2010: best year yet!

2010 has started off to a GREAT start I’d say, being on this trip, traveling the world… what a little world traveler I’m becoming into… haha, who woulda known! But, it’s only gonna continue to get better when I return home, because  I’ll be turning 21 a week after I get back, will be in NYC to celebrate it, along with Anders and his family (whom I’m meeting for the first time), who are coming all the way from Norway for his graduation!!  THEN I’ll be going to Norway the end of May for a couple weeks… got my tickets booked as of today (thanks to my AMAZING boyfriend)! AHH :) I’m SOOO excited!!! So much to look forward to! And I still have a couple more months of exploring beforehand…

quotes

My mom got me this travel journal for Christmas to take with me on my trip and in it on every other page or so, there is a quote about traveling, seeing the world, etc.  Here are some I really like a lot:

 

“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.” –Jan Myrdal

“Life is a journey, and love is what makes that journey worthwhile.” –Unknown

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” –Samuel Johnson

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we would find it not.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” –Confucius                      

“It is good to have an end to journey towards: but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” –Ursula K. Le Guin

“Bless not only the road but the bumps on the road.  They are all part of the higher journey.” –Julia Cameron

 

But here is the best one I think…

 

“The world is a great book… they who never stir from home read only a page.” –St. Augustine

 

And btw, that picture above: that’s Nha Trang and that’s where I’m going to in a couple days!  Unreal.

the day after tomorrow

We don’t have much of a break once again in between countries, so really not much time to relax and process everything that we just experienced.  We’re going to be porting in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam the day after tomorrow, the 26^th… and we’re gonna be there for 5 days.  I have a lot of stuff planned, and this time around pretty much all SAS based.  The first day I’m going to the Cu Chi tunnels, which were created by the Viet Cong during the wars to launch strategic attacks, so I think those will be neat to see!! The next day, Saturday, I’ll be leaving for an overnight trip to Nha Trang, which I signed up for before coming onto the ship, before Christmas.  It’s a 3 day/2 night all inclusive trip where I’m going to be able to explore some of Viet Nam’s beautiful coastline and off-shore islands! Here’s kind of a brief outline on what I’ll be doing:

 

Sat. Feb. 27:  Depart Ho Chi Minh City Airport for 1 hr flight to Nha Trang.  Have a full-day city orientation, including Long Son Pagoda, the famous Cham Towers at Po Nagar, Hon Chong Rocks, the central market, Bao Dai Villas, Oceanographic Institute and a cultural show at night!

Sun. Feb. 28:  Full-day  boat trip around Nha Trang where we’ll be able to swim, explore the uninhabited islands and try seafood at a local village.  After dinner we have the night at our leisure to venture around!

Mon. Mar. 1:  Free time to explore again, before flying back to Ho Chi Minh City later that evening!! Which means for me, probably relaxing, tanning on the beach, maybe get a massage… haha

 

Then Tuesday, our last day in port, probably will just explore Ho Chi Minh City.  Shopping is going to be really great and cheap, but then again I’ve already bought lots of stuff!! I definitely want to get a dress tailored or something though… we’ll see! I’ll update more in a few days or so <3

Rio baby!!!

Although this is far in advance, but I figured out what I wanted to do in Brazil.  Since I got bumped from that Amazon riverboat trip, because so many people signed up for it, I got the money credited back to my account… so, I booked a roundtrip flight tonight to Rio de Janiero on April 21-24 with a few others! Was under $200 too, so pumped!!! Can’t wait :)

Hong Kong pics!

Here are some pics from HK...


Gondola ride we took, so cool


Biggest Buddha in the world!!!


Kitty! :)


Fishing village


White sandy beach!


Ryan, Mike, Me & Alex at Lantau Lake


Flower shot


Hong Kong skyline at night

goodbye China

Hope you guys all enjoyed the pictures I posted from Hong Kong, they took me absolutely forever to put up!  There’s free wifi in the mall which we’re docked next to, but it was so slow and lagging… but I managed to do it right before I had to board the ship!  We’re leaving tonight for Viet Nam… can’t believe China is over!!! Went by fast, but man was it a blast!!! I can’t believe how much I was able to see and experience… everything from Shanghai to Yangshuo and Hong Kong, just so awesome. Excited for Viet Nam, because of the heat and beaches though… which means total relaxation! Yay. I feel like I’m on a 3.5 month long vacation! Haha I’m loving every second of it :)

 

Last night was a lazy evening, just went to this cool market where I bought a few more gifts (surprise, surprise haha) and bought myself an Ed Hardy sweatshirt which I really wanted to get!  Shopping in China has been phenomenal… I was really happy about all my buys, especially because everything was pretty cheap.

