Home.

Its official…I am home. And as I think about that, actually being home, I have the song that goes, “back to life, back to reality…” stuck in my head. And I think really? Am I really home? Really back to reality? Well, I am definitely home. Reality, not so sure yet, but I’ll absolutely let you know when that one gets me. After 100 days I am finally back in the United States of America. Back to delicious boca burgers and string cheese, back to drinking tap water with ice cubes, back to toilets that are not holes in the ground that are also wonderfully supplied with toilet paper, back to a mellow 70 degrees every day, back to speaking English where everyone understands it- well most people, back to normal bowel movements (thank you God), back to searching “Tiananmen Square” on Yahoo and having more than three hits about the massacre pop up (freedoms are nice), back to good old George W. and Brittany and Angelina and so on, and most importantly back to my friends and family who I haven’t seen in far too long. It is good to be home. But as great as it is to have boca burgers fully stocked in the freezer at all times I simply can not forget that life is continuing on in the rest of the world and that it is frequently not so pretty. Because of this I will constantly be reminded of all of the people I have met and places I have seen while traveling around the world. I am determined more than ever to do something about something. I am not sure quite yet what that something is, but I do know that it will be good. It will be really good. It will help someone, somewhere. And as long as I can do that I will have begun to accomplish my mission. So…it’s officially time to take Gandhi’s wise words into consideration and be the change that you wish to see in the world. Thanks Gandhi.

Japan- Balls to the Walls

So since Japan was our last port I decided that it was absolutely necessary to go all out, balls to the walls, in Japan. And this is exactly what Megan and I did. I really don’t even know where to begin…I suppose I will start with our journeys in Tokyo since that is where we went first. Immediately after getting off of the ship Megan and I went to the train station, got a bunch of train tickets, and set off to Tokyo. We met my elementary school friend Saki (who goes to school in Japan) and her boyfriend there who showed us around Shibuya (a district in Tokyo). We wandered around, found some great stores, ate some delicious Japanese food, and of course karaoked. Celine Dion would have been proud. I did her “My Heart will go on” some serious justice. Hanson would be proud too…”MMM Bop” was another success. After our exhausting first day in Japan Megan and I were ready for bed. And since we were over paying $30 a night for a hostel, we decided, what the heck, lets sleep in the internet café (which is completely acceptable to do in Japan). You get your own little cubical for the evening for a mere $10. It comes fully equipped with a computer and high speed internet, a t.v., a dvd player and a library full of dvds, comic books to read, and reclining chair. The internet café also provided us with free drinks (tea, coffee, hot chocolate, juices, and other fun treats), showers, and warming toilet seats. Oh yes, this internet café was high quality. I wouldn’t have exchanged this place for a hostel any day. In fact, we stayed there on three occasions. Day two in Tokyo we went to Tokyo Disneyland and hung out with Mickey Mouse. Oh yes we did. It was fantastic. Day three we took a train down to Hiroshima with a little stop on the way down to see Fuji-San. We were to stop at Odawara (the place that the Japan guide indicated we should get off for Mt. Fuji) for about 30 minutes so we could take pictures and what not. As we approached the station we could see Mt. Fuji almost perfectly, but as we got closer and closer to the station another mountain slowly covered up Mt. Fuji. So, we ended up only seeing it from the train window and that was about it. But that is ok, because we still saw it. Then we continued on to Hiroshima to see the Peace Park, A- bomb Dome, and the Peace Museum. I definitely spent a good 2 and a half hours in the museum. It was so well done. The next day we made our way up to Kyoto, where we saw some amazing Shinto and Buddhist shrines and temples. At one temple there was even a Buddhist service going on that we watched for a bit. These were the main places that Megan and I were planning on visiting in Japan until our plans changed…

J-Indie Rules!

