packing our bags (don’t ask why, seemed smart at the time) in a panic and all of the sudden Jack comes out of the bathroom and goes “uhh guys?” He was COVERED in blood. I told him to get in the bathtub, I looked at him and realized he had deep cuts on his forearms, hands, head and a HUGE gash in his knee, I could see his knee cap. I went into Pre-Med mode and knew that I had to block the bleeding from above the cuts so I tried to tie off his brachial and femoral arteries, haha how cool does that sound? I tried the best I could but we only had towels and they were so thick it wasn’t tying tight enough. I sat on the toilet seat and put his hand on the side of the tub. For pressure I put my right foot on his hand, my left on his knee and squeezed his brachial artery with my hands. I held that position for about 5 minutes. I asked him to show me his teeth; he had all those so that was good. He was in good spirits and really calm. I had the SAS numbers in my phone so we called them and they said to just keep them updated. I switched “stop the bleeding” duties with another friend and the second I walked away and really realized what had happened I was covered in blood and freaking out (on the inside). It took about 35 minutes for the ambulance to come and by that point it looked like we slaughtered a cow in the bathroom. They took Jack to the hospital and we cleaned everything up. It was an intense hour.

The next morning we heard from him and he had to get hand surgery on both hands. He had three partially severed tendons and tons of stitches. We went to the hospital early in the morning; I brought him a “Mens Weekly,” a lollypop and a green balloon because it was St. Patty’s Day! The hospital was really nice and modern. When Jack came out of surgery he seemed fine and we were all trying to make light of the situation. He had to stay in the hospital for three days but he was okay, that’s all that mattered.

What was weird was that ever since he was taken to the hospital no one from the hotel had come to our room or said anything about it. The door was fixed by the next morning and there were no questions asked. They never came to clean on any of the three days and just seemed to ignore us. I think they were as scare of us as we were of them. Crazy Americans love suing! The second day we called the front desk for toilet paper and they brought it, with flowers. The next day they came to get the bloody towels and give us clean ones (we called and asked) and they brought an even bigger basket of flowers! It was the strangest thing, oh well.

Every night in Bangkok was essentially the same, minus projectile bodies through glass doors; it was a lot of fun. They had Irish pubs so I got to drink green beer on St. Patrick’s Day and during the day we took boat roads along the river and saw the Grand Palace. On the last night we saw a live Muay Thai fight. We were about 2 rows back from the ring and it was pretty intense. Muay Thai is basically violent kickboxing, it was violent, but really cool to watch.

The Grand Palace was a must see. For those of you who know me, I sweat a lot! It was about 100 degrees and you have to wear long pants and cover up when you visit. The two were not a good mixture, I was trying not to be miserable but I was crying on the inside. I was sopping wet and it was absolutely disgusting. We did a full tour in the fastest time ever; we may have broken the sound barrier. The Grand Palace is the home of prominent political figures and the world famous emerald Buddha. The detail that was put into this massive mansion was really breathtaking. There was so much gold and so many colors, the pictures I have are really great.

Every night the locals set up a huge market, this was a danger zone for Jaclyn Bouchard. Imagine Canal St. times infinity. I didn’t do too much damage, but there was definite potential for that to happen. There is a big population of cross dressers and “she-mans” in Thailand. At one point I bought this sick Le Sportsac bag from this “woman” and she told me I could get it for about $10 if I gave her my earrings. “She” said “I love your earrings, they are beautiful for a woman and I am a beautiful woman.” She also modeled the bag for me; I think it might look better on her.

After an exhausting week in Bangkok we had to make our way back to the ship. I went to the free breakfast by myself the last morning but ended up sitting down with other SASers. I told them what had happened and how I tried to tie off his arteries but the towels were too thick. One of the girls I was talking to, who will remain nameless, honestly said this to me. “Well, you know, next time you should get a stick and put it in the towel and twist it, it makes it tighter.” Wow, okay, I’ll remember that for “next time,” are you serious? I love people who just like to hear themselves talk. After that I went to check out and they handed me this little green sheet of paper, “Door Brokend 3000 Baht,” haha! Brokend, I love it. I told them I would be right back and when I went to the room to tell everyone we had to pay for the door I subtly said “So we have to pay around $85 for the door, which is nothing…And I’m thinking since you went through the door that mayyyybbbbbbbeeee JACK you should use your credit card.” He started laughing and agreed he would give his. Once we were all paid for we got a cab back to the ship.

A 2-hour drive in a Toyota Rav4, there were 5 of us and 23423 bags. I was squeezed in the back with all the bags. I told them I felt like I was in a cocoon and by the time we get back to Laem Chabang, the port, I will have gone through metamorphosis and become a butterfly.