 

So I definitely had my doubts about SAS trips, because of prior trips that I’ve been on, but today was so much fun!! They hooked us up for sure.  We went to Lantau Island, which is the largest outlying island of Hong Kong. First we went to a look-out point of Lantau Lake and crossed over the largest suspension bridge in the entire world, called Tsing Ma Bridge (which I forgot to put a picture of it up, oops!). It just reminded me of the Golden Gate Bridge (Nikki… you remember walking across that!? That was so cool).  Then we stopped at Sha Beach, a beautiful white sand beach… who knew that Hong Kong had beaches like that!!! Btw, it was a gorgeous day… sun shining, warm… at times I wish I hadn’t worn jeans and kept having to take off my sweatshirt.  I was loving it… especially after freezing in Japan and China lol.  Yeah I love the winter, I’m from NH, but also am growing accustom to this warm-weather-all-year-round concept haha.  After that we went to this really cool fishing village, called Tai O, where houses were all built on stilts… then traveled to Po Lin Monastery where we had yet another vegetarian lunch, which was very appetizing.  Got to see the largest outdoor bronze Buddha in the entire world too!!! It stands 26m high and looks over gorgeous scenery of the mountains and the bay.  The best part of all was be able to ride this cable car, or gondola, down the mountain and over the bay where we met our buses that would take us back to the ship!!! We were so high up.  Was kinda a little freaky, but just kept it mind that it was kinda like a ski lift… haha but like 100x more extreme!! I loved it though, the views from the ride were unbelievable!!!

 

So I’m back on the ship, which means back to work for a couple days!  I feel like I haven’t had classes in forever…  I have some work to catch up on, plus really need to start hitting up the gym again.  Lost my routine once we hit Japan because we barely were on the ship at all for like 2 weeks… ugh.  Need to start getting some good food back in my system too, which got all messed up in Japan and China, because half the time I didn’t know what I was eating! I’m just craving American food like crazy now, but know that it’ll probably only get worse, because of the next couple countries that we’re going to.  I’m also in desperate need to do laundry!!! I’m running out of clothes fast because the last time we got to do laundry was before Japan, which was over 2 weeks ago… my floor’s turn was supposed to be tomorrow, but apparently it got changed.  I’m praying it’ll be this week!

Yangshuo pics!

And here is Yangshuo :)


View from top of where I rocked climbed


Lisa & her puppy, Pepe!!!


One of my fav shots from the ride on the Li River


All of us at Monkey Jane's!


The view from one of the look-out points in town


Abby & I, about to go biking...


The crew!


Flowers Youth Hostel where we stayed at

Shanghai pics!

Ok, so here are some of my favs from Shanghai...


This was the view from Cloud 9, 87th floor of the Hyatt


Nanjing Street!


Me, Snookie & Bekah out at Soho!


View of the harbor at night, so cool!


Me & the Buddha in one of the gardens at the Water Village


Boats we took through the Water Village


Zujiajiao Water Village!

words cannot describe...

So far, Yangshuo has been the most amazing place I’ve been to so far on this trip, and maybe even the most amazing place EVER! It’s so hard to describe exactly how I was feeling and exactly what I was seeing… all I know is that is that I thought I was in a fairytale.  The landscape and scenery of this place is just so out of the this world!!! Everything from the limestone peaks, the Li River, the water buffalo, the off-road villages, the town itself… absolutely everything.  Some parts of it were really dirty though and poor, but people in general just seemed so happy to be living there.  Who could blame them though… the live in one of the most  gorgeous places in the world! I will be posting some pictures up later tonight, so you guys can get a little taste of what I experienced the last four days.  But let me continue on from my last entry…

 

That second night at the hostel we decided to bum around because we were all pretty exhausted from a day of biking.  Glad we did, because we ended up meeting Lawrence and Eunji, a couple from Hong Kong.  Eunji was Korean and Lawrence was Dutch, such a cute couple!!! So glad we decided to stay at a hostel because it’s cool to bump into people from all the world and to hear their stories! They decided to join us in the morning where we explored around town, went to a cool look-out point and ate lunch at the Pure Lotus, a vegetarian restaurant that Lawrence and Eunji had recommended!  I’m no vegetarian, but that meal was definitely up in my top 5 best meals ever!!! It was just so good… after lunch we walked around a different side of town, which had a lot more shops and vendors we hadn’t seen before.  Also got to try straight-up sugarcane which was pretty interesting… and while browsing through that side of town we actually ended up bumping into the Li River where we wanted to do that bamboo raft tour.  We ended up doing a riverboat tour instead which was absolutely… unbelievable.  Again, words can’t describe.  We had this guide take us down a part of the river where we enjoyed the most breathtaking views and saw grazing water buffalo along the shore, fisherman fishing for beer fish and famers tending to their fields and animals.  We stopped at the village of Luli Linsia (I think that’s how you spell it) where we were greeted by some of the locals and got to walk around for a little bit.  Here is where we met the cutest little puppy EVER who became almost like a little tour guide as it kept checking behind to see if we were still following her… met her owner, Lisa (her English  name at least, don’t remember her Chinese name), who was the most precious girl I’ve ever met!!! She was only a few years younger than us, but she completely melted my heart.  It was so hard to say goodbye to her when we had to leave and not gonna lie, but I teared up a little.  Just hearing a little about her life was just so moving.  It amazes me how people live so simply and off the little  resources that are available to them.  Just blows my mind, but is so interesting to me.  Definitely gives me a different perspective on so many things about life in general, especially after being able to see experience them up close and personal.  While our boat was pulling away from shore I threw the girl a couple of my bead bracelets… I wanted her to have something to remember me :) It was definitely a  moment that I’ll never forget for the rest of my life…

 