And this is why our plans changed…Megan and I had stumbled across a Tower Records in Tokyo and decided that it was necessary to check out the whole floor dedicated to Japanese indie rock (or J-Indie). We stayed there for a long time listening to some bands and rocking out and then finally made a few cd purchases. I decided to open up one of the cd’s, “Enie Meenie”, to look at the inside sleeve, and I realized that they had a concert that night. Recognizing that it was still possible to somehow get to this show, Megan and I looked at each other, smiled recognizing that we both had the same thoughts, and decided that it was absolutely necessary to go. We immediately began making plans on how to get there. Not knowing anything about anything, we showed the paper with the address on it to the lady at the ticket window at the train station, she gave us tickets to the city, which was about an hour and a half away, and we were on our way. We arrived in Shibuza and began wandering around asking people where the “Wave” (the concert venue) was. This was great fun since we speak no Japanese and there was definitely no English speaking in this suburbian town. So there was a lot of pointing and us trying to use our Japanese language book to our best ability. We eventually found out that we were in the wrong city. Great. Thank you lady at the train station for sending us to the wrong city. So we hurried back to the train station, got another ticket to another town about an hour away, and continued our adventure trying to find the Wave and Enie Meenie. Once we got to this new town we had to take a subway from the train station to get to the main part of the city. We then began wandering the streets for a second time asking people and pointing yet again to find out where the Wave was. After asking about 10 different people and walking around for an hour or so we finally found our destination, the Wave. So very exciting. We walked inside the tiny building with about 50 Japanese scene kids (you know, the tight pants, converse shoes, big/shaggy hair) and began rocking out to our Japanese indie rock bands. It was fantastic. I love my Japanese indie kids. It was well worth the half day of travel to get there. And to make the story even better, it was kind of late after the show and there were no trains back to Kobe. Thinking that we weren’t in the mood to sleep in the train station that evening and that we were almost already up to Tokyo, we decided that we would just get a ticket to Tokyo and go to our beautiful internet café just one more time. So we set off to Tokyo again. And that was that.

Check out enie meenie’s website→
www.eniemeenie.com
Listen to enie meenie→
www.purevolume.com/eniemeenie

p.s. the pictures are of Megan and I at Disneyland and of my home in Japan- my cubical in the internet cafe

Hong Kong and China

We were only in Hong Kong for one day, but I managed to get as much out of Hong Kong as humanly possible in that day. We got off the ship as soon as we could and wandered around town. Obviously wandering has become one of my favorite things to do. It involves a lot of walking around aimlessly with no real destination, yet that is how I get the most out of a place. What I found in Hong Kong was that it is very westernized to the point where I was relating it to New York City and that it is really trendy. I felt that because I wasn’t wearing my converse high tops with a designer handbag that I was being looked down upon. But that is ok. I still enjoyed my time there. From Hong Kong I left for Beijing. My trip was hosted by Peking University, which is the Chinese equivalent to Harvard. Not only did this trip do the usual site seeing in Beijing, but it also provided our group the opportunity to hang out and get to know Peking University students. This was honestly really cool. All of the students were incredibly intelligent and most of them were going to the United States (aka- Harvard and a few other places) for graduate school. They were very open, which allowed me and the other blunt SAS students to ask them all sorts of questions about China and their opinions on the United States. This was fun and in some cases even funny. I love honesty. One night we played games with the students, which was so much fun. Trying to explain to a bunch of Chinese students how to play limbo was possibly my highlight of the evening. We had a great time. Along with hanging out with these students we also did the typical Beijing site seeing. Like, the Great Wall. I hiked up the Great Wall of China. Yes I did. It was A LOT steeper than I imagined and had MUCH larger steps as well. And once we got to the top point of our section of the wall, I felt so very accomplished. Just looking down and seeing what we had climbed up was incredible. We had just climbed up the Great Wall of China. The flippin Great Wall of China. We also visited the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Ming Tombs. All pretty cool. But what was even more exciting was when we visited Tiananmen Square. For some reason I was really really into Tiananmen Square. Its quite possible that its history just really intrigues me, but actually being there, in the square, wow. At one point a couple of us made a human peace sign lying down in the middle of the square. It just made sense at that moment. Also, on a fun little side note, while in the square we got bombarded by what I like to call the Chinese paparazzi. There were about 5-10 of us SAS students just kind of people watching when a few Chinese people came up to us and asked to take pictures with us. Ok, cool right? Well, following those few people another group came up and wanted to take pictures with us as well. This went on for like 30 minutes. We must have been in some 50 random peoples pictures. One woman even pushed her daughter into our group and took a picture. It was really funny and entertaining. And it didn’t really stop in Tiananmen Square either, it continued on into the Forbidden City and everywhere we went. I felt like a star. Oh, and we also went to an acrobatic performance. Holy moley. That was crazy. These people were bending into positions that God clearly didn’t intend people to bend into. I had never seen anything like it.