There was a huge line to get back on the ship because it was near dock time. You should have seen how many eyes were staring at Jack. Within 5 minutes he was asked what had happened a million times, he was already getting fed up. After a few people I started telling people he was in a Muay Thai fight, they actually believed me. Speaking of people who love to hear themselves talk, some guy asked Jack “So, how was your insurance? How much did it cost?” Jack’s response, “You serious dude?”

Safely home on the MVEx after an adventurous stay in Thailand.

I am really really excited for Vietnam because I get to see all the things Nelson DeMille talked about in his novel Up Country. I am also a history buff so this is going to be a low key country filled with museums, culture and first hand discovery of what the Vietnam War really was. We picked up some Vietnamese people in Thailand so they could give us some lectures in Global Studies before we get to their country, the first day the man was telling us stories of the war and he was crying. I have a feeling the whole thing is still really alive there and it’s going to be a really eye opening experience.

Well, only 5 countries left and I am still alive and kicking!

Happy Birthday to my sister Kissy, you’re 25 and really old.

Toodles!
Jaclyn

500 Rupee Photos

2009-03-11T14:38:00.000-04:00

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Chennai, Delhi, Agra and Jaipur - India

2009-03-11T02:46:00.000-04:00

India

I spent 5 days in India and it was exhausting. About 80 of us went to Agra, Jaipur and Delhi. Some things we heard before disembarking the ship were that all the clothing we wear will be thrown away, it smells and it’s a life-changing place. I feel like sometimes people get a little too deep with there thoughts… I am not going to lie, when I woke up on the ship and we were in port our room did smell a little stale, I think I’ll live. Our port city was Chennai, officially registered with 9 million residents but the “real” number, street children unaccounted for, is 13 million. There are 9 million people in Atlanta, Georgia; Chennai is ¼ the size of Atlanta. There are so many people in India it’s ridiculous. There is poverty all over the world, in every country, but in India it’s in your face. There is no way to travel throughout without seeing the poorest people you will ever see. Indian still uses a caste system with the wealthy at the top and impoverished at the bottom. There is a group of people who don’t even get an official caste section, the untouchables. To be untouchable in India means you’re impure, you have been thrown out of your caste. You must marry within your caste and it is arranged. Most of India practices Hinduism, but there are many religions practiced.

Day 1

We got off the ship around 10am when customs cleared us. When I was waiting at the bus my friend Mary came out of a building saying “well that was awesome!” I asked her what she was talking about and she said she went inside to go to the bathroom and came face to face with a hole in the floor, the bathroom, awesome. We all got on the bus and headed to the Chennai airport. I was sitting in a window seat and a couple of Indian men came up to the window and asked if they could take my picture. I smiled for them thinking this was going to happen once, I later find out there is a slight obsession with westerners and they love photographs of or with them. My flight phobia was starting to kick in and I was imagining an airplane made out of cardboard. What I saw on the way to the airport was enough to scare me back to the ship. People can’t walk on the sidewalks because every 2 feet a person is lying down in a blanket sleeping, or passed out, who knows. I saw a group of children who were covered in dirt playing in a dumpster that was overflowing all over the street. I have never seen so much trash in my life; it was everywhere. Slumdog Millionaire was coming to life right in front of my eyes. We drove past miles of slums and I saw houses made out of things I would never even think could make a wall. Dogs outnumbered people if that’s possible and they did not look healthy at all. There were goats with children and cows taking over the road. The ride to the airport was about 45 minutes and I had already seen all I wanted to see.

We got to the airport, checked in and headed to our gate. There were separate lines for men and women, which was funny, and the security did not make me feel secure. All of my apprehensiveness went away when I saw the snack cart that sold Kit Kats. I don’t know what it is about foreign Kit Kats but they blow the American ones out of the water. I usually don’t eat candy that much, these make me melt, no will power. I was happy and ready to fly. I got a window seat, YES, and the flight to Delhi was 2 hours. On the plane I told everyone I had a friend in Delhi and I became a local celebrity in a matter of minutes. Caitlin (not my roommate) is a friend from Long Island; she has worked with the Clinton Foundation about a year and a half, the organization deals with AIDS/HIV. We were messaging back and forth and she said she could get us into a sick Delhi club and get some VIP service since there were so many of us, chya! Like I have said before, college kids love the thought of VIP. I had 23423423 people give me their Blackberry PIN #’s so they could keep in contact with me throughout the night.