So later that night we met up with some other SAS students who were also in Yangshuo at this bar called Monkey Jane’s.  It was so cool and such a fun time!!! Since Yangshuo is considered a backpacker’s paradise there are a lot of foreigners scattered throughout, if you know where to look lol Monkey Jane’s was one of these places!  We met a lot of people from all over… England, Australia (Jayyy!), Germany, Finland (Riika!), the list goes on.  Everyone here on different agendas, but all here to have fun!!! We all had a blast walking through town together, hitting up a club and eating good local food! It was another long night, but definitely worth every second of it!!! A few of us out of my group, Laura, Abby and I went rock climbing early in the morning with Lawrence, Eunji and some other SAS students.  They met a guy, Craig who is originally from Canada, who has been climbing for over 30 years and has been living in Yangshuo for the past year or so, just doing what he does best, climb!!! Such a life.  I definitely wouldn’t mind being a climbing bum hahaha life is just so simple!!! Anyways, so he brought us to this hot spot in Yangshuo and let us use his equipment and everything! It was so much fun, definitely up my alley! Haha, I hadn’t rock climbed in a while though, so I was pretty exhausted after one climb, but it was more than enough.  The views were amazing and the work out was awesome! After climbing a bunch of us ate at the Pure Lotus again… even better than the first time!!! Just such a good restaurant overall.

 

We left Yangshuo later that night, took a sleeper bus to Chenzen, or Shenzen, however you spell it haha! Let me tell you… this was definitely the most ridiculous experience I’ve ever had in my entire life… like some kind of a sick joke!!! Hahaha, I had no clue what a “sleeper” bus looked at, but I figured that it would be fairly large, because they would have beds in them… well, the bus was definitely smaller than a large coach bus (I’m sure you all know what those are) and the layout was just insane.  There were 3 rows of bunk beds I guess you could call them, stretching from behind the driver’s seat all the way to the very back.  The aisles in between the beds were so narrow that you almost had to turn to the side to walk down them… I was on one of the top bunks, in the middle. And the beds were like the width of my body laying flat down on my back and when you stretched your legs all the way out (which actually went into this cubby-like compartment, like under the person’s ahead in front of you) your toes still kinda curled.  I’m not even that tall either… I can’t imagine how some of these people managed who were inches taller and wider than me… guess they may be used to it!?? Who the hells knows.  All I know is that it was the most uncomfortable night sleep of my life and I have never felt to grimy and disgusting waking up the next morning.  It was just 12 painful hours of awful haha (with no bathroom btw!!), but definitely an experience I’ll never forget as well!

 

Now I’m in Hong Kong, which was another adventure trying to find this morning… haha, our ship happens to be like on the OTHER side of Hong Kong lol.  Haven’t done much of anything all day, because I’ve just been too tired to go explore, which is weird for me to say, usually I always want to explore, and sleep later, but it’s all starting to catch up with me.  Just took advantage of the free wifi in the mall, located conviently right outside where our ship is docked!  After dinner though I’ll go venture… heard Hong Kong was cool at night!  We’ll see!  Tomorrow will be going to Lantau Island to see a Buddhist monastery and the big Buddha! I’ve been disappointed with SAS trips so far, but I’m hoping it’ll turn out good, but definitely will be relaxing since everything is just all organized for us!

 

We leave Hong Kong tomorrow night and only have 2 days at sea before we port in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam.  Crazy, right??

taste of the countryside.

Alright, so our flight to Guilin went smoothly.  It was only 2 hours and they served us a full box meal, strange. There was also a screaming baby on the plane which made the flight seem longer than it really was... haha, don't get me wrong, I adore babies, just not when they're screaming on a plane, kinda stresses me out!! Anyways... we got to Guilin right before dark and caught a bus that took us right to Yangshuo, which was another hour and a half of traveling.  The drivers in both of these towns are absolutely ridiculous!!! I guess they are the craziest drivers in all of China and I could see why! I've never felt so unsafe on a bus in my entire life! The yellow line is invisible to them because they seem to choose what side of the road they drive on anyways, regardless.  To top it all off, there are also tons of people, bicycles and mopeds all added into the mix... not pretty! I have never heard so much honking and seen so much chaos ever!!! I have a feeling that India is going to be so much worse than this too... lovely.  Once we arrived safely in Yangshuo, it was nothing like I had envisioned... I didn't know that it was going to be full of food vendors and shops on both sides of a main strip street... thought it was going to be more rural, but we also arrived at night so couldn't see any of the limestone peaks that Yangshuo is famous for.  We happened to get dropped off right near the hostel where we wanted to stay at, Flowers Youth Hostel.  Btw, such a cool place!!! So we checked in, and got settled in slowly... we had a lot of issues haha! Ok so there's a group of 7 of us (Me, Gabe, Brittany, Mike, Laura, Abby and Jenna) and half of the keys that were given to us broke in the lock in the doors, our toilet seat broke and our room's light didn't work, so we had to get this repairman to fix it lol.  AND we're on the 6th floor, so lucky us we get to have a work out every time we go to and leave the room.  Also we have the most rickety bunk beds I've ever been in... all night I was worried that my bed was gonna cave in (I was on one of the top ones).  After all that mess we finally went to find food.  The 2 boys we were with split off to eat some of the local vendor food, they were feeling adventurous I guess, while us 5 girls found a little local sit-down restaurant.  Well, first none of the menu was in English and what Laura and I ordered was questionable.  We got some kind of pork first which wasn't that bad, but the second thing we ordered was so awful it made us sick to our stomachs!  My stomach wasn't feeling the greatest for the rest of the night after that.  I don't think I've ever craved American food so much in my entire life!!! We were all pretty tired from the day's worth of traveling so we decided to just chill at the hostel and went to bed early. 