Vietnam.

Crawling through Vietkong tunnels, shooting Ak47’s, visiting disabled childrens schools and regular schools, shopping, boating down the Mekong Delta, visiting the War Remnants Museum were just a select few of the activities that I participated in while running around Nam. Day one in Vietnam began with a little history lesson. We took a trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels, which are some of the intricate tunnels that the Vietcong built during the Vietnam War. These were the craziest things. They were so tiny. Megan and I, being both 5 feet tall, attempted to squeeze into one of the actual tunnels thinking it would be no big deal. But this was definitely not the case. Apparently, you have to not only be really short to fit into the tunnels, but you also have to be really, really “narrow” for a lack of a better word. I think I got my leg into the tunnel and that was all. At the Cu Chi Tunnels there were also old booby traps that the Vietcong set up. Lots of spikes and sharp things that you definitely wouldn’t want to mess with. We were also introduced to and able to check out various types of weaponry used during the war, like AK 47’s. And by check out, I mean shoot. I shot an AK 47. Multiple times. And woa, that thing has got a kick. It was a pretty stimulating experience. The next few days in Nam involved me visiting a few different schools, including a disabled childrens school, which schooled both def children and mentally handicapped children. These kids were just awesome. We basically ran around and played with them. I had one heck of a time. Yesterday I went to the Mekong Delta. And let me just say, it felt like I was alive in history, yet again. And I kind of was. When you think of the Vietnam War and you picture the hot, sweaty, jungle like conditions and the soldiers carrying their huge guns over their heads trudging through the water, you are basically thinking of the Mekong Delta. That’s where I was. Very interesting. Today I went to the War Remnants Museum. My jaw was practically open the whole time. Pretty freakin powerful. And I just realized that I sound like the biggest history nerd ever…and for some reason, I am ok with that. History rules! Wohoo! Off to Hong Kong and mainland China.

P.S. A huge thank you to Logan’s mom for bringing me my protein bars. They make me quite the happy camper. And another random side note, if anyone has ever heard of Hello Panda before you are one lucky ducky. And if you haven’t heard of them, you should. Get them. Eat them. Enjoy them. They are delicious little cookies.

Malaysia

Malaysia. A country in which I knew very little about upon arrival, and still, upon departure, know very little about. And here is why. Somewhere in India I was blessed with a little rash on my leg. This little rash then got infected and spread. So, I took some antibiotics, which caused me to break out in hives. So here I was, arriving in Malaysia, covered in hives with a spreading infectious rash (not infectious to anyone else, just me, have no fear). And the best part, no one knew what it was. So in order to effectively treat my little treat I was sent to a hospital in Malaysia. Cool right? Oh ya. Who can say that they’ve been to a hospital in Malaysia? And furthermore, who can say that they’ve ever had a biopsy done in a hospital in Malaysia? Ya, I am pretty sure that you can’t say that. It was all in all a rather INTERESTING experience. So, in a nutshell, I spent my time in Malaysia at a hospital and even came out with some pretty cool souvenirs such as hospital receipts and some pretty sick stitches. And everyone, be sure not to worry. I am fine. I am on medications and well on my way to being my pristine, flawless self. With love from Malaysia, Catie.

The pictures above…
Me in the “operating” room following my biopsy and me “buying” one of my few souvenirs in Malaysia. Good times.

