I climbed a Volcano with an altitude higher than I sky dived!

We were only in Guatemala for three days but I spent the first two days climbing Mount Acatenango, the third highest peak in Central America and also an inactive volcano. Our trip had to leave almost as soon as the diplomatic briefing was finished. They warned us a great deal before going into Guatemala about not riding the "Chicken Buses" and going to Guatemala City because of the high rate of violence. This was probably one of the most intense diplomatic briefings and warnings overall from SAS that we have had on the whole trip. Our bus drove for about an hour before we stopped at a gas station to get some food, water, and switch to our chartered Chicken Bus! This was an intricately decorated school bus that is used as public transportation in Guatemala and we were warned not to use publicly, but this one was apparently alright because SAS set up the bus for us privately. If you ever want the full definition of what a chicken bus is let me know! We rode the Chicken bus up to about 7,000 feet along winding dirt roads to reach the point where we would start our climb. The climb started off with a slight incline through some fields until we reached the lookout point where we had a really good packed lunch. This took us a little over an hour to do and the views were fantastic but they just kept getting better from then on. We hung out and ate there for a while before starting the hard portion of that day. This was through a forest of bamboo and trees covered in moss, but the hills were much steeper than they had been previously. This made us take lots of breaks overall and made us take around 2.5 hours to finally reach our camp. We almost wanted to run to it when we saw camp but we were way too tired for that. We camped at around 10,000 feet so most of us got altitude sickness because we have obviously been at sea level for the majority of the past 3-4 months. We had to wear much warmed clothes as well because our altitude was so high. Our camp was really nice, no big surprise considering it was a SAS trip, but we had police officers following us up the entire hike, including the next day, a bunch of local farmers who own the fields on the volcano, and our guides, Emmanuel and Oscar. Everyone went to bed early because we had to get up at 4 AM to start our climb to the summit, but for the most part our altitude sickness was so bad that none of us got any sleep that night whatsoever. Before we went to bed we did have a good time just hanging out by the campfire and eating snacks or dinner ranging from Pineapple, Chips with salsa and guacamole, or burgers. We were drinking a ton of water to stay hydrated because apparently that helped a good deal with the sickness. Needless to say most of us stayed up all night trying to go to sleep unsuccessfully and hoping to not get sicker.

 

Emmanuel woke us up at 4 AM and we ate come corn flakes before leaving for the summit. We hiked for about an hour before we got a break. I almost didn't make it through this section because the altitude and the corn flakes did not sit well in my stomach. I pushed through still though and we climbed for about another hour in a single file fashion up a pathway right before we hit a portion in-between the two peaks of Acatenango called the saddle. The views were incredibly unreal up there because we were above the skyline and we got to watch the sun rise from just below that spot. The climb to the summit was really difficult because on the one side it almost dropped directly off and it was incredibly steep and only gravel to step in. I definitely started getting a bit of vertigo while I was up there. It took us a while to climb this last section but one of the police officers that was with us kept encouraged myself and my friend Elise to make it up. It was absolutely beautiful views and it was neat seeing the giant crater that used to be an active volcano. The neat part was that there is an active volcano right next to Acatenango called fuego, how appropriate. While we were up there we saw it erupt several times which was really neat, but the air was really thin so it became really difficult to stay up there the whole time. The overall summit of Acatenango is 13,000 feet and I sky dived in Hawaii at 12,000 feet, CRAZY! Towards the end we picked up some light colored rocks and spelled out SAS 09 for some pictures and to leave for the next group to hike up the volcano as incentive. We finally then started the descent which was mainly sliding down to the saddle. This was actually really scary before of the steep hill and the fact that one girl fell down the side and our guides had to run after her to catch her. She was fine but it was pretty scary. Once we got back to the camp they had us pack up our stuff and get some pancakes before heading out for the final section of our intense descent. This took a while but we got to go by the other group and warn them and tell them how much it was worth it. Unfortunately, they had to deal with a pretty bad thunderstorm that night so I was definitely not envious of them. I fell around 6 times while sliding down the volcano before we finally got back to "Esmerelda", our Chicken Bus, which took us to our regular bus that we took into Antigua. Once in Antigua we had a really great lunch that consisted of 3 portions of meat and one of potatoes in addition to a really yummy tortilla soup and CHEESECAKE!! Elise and I then did a little bit of exploring around the markets before getting the bus back to the ship. that night we had dinner on the ship before going to explore the port a little bit more but we had a curfew of 11 PM every night in Guatemala and there really wasn't too much around the port so we just went out for a little bit before heading back to bed to make up for not getting any sleep the night before.

 

The last day I woke up with my roomie, Megan and tried to get on her trip to Antigua for some bike riding but it was full so I went and did a little shopping with some other girls that also couldn't get on the trip. We ate lunch on the ship and I met up with some more people to try to find stamps, which was overall an unsuccessful venture but we still did a little more exploring of markets. It sounds like I bought a lot but I really didn't get too much at each turn so don't worry too much Mom about the bank account! Actually quite a few of the vendors offered to trade me my bag that I bought in Spain for various items but it was never worth enough in the amount that I spent on it for it to actually be worth me trading my bag. We then hung out at an outdoor restaurant in the port before heading back onto the ship for the last time in a port. We had a really good barbeque on the ship that night and we had meetings for the Ambassador's Ball which should hopefully be pretty fun. I also was invited by my World Dance professor to show one of my papers in the Academic Gallery because she liked it so much apparently. This was a really neat compliment but I'm feeling a little too stressed right now for having all of my classes done with except my final performance in World Dance tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well, but I should post another blog entry before I am back in the states on the 6th. It’s really crazy to think that all of this is almost over. I'm not quite sure if I want it to be or not. I really enjoy the traveling and the people I have met, but I also miss so much of what I regularly knew and what I have at home. I think as soon as I am actually home I'll wish I was still on the ship but I guess that’s just the way things normally end up. See everyone soon!

 

 

Chute happens, Live with it!