The flight was good; they greeted us with cold towels and had amazing food, America take note. There was rice, beans, fried dough and some other mystery substances, but it was all really good if you mash it all together. There was a green bean, or so I thought, sitting on top of the rice and I took it all in one bite. My friends, this was not a green bean, I felt like I bit into the core of the earth. Volcanic explosions had filled my mouth and I was near death. I think ketchup is spicy, so yea, that is all. After 2 hours we had landed in Delhi, from the air I saw miles upon miles of shacks; I really can’t express in words the amount of poverty I had seen in half a day. The bus drivers who were taking us to our hotel greeted us with leis, Hawaii? I had mine on for about 5 minutes until I realized there were worms in the flowers. Caitlin and I took ours off and just let everyone figure out on their own that they were worm infested, muhaha. Our hotel was ballin, there was a rooftop restaurant where we all immediately bought cold beers, college. The weather was absolutely perfect and the view was amazing. Caitlin met us at our hotel and she spoke to the receptionist in Hindi. I am not kidding, the man would barely speak to me when I was asking him questions, the second Caitlin busted out Hindi and he realized we knew someone in India, he was all chummy, you missed your chance buddy. Caitlin drove her motorbike, SO COOL, but we hired a driver and car for the night. We went to dinner and the food was amazing. It was a large silver plate and the waiters come around with little dishes and glopped piles of random foods onto your massive silver platter. I didn’t have to worry about what I was eating because India is a vegetarian nation, weeee! You ate with your hands and I went to town on it. It was delicious! I wouldn’t stop taking pictures and was so happy to be aliv; I think the waiter noticed because he asked me if we wanted to see the kitchen, YES PLEASE! We went back into the kitchen and the chef made me go to the stove, hold the spatula thing, and pose for a picture. I am telling you, they love westerners. I also got a bindi drawn on my head and hit a gong, all of this for $4.

After dinner we went to a couple different bars that Caitlin recommended. One of them had a live band and I am not kidding when I say they were playing Hotel California. I dabbled with the local rum, Captain Morgan. The last bar we went to was her favorite dive bar; it was on the top level of a hotel. This man near us was on his cell phone and it was the COOLEST cell phone I had ever seen. When he put it down I asked if I could see it, it was shaped like a clam. I asked him where he got it he said the UK and it was $2,000, his girlfriend got it for him… Alberto? Hahaha The hotel owner sat down with us also and we were having really good conversation. They asked what we thought of India so far, I said we had just gotten there that night and so far it was awesome. He asked where were we going and after I told him he said our thoughts might change. I told him I knew about the poverty and that every country has it, it is just a bit more in your face in India. He agreed and said he wanted us to bring back good words of India when we leave, he paid for our bar tab, done.

I told all the SASers to go to “F-Bar,” a really cool club that we would get to eventually. When we arrived the hotel had a sign that said “Welcome Semester At Sea!” How did they know? We really take over countries. The club was awesome and I met some ridiculous fashion designer, who was wearing an extremely appalling jacket. It was 1000 Rupees to get in, $20. If you were a couple they said you could get in for 500 Rupee for both. Caitlin (roommate) and I told the man we were a couple and asked for the 500 Rupee deal, we got in for free. They don’t accept homosexuality in India and I guess that was just too much for him to take; our money was no good, but free entry is! We left the club at 4am and our driver was waiting for us outside. When we got back to our hotel the grand total for 3 people for the whole night, from 8pm – 4am was $5 each. I gave him $10 because honestly, that is just ridiculous.

Day 2

We had to be on the bus at 7am, brutal. After one hour of sleep we headed out for a tour of Delhi. We went to mosques and monuments and saw all of Delhi. I tried to buy a water bottle at one of the places but it wasn’t sealed. They take old bottles refill it and try to sell them, gross. You can’t drink the water in India, and especially out of a used bottle. It was like the canal street of water, Aquafina was Aquatina. Nice try guy.

Every time the bus would stop beggars would surround us. They were selling the most insane items. Bangle bracelets, elephants, bindis, kama sutra books and anything else you could never want. You have to ignore them because the second you make eye contact they think that you have bought the item. “Hello! Ma’am! Kama Sutra! 500 Rupee!!”..No response “Ma’am. Hello! Okay, no problem, 100 Rupee!” But…I didn’t say anything? You just bargained with yourself. There “Hello!” sounds like “Hallo!” It’s great. At one monument there was a little boy and girl that started to perform the second we got off the bus, they were filthy and so skinny; it was terrible. The little girl would do back bends while the boy would swing a rope that was attached to his hat like a helicopter. Then they would hook onto each other and roll around like a ball, they literally did it for 15 minutes. They got money from some of us, I would love to give to everyone but you are asked for money at every step you take. It’s really painful to watch and after they begged for a couple minutes a police officer chased them away with a stick. When we would get back on the bus the men selling things would crowd the stairwell with their arms reaching into the bus. They would stand there until the door physically pushed them out as we were leaving, this happened at every single stop. It got really exhausting after 5 days.

