Semester at Sea has changed my life.

This is going to be my last blog entry, wrapping up this entire trip. Pretty much the only reason why I created this blog was so that my family could follow my adventures and keep in touch with what I was up to... I know a few of you have already told me how much you are going to miss my blog entries!!! I'm so glad that I was able to entertain and be your travel guide over these last 4 months :) I want to try and keep this short and sweet, because although there is a lot to say, there isn't at the same time... I've come to the point where I'm trying to process everything that I've experienced and it's going to take some time before it fully hits me that I just traveled around the world... 26,000 miles and all. It still baffles me that I've been able to have this incredible experience. I can't believe I went to places like Asia... Africa... and South America. Thank God for the memories, the pictures, the videos and even the souvenirs that I've collected during the voyage, because sadly there will come a point where things will begin to slowly fade away... I just really hope in the future I'll be able to re-visit some of these countries and spend some more time there, forever learning. The world has so much to offer and not a lot of people have the courage to step outside their comfort zones into the unknown and the unfamiliar... into a completely different culture than our own, to put yourself in someone else's shoes and experience, even for a short time, how they live. Just like the quote by St. Augustine, that I pulled out of my journal: “The world is a great book... they who never stir from home read only a page.” Also by Jan Myrdal: “Traveling is not just seeing the new: it is also leaving behind. Not just opening doors: also closing them behind you, never to return. But the place you have left forever is always there for you to see whenever you shut your eyes.” I've learned that following your dreams is possible; you just gotta go out and do it and not be afraid of taking a risk or two along the way!!! It's all worth it in the end, and I am now forever transformed because of it. Semester at Sea has most definitely, without a doubt, changed my life. Forever. Thanks everyone, love you all<3

Homeward bound <3

Brazil was incredible, although a lot of people probably wouldn’t have said the same thing, because a lot of people got mugged, were involved with credit card fraud at ATMs and there were even some extreme cases of people getting beaten up! Brazil is a pretty dangerous place overall and I’m glad that I wasn’t caught up in any of the drama. It really could have happened to anyone… which is scary, but it’s life.

 

It was beautiful nonetheless though and I fell in love with it a little bit. Especially Salvador, which was probably the cutest city I’ve ever been. There were lots of colorful and really old historic buildings and cobblestone streets… it was adorable! Our ship was ported in the lower part of the city and in order to get to “Old Town” which they call it, you had to take this elevator that would literally just bring you right to it… it was pretty cool! Walking into the square at the top made me think of Europe or something, although I’ve never been, I just feel like it would look something like that! Then again Salvador, or Brazil in general has a lot of European influence. The morning and early afternoon of the first day a group of us went to the square where there were cute little shops, restaurants and an outside market, where we just relaxed and just took everything in. My flight for Rio left that evening, which we ALMOST missed, because we got held up in traffic from this concert that was going on. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6pm and we didn’t get to the airport until 5:30pm! Thank God the flight got delayed an hour, because we would have missed it without a question. It was a 2 hour flight to Rio and we were all pretty tired when we got there so we just decided to stay in. It was a National Holiday anyways, so even if we had wanted to go out, nothing was really open. We also had some trouble at the hotel which had a very strict guest policy… because our plan was to have a few of us crash without them really noticing, which we got away with the first night, but the other nights not so much haha but that’s a whole other story of its own.

 

I was so excited to wake up in the morning, to see Rio in the day time, the next day… the hotel where we were at was right down the street from Copacabana Beach! That day was one of the best days I’ve had on this entire trip I would have to say… we just had so much fun and got to do so much!! First thing we did was go to Christ the Redeemer himself, who looks over the entire city of Rio on Corcovado.  Unfortunately, like we had been told previously, he was under construction and had scaffolding all around him… but it was still so neat to see and be right there, standing beneath him. It was pretty humorous that he had this tarp over his face with a face on it… we all got a kick out of that! My friend Ryan and I decided to hike up to it instead of taking the bus, which was definitely worthwhile.  The views were absolutely breathtaking!!! Especially once we got to the top… we got a panoramic view of all of Rio. Depending on what angle you looked from you could see Maracana, which used to be the largest soccer stadium in the entire world, or Sugarloaf Mountain.  I felt like I was on top of the world up there. On our journey down, near where our taxi was waiting for us, I had my first encounter with monkeys in the wild haha! There were these 2 monkeys just hooting and hollering down at us from these trees and I remembered that we had put a couple bananas in our bag from breakfast and I took one out… the monkey noticed right away what I had and scurried down the tree, crying for it. I wish I had videoed this, but I tossed the banana to the money who just hung off the branch and grabbed it from mid-air! It was hysterical! It then scurried back up the tree, peeled it and ate it. We then headed straight for the beach which we chilled on for at least a few hours… soaking up the sun, swimming and playing soccer and volleyball with some Brazilian kids. People would come up to you on the beach selling anything you could imagine… from food, beer, swim suits, clothes and jewelry.  That night we got to go to a soccer game at Maracana!! It was such a crazy  experience… it was a match between 2 local Brazilian teams and the fans were absolutely INSANE!!! I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire life… and I’ve never jumped, yelled and chanted so loud in my entire life either LOL. It was such a great time… but exhausting!