This morning everyone wanted to wake up at 6:45 in the morning to get a good head start on the day... that never happened!!! I was up early and Skyped Anders for a little bit, was happy about that! We didn't end up leaving the hostel until after 9:30 in the morning.  We rented bikes for the day for only 20 RMB, which is only like $3... so cheap.  We were lucky because the weather was AWESOME!  Sunny, and breezy, not too cold.  It was the most gorgeous bike ride I've ever been on... my butt hurts so much though, because we rode around for a good 4 hours or so, plus the bike wasn't the greatest bike, or most comfortable bike I've ever been on.  It was so worth it though!!! Riding through the countryside was phenomenal... seeing the limestone peaks surrounding us, fields after fields and small remote villages... ah, it was great!!! Words can't describe... for some reason Blogspot doesn't work in China, neither does Facebook, so I won't be able to post any pictures up this time around until later unfortunately.  We pretty much just biked out of town into the "sticks" and turned off down random dirt roads that led into villages full of curious people who said hi to us as we passed them... got to hang out with a few kids our age for a bit as we watched them wash their clothes in the river... so neat. After we found a wide open field surrounded by towering rocky peaks, which we attempted to climb and just enjoyed the view.  It was just so incredible...

A few of us decided to head back after bumping into an interesting looking cemetery where we lied in the grass for a little bit.  After returning our bikes, I bought a few more souvenirs and gifts and ran into a local who spoke English who works for a bamboo rafting company, so we might look into it for tomorrow.  He also gave us Chinese names, forget how to spell it though lol.  Laura and I bought our bus tickets to Chenzen which will lead us to Hong Kong, Sunday night into Monday morning (a sleeper bus).  Now we're all back at the hostel, cleaning up, drinking wine and eating dinner, and seeing where the night may lead us! :)  Probably going to check out this light show tomorrow night, which is supposed to be the biggest in the world... so glad we changed our plans to come here!!!

so long Shanghai!

So where to start!? The first day I went on that Zujiajiao Water Village tour which was really neat!  It’s supposedly called the Venice of the East and was just how I had envisioned it… small gondola like boats would bring you down a part of this narrow canal that snaked through a small remote village where people live and where small trinket shops and food vendors were all over!  There is where I tested out my bartering skills and succeeded!  Got a few souvenirs and gifts for people back home :)  Later that night a few of us found this bar called Soho, where it was only 60 yuan (which is only around $10) for a bracelet which allowed us unlimited drinks for the entire night!  We had a blast!!! The set-up of the bar was so cool, flashing lights everywhere, performers and Western hip hop mostly so we all knew the lyrics! We danced the night away and didn’t get back to the ship until early in the morning.  Shanghai is such a cool city!!! I guess it’s ranked in the top 10 most populated cities in the entire world and I definitely could see why after walking around for the last couple days… I’ve found that Chinese and Japanese people are very different though.  To me, I found that the Chinese people who I interacted with were not as outgoing as Japanese people and were very demanding and somewhat forceful in the markets!!! It didn’t help being American either, because it was like we had a bulls-eye on our foreheads screaming tourists! They don’t like to accept no for an answer that’s for sure!!! I couldn’t walk past a shop without someone on my back saying “Lady, lady, buy watch? But purse?” etc… haha and they didn’t like if you went into a shop and didn’t buy anything either, it was ridiculous.  Spent a decent amount though on souvenirs and gifts again, because everything was super cheap!!! Didn’t buy anything really at their asking prices either… I did a pretty good job at bartering for the amount that I wanted to pay for!

 

I noticed that China is also a lot more dirtier than Japan too… and people drive like maniacs!!! I guess the cars have the right of way, so they don’t stop for pedestrians whatsoever.  It was surprising to me how nonchalant people were with crossing the streets, it was like they didn’t even care if they got hit or something!  The subway systems were different too in the sense that although it was just as crowded, it was way more chaotic, nothing like Tokyo, where although it is the biggest subway system in the world, people are very orderly. For instance people would line up in perfect rows to wait and would rarely speak on the subway at all!  It’s just been a very different experience, but it’s been interesting to be able to compare and contrast them.