We left for Agra after the tour, it was about a 5-hour drive and we stopped for lunch along the way. At the restaurant there was a little girl dressed as a princess and she would dance for money as her father played some sort of Indian instrument. I bought her a chocolate bar and took a picture with her. She was beautiful and it’s really hard to digest that her father had to use her as a circus act to feed them. There was also a man with a monkey outside and I asked him if I could take a picture with the monkey. The monkey climbed on top of my head and was violent. After the picture I went to give the man money, because it costs money to breath in India, and my 100 rupees wasn’t good enough. “500 rupees! You had the monkey on the head pose!” Oh, the monkey on the head pose… How could I not realize? So silly of me, here’s your 500 rupee, aka $10. Worth it.

We got to Agra pretty late in the night. A couple of us headed to the mall to get dinner, McDonalds. We got there and apparently everyone else on our trip had the same idea. Cows are sacred in India so there was no beef; the McDonalds gods have spoken. I had a #1, a “Veggie Delight Burger and fries,” I love India. I was so exhausted and in a food coma, I went back to the hotel and passed out. On the way back there was a boy making a gesture to me that he was hungry, I had a McDonald’s pizza, weird I know, in my hand so I went over to give it to him. He told me no, he only wanted Rupees. Beggars can’t be choosers.

Day 3

Taj Mahal! We had to be in the lobby by 7am and there were horse and carriages waiting for us outside. They took us to the Taj Mahal and I could not have been more excited, it’s one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world! My Taj ticket said “Non-Indian,” how do they know? I could be. After you walk inside you have to walk a bit to get through the entranceway that faces the Taj head on. When I turned the corner it didn’t seem real. It’s like a mystical building far off the in the distance and I couldn’t believe I was really there. I was convinced they had fog machines or something; it seemed fake. All of the pictures I took with me in them look like I cropped myself there, I saw it, I swear. To actually walk around the tomb, that’s what it is, you have to take your shoes off. As I was walking and taking pictures Indian men would come up and tell you a really good angle to take a picture at, and they really were great shots! The second after the flash goes off they say “money?” Of course, how could I think you were just being a nice human being, no you do not get a rupee for telling me to stand here. This is not your Taj, and it is not your camera, what am I paying you for? I sat at the Taj Mahal for hours; it was so peaceful.

After the Taj Mahal we went to a fort and royal palace. The tour guide was killing me. He literally told us where every grain of sand came from that formed the brick that made the wall. It’s hot, I care, but I don’t care that much. There were little school children on a field trip at the fort and they were adorable. They wanted to get in a million pictures with us. After the pictures one little girl turned to me and goes, “money?” You have got to be kidding me.

We got on the bus for another 5-hour drive to Jaipur. I slept most of the way, when we got there it was late but the hotel had a welcome reception for us. An adorable little boy was dressed up and dancing for us, he pulled me off my chair and we did some twirls together. Its festival season in India and the one that was occurring on that day was Holly. They take bright colored powder and throw it at each other to mark the changing of the seasons. My Citizens for Humanity jeans were not engaging in that, ah yes, the prissy Long Island girl comes out again. I watched, and everyone who did it severely regretted it when they realized it does not come off. I got a good feel for it, from behind the window.

Day 4

We got up early again today to do some tourist things. The first stop was a fort on top of a mountain. I bought a Turban, for Alberto, but I wore it for the day. Used gifts, how tacky... Haha! The turban was only appropriate for my elephant ride up the mountain. I love elephants; they are my most favorite animals ever. They’re so wrinkly and big; I love it. I’ll never forget the day I went to Sagamore Hill on a field trip to see Teddy Roosevelt’s house, he has a garbage can made from an elephant’s foot, not okay.

As we were on elephants, 20 feet off the ground, men are still trying to sell us their stupid trinkets. They through turbans up on my lap and I said “no” a million times. Finally I said, “I am already wearing one, why do I need two?” The response was something like, “I give you good deal,” obviously I need 35 turbans, I through it back down to him. When we got to the top I took a picture touching the elephant’s trunk and the man who drove them, do you drive elephants? Anyway, he told me I had to pay 50 rupees for that picture, yea right. This is not your elephant or your camera so once again, you will not be getting my money just because you were alive to see me do this. We toured the fort and I got some henna on my hands then we headed back down.

We drove around Jaipur a bit more and saw palaces and mosques. We stopped at textile place that makes those crazy rugs. Oriental rugs? The ones that go under dining room tables. The store sold a million different kinds of fabrics; I bought 7 scarves and called it a day.

At the palace we saw the world’s largest silver jug and a snake charmer. We then went to a local market where I bought lots and lots of stuff. The shop owners always ask where we are from and when we say USA they say “Oh! King of the world!” In one shop I said I was from New York and the man said, “New York is very busy.” My response: Have you seen India?