This is what one of my newest t-shirts states, but first I should cover some shipboard life since I was on the sea for 9 days in between Japan and Hawaii. There was a great deal of work to do during this time, including the second of our three Global exams and my final quiz in World Dance. Both went pretty well but I'm definitely glad that they are done with. My roommates and our friend Scott decided we should celebrate Easter somehow and ordered ourselves an entire platter of cookies to split which led to many leftovers. It was worth it but we had to step up our exercising afterwards. We started a Shipboard drive to fund different scholarships on the ship and such through raffle tickets, an auction, and donations. The auction was really fun but intense how much people are willing to spend on certain things. I did not win anything although I did buy some raffle tickets. I signed up for the Talent Show on the ship and they had so many people sign up that they held auditions. At the time I didn't think I had done that well but apparently it was fine because they let me perform! The show was really fun although it is really difficult to dance on the ship. I forgot my dance halfway through so I just improvised for most of it but I still had a good time. Almost every single act was amazing which is kind of intense considering there were around 30 acts. I did another dance a couple of days later when we had a logistical pre-port for Hawaii. Our World Dance professor had some of us do a hula which was actually really fun. I'm starting to get pretty good at this hula business!

Now onto Hawaii! The first day our ship cleared pretty quickly so we asked some people at the hospitality desk where to find a good beach. We took a quick bus to Ala Moana mall which we had to go through to get to the Ala Moana beach. It was right next to Waikiki beach but less populated, mainly just with some smaller families. We hung out there for a couple of hours finally getting to use our cell phones until around lunch time. We then headed back to the mall to pick up some cheese fries and smoothies which we had been craving. I then had to take the bus back to the ship to meet up with hula FDP for World Dance class. We actually had a few of my professors and Life Long Learners on the trip which was pretty fun. They took us to a hula shop that sold different items involved in hula and also had a cleared area for the lesson. Our kumu, or teacher, was "Auntie" Germaine and she was pretty intense and worked us very hard. I felt like I was back in a strict ballet class again! After learning quite a bit we had a break so we went and got drinks down the street before our instrumental lesson. Mike Kop then explained all of the different major instruments associated with the hula and how they were made, he even let us try out quite a few of them. He also answered a lot of our questions on Hawaiian culture before Aniseh, our World Dance professor, invited us to her family's cookout for MICE which is a computerized musical group her husband puts together on the ship. We walked down Waikiki beach until we reached Kalakaua Park along the beach and listened to them play and had a good amount of food. We also did some of our hulas that we learned in class in the ocean together which was pretty fun. After that I met up with my roommate, Megan, and our friend, Scott. They were hungry so we went to Jimmy Buffet's and got a quesadilla, exactly what I needed after the cookout! They had a live band playing which was really neat too. After that we just sat along the beach until really late and took the bus back to the ship because we had to wake up really early the next morning.

We had to wake up very early to get breakfast before catching a van to the North shore for SKY DIVING!!!!!!!! It took around 45 minutes to get there and once we got there we had to sign waivers so we wouldn't sue them later on. After that we met with our tandem diving partner, mine was a huge guy name "Papa Dop". Before I knew it I was harnessed in and we were walking out to the plane. Megan and I were on the same plan along with 3 other SAS girls and their tandem partners. We got up to 12,000 feet and they just opened the door and went for it. There was almost no warning before we were going down. The funny part is that my partner actually had us go out backwards and do some flips before starting our free fall. We fell for about a minute through a set of clouds before pulling the parachute. We then went around in circles are the airfield for around 2 to 3 minutes. It was really fun but I did get a little nauseous when we had our chute pulled going in circles. It definitely was a rush. I still can't decide whether I enjoyed bungeeing more or not because they were so different. After a little wait the van took us back to Honolulu and we decided to go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. The only thing we saw there was the USS Arizona exhibit but it was really cool. They showed us a 30 minute movie for background on what actually happened that day, and then took us on a boat to the actual memorial which is located on top of the remains of the ship where it sank. It was really beautiful and interesting that the actual ship is still there under the water that the memorial is located. The USS Missouri was right next to the memorial as well but we didn't have enough time to do both. After that we took a taxi to a Wahoo's to get some enchiladas before walking to the mall again for the post office. We walked around Ala Moana some more before making the long trek on foot back to the ship which took about an hour but we were definitely hurting by the end of it. Hawaii was fun as a two day stop but I kind of feel that it is inevitable that I will return so I wasn't looking forward to it as much of some of our other ports. I did quite a bit in those two days and had a great time, but it was more of a teaser to return than anything else. Now its back to the work for seven days before we arrive in Guatemala!

I've now decided to become a dancer for the Yokohama Bay Stars

Another scare for the parents, but I definitely enjoy Japanese baseball games. Save that for later let's start with Kobe. First of all I'd like to note how archaic the Japanese immigration was with a face to face meeting with all of us. This definitely cut into our time the first day by a long shot. My friend, Elle, and myself took the train to Sannomiya so I could pick up my Japan Rail Pass. This took another hour out of my day but I saved around $200 by getting it so it was definitely worth it! We then took the subway to Harborland which was recommended by our interport students, which was fun, but we felt a little old for that amusement park. We did ride the overpriced ferris wheel to see all of Kobe which was really pretty, but that was about all we did there. We then found the Mintagawa shrine which was literally tucked underneath a freeway. This is the most interesting part of Japan, that a lot of the monuments are right next to their skyscrapers and are integrated into their regular life so easily. It was very cute shrine still though and had the first cherry blossoms that we experienced there. After that we went back to the ship for dinner and met up with our friends to get all dressed up and go dancing which was very fun.

Claudia and I woke up fairly early to catch a train to Tokyo. When we were at the subway station trying to get to Shin-Kobe we were helped by some college aged girls to find our next station. The interesting part is that they literally walked us to our station and made sure we got the correct tickets before going on their way. This is not the only time this happened. Most of the Japanese people I met spoke impeccable English and were so willing to help us almost anywhere we went. We then took the bullet train to Tokyo for a couple hours and decided to then find a place to stay, what a novel idea! We finally found a hotel in a fun district so we got it even though it was a step higher than our usual hostel stays. The place was the cheapest hotel in the district but still very nice, called “The B”. It was nice to just sit down for a little bit because we had been searching and all we found were expensive malls way beyond our price range. We had to also get some internet to book our hostel for the next night to save money and also get in contact with Toshie to meet up with her in Kyoto. After that we found a sushi bar for dinner to try some legit Japanese sushi for the first time. They actually put a little wasabi in the rolls which made them a little bit more spicy than I am used to, but still amazing. Mom will be glad to know I was very adventurous and tried some of the fish styles while there which was definitely really good. After sushi we found a duty free store that was more like a mall because it was actually 6 floors of all sorts of random items from groceries to shoes. This was actually good though because I needed to pick up a gift for my host family. After that we headed back to the hotel for a little to hang out and watch some news to get caught up, which we are definitely behind on everything for! After that we just went out dancing again which was really fun.

