| Dear dancechica87.jaclyn@blogger.com, |
| CANCEL DE-ACTIVATION |
| However, if you do not cancel this request,your account will be shutdown shortly, |
| powered by: Google+ |
Monday, January 14, 2019
Account de-activation final warning!!!
Monday, July 7, 2014
Blog - You should join me on Sway and meet new people.
|
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Final Days
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
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
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.
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.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Honolulu, Waikiki - Hawaii
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 21st 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 20th) 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
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 4th. 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!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo and Yokohoma - Japan
No Plan
The funny thing about
I was exhausted the morning of
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
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 –
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
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
We stopped at 7-11 first, which in
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
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 –
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
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
The slow train to
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.
Next plan, get a nice hotel room and cram as many people in it as possible to save money because
After unloading all our stuff we set out for dinner. I really wanted to find a rotating sushi bar because there is one in
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 –
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
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
I was so exhausted from
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
I really loved
We have 9 days in between
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
