So Mauritius is Paradise...........

So South Africa took a whole lot out of us and the funny part is that my roommate, Megan, and I laid down for a nap at 8:30 PM and didn't wake up until 8:30 AM!!!!! Right after that we went right into preparation for our first Global Studies exam, what a great welcome back from South Africa. The unfortunate part was that we really did not get any form of preparation for the exam, so we kind of just made study groups and went for it. I did end up doing alright on that exam among my others, but it was a difficult time trying to prep with almost no guidance. In World Dance we have finished up Belly dancing, which was so much fun, and now we have started Indian dance. For most of the next classes we will be doing Bharanatatyam, but the first day we had one of our interport lecturers, Hamsafriya, teach a stick dance in a circle which was pretty neat. Personally I understood belly dancing more, but it was still neat to see some of our groups actually getting it by the end. As usual we had a very funny pre-port meeting for Mauritius and we got pumped for this tropical island.

 

Mauritius was actually the first port in a while where we almost arrived directly on time! We finished our diplomatic briefing quickly and then headed off on our trips. I headed to the Ille Des Deux Cocos which was really beautiful. The landscapes in Mauritius were also really cool, and my friend said that they were comparable to Hawaii. We pulled into this private driveway and pulled down to the shore were all we saw was the clear warm water and white sand. We got to ride in a glass bottom boat on the way to the private island which made all of the coral reefs and different fish seem so much closer than they actually were. Once on the island they had all sorts of yummy fruit drinks, beach chairs everywhere, hammocks, and even these little couch areas that were covered by a canopy. We swam for a little at first, but then jumped on the next boat going out for snorkeling. This was really neat because I have never done it before legitimately. There aren't really too many places to go snorkeling in New York needless to say. We saw all sorts of neat fish, and actually a whole bunch of zebra fish came all around me while I was swimming. I also saw a ton of neat coral which was much further down than I thought. These fish would get so close to you that you would want to touch them, I resisted temptation though. Once we got back to shore we enjoyed an awesome seafood barbeque with this neat banana dish for desert. We hung out on the island for a couple of hours, who wouldn't when you are in paradise. After we left the island and headed back to the ship we dropped off our stuff and headed down the pier to the water taxis. These are basically boats that took us across the harbor to the market where we hung out and checked out the souvenir shops until we needed to be back on the ship for departure. Once we were back on the ship we enjoyed another Barbeque, which was good, but not as good as the one from Neptune Day or the island that day. After that we all got changed into our sea colors, mine is orange (CARIB-BEAN OH CARIBBEAN), and went to the Union for the beginning of the Sea Olympics. We all performed our cheers, ours was a little lacking because our mascot forgot his part, but it’s alright, we still had a good time. They also performed this crazy drum circle performance for the opening ceremony. This just got everyone pumped up for the next day! After that they showed "Slumdog Millionaire" which is now on our closed circuits movies as well. I REALLY enjoyed this and I definitely recommend it, even though most of your in the states have probably already seen it. It was really moving and the plot line was fascinating to follow. I guess it a relevant movie considering our next port of call is actually India!

 

This morning I woke up early with the roomies for breakfast so I could cheer them on. My contest wasn't until late afternoon so I wasn't too stressed about it. Megan played Volleyball and Tug of War. Cassie did the Synchronized Swim and the Wall Sit during the Workout Relay. I really enjoyed cheering everyone on but it was really sticky outside so everyone was disgusting. Unfortunately, we were jipped out of our 1st place medal; we actually literally placed in last. The funny part is that the professors and their families competed too, and they even beat us! There was this ridiculous little girl, who is 10 years old, who beat everyone on the wall sit at 17 minutes total! That's ridiculous, what a little beast! I mean that in the sweetest was possible of course. I did the limbo later in the day. Yes, I know, put the short dancer in the limbo competition even though she really isn't too sure. I did alright but it’s kind of unfair when the Professors and their families put little kids in the competition. The funny part is that I didn't lose to them; I lost to another dancer, which I can accept. I personally think I would've been better at Twister, but unfortunately they already signed someone up for that before I could do anything. Overall, it was a really fun time and it really reminded me a lot of CULAH WAR (Color War for non-Micahites) which was neat to actually get to compete!! Now we all must get back to work for next couple of days before we arrive in India, which I am definitely pumped for!