 

Our last day in Rio was spent pretty much lying out on Copacabana, although it was kinda windy, it was still nice. It was a pretty low key day and later that night we went to the district of Lapa, where the nightlife scene is and we ate dinner at this very nice Brazilian restaurant then went bar hopping. Laura and I had to wake up early to get to the airport to catch our flight back to Salvador. There was only like 20 people on the plane too, which was kinda cool, I got to sprawl out in my own row of seats! I wish I had more time in Rio though… because I feel like we only got to see just a little part of the city, but I guess that means I’ll just have to go back, which I’m sure I will sometime in the future.  When I got back to the ship, I was so exhausted that I hung out on the ship for most of the day then met up with some girlfriends to celebrate our last night… not only in Brazil, but the entire trip in general. Bittersweet of a feeling it was, but I’m glad I got to spend it with the girls that I did, Jenna, Abbey, and Abigail, who have become my best friends on this ship :) I’m gonna miss them so much!!! We partied all night and stayed at this cute hostel near the square in Salvador. The last day we ate at this amazing crepe restaurant and just walked around, picking up last minute souvenirs and I got some braids in my hair! Also broke my camera… or I didn’t necessarily break it, but it just stopped working lol. Ironic… but thankfully it happened on the last day at least! It was an interesting feeling getting back on the ship, because it was the last time we would ever be getting back on it.

 

We are going to be in Florida next week… 8 days. I can’t believe how fast the semester went by, although I thought it was going by slow at times. These 8 days are going to fly by, because this week I’m just swamped with school work, last days of classes, finals and packing…

 

Looking forward to Florida though, because I’m going to Disney World for my first time EVER!!! Haha, I’m pretty pumped about it, not gonna lie. Will be back in NH in 10 days… going to NYC in 19 days… my 21^st birthday is in 21 days… and then Norway in 30 days! So, I’m pretty busy when I return home, and still gotta finalize my summer job as well, find an apartment for next fall and start training for field hockey. I’m just glad I’m gonna be kept busy, because I feel like after this trip it’s gonna be hard for me to ever sit still!

 

This whole experience has really changed my life and I have learned so much about not only the world, but myself and others. I’ve grown tremendously as a person and will keep the memories that I’ve made very close to my heart… I’m really excited to be home, but it’s also going to be hard to leave. The ship really became my home these last 3.5 months and the people that I’ve grown close to have turned into family… I traveled the world with them! But I don’t think the journey will ever end. I have so much to look forward to and I have so much to be thankful for!!! I’ve realized that you need to always have an open heart and to embrace change every chance you can… because it can change your life in extraordinary ways.

Brazil pics!

Alright... here's the last batch of pictures from the voyage! Kinda sad.


the last night <3


view of Salvador from the plane


the gang at the soccer game!


cute pic


Laura & I at Copacabana 8)


Copacabana Beach


monkeyyy!


view of Rio (with Sugarloaf in the distance) from Christ the Redeemer


Christ himself, getting a makeover lol


the gang in Salvador!


Salvador: the cutest town ever


one of the many old/historical buildings in Salvador


CIGAR GUY... lmao


I felt like I was in Europe (even though I've never been)

Will write about what I did, once I get some work done. Got a busy week ahead with projects and finals... 10 more days 'til I'm home!!!!! :) YAY.

last stop: Brazil!

Alright, so here’s the deal: I’m going to be in Brazil the day after tomorrow (we’ve been on the ship for 5 days—crossing the Atlantic!) and I’m heading to Rio de Janeiro baby!!! Pretty pumped about it… although rumor has it that Christ the Redeemer (Jesus statue) is gonna be covered!? I know for a fact that the roads/trails that lead up to it will absolutely be closed because of all the mudslides Rio has been experiencing, but a TARP over IT??? I’m crossing my fingers and praying that it won’t be the case… because I at least wanna see it!!!! When you think Rio, you think that. It would be a bummer that’s for sure! As of right now I don’t have really any solid plans whatsoever when I arrive in Rio… to save money we’re probably gonna just hit up the beaches, heard they were pretty nice! We always find something to do, so not too worried at all. Gonna be in Salvador for the last night and day we’re in Brazil too… hanging out with the girls! One last “hoo-rah” all together, so sad :( I know some of the friendships that I’ve made on this ship are going to last forever.

 

This trip has changed my life!!! I’m so lucky to have been able to have an experience such as this… it’ll definitely be bittersweet getting off the ship in FL and saying goodbye to everyone.

 

So, how about that volcano erupting in Iceland?? I’ve been so deprived of current news and updates… when my boyfriend told me about it I didn’t believe him at first until he sent me the link to an article. Pretty intense… and just in a little over a month’s time I’ll be flying into Iceland myself, for a lay-over on my way to Norway (pretty pumped about that also)!!! Man oh man, and before that I’ll be in NYC with Anders and his family for a week and get to see my best friend and get to celebrate my 21^st birthday down there too! Ahhh, so much to look forward to when I get home… YAY! I do need to finalize my summer job situation too when I get back, but I’m optimistic that it’ll all work out. I decided to let down this residential camp I was going to work at all summer and am now gonna be working at this girl’s shelter where I’ll finally be able to work with the population of kids that I want to work with in the future! Also am looking forward to spending some quality time at home this summer as well… then I’ll be back to NEC before I know it for field hockey and “real” school LOL, hope I’ll be able to make the transition! My class schedule next fall is legit too, so I’m actually pretty excited about going back… can’t believe I’m gonna be a SENIOR either… yikes.