We slept through breakfast at our hotel but made it in time to check out. After that we took the train to Takeshita-Dori which is a decently priced shopping district with all sorts of crazy Japanese clothing. This would be right next to one of the important points of Tokyo I wanted to hit, HARAJUKU st. For those of you that do not know I am mildly obsessed with No Doubt and Gwen Stefani, thus Harajuku St. with the crazy Japanese style, which is almost like a baby doll dress. We in fact saw an older woman dressed up like it too which was rare considering most of the older women dressed in suits of some sort. We didn't buy anything but did end up going to a club that opened during the day as a buffet. The food was really and good and it was reasonably priced, but it was just so cool that they had a DJ booth at the same time playing hip hop music and crazy lights going on, very funny. We then found our hostel, Anne Hostel Asakusabashi, which was in the traditional Japanese style of mats on the floor. From what I have heard it is built after the ryokans but is a cheaper version of them. I then took the long train ride to Kyoto to meet up with TOSHIE!!!!!! For those that do not know Toshie was one of my suitemates last semester who graduated after the fall and now works in her home town in Japan. We decided to meet in the middle at Kyoto for dinner because she has a crazy work schedule now with training for her new big person job. Traveling there was pretty neat because I actually met her there by myself which is the first time I have ever traveled by myself which was a really big feat for me. I took the bullet train and arrived a little early so I walked to Gion which is where there are a bunch of geisha shows and beautiful cherry blossoms. I actually saw a woman on the subway back to the Kyoto station taking off the make-up from all of the geisha regalia which was really neat. After that I met up with Toshie for a quick sandwich and I was just so excited to see someone from home that I was besides myself. Unfortunately we almost missed the last train back to Tokyo that night so we had to run across most of the Kyoto station just to make it with a minute to spare. I was very sad to wave goodbye to her but it just felt very comforting to see someone familiar in a non-familiar place. That night I just went back to my hostel ASAP because they shut the doors at midnight and I didn't want to get locked out. IT was a very long day but definitely comforting.

I had to wake up crazy early the next morning to catch the train to Yokohama for my home visit. The train was pretty packed because it was rush hour there, which is definitely an experience in itself. After riding trains all morning I was definitely relieved to see the ship even though I did get lost in the terminal trying to get to the gangway. I quickly got my gift together and went back out to the terminal to meet my host family. The woman who met us was called Miyako Hitomi and she got to hang out with  her sister-in-law Yamatcha along with some of their other friends. They were a fairly young family and Miyako's family didn't have any children, Yamatcha had one son named Yushi. She took us on several trains before we arrived at her suburb of Yokohama, called Zushi, which reminded me a little more of home and was beautiful with all of the cherry blossoms in bloom. She showed us the fish market with all sorts of different fish, most of them were basically whole which was kinda gross but I'm a wimp with fish anyways. We then went to Yamatcha's house for a traditional Japanese meal where we learned how to make sushi ourselves! Yamatcha was hilarious and kept on making silly jokes the whole time. I can't remember them all but if you want to hear some just email me and I'll send a couple good ones. After that we had a great dessert with strawberry tea, fruit and these neat sweet bean paste things. They also had one of the really nice heated seat toilets in their house, I realize this might not seem important to those of you at home but they had some crazy buttons on their toilets to do all sorts of crazy things like play music among other things. Yamatcha then offered us some of the antiques that her husband sold which were so nice and she also drew pictures of what she thought we would like which were hilarious in itself. Apparently I have very voluptuous lips in her mind's eye of me before she met me? Yamatcha then drove us, in her Mercedes so I definitely didn't want to touch anything, to the beach where we walked along the coats until we got to her friend's Antique store. There we had some green tea and more bean paste desserts that were actually wrapped in cherry blossom leaves. Her friends show us how to  weave place mats out of old kimonos on this neat machine and she let us all try it. We then had run out of time and had to head to the train station to get back to the ship. I met Claudia and we got tickets along with some other girls to go see the Yokohama Bay Stars versus the Tokyo Giants in a baseball game. This was so crazy with massive amounts of cheering, they actually have cheerleaders that performed a kick line at the routine. The pitchers were brought out on sports cars to the mound! My friends actually tackled around 5 Japanese children just to get a ball, very funny at the time.

I got to sleep in a little bit before Elle called to about heading to Tokyo again for some shopping to use up some yen. I took them back to Harajuku and Takeshita-Dori and we actually bought a couple cute things there for pretty cheap, at least cheaper than the States. I also took them back to the Hip hop cafe from but it was harder for Elle because she is a vegetarian so there weren't too many options. We then walked to the Meiji Jingu shrine which was absolutely huge. They were definitely the largest toriis I have every seen and the park you had to walk through was incredibly beautiful. The temples differ from the other ones I have been to because normally they are incredibly intricate whereas the Japanese ones are simple but still just as beautiful if not more. They had huge vats that used to be filled with sake decorated with different characters. There were different plants decorating the sides of the shrine that were very beautiful too. We had to watch our hands and mouth before entering and then we couldn't even take pictures of the shrine from straight on. It was definitely great to see that shrine though. We actually saw a little girl dressed in a full kimono which made her look so beautiful even though she was probably only about 7 or 8 years old. After that we took the trains sluggishly back to the ship and then go through more of the crazy immigration lines before we left. Yokohama actually had some beautiful skylines as we pulled away, almost as good as the huge cities in China but on a smaller scale. Now I must start recovering from Asia before I get to Hawaii. Also, we have a ton of work to do because this is one of the last chunks of ship time and school that we have. Hopefully I survive it because I'm really excited for what I have planned for Hawaii!!!!