 

The second day Helen and I went off together and it was quite the adventure!  First off, none of the taxi drivers speak any English whatsoever and when we tried to explain to one of them that we wanted to go to this underground market (which I talked a little about above), we were trying to describe it and what not… colorful, lots of people, shops, etc.  Well, the taxi took us to a colorful market alright, but it was a SUPERMARKET!!! Hahaha, he also had driven us way out of town and the place, we came to find out later after stopping at a hotel to ask, was like a 45 minute drive from where we were! We ended up finding the metro and arrived at the market eventually, but man was that an adventure! After the market we also ventured to People’s Park and Nanjing Street which is well known for its endless boutiques and department stores… just overall craziness.  And being the Chinese New Year, just extremely crowded overall!  Last night we ventured to the other side of the river where all the cool buildings are, which are amazing at nighttime, because they are all lit up and flashing… we ended up going to the 87^th floor of the Hyatt Shanghai Hotel, ritzy hotel, to this bar called Cloud 9.  There we each treated ourselves to a drink, it was pretty pricey, and just enjoyed the view of the Shanghai skyline! This bar was completely surrounded by glass windows so we got to see the most incredible panorama view I’ve ever seen. Where we were sitting we could see the Shanghai Tower, which is the coolest looking building I’ve ever seen too… I’ll have to post a picture up soon to show you guys!!! We could also see our ship on the other side of the river, which was pretty cool. Shanghai is definitely one of the coolest cities I’ve been too, but I can’t wait to see more of China now…

 

In an hour or so a group of us will be traveling to the airport, because we’re going to Guilin!!! It’s a 2 hour flight from Shanghai, so we will be arriving around 3pm today.  I am SO excited for this place… it’s gonna be amazing, and heard it was gonna be a little warmer too. I can’t wait!!! I’ll be bringing my laptop… so stay tuned :)

 

CHANGE OF PLANS!!

Alright… sooo only a couple hours ago, out of complete spontaneity I changed my plans for China!!! The group of us going are Helen, Laura, Gabe and I!  We arrive in Shanghai tomorrow morning around 8am, but probably won’t be able to get off the ship for at least a couple hours, unfortunately, because we have to go through customs and what not.  Laura and I are going to find an internet café then I have a SAS trip from 2-7pm, Zujiajiao Water Village.  My mom and sister went on the same trip when they were in Shanghai last summer, so they recommended it!  We’ll stay on the ship that night and all day on the 17^th we’re gonna check out all the shopping… Nanjing Street, the Bund, Pearl Plaza, etc.  Can’t wait for that! We’ll stay on the ship again that night and then we gotta figure out where the airport is on the 18^th because we booked a flight to Guilin (look up on a map).  It’s about a 2 hour flight and was only $100!!! Such a deal… our flight leaves Shanghai at 12:55pm and should be arriving in Guilin at 3pm.  Once we’re there I think we’re gonna check out some cool caves then stay the night in a hostel. On the 19^th we’re gonna take a river boat over to Yangshuo which is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in a book haha! It’s known for its limestone peaks and breathtaking scenery… pretty much a backpacker’s paradise.  It has a western vibe to it and lots of foreign travelers are drawn to it.  A lot of Chinese landscape paintings are based on views of Yangshuo, it’s gorgeous!!! Hope it looks as good in person as it does in a book lol.  But anyways, we’re planning on staying in a hostel the 19^th and 20^th there and one day there we’ll probably rent bikes and explore and another day maybe do some hiking, or climbing.  It’s gonna be SUCH a breath of fresh air, especially after the craziness of traveling all over Japan.  It won’t be nearly as expensive as Japan either.  The morning of the 21^th we’ll head back to Guilin where we’ll catch a train to Shenzhen which we can then travel through the subway system to Hong Kong!!! Don’t have any solid plans in Hong Kong the entire day of the 22nd yet, but on the 23^rd, the final day we’re in port, I’m going on another SAS trip to Lantau Island to see a Buddhist monastery. There will be lots of free wifi in pretty much all the places I’m going, so I’m most likely going to travel with my laptop and be able to post pictures again!  Might even try to upload all my photos so far to a site, like Snap Fish, so I can put up a link on my blog and Facebook! We’ll see :)

purple people eaters!

So a tradition on Semester At Sea are the Sea Olympics, which I thought would be appropriate to talk about since the actual Olympics are happening right now! Wish we could watch those btw… all I have are CNN updates online, which we can view for free.  Can’t believe that guy from Georgia died in the luge… what a tragic way to start off the Olympics!  Anyways, so the teams on the ship are broken up into the seas, or floors that we live on.  My sea is the Caribbean, and I’m one of the captains!! Our LLC, or RA I guess you could call him, elected me to do it because he knew I’d be able to pump people up about it.  So our team color is purple and our team name is the purple people eaters!!! Hahaha so hilarious… so the Sea Olympics are in between Viet Nam and India, so they are coming up soon!!! Tonight we had a sea meeting where I had everyone sign up for the events they wanted to do… there are some pretty funny ones, like synchronized swimming and lip sync (our song is “Eye of the Tiger”) and traditional relay race events like tug-of-war and spin the bat.  We have to come up with our own cheer/chant and create a flag/banner which will be displayed in one of the main areas of the ship.  I think I signed up for Sea Fued, which will be like Family Fued and world cup of crab soccer… which should be interesting haha!  In China, Helen and I are gonna try to find a lot of purple paint and maybe some purple fabric so that we can go all out when the day comes… I’m all about winning this whole thing, because the prize is getting off the ship first in Florida!  I can’t believe it has already been a month since I left the East Coast.  China in 2 days! Woooo :)

 

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone<3

China bound!