We got back to the hotel and I had only one thing on my mind, Pizza Hut. We took a rickshaw to Pizza Hut and ordered an obscene amount of food. It was absolutely amazing; I hadn’t tasted pizza in forever. After devouring 3 pizzas we rolled back to the street and took a rickshaw to the hotel. The rickshaw rides are crazy, there are no driving laws and you can drive on the opposite side of the road if you want to. There are cows, cars, rickshaws, horses, scooters, camels, elephants and buses all over the road. I thought Mexico was bad…

At the hotel we watched Bollywood music videos for a bit. They are the funniest, corniest things ever. The men are always more feminine than the women and the dance moves are hysterical. And goodnight.

Day 5

Breakfast at 4:30am, bus at 5am. We headed to the Jaipur airport and on the way I found out our flight is not direct. Not only do we make a stop, we make two. What should really take 2 hours, takes 5. We went all over the country and ended back at Chennai. On the last flight from Bombay to Chennai the flight was pretty empty. There were two completely open rows. I saw a guy go take one to lay down and as he turns around to tell his friend to take the other I get up and walk towards him saying, “Oh no, that’s mine.” Caitlin turns to the friend and says, “Jaclyn has no problem telling people what she wants.” Hahaha Hey, you got to take life by the reigns. I slept the whole way, whether I lost a potential friend or not, it was worth it!

I got back to the boat completely drained. Even though I speak of all the beggars and hagglers I really do enjoy India, it has so much to see and do. The people are nice and I have never seen so much color all over the place. I could see myself coming back here. I heard people saying I.n.d.i.a stands for “I’d Never Do It Again.” It definitely is different from anything else I have ever experienced but who wants the same thing everyday?

It was an overwhelming experience; it honestly made me want to see more. I have never seen so many children in my life. Children without shoes, or even pants; I saw young girls carrying their baby brothers begging for money, and a woman holding a dead baby doing the same. Although I saw all these things I also saw so much energy. The will people had to survive, to work for maybe only 50 Rupees a day was incredible. If that energy was channeled to something positive I think India could develop into a great place.

Two pairs of sandals, 7 scarves, 1 ring, 1 shirt, 2 sets of earrings, 12 elephants and one bracelet later, I left India.

My 22nd birthday is in tomorrow, ew. Twenty-fun (21) was a great year and twenty-poo (22) will hopefully be just as good. Thailand in 3 days, I am so so so excited for Thailand.

That was a long one. Hope you enjoyed.

Take care brush your hair,
Jacleeeeeeen

Mauritius & Sea Olympics

2009-02-28T17:31:00.001-05:00

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

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Cape Town, South Africa

2009-02-24T13:56:00.000-05:00

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

2009-02-17T16:18:00.001-05:00

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!

2009-02-11T20:36:00.000-05:00

Camels in Marrakech
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Get Me To Namibia

2009-02-11T16:11:00.000-05:00

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!
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Beautiful Day

2009-02-10T23:34:00.000-05:00

Me on the MV Explorer crossing the equator :)
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Neptune Day

2009-02-09T13:23:00.002-05:00

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 :)

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Morocco - Marrakech

2009-02-05T11:09:00.001-05:00

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

2009-02-02T20:20:00.000-05:00

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

Spain - Madrid

2009-01-31T14:53:00.000-05:00

Back on the ship!

We did it. We conquered Madrid.

From the beginning... We woke up on the second day and met in the main lobby at 6:30am to get the cab to the Jerez airport. There were 9 of us going and by 6:45am only about 4 showed up. I got on the phone and started calling everyones rooms to wake them up. I felt like Bob Bouchard, getting the ball rolling and making sure we get to the airport at the perfect time with 437 hours to spare.

I have a slight phobia of unkown airlines and so I was a little nervous to see what this thing was going to look like. It looked like a plane, so I got on. I slept the whole way except when we blasted out of the clouds with the engine screaming in my ear, nose diving and getting tossed everywhere. Europe has a slightly different landing technique and I definitely needed a full briefing on it before I was thrown from the sky. We touched down in Madrid and it was a beautiful day. We had to take the metro from the station to the hostel so I grabbed hold of the reins. I like doing things independently and proving to myself that I can navigate the world on my own...It was me doing the typical 35 mph long stride walk and 8 people scurrying to keep up behind me. My name is now "Mom." They were convinced we would have been in Syria if it was not for my super savvy 20,000 leagues under Madrid metro abilities.

The hostel we stayed in was called Cat's Hostel and it was great. I did booking for it and it was all of us in the same room. The hostel was as clean as one can get and I felt safe, which is all that matters. The first day in Madrid we got Tapas at an outside cafe. The theme of Madrid was "When in Rome." This lovely saying legitimized everything and anything we wanted to do. "That shirt is way overpriced..." "When in Rome." Sold.