 

5, 4, 3, 2, 1.........BUNGEE!!!!!! South Africa

I'm pretty sure South Africa is my favorite country I have been to to this date. The first day we didn't pull into the port until late and we started our diplomatic briefing at 10 AM. This was good as usual, but a whole lot of warnings about crime in general because its level of crime is rated at Critical apparently. No worries, I had nothing bad like this happen to me! I started off with a SAS trip to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held for so many years. They had some neat videos they showed us on the ferry there and back which got us prepped for the visit. Our first guide was very funny, and a resident on the Island, he even showed us his house. His voice was so dramatic that it made everything so much more entertaining. He started off by making fun of all the different nationalities of the visitors, trust me he had fun with the Americans! He showed us around the general island and all of the important places, like the limestone quarry and such. This part of the tour was neat except for the fact that I have had a cold since the end of Namibia so I was coughing up a storm. It's mainly gone now, but still some remnants, unfortunately I did pass it onto both of the roomies and they are currently passed out in the room as a result. The second guide for Robben Island was a former inmate from the 1970s when a lot of teenagers were put in as political prisoners. He mainly did the tour of the prison area and shared many interesting stories about life in there. Of course we got to see Mandela's cell and I took several pictures, but it was definitely a heartening experience to start off with. Once I got back I ran into the mall which was near the port and grabbed a quick burger, they are better in South Africa than in the states, before I left for a theatrical performance of "Freak Country". It was performed at the University of Cape Town and it was this really neat dark comedy about a South African white actor who was flying to shoot a movie in some other nation. HE gets caught up in one of the more restrictive African nations when he has a magazine with some men that are not appropriately dressed, and says, "the President can kiss his a**," when the guards accuse him of it. It was actually really funny, but the message was definitely in there as well. This was really great because we got some local hors d'oeuvres which were AMAZING.

 

The next morning we woke up really early to leave on the "Shark Jumper" trip at 5 AM. The bus we got on was huge and even nicer than any of the ones I've been on yet. I slept through large portions of the 8 hour drive, but whenever I woke up and looked out the window you would see some of the most beautiful landscapes you have ever seen in your life. It would jump from huge mountains to flat farms lands in the matter of an hour or so. The bus ride went pretty fast except for when the bus driver started playing this hilarious South African musical which was really silly and not very good in general. That's when it seemed a little bit longer. We drove over the Bloukrans Bridge when we got there and instantly realized how high it was. The area all around it had amazing views and there was even a little restaurant you could hang out in and see people bungee from. Our bungelow was awesome too, it reminded a little bit of smaller versions of Outer Banks beach houses. It was so much nicer than we expected. After we checked in we just wandered around the area until we were weighed and harnessed. There was even a Red bull car that came around and gave us some before we jumped, and they hung out with us later that night too which was fun. I don't really drink Red Bull so it made me pretty jittery right before I went and it didn't help that it had started to lightly mist rain and I was only in a tank top with jeans. Afterwards I was shivering for a really long time because it was kinda cold and I had so much adrenalin going! The walk underneath the bridge to get to the main platform was probably the scariest part of all of it because you could see everything underneath and around you as you walked. Plus, there was a little bit of bounce to it which definitely did not make you feel secure. There were 3 groups that went and I was in the third, but the order in the groups was based on size, SO that means that I was the first one of my group to do the bungee jump. It is a 216 meter drop, or more than 600 feet, and the actual Bridge is about 300 meters, or about 900 feet high. The first drop was probably the best part of all of it, with 5 seconds of completely free fall, but the entire thing seemed to fly by. The surprising part was that you basically could feel no whiplash it was just that much adrenalin and fun! Afterwards I ran back to pick up the video and some other things and it looks so crazy now, I feel so proud that I actually did it! That night we just hung out at the restaurant and then chilled in our bungelows because we were basically in the middle or nowhere but we still had a good time.