Just a couple hours ago we left Kobe and will be arriving in Shanghai in less than 3 days! Ahh, I’m super exhausted from traveling in Japan, but really excited to see China.  We’re gonna have 8 full days there… the plan is to have 2 full days in Shanghai, an afternoon in Suzhou, 1 full day in Wuhan, 1 full day in Guangzhou, possibly still 1 full day in Macau and 2 full days in Hong Kong!! It’s gonna be an adventure that’s for sure, but think I’m more ready for it this time around… especially after picking up some cheap gloves and a hat in Japan lol!  Don’t know if it’ll be as cold as the places I went to in Japan, but it’ll definitely still be cold! 

 

Yesterday at Hiroshima we arrived just in time for the last call of people to be let into the Peace Memorial Museum.  We only had a half hour to walk around the entire museum, which was pretty big, so it was kind of a disappointment, but I guess we were lucky to have gotten into it at all.  From the half hour of the museum I saw, it was moving and heart wrenching.  It reminded me of how I felt years ago, back in high school, when I went to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC.  I couldn’t bear to look at some of these pictures and artifacts from the bombing, or take pictures of some things for that matter. I felt sick in my stomach at times because of the things I saw, but I was glad that I saw them.  It definitely was a must see in Japan.  We also walked around the park for a bit too where the Dome Memorial is located, the exact location above where the bomb went off.  Amazing how any of it is even still standing…

 

After, we found an outdoor mall which we browsed through until we decided to head to Kobe to meet up with the ship, last night.  This morning after I woke up I decided to walk downtown where I found wireless internet.  I think if I have more time in China I’m going to try and upload my photos onto Snap Fish, or something, so you all can see the pictures I’ve taken so far, which is around 700!!! With SAS I went to a tea ceremony in Kyoto for the rest of the afternoon which was a neat experience and I learned a lot!

 

Just watched Surf’s Up on the TV in our cabin… good stuff.  Back to class tomorrow!

pictures like I promised!

Hiroshima dome memorial


Fire ceremony at the monastery


Helen & I toasting our sake in the Buddhist monastery!


One of the many mountains views on our to Koyasan...


At our capsule hotel...lol


The gang! :)


Shibuya crossing, Tokyo!


Me owning at karaoke in Yokohama! Haha


Me, Sheila, Helen & Molly at a shop in China Town

There's HUNDREDS more where these came from... haha, these are just a few of my favs!

what an unforgettable night.

So as you all know I stayed at this Buddhist monastery last night up in the mountains and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had!!! It was freezing though... haha I definitely was NOT prepared for this kind of weather, but I'm managing! This morning we were woken up by the monks and got to participate in a traditional Buddhist praying session and got to watch a fire ceremony... so powerful!!! Tomorrow I'll try to post some pictures of this too, just gotta find an internet cafe first! This town is so amazing... after we check out Helen, Molly and I are going to branch off from our group and walk through this cemetary that is famous here then check out some of the cool little shops along the main strip, then catch the cable car back down the mountain to meet the train to head to Hiroshima. It's gonna be another long day of traveling, but it'll give us some time to rest on the train at least. If we have time we might try to stop in Nara before we head back to meet up with our ship tonight... keep reading!

Konnichiwa!

Ok... wow, there's a lot for me to catch up on!!! I'm gonna try my best to go into as much detail as I possible can, but seriously, I've never done so many things in the span of 3 days in my entire life!!! Bear with me...

So the first day, the 9th, I stayed around Yokohama. Right when I got off the ship I had to find a travel agency, because I've been trying to book trains for China a little ahead of time, because we'll be there traveling next and it's the Chinese New Year so it'll be crazy busy, but the travel agent of course didn't speak any English whatsoever... go figure. Found an internet cafe after that to see if I could book the tickets online instead, but failure again!!! I really hope we'll be okay when we get there, because my group and I have already passed in papers saying we won't be back on the ship between Shanghai and Hong Kong. Just praying things will work out somehow... but anyways, later that afternoon we checked out China Town which was really cool, just picture any other China Town you've ever been to in major cities in the US, but bigger and better!!! Haha. Just endless stores and vendors and lots of traditional decorations and lights. After that I went back to the ship, met up with some more friends and headed back downtown to find a karaoke bar hahaha which we were succesfull in doing so... they are everywhere!!! It was out of control... such a fun night!!! There were 6 of us and we got to have our own private room, it was such an amazing way to spend our first night in Japan! Didn't get back to the ship 'til early in the morning, barely got any sleep, yada, yada, yada.

Second day woke up really early and headed right to Tokyo! Our mission was to find the fish market, which we did after hours of searching haha!! It was quite the adventure. There we got to have a traditional Japanese lunch with sushi, miso soup and green tea, amoung many other things. After that we took a riverboat to "old" Tokyo where we ran into a huge outdoor market and Buddhist shrine. That took us a couple hours to walk completely through then finally for what we all had been waiting for all day, we headed to Shibuya crossing which is at the heart of downtown Tokyo, like Times Square in NYC. Words can't even describe how crazy and how amazing this was! We did some more walking, window shopping, food tasting, pretty much what we did all day LOL. I'm gonna try to put a few pictures up in a couple days so I can show you guys. After a couple hours of exploring we went on yet another adventure to find our hotel. At this point we pretty much have figured out the Tokyo subway system, well sorta haha, which is the biggest subway system in the ENTIRE world. CRAZINESS is the only way to describe it... I've never seen so many people in my entire life in one place. A great example: the bus we took to get to Tokyo in the beginning of the day was an experience I'll never forget. Let's just say that I felt like a fly squished up againist a window, which is how crowded it was. There was a guy pretty much designated to cram and push people into the tain until there was absolutely no more room... So, the hotel we stayed at was actually one of those capsule inns, where you have your own cubicle space pretty much as your room. It was surprisingly comfortable! They also had these public hot baths where I soaked in before I went to bed... it was definitely needed. I have never been so sore in my entire life from walking around all day...