 

Anyways, I only have 2 more classes left after Brazil, then finals!! I have 2 in-class finals, 2 take-home tests and a group project on education around the world that we’ve been working on this entire voyage… we have a 10 day stretch after Brazil until we reach Fort Lauderdale and are back on US soil—18 days to go! It’s gonna fly by.

Ghana pics!

what I'm sure you've all been patiently waiting for :) lol


sick picture


the Billy Jane crew :D


canoe ride on Lake Volta!


the most precious little girl I've ever seen


me & the Chief of the village lol


women everywhere would balance stuff on their heads


kids at the village, so cute!!


haha what a sucker I am!


me & some of the kids at the village I stayed at :)


these guys made the drums from scratch... so cool


getting drumming lessons at the market!


Jenna, Me & Abbey (squared) at Billy Jane's! <3

"It's good to have an end to journey towards, but it's the journey that matters, in the end"

Ghana… what an adventure it was. Ghana was probably the most “adventurous” port I’ve been too I would have to say. I got to experience some pretty legit stuff… like hardcore Africa.  First of all, it was definitely almost a complete 360 from South Africa. There was a lot of poverty and reminded me a lot of India.  It was also very dirty, REALLY hot and the drivers were crazy! It was an experience, that’s for sure.  I’ve experienced some pretty crazy and insane drivers thus far on my trip (Viet Nam… Yangshuo… etc.), but honestly I don’t think I’ve ever felt so unsafe in a vehicle ever before haha. Taxi and bus drivers just bomb down the highway… don’t really think there’s a speed limit. It’s absolute craziness. We seriously had to be going 100 mph at some times, no lie! A little overwhelming… also most of the roads were under construction too, so the potholes just added an additional dramatic effect to the total experience lol. One of the coolest things I noticed about Ghana was that mostly women, but men as well, would carry absolutely anything you could think of on their heads… balancing just buckets of stuff, walking down the street. They would balance everything from eggs, baskets of drinks, or food, clothes… you name it!!! It was pretty impressive. Also the most precious thing, was the women would carry their babies on their backs by wrapping this fabric around their bodies.  I actually noticed that a little in the townships in South Africa, but definitely not to the extent of what I saw in Ghana. I also I have never felt so “white” in my entire life… lol we turned heads everywhere we went and I can’t even tell you how many people came up to me wanting to shake my hand or just talk to me. I felt like a celebrity… but in more of an overwhelming way.  Ghana isn’t necessarily a vacationing spot for Westerners!

 

So the night before we arrived in Ghana my plans completely changed around. I was planning on doing a lot of SAS trips and sticking around the ship for the most part, but some of my trips got messed up so I decided to go off with Jenna and Abbey for a couple nights.  When we arrived in Tema we got a taxi right away and tried to find our hostel for the night… which turned into a 2 + hour epidemic! Our driver, Thomas, was somewhat of an asshole and got pretty frustrated with us, because we had him drive us to this hostel that actually was nonexistent… although we had been e-mailing this women back and forth who worked there?  Yeah, we were pretty confused, it just didn’t make any sense at all. We ended up in a dangerous part of Accra supposedly, which our driver got mad about as well, but how did we know… it was our first time ever in Ghana! Oh well. He ended up taking us to this beach resort which was too expensive, but we found a less expensive one right down the road. After we got checked in and situated we decided to check out this bar/restaurant called Billy Jane’s which was right down the street.  Here is where we met Kennedy, Benjamin and a few others who we became friends with right off the bat and would return back to Billy Jane’s on a few more occasions during our stay in Ghana to hang out with them. They seriously were some of the nicest people I have met on this entire trip and were just so welcoming. At night we went to this part of town called Osu, where we hit up a couple bars, met up with some other SASers and had a really fun time.  We definitely showed them all that white girls CAN dance!!! Haha :P

 

The next morning we were back at Billy Jane’s recovering from the night and relaxed for a couple hours with the friends we made the day before. We ended up going to the market in the afternoon, where I picked up a lot of cool stuff… dresses, a drum and some paintings. I love African stuff… everything is just so unique and vibrant!!  Some of my favorite things I have purchased have been in Africa.  Our market experience though was by far one of the most overwhelming too haha which I thought I would never say after experiencing some of the markets in China or Viet Nam.  Then again, I don’t think many Ghanaians see very many white people either and thinking that we have all the money in the world they probably thought we were gonna buy a lot of stuff… yeah right, I wish! Anyways, people would just literally grab me and try to drag me into their shops and I’ve never had so many people yelling at me at once haha I just wanted to look!!! But that is a concept they don’t understand very well apparently! We ended up bumping into some guys we met at the bar the night before who are drummers. We got to see people make the drums from scratch and got some drumming lessons!! It was really cool. I got this little drum with my name carved into it which I sadly had forgotten in the back of our taxi when we finally were taken back to the ship :( Oh well. Abbey actually surprised me and bought me a new one the last day we were in Ghana, what a sweetheart she is!