 

We had to wake up early again the next morning, again at 5 AM, to drive to Gansbaii. It was about a 6 hour drive which I slept through a good portion of as well. I basically just ate some Nik Nask, which are basically cheetos, and some Fanta which was everywhere. They divided us into 3 groups for the Great White shark cage diving for our boat sizes. At our place they gave us a little food and had a nice curio shop along with a quick briefing. After putting on some sunscreen and getting our swimsuits on we got our life jackets and some silly orange jackets. I got to sit at the front of the boat on the way to Dyer Island for the great whites. I was again in the 3rd group which was all girls for getting into the cage. Our wetsuits were absolutely huge along with our swim shoes. My mask actually went over the bottom part of the face in my wetsuit which made it really hard to breathe once I was actually in the water. The water was absolutely freezing but you definitely got used to it and the waves were huge. It actually made a couple of people sea sick which is crazy considering how long we've been at sea. We only had one shark but it was a 12 foot angry male which was really cool. In both my turn and the last time it actually jumped out of the water a bit to get to the big, gross tuna head they were trying to attract it with. Apparently sharks are attracted to their grease more so than the blood which was interesting. We had a Marine Biologist on our boat so that's why we found out so much. They actually played a joke on my group by asking us if we wanted to see the shark up close, and they actually dropped the fish head into the cage with us, right in front of my face! If you listen to the video I would be the one uttering the ear-piercing scream. SO GROSS! Overall shark diving was really neat and we were pretty lucky because it isn't really the season for it. I ended up missing the Cape Town rugby game I wanted to go to because the bus came back too late, but I still had a good time.

 

I'm pretty sure I woke up early every single day while in South Africa, because we had to meet outside the pier at 7 AM to climb and abseil off of Table Mountain. Unfortunately we had to wait about 30 minutes just for them to pick us up but then we drove to the bottom of Table Mountain. We were a pretty big group with over 20 people hiking up the Mountain. It ended up taking us a little less than 2 hours, but most of my roomies made it in an hour or 1.5 hours. I'll just blame it on the big group for the sake of my pride I guess, what can I say when both of them are D 1 athletes??? I was staying with the pretty quick group for most of the hike, but when we got to the big gorge with the really steep steps I had to back down a bit. I definitely made it to the top and it felt great, but it was REALLY exhausting. Once we got up there we explored it a little bit and took a bunch of pictures, there are even little animals that live on the top! They are called Dassies and they remind me a little bit of groundhogs, but they aren't afraid of people whatsoever. We got some breakfast at the cafe and then prepped for abseiling, or rappelling, off the side. We went down about 112 meters, but it was a long wait beforehand so the anticipation made me pretty nervous. Everybody that worked there was so nice and really funny. They told us there was a "surprise" about halfway down the distance, which really was that the wall cut in so far that you just hung there lowering yourself instead of walking down. It was really scary at first, probably scarier than the bungee jumping, but the views were absolutely amazing and I really enjoyed the part I didn't walk down more because the views were so nice. Afterwards we took the cable car down which was neat because it rotates in a circle so everyone can get a good view. I definitely got some neat pictures up there! I got back to the ship and did a little shopping with Emily in the port after I had cleaned up from the hike and abseiling. After that I went out to dinner with roommie Megan and some other friends at this Italian place in the pot. The crazy part was that I actually had OSTRICH while I was there. I did want to make sure I had some form of exotic food while I was there. In addition, I tried their Bar One cheesecake which was absolutely amazing, ask me about it id you want the details!