Around lunch time everyday the people of Spain do whats called "siesta." They shut down their shops, leave work for a few hours for a cold beverage, nap and a little downtime.

Halfway through the day my Blackberry battery went on the fritz and so Jaclyn went on the fritz as well. It wouldn't hold the charge and kept dieing after 30 seconds which means I didn't hold my charge and died after 30 seconds. After a couple of hours it decided it was going to stop with the silly games and come back to life. My only explanation for this was that Sherry the B-Berry knew we were in Spain and being that it was mid day, participated in siesta.

After exploring the city we went back to shower and get changed for dinner and the night. We were hanging in the hostel bar when a guy from Massachusetts who moved to Spain a couple years ago sat down and chatted with us. He ended up taking us to a dinner spot and the food was AMAZING. I ate like a king the whole weekend.

The next and final day we explored the old historical part of the city and saw some spectacular buildings. The Palacio Royale and... some other stuff...yea.. it was cool. That night we went to THE place. Club Kapital.

Kapital is a seven story discoteque. It was insane. Every floor had a different music style. There was a movie theater. So much fun. In Spain you don't eat dinner until around 11pm and you head out around 1am. We got there around 1 and I would say that the place didn't fill up until 2. These people are loco! I could never do that every weekend. It was a great way to close out Madrid. We went to bed around 6am and woke up at 830 to catch the train to Cadiz. The ride was 5 hours and we all passed out the entire time.

I have not slept more than 5 hours in 12 days. I am going to die in my bed tonight. We just left port and are headed to the Rock of Gebraltar to fuel up. There is supposed to be bad weather tonight and we were informed to secure our things! We get to Morocco February 2nd. I really enjoyed Spain but I am excited for all the African countries. Madrid was modern and reminded me of New York. I want to see something I have never seen before.

I am about to fall asleep on the keyboard, I feel my brain shutting down. Apologies for the lack of humor in this post... it would have taken too much out of me :)

Goodnight

Jaclyn

SPAIN Part 1

2009-01-28T18:41:00.002-05:00

LAND HO!

We have finally, FINALLY made it to Spain.

Since my last post not much has happened because I was still going through the monotonous motions of ship life until today: Some highlights.

The final stretch of the eight-day passage of the Atlantic Ocean, aka the passage of death, got a little crazy. There is a channel on our television that shows the exact location of the ship, coordinates, speed, temperature and so on. This is my favorite channel. It’s like getting a present everyday and never knowing what is inside. It starts with the power button, the red one of endless mystery. Basically, whoever chooses the soundtrack for this channel either thinks it is a funny joke or is seriously trying to invoke hysteria upon others. The first half of the voyage was a lot of techno, most likely pumped from the captain’s iPod. The closer we got to Spain the more Enrique Iglesias was forced through the speaker into my head. The day before we got to Spain, Caitlin and I were napping, for our Nap Club requirements, clearly. We woke around 3pm and laid in bed for a bit discussing how we don’t even want to get out of bed, we want to open our eyes and see Espana. Knowing it will never let me down I reach for the remote and get it started. Cabin fever has set in at this point and from the black box mounted high in our room comes Mambo #5, priceless. No lie, we flailed every limb, phalange and metatarsal on our bodies for a solid three minutes. We remixed it to make the lyrics a bit more fitting, “A little bit of Jaclyn in the sun, a little bit of Caitlin all night long...” The point is I needed off the ship immediately. I know it seems simple just to hit the magic red button again, but it’s the anticipation of “What could possible come on next?” that leaves me itching to get to the next track, before you know it hours have passed and I am left speechless.

Another fantastic moment to end the passage of death: Dean’s Top Ramen snot rocket. We were all sitting on the stern deck outside waiting for dinner to be served, once again it’s the little things that keep you going, and he decided the wait was going to be to perilous. He visits the snack bar and returns with Top Ramen noodles. We are all chatting and laughing when all of the sudden the impossible happens. The Ramen noodle takes a gravity defying turn in Dean’s throat, bypassing the esophagus and opting for the nasal passage. And it’s stuck. The question was to pick it, or blow it. That thing was shot like a cannon ball, and can still be viewed on the stern, deck five port side for all of those interested. Pictures soon to come.

So we made it to Spain. Today we got up really early to see the ship pull in at 0800, the time posted. We wake up, run outside to find out we have been here for hours, the water is brown and they are serving prunes on the breakfast buffet. GET ME OFF THIS SHIP. ☺

My feet touch land and off we go. My posse and I vs. Cadiz, Spain. We walked around all day and had the best coffee, tapas, cerveza, calamari, and sangria. My wallet started to bleed a little bit once we found the shopping district but good thing Daddy sent me with an endless supply of band-aids…right? :P

Cadiz is an adorable city. It is pronounced “Cadeeth” because to my excitement the “s” is pronounced with “th.” Venethuela. Barthelona. Themester at Thea. It is stuff like this that can keep Jaclyn endlessly occupied.

