Final Touches!

So I'm in Cortland, NY right now getting all of my stuff together with packing and hoping that I'll have enough or not too much stuff for the next 108 days +. Since my last post they have changed the itinerary for our Spring 2009 Voyage because of trouble in the Gulf of Aden. They took off Italy, Turkey and Egypt but replaced them with Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Mauritius. It is now:
~Arrive in Nassau, Bahamas 1/18
~Depart on the MV Explorer 1/19
~Cadiz, Spain 1/28-1/31
~Casablanca, Morocco 2/02-2/05
~Walvis Bay, Namibia 2/14-2/16
~Cape Town, South Africa 2/18-2/22
~Port Louis, Mauritius 2/17
~Chennai, India 3/05-3/09
~Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand 3/15-3/19
~Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam 3/22-3/27
~Hong Kong/Shanghai, China 3/29-4/03
~Kobe/Yokohama, Japan 4/06-4/10
~Honolulu, Hawaii 4/19-4/20
~Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala 4/28-4/30
~Arrive in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 5/6

I have quite a few of the trips in port already planned out which is very exciting. They are a Flamenco and Bull Fight the first night in Spain. The next day I will be heading out to Seville and Cordoba to see the Alcazar. In Morocco I have a trip where we go stay in a nomadic village and ride camels into Marrakesh. I will be going on a safari in Namibia for basically the entire time I am there. Once I am in Cape Town I plan on going to Robben Island and then a play that night called Freak Country which is pretty neat. The next day I leave for my "Adrenaline Rush" in which I will be cage diving with great white sharks off the coast followed by bungee jumping off of one of the highest points in the world, the Bloukrans Bridge. I plan on hiking up Table Mountain and rappeling down which is also another trip that powers up that adrenaline. The last day I want to do a service visit, possibly going to one of the Townships in Cape Town that Semester at Sea puts on. Once I arrive in India I plan on doing a tour that involves obviously the Taj Mahal but also the city of Jaipur, which is known as the Pink City fo its Pink looking architecture. I haven't planned too much for Thailand but there were a couple of trips I can buy once I am on the ship that seemed interesting. A visit to the Sri Rancha Tiger Zoo, to the Pattaya Elephant Village and then possibly to the Nong Nooch Village for some traditional Thai food and dancing. In Vietnam I have a really special trip planned through Semester at Sea where I will leave pretty much as soon as I arrive for Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and Phnom Penh. I have talked to several alumni and they said that this is probably one of the best trips available. It will leave me with about a day or two in Ho Chi Minh City at the end. In China I will spend one day in Hong Kong and then the second day leave on a flight for Beijing where I will be staying at Tsinghua University. There I will be seeing a lot of the ultimate tourist attractions in China including the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Summer Palace, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven and Some of the 2008 Summer Olympic facilities including the Bird's Nest. After this trip I will have one day to spend in Shanghai before I board the ship for Japan. Once we arrive in Japan I am hoping to meet up with one of my old suitemates Toshie from Geneseo. I know I definitely want to spend some time in Tokyo but other than that I am leaving it fairly open ended. In Hawaii the only thing I have planned is ski diving on the second day which is going to be so COOL!!! In Guatemala the only trips I really have planned are hopefully visiting one of the Free Trade Coffee Farm and then hiking up and camping on top of some of the highest Volcanos in Guatemala. Whew that was a lot os thigns planned!

I'll only be taking 4 classes which is a very light load for me and I'm lucky because I got all of the classes I wanted/needed. They are the Global Studies class that everyone on the ship has to take every day at sea (we have class every day that we are at sea), A History of U.S. Immigration Law, A World of Dance, and an Art History course called Sacred Sites.

I did get a World phone for the voyage but as one might expect it is quite expensive so PLEASE only call me if you REALLY need to talk to me. Definitely do NOT text my number over the next couple of months because we will feel the pain on the phone bill for a while after. I love you all but the last thing I need is some random text messages while I'm in Vietnam. You can e-mail me anything you want. I'm not sure if I get a Semester at Sea e-mail account, but I do know that we have free e-mail access so send me all you want! My yahoo account is sylvierocksmysocks@yahoo.com. If you want to send me some postcards let me know and I'll send the address you would have to send it to for that port.

I am really pumped and nervous for this journey! I'll be living in a triple on the ship which means probably quite cramped quarters but it was a lot cheaper so we went with it. We don't find out who our roommates are until we get onto the ship which is kinda nerve racking but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Right now it feels like about 40 below zero in C-land, NY but it is apparently supposed to be clear on the day we fly to Nassau so hopefully we won't get delayed. Mom is coming with me down there to see me off because she has a 3 day weekend. My Dad will be picking me up in Ft. Lauderdale and driving me up the coast from there which should be an adventure in itself! I'm ready for 75 degrees and warm beaches, LET'S GO!!!!!