 

The last day I got to sleep in a little bit and had to meet outside at 8:30 AM for my SAS trip to Khayalitsha township in Cape Town. Once we got there we went to Miss Vicky's Bed and Breakfast which is actually really famous. My friend Claudia had brought these little sticker bags she had made, along with some other SASers, that they were handing out to the little kids, but I swear they almost got mobbed over it. I bought this gorgeous painting there that a little boy and his brother made, it was of the township at sunset it it had actual aluminum among other recycled materials used to make the little shacks. After that we went to the craft market where I bought several other little trinkets and some jewelry which was really neat. Outside of the market there was a church service going on, it was Sunday after all, and some kids were playing on the playground outside. The kids were singing and dancing for us which was so sweet and then afterwards they played around for a bit. They loved taking pictures with us, one girl said she wanted to be a model like "Tyra", a girl after my own heart! We taught them some of our little hand games from when we were little girls, like "Double Double This This", which was so much fun afterwards, they couldn't get enough of it! After that we headed to look out point where you could see all of Khayalitsha and we heard some amazing singing coming from this one church service at the bottom. They were some people that were so moved that they were crying as they exited. The last stop was another Bed and Breakfast where we got a quick snack of their local donuts and some lemonade. They then led us around a small walking tour of township which was absolutely crazy. Everyone is so impoverished and living in this public housing, but they are incredibly sincere and happy almost. The crazy part was that the ANC, or African National Congress, was having a rally there for later that day when President Zuma was supposed to speak in Khayalitsha. Everyone was waving its flag and had t-shirts with his pictures on it. Buses drove by with people and kids even leaning out the windows with the flags waving. The crazy part of all of this is that Zuma is up for charges of corruption in their government! The people there were just so different from anything I've experienced before and it really shocked my entire time I had in South Africa in a good way. It made me realize the difference between the segregation that although it is not legalized anymore, it is still there. It was really amazing for me to see this almost everywhere, but most of the people were so welcoming nonetheless. After that I just grabbed some sushi really quick and then went grocery shopping for the longer portion of the trip before Mauritius and India, I needed to contribute to our triple's food pile! Live is going to be pretty busy with schoolwork for the next couple of days, especially with our first Global Exam tomorrow, but hopefully all will be well. I did do well on my Sacred Sites exam at least, I haven't gotten the Immigration Law one yet. Wish me luck and I can't wait for a day break in Mauritius and Sea Olympics afterwards!

Hakuna Matata-Namibia

So while I was not actually in the Lion King while in Namibia I will say that our bus trip to Etosha National Reserve did sing this song on many occasions so it is somewhat appropriate. To start off we had our first diplomatic briefing while when we landed in Namibia and also enjoyed a performance from a local children's choir when after the meeting. There were maybe 20 young girls that ranged between 5 and 14 years old. They were absolutely amazing and dacned around while they sang. I swear they had about double the attitude of most of the competition dancers I have ever seen, somethign to live up to for me! Once we finally got to get off the bus we drove around Walvis Bay for a little bit to see some of the stores and stuff, after that we stopped in Swakopmund. There we got money and stopped in a grocery store for some chips and food for the long drive. We stopped quite a bit on the drive, which we were told would be about 4 hours beforehand, but another one of the buses had broken down and some girls had to go to the bathroom a lot, so it ended up taking about 8 HOURS!!! Once we got to our camp our guides, George and Milner, fixed dinner which was simply spaghetti with meat sauce, but I have never had such amazing food before. This was partially because it was raining outside and Emily and I had to set up our tent with Milner's help, but overall we were tired enough as is. Surprisingly the bus ride actually didn't seem that long at all. We got to see some of the dunes and local villages as we drove through and stopped in them. It was such a huge change from Morocco, the people were amazingly friendly, and not in a creepy way. They were honestly curious about us, and we were told later that our ship amounts for about 10% of the entire tourists that traveled in Namibia for the entire year!