The people here are really funny and quite comical because it seems like most of them have never seen actual Americans before, so we got stopped a lot on the streets to get our pictures taken and talked too, but again, no English... haha. It was great! Every single Japanese person that we bothered to ask for directions and what not were super friendly though!!! They are all about helping and making sure that you're okay... they are great people. Random thought... but vending machines here are EVERYWHERE and you can even get HOT drinks out of them too... coolest thing ever! Also Japan is the cleanist place I've ever seen... it makes us Americans look bad!!! Oh and got to have my first encounter with squatting toliets... haha. This list goes on...

Right now I'm on Mount Koya, in this town called Koyasan. It has been a huge relief after being in Tokyo, because it's the complete opposite. Just picture this town, high up in the mountains, nothing but rolling, misty hills, thick forest and vegetation and not very many people. It's been a good change of pace... definitely the relaxation factor I've been needing. It is also by far the COOLEST place I've ever been to. Hawaii was beautiful, but this place, is just so different and oriental and mysterious. I've never seen anything like it ever before. We had to take a cable car up this mountain to get to this town where I'm at right now... pretty cool huh? It's been raining though ever since we've gotten here and it's cold, but the rain almost gives it a special touch. We're staying, believe it or not, at this Buddhist monastery with monks. At night it serves as an inn for travelers. We get to sleep in traditional rooms... mats on the floor, sliding screen doors, leave your slippers outside... hoping you can picture this! I'm so glad we decided to stay here, it's been a cultural experience for sure! We got to eat this dinner that was prepared for us by the monks which was incredible!!! Also very traditional... wore robes to it and sat indian style on the floor with trays in front of us, chop sticks, the whole 9 yards! Just really amazing overall. We wake up early tomorrow morning to attend a praying ceremony and fire ceremony with the monks and also get served breakfast. We'll be leaving after that and I will be heading to Hiroshima, which we found out we have time to do, so I'm really looking forward to that!!!

There's just so much I could ramble on about, but I'll leave it at this for now! I need to get some serious rest... Arigato!

what we've all been waiting for!

My last entry was supposed to be posted last night, when I actually posted it, but our satellite connection is still spotty, so that’s why it got posted this afternoon instead. It’s really beginning to frustrate me, to be honest, but understandable because of the weather… and I guess the whole part of being in the middle of the ocean may have something to do with it too!!! Haha. I’m trying my best to keep everybody posted though and I HOPE this message actually goes through… the last few days I’ve been getting e-mails back hours later saying that they didn’t go through.

Today was “Asia Day” so we didn’t have classes. I went to a bunch of different seminars held all over the ship. Some of the ones included tips for traveling and Asian etiquette. Tonight we’re also having a traditional Japanese meal for dinner which will be cool! We’ll be arriving in Yokohama tomorrow around 9am or so… and I can hardly believe it!!! The last 11 days on the ship flew by. ..

Tomorrow when we arrive in Yokohama, one of the first things I have to do (along with the others I’m traveling with in China) is to find a travel agency so that we can book all our train tickets and the rest of the hostels that haven’t responded back to me. That way, we’ll get China squared away and won’t have to worry about it when we get there, especially since they are celebrating the Chinese New Year and trying to buy train tickets or find places to stay will be probably impossible if we wait until the last second. After that’s all out of the way I'll find something to do in Yokohama all day and stay on the ship to save a little money (it’s only a 30-45 minute train ride away). The second day Molly, Helen, Gabe, David, Nick and I will start our adventure!! We’re heading to Tokyo where that night we’ll be sleeping at a capsule hotel, the third day we’ll head to Osaka and Koy San where we will be staying at a Buddhist temple and the third day we’re heading to Nara and then back to Kobe that night to meet back up with the ship. The last day we’re in Japan I’ll be going to a tea ceremony with SAS in Kyoto.

Not sure what exactly we’re doing in each city, but that’s the fun part. We have the world in our hands…

just laying in bed...