 

So that night we met Nash, who was gonna be our tour guide for the next day or so.  A girl on the ship had gotten his contact info from some website that offered a village experience tour and overnight.  It definitely sounded pretty cool and legit, so we were pretty pumped about it.  We hopped on a bus with him and headed east from Accra towards the Lake Volta area. He said our bus ride was only supposed to take 2 hours when it took over 3, and after that we took this “45 minute” taxi ride to the village which turned into around 2 hours lol. It was definitely a long journey and we still didn’t really know what to expect.  I think we ended up in a town called Cocoa and then we took a taxi up this mountain and into the middle of nowhere… the further we went up the mountain the less civilization there was.  At one point he warned us that from then on out there would be no electricity hahaha. After an interesting ride we finally made it to this village, which I still don’t even remember what it was called, but there was no electricity and was absolutely in the middle of nowhere!!! Africa at its finest! Haha, I can’t even emphasize it enough! So we got to this village after midnight and Nash woke up the Chief so we could meet him, which I thought was crazy because it was so late, but he was expecting us.  After we met him we chilled under the stars for a while and then finally went to bed.  Our accommodations were a lot better than I had expected, but just so hot… don’t think I’ve ever been so hot and have sweat so much in my life, for real (and I sweat a lot haha).  When we woke up in the morning the village people were pretty shocked to see these 3 random white girls just walking through the village, it was pretty hysterical.  We got to socialize with the Chief and the people and my favorite part was to hang out with the kids and see where they went to school.  They just were all so adorable!!! They all melted my hearts.  We scared a couple of them though haha and made them cry… don’t think they’ve ever seen a white person in their lives! We also met this boy Michael who just completely intrigued us… he was one of the most ambitious kids I’ve ever met in my life. He was attending high school, but was explaining to us how it was expensive, and that he puts all his money towards it, because he knows in order to get a good job he needs a good education.  His family is really poor and can’t afford to pay for his schooling, which is why he does it himself.  He hopes to someday be able to come to the US to study further… and I really hope his dream will come true someday, he’s a smart cookie and definitely deserves the opportunity.  Overall, being able to stay in this village was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had traveling around the world, when it comes to true adventure and being immersed in someone else’s culture.

 

Later in the day we got to go to Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world, where we got to go on a little canoe ride, which is pretty neat to say I’ve done! Got to go swimming at this hotel after, which was the best thing ever, since we were all so extremely overheated and sweating our butts off haha! Nash left to go get us food which took him over 2 hours to do… we were pretty skeptical and anxious, since we had given him the rest of our money for our tour and in the back on my mind I was just hoping that he didn’t just split and leave us stranded. He was just taking his sweet old time though, which we found a lot of Africans do actually haha. There was a few occasions while we were traveling with Nash that he would just get up and leave us, saying he would be right back, and hours later he would return… pretty funny. We headed back into Accra after that and since it wasn’t too late we decided to go back to Billy Jane’s one more final time to surprise our new friends!!! They were so happy that we showed up and once again, we ended up staying a few hours just hanging out with them.  It was bittersweet when we had to leave for real though this time… they were so sad. It broke my heart a little bit! Especially when I know in the back on my mind that I probably won’t ever be returning back to Ghana again. Who knows.

 

Today, our last day in port I went to a psychiatric hospital tour for class, the only SAS trip that I still had followed through with lol! It was quite interesting to say the least… we got to see a lot of patients in their natural settings and honestly I felt like we were being a little intrusive so it made me feel uncomfortable at times.  We got to go into one of the bad wards too, which made me feel the most uncomfortable of all the wards we got to see.  I got back to the ship relatively early and a few hours shy of on-ship time, but ended up passing out for a few hours. Definitely a nap that I had been looking forward to ever since I left the ship the first day! Now we’ve left Ghana and are heading to Brazil, but actually have stopped to fuel up and it’s rocky as can be. I have a slight headache from all the motion… I hope I’ll be able to sleep! Can’t believe in a week I’ll be in Brazil and then a week and half after that I’ll be home, in NH. Wow. I have SO much to get done before though… like projects, presentations and exams. At least I’ll be kept pretty busy this time around while we’re at sea. I’m gonna try to post some pictures in the next few days or so too, so check back! Goodnight.

the end is near...

Tomorrow we’ll be in Ghana (btw I’m only 4 hours ahead now!), 11 days we’ll be in Brazil, 25 days we’ll be in FL, and 27 days I’ll be back in NH; just to give you an idea of how close this journey is really coming to an end… so that’s a little shy of 4 weeks and I’ll be home.  Wow. It’s gonna fly by too, especially with the work load that has been dropped on my plate, which will at least keep me busy when we’re at sea, because I’ve become really antsy now when we’re cooped up on the ship. At first it was fun, an adventure, but now I know what to expect haha… there’s not necessarily a lot to do on a 600ft ship to possibly occupy the full 24 hours in a day.  I have one more FDP, or SAS trip to go on for a class (Psychiatric Hospital in Accra for my Identity Development class), a 15 minute presentation on arranged marriage in India, focused on negative effects such as divorce on the high rise (for the same ID class), our Global Studies project that I’m working on with 5 others on Sustainability and Education, focused on the lives of high school seniors around the world… which is gonna be a huge part of our grade and a food journal that I’ve been putting together for my Anthropology of Food class! Other than that I’ll have small assignments here and there and take home tests and exams, which don’t happen until a few days into our voyage back to the US after Brazil. 