 

Our camp was in Okaukuejo and our campsite was ridiculously nice. The bathrooms were immaculate for a campsite and they had various stores you could get necessities and non-essentials as well. They had 2 awesome swimming pools and even small kitchens that we would hang out in while our guides made dinner, often with us offering to help. Our group was quite interesting in that there were 13 girls and 1 boy, I'm pretty sure our guides were just happy we didn't continue to say "AW!" every time we saw an animal. Nevertheless we were a very fun group and very silly indeed. We started our safari when we left the next morning at 6:30 AM, we were the first bus to go out on the first fame drive! We saw a ton of giraffe, zebra, springbok, oryx, and ostrich among others. We came back for breakfast and realized to our great pleasure that the guides had provided us with Nutella, which I think was a godsend to us. I'm pretty sure we finished it by the end of the day. Our second game drive was after breakfast and that was when we saw our major excitement. We found 2 LIONS underneath a tree very close to the road. the crazy part was that they had just finished eating a zebra whose carcass was right next to them. As gross as I normally would find this it was really cool to see this so close. The last game drive we tried finding some cheetah, but there ended up being only 1 bus that actually found them so it wasn't too bad. We got to see a lot of the landscape and this huge watering hole. There were apparently some rhino near a watering hole at our camp but I missed that. We did have jackals that would come into our camp eery night as well, which meant we had to keep our shoes inside the tent so they didn't steal them! The nice thing about dinner on the second night was that our guides made us traditional Namibian food which was almsot like a mashed potatoes with salsa on top, and it was naturally very good.

 

The last day we woke up early to pack up all of our things. This time I slept through a lot of the drive which definitely did not take as long, but was still about 6 hours. It was a little more uncomfortable because we had been using the same bus for the entire trip so I was definitely ready to get back on the ship by the end of the time. We stopped in various pit stops and Swakopmund again to do a little shopping and buy some stamps to send pastcards and such. Overall I really enjoyed our short stay in Namibia and I've heard some amazing stories from my roommates about sand boarding and other thigns on the dunes. I definitely want to go back!

 

Today was called South Africa day because it was all about prepping us for Capetown tomorrow. I am SO pumped for this, I was actually planning on applying to Rhodes University through Geneseo if Semester at Sea didn't work out. Unfortunately I have caught a little bit of a cold from camping in the rain, but I have been starting to feel better. I can't be sick while trying to enjoy South Africa! I have a ton of neat things planned and I'll write back on Sunday afterwards!

I'm no longer a Pollywog!

The past 8 days have actually gone by really quick and I am definitely VERY excited to go to Namibia tomorrow. I will be going on a safari for the whole time so hopefully I'll have some good stories then to tell you. From the first day back we did start back to work, which was kind of a shock considering we hadn't had class for about 8 days. I'm pretty sure I even forgot when World Dance actually was, don't fret Mom I did make it in time! I was actually pretty excited for Global to cover some African Politics, which they did in the beginning, but after that they switched to the theme of "Out of Africa" and early humans which isn't exactly my cup of tea. We finished learning the Sevillanas in World Dance and now we are working on belly dancing. I definitely enjoy this a lot more and it's really fun! My group is hoping to do a hula for the last project which should be pretty fun, and also gives us quite a bit of time to work on it.

 

I have also been working on the Ambassador's committee to plan the ball at the end of the semester. It will be when we cross through the Panama Canal at the very end of our trip. Our theme is "Sea of Dreams" and I am working on the entertainment aspect of the night. Its kinda a little like prom, but hopefully not exactly the same. We might be having the World Dance professor perform with some students, and then we were hoping to get one of the administrators to perform as well, which would be SO funy, maybe even some of the kids on board. Overall it should be a really fun night, and I'm enjoying helping plan it. An exciting addition is that they extended lunch so that now I can get some in the last 15 minutes on A days. They also extended breakfast, but I rarely wake up in time for that.