Had to change the clocks back by another hour tonight, on top of the other hour from last night too… now I think I’ve figured out this whole time zone thing and I’m 14 hours ahead of home back on the East Coast!! Can’t believe we only have 1 more whole day standing between us and Japan!!! I’ve never been so anxious to get back on land! Apparently there was an earthquake south of Japan and because of it we’ve been experiencing bad weather… the last couple days and nights have been one hell of an adventure that’s for sure! We’ve been stuck in stormy weather and the Captain was so concerned that it might get worse that he changed the course of the ship meaning that we aren’t going to arrive in Japan the time we allotted. We won’t know for sure though until tomorrow how much we’ll be delayed. All I know is that just laying in bed, as I’m doing at the moment, I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster… no lie. You would think that a ship this size wouldn’t rock that much, but the sea swells are about 15 feet high, and probably even bigger now, which they tend to do at night. Being in my cabin makes it feel more dramatic and freaky I guess you could say, especially not having a window to see what the hell is going on outside! Thank god our neighbors introduced us to duck tape though, which we’ve been using to secure our drawers at night, it’s a fool proof plan! I got some cool pictures though of the swells when the sun was setting earlier… getting tossed around by the waves almost looked quite beautiful in a sense, the way the ocean looked, the color of the sky and the way the sun hit the water. But anyways, I try not to hype myself up too much about it because I know I’m safe.

Tonight was pretty eventful, we had another “coffee house” night or open mic night and who knew how much talent we had on the ship!!! Everything from people reading poetry, to stand up comedy, to piano playing and singing and guitar… I was very impressed! We had our first Global Studies test tonight too, which wasn’t as eventful. I’m not sure how confident I am on how I did… multiple choice tests have proven to be difficult for me so far on this trip for some reason.

Tonight we (Me, Helen, Molly, Gabe & David) finished the entire True Blood second season… which I’ve already seen, but was more than willing to watch it all over again with them lol! Tomorrow we have no classes but they want us to attend a bunch of seminars about Asia, hence being called “Asia Day.” I think it’ll be interesting, but I’m looking forward to sleeping in though too… hopefully I’ll get a better night’s sleep especially after our steward, Rene, gave Molly and I each a second pillow!! He’s a life saver! On that note, think I’m gonna try to get some shut eye… goodnight!

update: bad connection.

For some reason the satellite connection on the ship has been delayed and is not letting anyone receive incoming mail from anybody other than on the ship and nobody is able to send e-mail out to anybody other than on the ship either… it’s really frustrating. Supposedly it’s because we’re heading into stormy weather… I’m waiting on e-mails for confirmations on hostels that I was planning on staying in China, among other things too. So, if you’ve been trying to send me e-mails and I haven’t responded, I’m not ignoring you!!! It’s no working for me either. I hope it’ll start working soon… we’ll be in Japan in 3 days so if not the first thing I’m doing is finding an internet café!!! But for my own sanity, I really hope it gets fixed ASAP. I miss you baby... love you so much!! XOXO

4 more days...

It feels like we’ve been back on this ship for weeks, when it’s only been a week, or 6 perhaps because we lost a day? I really have no sense of time on the ship, but thank god I purchased a cheap wrist watch the last day in Hawaii, because now I’m not asking every other person I see what time it is lol! Time zones have been changing so dramatically every day, so it’s hard to keep up. I guess we’re technically 24 hours in advance right now, but had to turn our clocks back another hour last night… who the heck knows!!!

It was another rainy/cloudy day in the middle of the ocean yesterday, but I was pretty productive. Got some work done and traveling planning squared away. Hope today will be better! Have my first test in Environmental Ethics though… ekk.

You guys will probably all get a kick out of this but I tried this little experiment to see if I could go without eating dessert until I get to Japan, bahaha let’s just say: complete failure!!! The food here has been very satisfying to me, although a lot of people complain about it. Breakfast always consists of some kind of fruit, bread, eggs, meat, yogurt, potatoes and French toast or pancakes. Lunch and dinner both consist of some kind of fruit, bread, salad, pasta, meat, vegetarian dishes, potatoes and of course dessert! Every day is something different though, even down to the kind of salad dressings that are offered, so I’m not really complaining. They are all buffet style too, which is dangerous, because you need to know when to stop. But, no worries, although being a good eater I’ve been learning how to control how much I eat.

These last few days I’ve been thinking about home a lot lately and I miss it!!! Especially my boyfriend. Although it’s hard sometimes to communicate solely by e-mail, every day that passes brings me one day closer to him, and being home again, and to share my experiences with the ones I love the most!! I love and miss you so much Anders!! You are the best thing that has ever happened to me<3

It’s been less than a week shy of being a month since I left NH for San Diego, and traveled down to Ensenada to board this ship. Already I have been noticing my own personal transformations. I’ve been realizing that the world is much bigger than what I knew growing up in NH my whole life, and not having the opportunities to travel very much at all. I feel so lucky to have been able to have such an amazing opportunity like this, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without all the support from my family and friends. This trip so far has helped me mature and grow up a little, realizing that you can make your dreams a reality if you stick with it. I’m traveling the world! Who would have “thunk it” as my Grampa would say ;)

My world has already been turned upside down, and I haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet. There’s only a matter of time until I get the cultural shock of a lifetime that I’ve been waiting for! Japan will be the first test…

"we're on a boattt!"

Tonight was a blast!!! We had a “Remix Party” where everybody just dressed up in crazy, mismatching outfits!  There had to have been at least a couple hundred people that went, it was a lot of fun!

 

We have no classes tomorrow, so I’ll be able to sleep in finally! Apparently we’ve crossed over the International Date Line already, so we’ll be losing a day, Wednesday Feb 3^rd, so we’ll jump from the 2^nd right to the 4^th, what a weird concept to comprehend.   

 

Oh, and I tried Zumba today too! Nikki-you’d be so proud :)