China sure has one great wall

China was the longest port yet and we are definitely feeling it right now as we are leaving Shanghai. The first city we were in was Hong Kong, which was absolutely amazing. One of the first buildings I saw when I looked outside was the skyscraper from the newest Batman movie, Dark Knight, CRAZY! We were actually in a port with a really expensive mall, where I definitely did not buy anything, so we had to walk through it to find out taxi to get to the Stanley Market on Hong Kong Island. This market was nice but seemed expensive to us, especially in comparison with a lot of the other port markets we had been to. The waterfront area was really swank so we avoided that as soon as we got there. We got lunch at a little local cafe on a side street which was OK in general but not amazing. Both my roommate Megan and myself were instructed on how to hold our chopsticks correctly, apparently we needed more leverage. We picked up just a few souvenirs and then caught another taxi to Victoria's Peak, but we slept through most of the ride there because we were so exhausted from Vietnam just 2 days prior. Once we got there we ran into some friends and realized that our taxi driver had taken us all the way to the top and not just to where we picked up the trolley. At the top there was actually another mall, something I've found in Asia is that there are malls everywhere, and one could go outside to see the views of the city. It was really neat but it was a little cloudy so we couldn't see everything. We took the tram down and saw a lot more, but it was pretty scary because we had to stand and the trolley was nearly going at a 45 degree angle down the hill! We gradually walked through the main area until we reached the Star Ferry which took us across to Kowloon where our ship was docked. On the way we actually ran into a protest for Nepalese rights, apparently protests are really common in Hong Kong and basically illegal on the main land. For dinner we did get some Italian at a Spaghetti house but we had to run back to the shore so we could see the skyline light show at night. It was alright but it was more impressive just seeing the whole skyline lit up than anything else. The rugby worlds' last game was going on that day so afterwards there were a ton of crazy, loud and huge guys running around so needless to say Hong Kong was pretty crazy later on but we had a good time.

Megan and I had to catch a quick breakfast the next morning before leaving for our University stays in Beijing via SAS. Security in the airports took forever and we were really hungry once we got through so I picked up some decent dumplings before boarding. I really didn't need to though because they fed us a full meal on the plane, including Haagen Daz (sp?)! Once in Beijing we had to wait a while for our Bus because we weren't sure if everyone had made it but they took us straight to a Peking Duck dinner which was pretty good but the start to our 3 square meals a day of Chinese food. We checked into the guest which actually wasn't at Tsinghua University, where we were supposed to be, but at the Beijing School of Technology and Engineering's guest house. This was definitely different from my other SAS trips because it wasn't nearly as swank, but it was definitely something I would be used to if I had done the trip on my own! Some friends and I were really hungry still so we went to go find some desert, but when we finally found a restaurant they couldn't understand just wanting desert and the items weren't exactly what we were looking for. Not to mention the fact that in Hong Kong almost everyone spoke English and on the mainland we found that it was rare that people recognized a lot of American culture and definitely did not speak any English, even at the hotels. They closed while we were still there so we walked down the street and some of us picked up fruit there. We got directions to a coffee shop and got some, which we didn't need that late, but it was delicious and almost completely empty because it was a Monday night. We had difficulty finding much to do in Beijing at night so I hung out in the room watching "Something's Gotta Give" with my roommate that night.

We woke up for breakfast which was strange because they served us regular Chinese food, like pot stickers and fried rice for breakfast with no other breakfast foods. We drove an hour before arriving at the GREAT WALL which was sweet. We hiked all the way to the top on the stairs, but unfortunately they didn't have the slide things that we saw on the Olympics from the summer at our point of the wall. The funny thing was that there were probably 80 year old women smoking and still making it up the hike for the wall which was astounding. They even had tourist shops for souvenirs at the breaks in the wall. We did a circle down around and through the rest of the souvenir mart before we finally found our bus. Lunch was actually very good, better than the duck I though, because of all of the different chicken dishes. The afternoon stop was the Summer Palace where we had 2 guides but their microphones were really scratchy so it was hard to hear if you were far away. We saw a lot of gardens which were mainly dedicated to the Emperor's mother and got to walk down this neat covered path around a lake. Almost all of the Chinese architecture that I experienced had been rebuilt after fires several times. This is because they are made out of wood and then painted and carved intricately, but they definitely do not last as long. I decided to hike up the hill to see the actual temple on the top of the hill overlooking the lake and see the huge golden Buddha but I got lost from my group that I went with so I had a minor freakout when no one was at the gate we were supposed to meet at at the correct time. They had gotten lost and gone to the wrong gate and I was definitely very nervous until I found some SASers that I recognized. Probably one of the scarier moments of the trip for me, but I was fine overall. That night we finally got to go see Tsinghua University for a tour and hung out with some of the students as they gave us a tour of their buildings and some of the dorm rooms. We got to eat a meal in their canteen which was probably my favorite meal of the entire trip. This is really funny because it was also probably the cheapest at around 10 Yuan, for a conversion that is a little over $1.50 for a buffet dinner that was really good. The students were really sweet but we didn't get to spend too much time with them, they are definitely bright. Most of them are science or engineering majors of some form and a lot of them plan on doing their Masters at American schools like MIT, pretty smart! They took us to their gift shop for sweatshirts that were the same number price as they would be in the States, but instead of dollars it was yuan making it dirt cheap for University gear. They didn't have too many options though. We went back to the hotel after that and got changed before heading out to find some internet. I wanted to check my registration after Dane had done it earlier so I finished it all on the internet cafes, but I will say that I have never seen so much World of Warcraft or other games in one internet cafe before! We were once again exhausted after climbing the wall that day so we just watched the second Zorro movie and then passed out.