 

I have been going to the yoga classes, but I think I might switch to the Pilates because, as my roomie Cassie would say, "it's like yoga on 'roids!" I definitely felt more of a workout after this. I've been trying to stay active on the boat because we don't have too much time for that while we are in port. I received my first Vicarious Voyage package at the beginning of our time at sea and it was too cute. They actually remind me a great deal of the students that Mom teaches at Randall. I also met my extended family, which is where they assign certain students to an older member on staff and we have dinner and stuff every now and then. Mine is our communications director, which is kind of funny because he is only 23. I have friends that are students on board that are the same age! Our family includes 12 students in total so its actually pretty big, it was fun and I recognized some of them but not all which was cool.

 

I have been hanging out a great deal with the roomies, Cassie and Megan, and we have been having a pretty good time lately. One day they served french fries for lunch and I'm pretty sure Cassie and I went through about 2 full plates of them together, it was SO GOOD!!! The funny part is that about halfway through our second plate, Megan came up with a plateful herself. Its kind of funny how often we are on the same wavelength hahaha. We actually made a really funny document called our "Roomie Pact". Megan wrote it and here is some parts of it, but we have added more items since then:

 

~THE ROOMIE PACT OF 3117~

**NOTHING SHALL BE STOLEN OR PICK POCKETED THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE VOYAGE**
As simple as it seems, this is a big undertaking. Pick pocketing is a major issue in each of the countries, which several students have already experienced. Apparently by the time we reach Guatemala it’s easier to leave a pile of valuables to save thieves the trouble. We refuse to be dumb tourists.

**SYLVIE MUST BE CONVERTED TO COUNTRY MUSIC**
This one is actually working! Not that she has a choice. Cassie and I take all iTunes deejay control. Having a roommate who matches my love for country is rare, and we take full advantage of it. 2 vs. 1 = we win! Sylvie is a good sport though.

**ALL MUST SING TO 90'S MUSIC, REGARDLESS OF ABILITY OR CHEESINESS**
Self explanatory. Yes, this is as special as it sounds.

**CASSIE AND MEGAN MUST LEARN TO CONTROL THEIR CRAP**
To my family: I know what you are thinking. Shutup, Cassie is the same or worse than me :) Thankfully, Sylvie is not a neat freak and is very accepting of our inability to corral our clutter.

**ALL MUST CONTRIBUTE TO THE STOLEN FOOD PILE**
Big signs are plastered all over the ship: “Food should not be removed from the dining area!”We read them as we stuff fruit, bread and little cereal boxes into any available pocket. There’s just something about set meal times that brings hunger exactly when food isn’t being served. What can we do? These people are picky about their rolls.

**NO BEDTIME WITHOUT DOING "X" NUMBER OF PUSHUPS**
Our food shelf usually contains many chocolate bars from the most recently visited country. Good, but oh so very bad. Bedtime pushups are our attempt at justifying ourselves.
       
**SYLVIE MUST LEARN THE FINE ART OF CHOWING DOWN**
Felicia, I finally found a slower eater than you! It’s a bit ridiculous. We call her Grandma.

**CASSIE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE THAT GLOBAL STUDIES IS MANDATORY**
This is a pretty pointless class, but still. She doesn’t sleep through it purposely, but the alarm is not her friend. Also, she has to stop claiming, "Sure, I'll go to breakfast tomorrow!" We know how that ends by now.

**ALL MUST REMEMBER THE KEY CARDS**
We’ve each locked ourselves out a few times. A good thing about being in a triple is there’s always someone in the room to save you, otherwise you pay to get a temp key. New rule: every time this happens, we have to donate $1 to our personal Roomie Fund (to be used at the end of the semester).

We have added things about my sleep talking, and attaining the ability to sing "We didn't start the fire" and "Its the end of the World as we know it" by the end of the trip. Overall we are definitely happy with the living situation and have no idea why it costs so much less to be in a triple. To all future SASers, get the cheapest one possible, its definitely worth it!