India…the stuff for history nerds

I saw the Taj Mahal. Twice. Once at sunrise, and once at sunset. Who is jealous? If I were you, I would be. Pictures do no justice to the Taj. It is huge! Huge and marble. Huge, marble, and the 8th wonder of the world. Cool huh? I got there, stared for quite some time at what was right in front of me, took about 200 pictures, and then approached the Taj. I just had to touch it. And I did. I touched the Taj Mahal. For a history major, this was pretty fantastic. I also went inside the Taj. I put on my little booties over my shoes, took a deep breath, and there I was, standing inside this marble madness. Incredible. Agra also provided us with more examples of Mughal opulence. Along with the Taj we also visited Fatehpur Sikri, which were sandstone palaces and Agra fort, which was this massive Mughal fort. Both of these were pretty incredible sites as well. The next day we visited the Gandhi museum. The museum was actually the very place that Nathuram Godse shot and killed Gandhi. And I was there. It didn’t really hit me until after we left that this was the place of Gandhi’s martyrdom. It also hadn’t hit me, until after I left, that I had walked on the very path that the great Gandhi had once walked on.

India- the stuff that’ll make you laugh or perhaps think is ridiculous

Now for the stuff that wont break your heart…

Rickshaws = the most absurd invention ever. I don’t even know how to explain this mode of transportation to you. It is a three wheeled, three passenger (but people squeeze up to 6 or 7 into), motorized mini car/scooter. They were “equipped” with no doors and certainly no seatbelts. I don’t really know what else to tell you, except I was concerned for my life every time I got in one and I was thankful every time I got out of one. These things are nuts. Or maybe it was just the drivers are nuts. One of the two. You definitely wouldn’t dare stick a limb out of the vehicle for fear a passing rickshaw, bus, or motor scooter would perhaps take that limb off. And I like all of my limbs, not going to lie, so I definitely kept them inside the rickshaw at ALL times. It was almost like a Disneyland ride. This experience also included ridiculous rickshaw drivers that tried to take you everywhere you didn’t want to go. If you said you wanted to go to one place, they would try and stop at a few other places first (so they could get commission). One driver even told us that the place we wanted to go was closed due to the holiday. However, I am no fool, I knew he was lying. The tourist people on our ship had just told us how to get there and how much we should pay the driver to get there. Silly rickshaw drivers.

Going to the restroom in India= super fun. In India, they don’t believe in western toilets, or so it seemed. They prefer the “squat toilet.” And yes, the word squat is in the title because that is what you do, you squat. There is a little hole in the ground, which is equivalent in India to a western toilet. You simply stand over the hole, hold your pants up, lean back, but not too far back, cross your fingers that you don’t urinate on yourself, and do your thang. Most girls that we traveled with preferred to “hold it” until we arrived at our westernized hotels. However, I was not one of these girls. If I had to pee, I was going to do it. And a squat toilet was not going to stop me. I also enjoyed the lovely perfume that came from the restrooms as well as the flies that appeared to be taking them over. Probably not the most sanitary situation that I’ve come across, but you deal, and use lots of hand sanitizer. And did I mention they don’t believe in toilet paper either? If you want to not “clean yourself” with your hand, you must bring your own toilet paper. It’s a good thing I packed a zip lock baggy full of tp before I left the ship. I needed it.

Monkeys. Yes indeed there were monkeys throughout my travels in India. Monkeys at the Taj, monkeys at the train station, monkeys in the trees, monkeys eating popsicles, monkeys jumping on people. Who would have thought that India would have so many monkeys, just hanging out? My first encounter of the monkeys was at the train station. They (about 4 or 5) just came down from the rafters and began to play. They climbed on the stairs, jumped in the trash can, and for kicks, attacked some people. One man was walking down the stairs and all of a sudden, bam! A monkey jumped on his back. He simply swatted at the monkey and that was the end of that. Once again, mom, have no fear, Semester at Sea warned us to stay clear of any rabid creatures. And being the good girl that I am/ being petrified that a huge monkey would jump on me, I kept my distance. For those of you reading this from Boulder I am going to make a quick analogy for you. The monkeys in India are the like the raccoons in Boulder. They eat all the garbage and are therefore huge and really don’t care about people, they think they rule the world. Too bad we all know this isn’t true. Silly monkeys…