Breakfast was the same thing the next day so we ran to a KFC, which I saw more often around the world than any McDonald's, to get some hot chocolate before seeing Tienanmen Square. They were obviously hawkers spellings things there but we just walked through it to get to the Forbidden City because we didn't really spend too much time there. The Forbidden City just kept going and going, but we unfortunately did not have guides with us which was a major letdown for this sight. We just read the English signs and wandered around it. It was similar architecture as the Summer Palace, at least in my mind, and I couldn't tell any major differences. We then got another Chinese lunch at a place where they wore traditional dress for tourists basically. Fairly tasty, but still not as good as Tsinghua's food. In the afternoon we visited the Temple of Heaven which started off with a white platform structure and then continued onto the famous actual temple of Heaven and the Temple for Good Harvest. We wandered for a bi with some direction from our guides who were from the University before being taken to a Pearl Market. This did not just sell Pearls but all the fake purses and other items you could imagine. I picked up a couple items there, but I did not enjoy how mean they were to a lot of people. They were very rude by American standards but I guess it is different in other cultures. There is basically no personal space and touching and pulling is completely allowed. I got very upset with one woman who was trying to rip my friend off and wouldn't leave me alone after I tried to help, long story short I did not enjoy this market very much. We got to go to the Acrobatic show after that which was amazing. It was very similar to the Cirque de Soliel shows I had seen in Vegas while I competed with IAD in high school in its degree of difficulty, awesome presence and overall skill. After this we were told to get something to eat on our own so we got Subway, we've been craving, trust me, and then went shopping at the second market called the Silk Market. The people were much friendlier and did not invade your personal space as much as the previous market. After being all shopped out we definitely just relaxed for a bit.

I had lost my last breakfast card so Rachel stole me a couple of dumplings before we checked out and headed off for our last couple of sites in Beijing. The first stop was the Beijing Zoo to see the Giant Pandas, which I obviously loved. We didn't get to see too much else of the zoo but it was still neat, I got to see a peacock as well! Lunch was alright but at this point we were starting to tire of the Chinese food for most of our meals. In the afternoon they took us to the Olympic center to see the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. The Bird's Nest actually seemed smaller to me than the Carrier Dome for SU but I honestly wouldn't know the exact different. It was still really neat, but very touristy now, no athletes actually competing or even practicing there now. We explored the Bird's Nest for a while before trying to get tickets to see the inside of the Watter Cube. In both of these buildings they were showing highlights from the games which was really neat. I bet we probably could've just watched those videos for hours. It was really neat to actually be in all of these places for competition and I was definitely excited, although we almost were late getting back so we had to run a good portion of the way back. We went to one last market before catching our plane to Shanghai to meet up with the ship that had gone from Hong Kong to Shanghai. I actually got to grab some Coldstone ice cream before we left too which was definitely awesome. On the way back we flew in the largest airplane I have ever been on with 1 seats across, double decker and 3 long rows of seats. We didn't get back to the ship until midnight so we just unpacked showered and went to bed to wake up early the next morning to go explore Shanghai.

I got breakfast on the ship with Megan and Scott and had the longest line I have ever seen there wrapping around almost the whole dining area. It was really good to get normal breakfast foods though. We decided to try to find a large hotel that could direct us and write directions in Chinese for a taxi cab driver for our various stops for the day. Once there we found a Starbucks where you can normally count on someone speaking English. They gave us directions to the Ritz Carlton where they got us a taxi so that I could pick up my Japan Rail Pass. We managed to find some other SAS girls to split the cab there as well because they needed the same thing, seeing as how it was the last day in port before we actually arrive in Japan. After the Rail pass we used our Chinese directions for a taxi to take us to the Old Town Market. Here our friend Scott finally got his Chinese checker board and I picked up stamps to send my postcards and letters. I promise you Dad that I looked for music to do Tai Chi to, but most of the time when I asked them they just laughed at me so I was definitely not successful. Sorry again, I swear I tried! We got a taxi back to the ship so I could send off my mail quickly. We then caught the SAS trip to the Children's Palace in Shanghai, for free I will add. Our guide explained a lot of the different areas of Shanghai as we drove through them, like the Bund and the People's Square. Once we got there we had a tour of the different classrooms for piano, violin and other instruments, art and of course the dance studio. The Children's Palace is an after school program provided by the government for children age 4 or 5 through high school to develop certain skills every day. It is basically all the lessons you ever had as a child in one after school enrichment like program. These kids were seriously talented too! We saw a lot of their artwork and ever saw a musical performance one two different Chinese instruments that looked incredibly difficult to play. They also performed a dance for us in their ballet attire that was similar to all of the younger child dances they perform for competitions at IAD with 8 year olds. Very cute! At the end they tried selling their artwork to us which was a little frustrating that they were still trying to have us spend money, but it was definitely some nice stuff. We got dinner back on the ship and watched the skyline of Shanghai, which was also beautiful, as we pulled away later that night. China was definitely beautiful but a very exhausting experience. Many people were tired of the culture, I enjoyed it because although it was very different, and often the people would be considered rude in the U.S, there are extraneous situations that we do not understand about their culture and the way things are there. We are definitely not the ones to judge! Only one more stop before the big crossing of the Pacific so here's to Japan and seeing Toshie!

Vietnam and Cambodia love their Eric Clapton

No seriously, they really do! I heard it on the airplanes in Cambodia, most restaurants, along with several books on him in the bookstore. Still Cambodia and Vietnam were really interesting and I had an amazing time. The first day I caught a flight via my SAS trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia which was possibly the shortest flight I have ever taken at around 13 minutes in the air. Once we had arrived we headed straight to the National Museum which was a former temple and is now loaded with tons of religious artifacts from Hinduism and Buddhism. They also had some cultural items and photographs, but a lot of it was stone sculptures of different gods. A lot of this information was related to the French occupation in Indochina, but we were not allowed to take pictures inside so you will just have to trust my descriptions. After that we went down to the Mekong River for a sunset cruise in a double decker boat which was really pretty. We also got to see a floating village where the entire house was built on the water, pretty neat! The last stop that night was the Palm Tree Orphanage which is actually set up through semester at sea. These kids were a lot older than the ones I played with in Thailand, and it was more on a one on one basis. I hung out with a 14 year old girl named Srim who is in the 6th grade there. She was very sweet and her little brother was there as well. She drew me a picture and showed me a lot of her favorite places, especially the garden near the entrance. She was really sweet, but we were shocked to find out that people really don't adopt the children that go there. In Thailand, those children were normally ending up in Europe or the U.S. but apparently there are some major issues with adoption from Cambodia, who knows but I'm sure Angelina Jolie's done it before! She stopped at this really swank restaurant, exactly what you want to do after leaving an orphanage (cough cough sarcasm cough cough good planning SAS), and the food was actually not that good. It was a lot of fish which I tried but it just was not my style so I ate a lot of fruit and spring rolls. Our hotel was equally as fancy, obviously set up through SAS because I would not be the one planning to stay in places like that, and we finished off the long day of driving around with the ice cream in the restaurant downstairs.