 

NEPTUNE DAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

 

This was a couple of days ago and I have explained it to many of you but here it goes. When one has never crossed the Equator on a ship before one is known as a "Pollywog" and once one has been initiated one is called a "Shellback". The initiation included the staff banging on our doors playing drums at about 7:30 AM and then herding us up to the pool deck. There a whole bunch of the staff and the Captain were all dressed up in crazy attire. The ritual involves dumping "fish guts" on the pollywogs, making them kiss a fish, kiss "Kind Neptune's" ring and bow to his queen. I have several pictures of them dumping what was basically just green water on me and jumping into the pool. Many people also shave their heads on this day, including 11 girls on the whole ship. Needless to say I kept my hair, because I'm pretty sure my dance teachers at home would not be happy with me if I did end up shaving it hahaha. The rest of the day was spent just hanging out in the sun, but one of my favorite parts was the AMAZING dinner! It was basically a picnic on the pool deck with burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, baked beans, fresh fruit, and ice cream sundaes we could make. Everyone was so excited because our meals are alright, but literally the same thing day after day so this was an awesome change.

 

Since Neptune Day I have just been finishing up my work, and I have had two midterms ALREADY! The weird part is that now we will have 9 days of no class at all. Getting used to this is very strange, but they definitely cram in the tests as much as they can now. I had two that were back to back, but I'm pretty sure I did alright. We had the cultural pre-port for Namibia last night which was fine, but the part on Namibia only lasted about 30 minutes. After that they talked about Darwin for an hour because it was his 200th birthday. I find this really amusing and I will say that I made an inappropriate comment about how Semester at Sea has an "affinity" for the sciences. I'll keep this clean though. We have our logistical pre-port in a little bit and then we get to watch some episodes of "The Office" later which should be pretty funny. I'm actually impressed how they try to keep us updated on things like that, the inauguration and even the Superbowl. I'm sure I'll have much more exciting things to tell everyone after Namibia, plus I have South Africa right afterwards. Should be pretty cool!

 

Here's lookin' at you kid-Casablanca

So no I didn't really spend that much time in Casablanca but I did have an amazing time while in Morocco. Before I get to those adventures, after we left Spain we headed to Gibraltar to get fuel, but the seas were really rough. Basically we ended up tied to another ship, but unable to get fuel overnight so we missed our first day in Morocco. They either cancelled trips or reworked them so they would fit in only 3 days in Morocco. I would definitely not have wanted to work in the Field office because they were the ones that had to deal with everyone's questions and issues. The first night at sea in between Cadiz and Casablanca we watched the Superbowl but the funny part was that for good picture we had to watch it in German. Trust me, the Superbowl is much different when it is in German and people are asking you to translate. The second day was soooooooooo long because we were supposed to be in Morocco and we were stuck on the ship. I was being stubborn and refusing to put on the seasickness patch for just a day or two so I was not feeling too good for the majority of time in between Spain and Morocco. A lot of the time I slept but sometimes I had to leave the lectures to go back to the room to feel better. Nothing was actually required of us, but there were certain preport lectures and such to go to but I just found out later what happened if I had to leave. I hung out with my roomies a lot for those days because everyone was pretty much sick and in their rooms or just playing cards. The night before we arrived we had a safety lecture by our Safety officer, Joe, who used to work for the LAPD in various units. This was absolutely hilarious because he kept on pickpocketing certain students to get his point accross and no one expected it. We also had our second open mic night which was really good as usual, but a lot of the acts blended together because they were just so many.

 

I was definitely ready for Morocco once we got there. I got an early breakfast with the roomies and then left on the bus for Marrakech. We slept for most of the way there, which was about 4 hours. We stopped at a beautiful restaurant that resembled the Alcazar in my mind because of the designs on the walls and the various mosaics. ?The meal was absolutely delicious and there was even a belly dancing performance. There were several courses and I definitely enjoyed the cous cous, but the belly dancing was defnitely the best part. She did it all with a tray of candles on her head! After that we went to the Palm Groves for some camel riding. I was in one of the last groups with one fellow SASer and then some French tourists. The camel ride was really fun and we actually got to go through a little village where there were a bunch of children. I was silly and chewing a piece of gum and they kept on asking me for some, but I didn't understand them so I didn't know what they wanted at the time. We went inside one of the local homes for some crepes and the tradition Mint tea with some local music on the side. OVerall we got to ride them for about an hour so it was definitely worth it! We got to our hotel which was so nice, called the Hotel Ryad Mogador where it was nice to put down our bags for a bit. We had dinner there both nights and the highlight was definitely the deserts, which isn't too far from the norm for me. After dinner we headed to a restaurant and had a glass of wine, but it was ridiculously expensive which should be expected considering it was our hotel clerk that recommended it.