 

I’ve met some amazing people on this journey and have made really good friends who I’m gonna miss greatly… makes me sad to think about it, because I have mixed feelings about parting ways with them. But, that’s life and I’m sure I’ll be crossing paths with a handful of them at some point or another… after I make some more money so that I can actually travel to visit them lol. Most of them come from California, Colorado, Wisconsin and Rhode Island areas, so all over the country!! The whole being broke thing after this trip hasn’t been settling very nicely in my mind… I actually would rather not think about it!!! Because after it’s all said and done, it was worth it. Every last second and every last penny… it was worth it.

 

I’m ready to come home though. I’m ready to reunite with family and friends and my incredible boyfriend who has stuck by my side throughout this whole experience (and I hope you’ll be reading this at some point!), ‘cause babe, you mean the world to me and I just wanted to thank you for being so supportive throughout this whole thing, I couldn’t ask for anything better, I love you!!

 

So Ghana… tomorrow! It’s gonna be difficult to travel around, so like I mentioned in my previous entry I’m mostly gonna be traveling with SAS and gonna try to get on that trip the 3^rd day, so I don’t have to worry about planning anything… tomorrow though the girls and I are just gonna head into Accra and explore and do some shopping!! Still don’t really know what to expect, but that’s the exciting part and what I’ve learned to look forward to when going to a new country on our itinerary.  Like I’ve always done, I’ll update again after I’m back on the ship, post pictures, etc… so ‘til then <3

Ghana bound!

I really don’t know what to expect from Ghana… I heard that it’s full of poverty and could possibly resemble Chennai, India—which would be interesting.  Accra, the city we’re going to is the largest city in Ghana with a population of almost 2 million people!  Just found out today too that our ship is actually porting in Tema which is a little North East of Accra of about 1 hr and nothing is really there worth exploring… which means that in order to actually explore off the ship we have to take the shuttle into Accra, which by the sounds of it is going to be somewhat of an inconvenience.  I believe the last shuttle runs at or maybe before midnight too, so if I want to stay out later than that it won’t be an option unless I find somewhere to crash for the night… but I’m thinking I’m gonna take it easy in Ghana, because to tell you the truth I’m getting pretty exhausted from all this traveling lol.  I’m also thinking that I’m going to do Ghana mostly by SAS trips, which is the complete opposite of what I’ve been doing, but I’m thinking a break of having to figure out travel plans will be nice before our last port, Brazil, where I’ll be traveling independently to Rio de Janeiro! Which will be a good last “hoo rah” before heading back to the US…

 

The first day in Ghana I think I’ll be heading into Accra with the girls to explore what it has to offer… maybe make up for some hiking that I wasn’t able to do in South Africa, but we’ll see. Don’t think we really have much of a plan for the day, which is okay, sometimes these turn into the best days!  The second day I’m doing a trip to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital for a class FDP. According to the description in the SAS Field Book, The World Health Organization has called attention to the abuse of the rights of the mentally ill in developing nations and specifically in Ghana, there has been a major effort to reform the system to protect the rights of patients while offering care. Here we’ll be able to observe such severely mentally ill patients in the hospital setting. Should be very interesting I think!

 

The third day, at the moment, I don’t have finalized plans for, but I’m gonna try to get on the Ananse Kwae trip, which consists of participating in a sustainable development project by planting seedlings in this tropical forest preservation in Mampong, in the beautiful scenic hills North East of Accra, apparently.  I guess we’ll be able to work side by side with Ghanaian university students. We’ll also be able to visit the Aburi Botanical Gardens, a “must see” in Ghana! Pretty much my game plan is to go to the buses in the morning to see if they have room… so I’m hoping they will!!! Don’t think I’m gonna make other plans lol, but I know of a lot of people that have been successful in doing this, so I have my fingers crossed! The fourth, and last day, I’m going to the village of Torgorme, which is located on the Volta River.  Here we’ll be immersed in the culture and will be participating in a naming ceremony in which we’ll all be given an African name, which I think is gonna be pretty neat! Our day is packed with pottery-making or weaving sessions and a tour through the Shai Hills Game Reserve, where we’ll be able to see a variety of different animals from antelope, monkeys and birds! Last but not least we get to visit some caves which we’ll be able to learn about the artifacts that have been found at the site and if we’re lucky we’ll be able to see bats too! I’m so pumped for this trip haha!!! I hope SAS won’t let me down!

 

1… more… month… :) <3 The countdown begins…

love at first sight

No lie, I have fallen in love with South Africa.  It has been the most amazing overall port that I’ve been to on this trip… I know I usually say something like this after each port I go to, but hands down there is no question that South Africa is the best.  It’s just so gorgeous here and so rich in culture. I knew from the second we were pulling into Cape Town, viewing the sun rising over Table Mountain, that my next 5 days in South Africa were gonna be unforgettable.  I absolutely will come back to this country if given the opportunity again in the future, no hesitation.  I just learned and experienced so much and on all ends of the spectrum.