The second day was really emotional but one of the most important for the whole trip. Our first stop was the Tuol Sleng Museum which used to be a high school in Phnom Penh before the Khmer Rouge took over. Once they had they turned it into a detention center and torture chamber for the upper classes along with all of the intellectuals in the society. This part is kind of depressing for some so if you don't want to read it please skip ahead. We walked into 2 of the buildings and saw torture chambers where the floor was still stained with blood and they had pictures of how the people died on them. In addition, they had photos on the wall of one building of the people that were held there along with some torture photos. They had these gallows things where they hung people by their hands before sticking their heads in water, a trick they apparently picked up from the KGB agents. Upstairs in one of the buildings they had a lot of history of the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot among other things. They posted the national anthem during those 4 years and other scary things. This was incredibly intense and then we headed to Choeungek Genocidal Center or the Killing Fields where they would bus the people from places like Tuol Sleng to me massacred and thrown into the mass graves there. There were mass graves everywhere in back of this giant stupa where they had placed a lot of the skulls inside with ordered by age. The crazy part was that on the path around the mass graves there were actually still clothes and bones still sticking out because a lot of people still haven't been excavated yet. There are just so many people buried there that it is almost impossible. In addition, there were a lot of signs up explaining what each part of what happened in each place. This included how they put DDT on the bodies so they didn't smell and so the people around the Killing Fields wouldn't know what was going on. This was really shocking to a lot of us and the crazy part was really our guide, who told us to call him Kim. His father, sister and uncle were all killed because his father was a professor and a member of the upper and intellectual class in Phnom Penh. As part of being a tour guide in these areas it must be really painful but he said it was worth it to have people know what really happened. He said it actually made him feel better that people wanted to know and also that his life is so much better now that he doesn't have to worry about his life being threatened anymore. It isn't that Cambodia doesn't have any more issues, it has more than its fair share of corruption and is considered by many a "third world nation", but his life is so much more peaceful now that anything seems better than what he experienced in his childhood. Kim was really sweet and I have yet to have a tour guide that can stand up to his standards.

Back to the more upbeat stuff now! We then headed to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda in Phnom Penh which was absolutely beautiful and reminded us a great deal of the Grand Palace in Thailand. There were so many Buddha representations in the Silver Pagoda I didn't know where to face, and they had my favorite story on the walls, the Ramayana from Indian culture or the Reamker in Cambodian. Our lunch was definitely better that day but Kim told us that it was really more Chinese than Cambodian. We had a little bit of time to hang out and do some shopping around the Russian Market which was fun, I have collected more than my fair share of fake purses among other things so far. We then flew from Phnom Penh to Seim Riep where we got to see Angkor Wat at sunset. We actually didn't get to go into the complex at that point but it was still neat to see the sun set on the other side. We had a huge buffet dinner with a bunch of other tour groups from around the world. As part of dinner we got a Cambodian dance show which was absolutely beautiful. This was really special because this is a form that was almost killed off because of the Khmer Rouge but it alive and well now. The women looked so beautiful in the outfits they wore and the men were very silly in their monkey suits among other things. Once we were at our next swank hotel, thanks to SAS, we got a tuk-tuk to the night market and did some shopping there. They actually had this fish massage thing there which I didn't do but it involves sticking your feet in a pool of water and having fish eat the dead skin off your feet. Sounds crazy but a couple of my friends did it.

The third day we woke up incredibly early to view Angkor Wat at sunrise which was beautiful but we were definitely tired for the rest of the day after that. We got to run in to view a little bit of the inside for about 5 minutes before we had to leave. We had a good buffet breakfast at the hotel before heading to the Ta Prohm temple. This was really neat because it was almost a jungle temple with trees growing the the ruins that were taller than any I think I've seen before. We then headed to Angkor Wat to explore more thoroughly which was really interesting especially because many of the relief sculptures inside were never finished because Cambodia was being invaded at the time. Unfortunately, we couldn't climb the huge stupas on the crazy steep stairs. We were there for quite a bit before heading back to our hotel for lunch. In the afternoon we went to the South gate of Angkor Wat with the faces on it, followed by going to the Bayon temple. This was really neat because they had the same faces all over the place similar to the ones on the South gate. There were a great deal of monkeys on the way to that temple which was kind of cute too. Apparently they aren't actually natural to the area because the fruit they eat isn't there, they just came because of the tourists feeding them. After that we wandered around to some temples and saw the Elephant terrace, and the Royal Palace along with the Leper king terraces. Finally we found some neat temples that were pretty cool, I'm talking about temperature, inside. It definitely over 100 and I believe 2 girls got heat stroke on our trip. We then went to the airport where I managed to get some Dairy Queen along with a foot massage to make up for all the immense walking and sweating I had done. I'm pretty sure none of us have any toxins left in our systems anymore. Once we were back in Ho Chi Minh City we went to a pizza shop to hang out for a bit and explored a little bit.

The fourth day I woke up early to go get a dress tailor made, which actually turned out fantastic for only $27 US. MY friend who took me to this specific shop also led me to a DVD store where I did a little bit of damage as well, I'm hoping those get through customs on the way back! We then went around the Ben Thanh market for a bit and found more than our fair share of fake purses among other strange items. We got some juice before heading back to the ship to drop our stuff off. We hung out for a little while eating pizza and seeing one of the new movies before I met up with my roommate Megan and our friend Scott. We walked around Ho Chi Ming for a bit before deciding to go to this jazz club called Sax 'n Art which was really neat. They actually played a lot of old school songs that we recognized which was neat and it was fun to just hang out there for a bit. After we got back we watched some "Meet Joe Black" before bed because we knew we should be up early the next day.