Later in the evening I went to a Flamenco and bullfighting show. The Flamenco dancing was amazing. When it came time for the bullfight I was a little bit nervous! I myself would never want to be in that ring and when they opened the door to unleash the beast, I was not impressed by the veal cow that came trotting out. It looked like a dog with antlers. How much did I pay for this? Seriously, put me in the ring.

TOMORROW: 9am Flight out of Jerez (yere-TH), amazing, to Madrid. I cannot wait for Madrid and I will be back Saturday to tell you all about it.

So far, this is the best semester EVER!

Thanks Mom and Dad.

Love,
Jake

Homesick.

2009-01-27T03:38:00.003-05:00

I miss my friends.

I miss family.

I miss Alberto.

I miss this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDaDX1MNMCU

I miss Towson.

Spain tomorrow, I need it now.

:)

-Jaclyn

Cabin Fever

2009-01-25T06:55:00.001-05:00

Feeling slightly violent right now, I just wrote a long post and it got cleared.

Take 2.

It has been one week since I got on the ship and I am coming down with a case of cabin fever. Not that I am complaining because lets get real, I have nothing to complain about, but the repetition is getting to be a bit much. We are officially four hours ahead of EST and it is currently 9:45am on Sunday. We turn the clocks ahead again tonight. I just had my 8am Biomedical Ethics class with a professor who I love. I have never enjoyed 8ams, there isn’t much to like, but I found myself laughing at crack of dawn. My professor just discovered the wonders of PowerPoint lectures (welcome to the millennium?) and she thoroughly enjoys making shadow puppets, yes shadow puppets, on the screen.

With all this down time I try to keep myself busy so I have been hitting the gym pretty hard. The gym… a story in itself. Try to imagine a heeling ship swaying back and forth 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now try to envision running a straight line on a treadmill, not happening. I have opted for the wussy elliptical machine where you can pretend your running while holding on for dear life. Living on the sea makes everyone look like they are drunk all day everyday, like pirates. I am sure if this were true, rum would be the culprit. It takes some getting used to, but it is completely acceptable to be walking and all of the sudden have a near death stumble with no one taking a second glance. We need to adapt this to land life, immediately.

We had an Open Mic night the other day. Some acts were amazing while some were… interesting. No joke, three guys came out and did a pretend double-dutch jump rope routine. I was left puzzled, but perhaps wanting more? I have a deep-rooted jealousy for anyone who can remotely sing. Essentially I sat there, reflected on my lack of talent, and left feeling spiteful. It really was a great audience though. I convinced my friend Jack to get up and sing because in my own words, “There are no haters here.”

We also had an activities fair and I believe I am joining the “24-Hour Pirate Watch Club.” Description: A vigilante group against pirates. Or, maybe I’ll stick to my guns and join the “Nap Club,” most likely I will become president within the first week.

Lets talk about Edwin. Edwin is the man. Everyday Edwin comes into my room (hold on Dad) and vacuums, cleans, makes my bed, folds my clothes, does my laundry, replenishes my towels and leaves romantic notes. The note was along the lines of “Don’t take your make-up off with the white face towels.” Such a romantic Edwin is.

Come to think of it, I barely lift a finger on this vessel. Everything is done for you, Marissa I am sure will do the same for me when I return to western hemisphere. ☺

I have not seen anything but the MV Explorer and Atlantic water for 6 days now. Yesterday, I spotted a cargo ship in the distance; you would have thought I won the lotto. Oh, the small things of life.

We have had “Pub Night” every single night. You get up to 6 drinks a night and this is where you get to discover “that girl” or “that guy.” You know, the ones that are holding on to immaturity until it is ripped from their white knuckled grip. As far as I am concerned, not to get too deep, I am here to see the world, better myself, and learn. “That guy” is there to save all drinks until the final seconds of pub night, slam them all to his face, put on that stupid “I am the man!” grin and try to impress girls. “That girl” will be the one who thinks he is oh so manly for doing such a daring act and they will live happily ever after. The art of people watching is an endless enjoyment. Seriously though, you can never tell if someone is stumbling from inebriation, or just getting tossed from the 45-degree heel to the right followed by the abrupt return to rest.

Well, the clouds have burned off and it seems to be another beautiful day. I have seen nothing but blue skies. It’s time to excite my melanocytes and get some vitamin D, aka tan.

Hostilla-waygo (Spanish? I took French, this will be interesting)
Jaclyn

Quick post..

2009-01-23T10:57:00.001-05:00

If you click

http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/current-voyage.php

then click the link above the map that says "View the Spring 2009 Voyage Map (Revised)>"

.. hmm or maybe you can just click that link...