 

The port area, where our ship was docked, was just breathtaking.  It reminded me a lot of San Francisco for some reason though… Fisherman’s Wharf. Probably because it was touristy, but none the less, it was gorgeous. Just walking around the area was an adventure and good time within itself. Walking around with a beer or bottle of wine window shopping and floating from one street performance to the next became a favorite.  Did this both the first and last days in port. So the first day in the afternoon I went on a SAS trip to the Khayelitsha township, the biggest township in all of South Africa. If I hadn’t been prepared for what I was gonna see prior to going here I would have been so shocked.  I don’t think it is as bad as what I saw in India, but it was still pretty bad.  Just miles upon miles of tin shacks… beyond where the eyes can see actually.  These areas are where the black people, or at least most of them live.  It just completely baffled me of how the scenery changed so dramatically from where I had been in the heart of Cape Town, which was almost luxurious. Although apartheid has been over for almost 20 years there is still a lot of separation among whites and blacks. Granted things have changed for the better 10 fold, there is still a lot of recovering to be done, which was obvious in these townships. Pretty much all of them have running, clean water and electricity now, but their living situation overall isn’t the greatest or safest way to live.  When we were in the township we got to visit a couple B&Bs and play with kids on the streets. It just amazed me… everything about it.  Everyone just appeared so happy although with how poor they were living, just keeps adding on to my vow of never taking anything for granted in my life ever again.

 

I got to visit another township on the second day, where the Amy Biehl Foundation is located.  Not sure if you’ve heard of this, so I’ll give a little background.  This young woman, Amy Biehl, was murdered in Cape Town during the end of apartheid.  She was an American student with a passion for Black South African rights and had spent a great deal of time in the country fighting for what she believed in. After Amy’s murder her parents set out to Cape Town to finish what Amy had started.  They established the Amy Biehl Foundation which now provides facilities and activities for over thousands of street children in the townships. It’s absolutely incredible and Amy’s story is just so heart wrenching and moving.  It’s also very powerful and controversial because a couple of Amy’s killers were released from jail, with the help of Amy’s parents actually, to give them a second chance and turn their lives around.  Two of Amy’s killers, to this day actually work for the Amy Biehl Foundation. It’s a story about not only forgiveness, but reconciliation, something that was very difficult for me to grasp, because honestly why would you want to help the killers of your own daughter? It’s twisted, but is considered one of South Africa’s love stories, because it made a difference and forever changed South Africa for the better. I got to meet the killers too… it’s something I’ll never forget.

 

Later that night a group of girlfriends and I set out to Stellenbosch, where all the fun began!!! :) I seriously had such a great time here and it was also one of the most quaint, but lively towns I’ve ever been to in my life! We stayed at this hostel called Stumble Inn and let me just say that we kinda “stumbled in” the nights we were there haha if you know what I mean, just SO much fun, no really other way to say it. The nightlife was great, the people were great, everything about it was just GREAT! Oh yeah and by the way, Stellenbosch is wine country… we really wanted to do this tour through all the vineyards and just go wine tasting all day but the day we were gonna do it was Good Friday. Obviously this didn’t appear to us, because I honestly forget what day it even is on this trip haha, so pretty much everything was closed except for this one place called Spier.  It did have some wine tasting there as well as cheetahs! It was pretty neat. We all got our faces painted and just had a relaxing afternoon, drinking wine and enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. No complaints!! Our second night there we met Chantelle who was our age and our waitress at this restaurant we ate at.  She met up with us after her shift got off and came out to party with us… we had such a fun time, she was really cool! Now I’ll definitely have a place to crash if (actually WHEN) I ever come back lol.

 

Fourth day in South Africa we spent traveling along the coast to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point in the inhabited world!!! How cool is that!? I got to go here! This is also where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet which was cool to see, because the current just completely changes. It’s nuts and there’s actually a law that ships need to be at least 10 miles off the coast to pass it because it’s so dangerous.  This area was prone to tons of shipwrecks back in the days of exploring. Along the way we got to witness some of the most breathtaking views and ran into penguins at Boulder Beach and baboons running across the street haha! No lie. It was crazy. You literally go not even a mile down the road from where penguins live to wild baboons roaming the streets and beaches lol, I was absolutely loving it!! So like I said before we got to go to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope which were both in Table Mountain National Park and at the southern most point you can walk up to this giant lighthouse the sits on this cliff overlooking the ocean.  We obviously hiked up this and words just can’t describe what I saw, it was just THAT unbelievable.  Such an amazing experience! By the way this whole time we had hired this taxi driver Hangif (I think that’s how you spell it) who drove us around all day… he was a peach and we had a fun time with him, he definitely hooked us up!! We went to the Jazz Festival later that night when we arrived back in Cape Town which was incredible!! So glad I had gotten tickets. Don’t know if I’m necessarily that much into jazz, but I had a lot of fun. Lots of dancing, great music and just great company.