The last day I went shopping with a friend, Patricia, for decorations for the Ambassador's Ball which was are both on the committee for. We walked around the market I went to the day before and also some shops around it to find some office supplies along with paper to do some of the decorations. After that I'm sorry to tell ya Dad but I caught a motorbike ride to the War Remnants Museum. I swear they use them as a form of taxi all over the place here and it was actually a ton of fun! We got lunch at this chain called Pho 24 which had the traditional Pho soup in huge bowls, which was awesome, along with some spring rolls. Once at the Museum we ran into a lot of other SASers so we could talk about a lot of what we saw. They had a lot of photos, mainly from LIFE magazine along with some others from the Vietnam War which was really crazy. I found that it really scary but also confused because a lot of the info was different from what I had learned in school, at least from the little bit of info we did get about that. It was definitely presented in a pro-Vietnam fashion, but big surprise we were there! They had a lot of other photos that were pretty disturbing about the Agent Orange and other things. The most interesting part were these drawings they had up from the children in Vietnam about their impressions of warfare or how the world should be. Some were really touching but others were incredibly gruesome. After that Patricia and I grabbed a smoothie before heading back to the ship on the back of a motorbike again. Once back I went out again with Megan and Scott to do a little grocery shopping before on ship time. We also got these great waffle wafer thing from this street vendor which were SO delicious. Once I had picked up my dress with my friend we headed up to the barbecue that SAS set up for us on the ship which was awesome just to have a good hot dog and burger. At that point I have started to work on this blog and we started a lot of our movies once Cassie got back from her Cambodia trip. Overall Cambodia was my favorite trip I have been on so far because it was so interesting and emotional in general. Vietnam was interesting but I do wish I had enough time to do the Cu Chi tunnels or something like that, but I'm definitely still happy. In 3 days I will arrive in Hong Kong which is pretty exciting and it kind of feels like we are winding everything down, although we still have around 6 weeks left. Oh well!

Thai Massage, I think yes!

Thailand has been amazing and I especially enjoyed all of the food I had so I will definitely miss that until I get home for a "Taste of Thai"! The first day we couldn't get off the ship for a while so we didn't get to go explore before our trip to the Sri Racha Tiger Zoo. This actually reminded a lot of the Bronx zoo combined with a circus. We were a little disappointed because we were hoping for a tiger sanctuary and it just ended up being shows of animals doing tricks. All that we hope is that they aren't abused, which is hard for us to tell. I guess this is the case with any of the ports we have been to but I noticed it the most about worrying over the welfare of the animals that were "performing". At the zoo we first ran off to take pictures with the baby elephants and then watched the Tiger show. This involved a lot of jumping through hoops.......literally........flaming ones. Then there was the crocodile show where people stuck their hands and heads in their jaws, I promise I'm not that stupid Mom. The funny part was that they actually sold skewers of crocodile outside right after the show, kinda screwed up. Last was the elephant show where they did a bunch of balancing things and actually had 2 SAS kids do some tricks with them. The entire reason for me going on this trip was so that I could feed a baby tiger so I was really excited to actually get to do that. Although I will say that my "baby" tiger was probably about the same size as me, not too comfortable while sitting on your lap I must say. They did have a really tiny baby one but it was wailing and I just felt bad for it I so I didn't want to bother it. It could barely even walk across the ground. After that we went to Mini Siam which has miniatures of a bunch of world monuments and Thai ones as well. Most of us wished this had been done later when we would've known what the individual Thai monuments were. They then dropped us off at the Harbor Mall near our port so we could get dinner. We had this "Hot pot" thing where you cook the meat in a stew in the middle of the table. Our tour guide told us it was Korean, but all I really cared about was that it was good food, which it was.

The second day was my trip to Bangkok to go see some sites and such. Bangkok was a little less than 2 hours away from our ship. We stopped at a mall early in the morning to pick up our boats to go down the river and canal system. The canals were really cool because there were so many temples along it as well as the neat traditional Thai houses. We saw a bunch of the temples from the river that we visited later. We got this amazing local Thai food which was one of my favorite meals from the whole visit. Then we visited the Wat Aron, sorry if I screwed this up, which is this temple with really steep stairs up the side of it. Its almost like climbing a ladder, but up the side of the temple, kinda scary, but not in comparison to bungeeing off the highest one in the world I guess. The next stop was a boat ride to Wat Pho which had the giant reclining Buddha. This giant golden Buddha was maybe the size of a building  it was so huge. The last stop was the Grand Palace which was so intricately painted and also had some ridiculous amounts of gold every. I think I might have gone partially blind because of it. There was also the Emerald Buddha where they change his outfits depending on the season. After taking some goofy pictures with the palace guards and funky statues everywhere we headed to one of the more modern buildings. This is what they themed "The King and I" after, with the combination of European and Thai designs. We finally headed back to the ship and got some dinner in Laem Chabang, our port city.

St. Patrick's day was probably my favorite of all the days in Thailand, because it was so ridiculous, although I will admit I have absolutely no Irish in me. In the morning we left early for the Pattaya Orphanage where we got to play with a bunch of the kids. the older ones were at school so we hung out with the toddlers mainly. This was also a school for the deaf because their facilities are so nice. It really was a nice orphanage, or at least better than what I was expecting, and they gave us a tour of their whole grounds. One of the little girls we were playing with actually was getting adopted that day so she was really excited and running around like crazy. Most of the adoptions from this orphanage normally go to Europe but there are some to the U.S. That was a really fun service and the kids really seemed to enjoy just playing around with people and all of the toys that we brought. We decided to stay in Pattaya for that night so we got to our hotel and checked in after the trip was done. The only thing is that a good portion of Pattaya was a red light district, or at least near the beach where we were, so there were a ton of older European men running around. Nobody really bothered us at all, even as 3 American girls, but most of the men related to us like we were their daughters or something, kinda creepy now that we think about it though. We went to a corner stop Thai restaurant which was really good and we got to do some people watching which was one of my favorite activities in Thailand. We did a little shopping, I might have a couple of DVDs that are not released in the States yet, whoopsies? Then we just headed to a corner bar so my friend could get a drink for her birthday, 21 of course. There we met Pang who was a 25 year old cocktail waitress at this corner bar (more people watching involved, and no it doesn't make us feel like creepers). She taught us how to play this dice game and then we also played Jenga and Connect Four with her, which we found hilarious later. We talked for almost an hour about her family in Bangkok and also her children who were 5 and 2. They lived with her parents, and apparently she was married to a Thai man but he wasn't a "good man" so she left for Pattaya. We decided that we wanted to watch the sunset on the beach so we invited her if she was off, but then we found out there was a little more to her cocktail waitress job than just serving drinks. She couldn't leave unless someone paid, which we thought about for a second, imagine that story of taking her to the beach with us! We decided against it in the end and watched the sunset on the beach, which was really gorgeous but the water was definitely not too clean. This meant that when we got back to our hotel we jumped in the pool quickly before getting ready for Kelly's birthday dinner. The funny thing is that Kelly is Irish and it was her 21st birthday so she was very excited. There were actually several Irish pubs in Pattaya so we went across the street to one for dinner, although I still got Thai food there. There we saw 2 of the med students from UVA on the ship walk past so they came and hung out for the rest of the night with us as our male version of protection. The funny thing was that we were more protection for them by pretending we were their girlfriends so the "ladies" wouldn't bother them. Overall Pattaya was definitely fun and we had a great time.