But either way, it tells you our exact location and you can follow me on the map.

Love, Peace, Chicken Grease

Orientaton

2009-01-21T11:23:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe that today is already the third day of my circumnavigation! We have had so many orientations and meetings, I feel like I am a freshman all over again.

Yesterday (Tuesday, January 20th) was a very long day. We had to be at a meeting in the union at 9am. The union is the main large lecture hall, which sits around 100 people. There are 700 of us so we all just fill in satellite classrooms and hallways and hope for the best... It lasted around 2 hours all together. We were introduced to faculty and staff and blah blah blah (that's basically what I got from it). After that we had a break for lunch. The food on the ship is GREAT. Besides being a non-meat eater, if you hand me anything else I am not picky. Bread and butter is a 32 oz. steak to me! They have so many vegetables, you might say I'm in veggie heaven.

After lunch we had hours upon hours of other meetings but Caitlin and I decided to head back to the room. I heard a fabulous rumor that all things that take place in the union are broadcasted to our room T.V.'S... Let's just say I found one of lifes best kept secrets! We laid in our beds and watched the meeting aka fell asleep immediatly and woke up in time for dinner :) When we walked into the dining hall we heard a lot of "are you guys alive?" Yes we are alive, don't be jealous that we have the key to life on the MV Explorer. We shared our secret and maybe gained a bit of fame :P

Before we "died" in our beds (as Marcus would say.. "We were depressed" haha!) They got satellite feed of the inauguration. The fact that everyone on this ship is trying to see the world, teach, learn and spread hope that globalization can close the gap of tribe means by default we are all liberal and Obama lovers. We are also college students so I guess that helps also.. Quite the Obama demographic we are. It was astounding how during lectures we all talk, text and doze off, but when this inauguration was playing 1000 people sat in silence. Obama's speech was amazing. Inauguration speeches are known for being morale boosters filled with fluff and clouds with silver linings.. he kept it real. I think we need more of that. In the words of Obama, we choose hope not fear.

After dinner we had a champagne toast and cake party to the new president, were not joking around about this! As we walked up to get our champagne we see them putting away the empty bottles of alcohol removed "champagne" aka the O'douls of champagne aka carbonated water. We toasted and one of my friends ran to the balcony and vommitted... The ship was KICKIN last night. Almost everyone I know is having serious sea sick problems. I absolutely love the feeling and as they're all green sitting in chairs I was up doin the macarena (for some reason it was being played over the speaker system! Ha!)

We turned our clocks back an hour last night, and we do it again for the next 6 nights! It is definitely going to hit us. We are 3 days into the Atlantic and have about 5 left to Espana.

Today (Wednesday, January 21) was the first day of class. I was in biomedical ethics and my professor was telling us how she grew up on Long Island. So, of course I do a double fist pump in the air followed by a standard "woo!" She asked me where, I said Northport, and she said "that's where I am from!!" My response was "No you're not!" Hahaha

She lives on Highland Ave... Aka the backyard of every house I grew up in. Small world.

Well, I am about to grab lunch and then lay out on the pool deck for the rest of the day. Tough life, I know.

Jac

P.s. Missu
P.p.s. Jennifer Maletto have the most amazing 21st birthday ever!! I miss you so much and I wish I could be there to hold your hair back.. Get it girl, werk mama!

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Just Left....

2009-01-19T17:19:00.003-05:00

Hello landlubbers

We JUST left Nassau, Bahamas! I cannot believe that this is finally happening after planning this since August.. I showed up the boat with 4 HUGE bags and everyone was laughing haha I am the worst packer in the world and I did not leave one thing behind. Whatever, when I am rounding the bottom of Africa I won'y be saying "Damn, I wish I brought that black patent leather belt.." OH, CAUSE I DID!! :)

I had my first meal on the ship and it was not half bad. Of course I was the big loser who had to go to the "Vegetarian" section and pick up the lettuce and hummus wrap.. but it was fabulous!!!

In eight days I will arrive in Cadiz, Spain.

It's insane how open everyone is to meeting people. I have already met a couple people are going to be my solids for the trip. We all booked the same flight from port in Spain to Madrid. I hear Madrid is an amazing city so I definitely cannot wait to cross the Atlantic already!

Classes don't start until Wednesday so we are just doing a lot of orientation things for the start. A couple hours ago we had to dress in warm clothing and do a practice safety boat drill. They sounded the alarm, and we had to stand outside with our vests. I am lifeboat A1, so I named our clusted of 150 A1 Steaksauce, only the strong survive.

Just saw my Dad and Sister as we were leaving and I remember turning to my friend and saying, this is crazy, I am having a moment.

Ta ta for now.
Jac

P.s. The boat is rocking like CRAZY!!
P.p.s. Missu K*