 

Woke up early this morning to use internet and Skype the boy which I pretty much did for a good deal of the day lol. It was great.  I was such a bum all day, but didn’t really care because I been on the go for a few days. I was planning on hiking Table Mountain, which was definitely one of my goals to accomplish in South Africa but actually didn’t end up doing it, because no one was interested in doing it with me and hiking alone would have been stupid, because I know better than to do that especially Table Mountain not being an easy climb.  Thought about taking the cable car up at least, because there are shops and restaurants and what not at the top, but because it was so windy, it was shut down.  Such a bummer. Table Mountain, just from looking at it from a distance is just remarkable, especially with its “tablecloth” of clouds that hovers over it (which you can see in the picture I posted).  Actually was introduced to my new favorite beer today too… this cider beer called Hunter’s Dry. Seriously the greatest tasting beer I’ve ever had. I was told it can also be found in the states which just made me so happy, especially with my 21^st birthday coming up and all when I get back in May!!! So if any of you happen to come across any Hunter’s Dry at any point… (hint, hint, cough, cough) you should probably get it haha.

 

Today was a really good day, but so were all the others here in South Africa. Like I said, I have completely fallen in love and am dying to come back and I barely just left!!! Now we’re cooped back up on the ship for 6 days then we’ll be in Ghana.  Looking forward to Ghana though, but am hoping it’s fairly inexpensive because I spent a lot of money in South Africa, definitely more than I had budgeted. No regrets though!

 

Oh and 1 more month until I’m finally home… man has the time flown!! Hope you all enjoyed the pics!

South Africa pics!

ENJOY! :)


view of Table Mountain from the ship


Bekah, Alyssa & I!


Andrea and I :)


the crew at the Jazz Festival


sunset in Cape Town <3


Cape of Good Hope... southern most point in the inhabited world!


beach in Table Mountain National Park


BABOON!!! LOL (just sitting in the middle of the road)


PENGUIN!!! Haha (at Boulder Beach)


overview of a town we passed by... so gorgeous.


getting my face painted at Spier!


the girls! wine tasting in Stellenbosch :)


Abbey and I, back seat of our taxi haha


boys at the Amy Biehl Foundation


continuing the goal of getting a mojito in every port lol


sunrise approaching Cape Town on the ship...

Gonna update about my adventures later today, so check back!

how lucky am I?

So this is what I woke up to this morning… not bad. My second sunrise on the ship and this time it wasn’t by mistake (because I forgot to set the clocks back) haha :P

We’re only 6 hours ahead now from back home; we’re getting so close, it’s exciting!

Btw, we can see Africa from our ship! 2 more days!! Pretty psyched.

I’m ready for it.

AHA<3

sooo pumped.

I am looking forward to South Africa very much… I have a feeling it’s going to be one of the best ports yet, although every port so far has been amazing in its own unique and different ways.  We’ll be in Cape Town, South Africa in 4 days and will be there for 5!! The picture posted is the view of Cape Town from the top of Table Mountain.

 

Here’s what I’m planning on doing:

1^st day, Mar. 31—I’m going on a SAS trip to the Khayelitsha township. It’s going to be another eye-opening experience for sure, because the impression from the outside is fairly grim—many shacks line the outskirts and give no indication of the vibrant culture found within (taken out of the SAS field guide book). We’ll be visiting many places within the community to see the recent developments within the township. My roommate, Molly’s 21^st birthday is Apr. 1^st, so we’ll most likely be celebrating that night in Cape Town!

2^nd day, Apr. 1—I’ll be going on another SAS trip to I believe the same township, but a different part of it to the Amy Biehl Foundation Trust, which was established by Amy Biehl who was a young American Scholar who helped in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. We spend the entire day there and get to tour the various facilities and programs within the township that are run by this foundation. Later that night a group of girlfriends (Abby, Abigail, Jenna, Andrea) and I will be staying at an Inn in Stellenbosch, where the wine lands are located.

3^rd day, Apr. 2—We’ll be going on a bike tour through the wine lands where we’ll be able to wine taste all day :) We may stay another night at the Inn, or head back to Cape Town and stay on the ship.

4^th day, Apr. 3—Depending on where we stay the night before we’ll either explore Stellenbosch some more, or Cape Town; sometimes not having a plan is the best way to go! Later that night we’ll be going to the Jazz Festival in Grahamstown, which is the world’s second-largest single cultural festival, attracting performers from not only South Africa, but the entire world!  The festival attracts an audience of over 140,000 people… so it’s gonna be a great time!!

5^th day, Apr. 4—Today we are planning on hiking Table Mountain and exploring more of Cape Town, then our ship leaves that night.

 

The day after South Africa I’ll be porting back in the US, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in a month!!! Crazy. I can’t believe how fast this whole trip is unfolding… it still seems so unreal to me that I’ve traveled to 5 other countries (Japan, China, Viet Nam, India & Mauritius) already.  The sad part of it all is that they are slowly slipping away, which generally happens after you visit anywhere and leave it.  Thank God I have thousands (literally) of pictures, as well as this blog and my journal I’ve been keeping.  Who knows if I’ll be able to re-visit the places that I’ve been, but I’ll always have something to remember them if I happen to have difficulty re-calling what I did in the future.  As I’ve exclaimed before, I feel so lucky and blessed that I had the opportunity to do this.  Through all the ups, such as seeing and experiencing different cultures first-hand and all the downs, like missing home, friends, family and Anders, it’s all been worth it.  I’ve become a better person because of all this and the memories and experiences that I have been able to create are gonna stick with me forever…

 

I am forever changed.