We tried getting breakfast at the hotel the next morning but it was only for two so we just left and got a taxi back to the ship to pick up our SAS trip. We headed to the Pattaya elephant village which I didn't feel as bad about because it wasn't a circus-like or touristy environment. They did have a Thai dancer performing with some live musicians for us first, but then all of the elephants came out. I actually got to jump up on the neck of one, bare back of course, and ride it was it went for its bath in the pond. I definitely got a little wet but it was really fun. We had 2 more rides with them later one and it wasn't as creepy about it because there were hardly an chairs on the elephants, but hopping up on their necks. The little kids of the professors on the ship were there and it was completely adorable to watch them in awe of the elephants. They even had a pregnant elephant, although I couldn't tell the difference. There was a mini drum show at the end and they showed us how the traditional Thai people used elephants for their work in farming as a demonstration. This was one of my favorite animal experiences for entire time in Thailand. After they took us to a souvenir shop, big surprise they tried taking us to jewelry stores every time. Normally I don't buy anything but I did get a pair of linen pants to wear in Cambodia so I can be a little covered up but not nearly as hot. After that we went to the Central mall, there are malls all over the place, and got dinner at this really nice Thai restaurant and then found some sticky rice with Mango on the street which was also delicious. We shopped for a little bit, which definitely did some damage but I feel that I got a lot for not too much money. Then we just took the taxi back to the ship and I hung out with the roommie, Cassie, watching my newly bought Twilight video, yes we are a little bit of nerds.

The last day in Thailand was pretty interesting. I went to the Nong Nooch "cultural" village. Now what I had expected was a rural village where we get to experience the culture a little bit more. This was another show environment, but I didn't mind too much because they had some beautiful orchids and gardens in general. It made me want to go back to Longwood gardens, ideas for the trip back up Dad? There was also a performance of different types of Thai dancing from the different regions in Thailand. This was really neat because they do the crazy hyperextension of the wrists that makes the hands look really graceful but incredibly painful. After that they did a mock Muay Thai fight, I wouldn't have wanted to see a real one because I don't think I could handle it, but this was at least interesting. The last part was another elephant show that was really circus-y but I've found that a lot of what we experienced in Thailand was really touristy. I haven't found too many people that got a real Thai local experience because most of the people don't speak English, unless it is a touristy place. At this place I also fulfilled the stereotype by getting some cheap Pad Thai but it was delicious. I swear that was the only time I got it so don't judge! We stopped again at the Harbor Mall on the way back but this time Rebecca and I went in search of a non-sketchy massage parlor. We found one and I got my first massage ever! This was 200 baht or the equivalent of around $6 US for an hour long ridiculously awesome traditional Thai massage. I also think this was one of my favorite points of the trip. I could have done it for longer but we needed to get back on the ship and work out our postcards. Thailand was definitely a shock to us but I enjoyed it because I never really felt as threatened as I did in some of the other nations. Nobody really harassed us at all and they were very friendly and nice people that didn't seem like they were always trying to squeeze as much money as they could out of us. It was a really neat place and I LOVE THE FOOD!!!!!

Our first "Saturday" experience all semester!

So the day we returned to the ship for the first time at sea we actually did not have any classes, the first time while at sea, which was fantastic. Although it was really on a Tuesday, it was the first time we had had a "Saturday" with nothing to do for a very long time. IT was just nice to sleep in for a little bit! They have had several smaller activities recently to keep us interested, like showing "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and then tonight they are showing "The Office" tonight along with "Gran Torino". In addition, they were playing "Clueless" on the circuit so we have been having actual dosages of movie time.

I also recently saw my courses for Geneseo which, as the nerd I am, I definitely got excited about. I did a lot of research on my schedule and hopefully it'll all work out. Unfortunately we're having difficulty figuring out when I will be registering and how, but I think it'll be fine in the end. We had HIV/AIDS awareness day and all wore red, in addition to a presentation on HIV and AIDS in ports. In Thailand, this is a major issue because of the high amount of prostitution there. This was really interesting until our friend Scott got sick all over his room later after that presentation. He felt the need to show us pictures too...not funny! I did give in and actually get a hair cut while at sea, but I'm figuring because we have reached and passed the halfway point of the ship that it was needed. Hopefully I won't have to get another one until I get back and see Jill! Also, we decided which style of dance we will be doing and we will be doing the Hukilau hula, which is the most common contemporary.

Later that night we had a karaoke night where even one of the little kids on board, who is unfortunately leaving the ship in Thailand, sang oen of the cutest little songs along with a whole bunch of silly students. They have given us pretty good food lately, including fudge brownies, fries, butterscotch pudding, torteloni, and Thai food for dinner tonight. Our Cultural pre-port was pretty good, as presented by one of our Life long learners who lived in Thailand for several years. She is also in my dance class and had a lot of info in general about neat places to go and what is good to eat. Also, we were actually bunkering in Singapore which was neat because I got to see the skyline from the ship's deck while I was at Pilates class. It looked gorgeous and it made us feel like we were back on the east coast looking at NYC. Like I said before Thai dinner tonight was great, but it was also an extended family dinner which was neat. Our "dad" bought us cookies and cake in addition to our awesome Thai dinner which was great. Well we're off to Thailand tomorrow and I will be going to a Tiger zoo, visiting the Grand Palace in Bangkok, a service visit to an Orphanage in Pattaya, an elephant village and lastly a visit to a rural village called Nong Nooch. I'm really excited for these trips and I'll have more stories about what we do in our off-time after these day trips are done with. Wish me luck!!