 

The second day was our tour of Marrakech. We had a good breakfast at the hotel which consisted mainly croisants filled with chocolate, but they were definitely delicious. We took pictures of various monuments including some Minurets which reminded me a little of the tower La Giralda in Seville. We didn't get to spend too much time there because it was raining. We went into a store with set prices so we could gauge how mnuch was normal to spend for most items in the Plaza where we would bargain with the Souks. After that we went to a palace which also reminded me a great deal of a smaller version of the Alcazar. It was a former Prime Minister's palace with his 4 wives and 20 something concubines. The mosaics were very similar but the gardens were much smaller and just in the small courtyards. We had a lunch that was very similar to the one from the first day, but without a belly dancer and plus local musicians. We then went to the Plaza which is where all of the snake charmers and monkey owners roamed trying to get you to buy pictures with them. The tour guides took us around a specific route in the market to follow that we would be familiar with and then we got some free time in groups to go find some neat things. I did get a picture with a monkey, but at the time it was eating my hair so needless to say I look a little surprised in it. I bought a bracelet and a soap stone camel for my Dad for 40 dirham each. This is just about 5 dollars U.S. which I talked down from about 180 dirham. I'm quite proud of this and it really made me feel like a true New Yorker, even if I am an upstate girl. We then went to a spice market which they explained everything in a lecture and let us smell and try almost everything. The problem with that is that a lot of things we couldn't take back on the ship so a lot of people didn't buy things when they would have normally. I didn't have enough money because my ATM card wouldn't accept any transactions at any of the ATMs in Morocco that I used. We headed back for dinner at the hotel and then afterwards our tour guide took us to a place he called the Moroccan Disney land. It was desert, tea and drinks along with a traditional Moroccan show. The place was absolutely beautiful and basically the stereotype of what one thinks of when they think of Morocco. We sat in one of the tents wth our drinks and had several local musicians play for us along with Berber dancers. We then went outside where they had horse tricks, belly dancing, flying carpets, camel riding and a gun show. Afterwards they let us pet the horses like we were little kids, but I'll readily admit I enjoyed it among the rest of all of the performances involved.

 

The last day we hads to wake up VERY early to eat a quick breakfast then catch the bus back to Casablanca. It didn't take us as long to get to Casablanca so our tour guide took us to the tallest Minuret in the world, according to him. At that point we were still pretty tired and everyoen wanted to go back to the ship. After a lunch on the ship before which I cranked out quite a few post cards and letters to people we took the long walk in the rain to get to the Medina. There I picked up stamps and I found a nice traditional Moroccan blosue I can use for Sea Olympics but I am planning on giving it to my mom afterwards (Sorry it is kind of a second hand gift after I use it mom!). We spent a really long time there just shopping around but we definitely got harassed a great deal more in Casablanca than in Marrakech not only to buy things but also just because we were American girls. Overall, it was an amazing trip but I definitely learned to ignore people that start yelling at us in public because it happened almost everywhere we went in large public places. Once we were back on the ship I spent some time reorganizing, but the coolest thing was that they announced that they would shut off the stabilizers to pull out of the port just as they did when they pulled in. When we had pulled in I was in the dining room and dishes went everywhere as a result. This time we were prepared and ran to Tymitz square which is a marble floor and an open area. There we packed a whole bunch of students sitting down and we slid across the floor crashing into each other. There will definitely be videos all over the place of us just sitting there or sliding into the counters. FUN TIMES!!!!!