paradise babyyy

The one word that comes to mind when I think about Mauritius is: paradise.  Definitely the most tropical place I’ve ever been to, but then again I’ve only been to a few haha. I am so bummed that we only had a day and a half to spend there… I didn’t wanna leave! When we pulled into Port Louis though yesterday it was raining!!! I was really bummed about that too, but it eventually subsided and actually was kinda nice when it sprinkled throughout the day, because it was hot.  The weather though was a lot different than it was in India or Viet Nam. It was mostly dry heat without the humidity which was awesome and because of the rain there was a nice breeze; just perfect! A couple random facts I learned about Mauritius while I was there… it only takes an hour and a half max to get to anywhere from any point on the island.  That’s how small this island actually is! Also Mauritius gets about 900,000 tourists every year, but very few are Americans, which makes complete sense because of how far away it is and how much of a hassle it is to get there. I definitely wanna come back here though at some point… I definitely didn’t get to do all the things that I wanted. I just have nothing bad to say about Mauritius whatsoever.  If you ever have a chance to go, then go. Seriously!!! You’d be insane not to!

 

I had a pretty crazy time though; crazy as in it was kinda messed up haha but you’ll find out later, if you decide to read on… so as I mentioned before it was raining when we first pulled in and pretty much was cloudy with scattered showers the entire day. First thing I did when I got off the ship was actually go on a SAS trip to this adventure park where we got to zip line and maneuver through this challenge course that was set up in this forest, or jungle rather.  We got to go on everything from foot bridges to swinging logs to cargo nets and a short zip line.  It was so awesome and totally my cup of tea, I had a blast!!! I was kinda disappointed with the zip line though… hence the word “short.” It’s funny because the way the trip was advertised was that there was gonna be this long zip line through this jungle when it seriously only was 5 seconds long haha! Oh well. Just another thing to add back onto my list of things to do… here comes some bad news though: I got eaten alive… I am not exaggerating when I say that I had to have gotten over 100 mosquito bites on my legs mostly; really bad on the backs of my thighs.  I put so much bug spray on though so I was pretty baffled of how serious I got bitten. I was so pissed at myself though because I wore shorts, because it was hot out, but doing this kind of stuff before I know to wear at least three-quarter length pants. It was just awful… I got an allergic reaction to the bites or something, because my thighs swelled up like balloons. I would put a picture up of what they looked like, but then again I don’t wanna freak anyone out! Haha I’m doing SO MUCH better now, but let’s just say that I was not a happy camper for a while. Benadryl and anti-itch cream have become my new best friends.  I think I freaked everyone out on the second group that came right after us haha they were just so horrified when they saw my legs.  THANK GOD there is no risk of Malaria in Mauritius, because if there was, I would definitely have it.  Scary!!

 

After that crazy morning and afternoon I met up with some girlfriends and headed to the northern part of the island which is known as Grand Baie to meet up with more of our girlfriends! We had a fun time bar hopping and enjoying the night life and met up with a ton of kids from the ship… which is kinda what I wanted to avoid haha, especially when it’s the only people I see when we’re out at sea so when we’re actually in port I like to branch away. Whatever, we still had a fun time until we “lost” 2 of our friends.  We didn’t get too worried at first, because we figured we would eventually run into them at some point before we all headed back to the hotel.  First of all, these 2 friends of ours had the key to our hotel room… so a couple hours go by and we still haven’t seen them, so we begin to actually look for them and have no luck.  We figured maybe they had went back to the hotel to go to bed early or something, but we were wrong.  They were absolutely nowhere to be found and we were locked out of our room!!! It was miserable and to top it all off, for some reason there was no night staff at this hotel, but only these 2 security guards that were not helpful at all. Let’s just say that it was definitely not how I pictured my first and only night to be like in Mauritius haha. We had to crash on the couches in the lobby, but then again I didn’t sleep much because I was worried sick about our friends. They ended up showing up in the morning, which was a huge relief but still just very stressful. I’m just glad it’s over!!

 

We made up for the night by going out on this boat which took us offshore and we got to swim, see dolphins and snorkel around.  I felt like such a little kid because of how excited and entertained I was while I was out there lol especially when I saw the dolphin!  Definitely my first time actually seeing one that close. The girls I was with at this point, only 3 others, did this like underwater scooter scuba thing, which I was really looking forward to do, but it was also ridiculously expensive, but I still went on for the boat ride and got to just enjoy the last couple hours I had left of Mauritius.  I got to feed the zebra fish that surrounded the boat, it was so cool. Not only is Mauritius gorgeous on shore, it’s also gorgeous underwater… everything was just SO colorful!!

 

I would have liked my time in Mauritius to have gone over a little bit more smoothly, but honestly looking back on it now, I can’t help but to laugh… it’s definitely an experience and place that will be hard to forget! We left Port Louis a few hours ago and are now on our way to Cape Town, South Africa! SO excited… I think it’s gonna be one of the best ports overall, I have so much fun stuff planned!!! But, I’ll explain in better detail about my plans in my next entry… probably in a couple days! Have 6 days on the ship anyways until we actually port.

 

Enjoy the pictures, although there isn’t as many as usual, sorry about that!

Mauritius pics!

view from our ship before sunset


one word = paradise


view of the bay walking down Sunset Boulevard in Grand Baie


Abby, David, Me, Andrew & Jenna


The girls <3


Abby & I, in a taxi heading to Grand Baie :)


getting hyped up at the Adventure Park! haha