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…

India- the stuff that’ll make you cry

So….India. Wow. What a country. Distinct from anything I have EVER seen in my life. Coming into India I was told/warned/explained the “situation” of the country. But how can one truly be prepared for what they’ve never experienced before? I felt if anyone was ready for this, that I was. I had talked to several people who had been to India before and they were quite honest with me about India’s condition. Along with all of the amazing stories that they told me about India they also emphasized that they thought that India was one of the dirtiest, most impoverished, chaotic, and overpopulated places in the existence of the world. They then said bluntly, “be prepared.” So, that is what I expected. And I was prepared, or so I thought. The poverty in India just smacked you right in the face. It was blunt. It was frank. And it was not masked by any means. In India there were poor people everywhere, generally women, children, and the handicapped. On the streets, in the train stations, sleeping in their rickshaws, wherever they could. Tiny bodies were constantly begging for food or money. They would take their hands and make motions as if to signal eating and the desire for us to give them food. So, whatever food we had, we gave. Unfortunately, that food was only to those few individuals and only for that particular day. What were they going to do for food tomorrow I constantly asked myself. I have never seen such devastation, ever. I was most unprepared for the amount of disabled people who I came across. People with no feet and people with polio crawling on the ground just to move, people with elephantitus whose feet were the size of watermelons, people with cleft lips, people with skin hanging off of their faces, just any and every type of health disaster. These were the people I could hardly look at for fear that I would break down crying right in front of them. They were helpless, and it broke my heart. Over and over again. And as much as I love India, like love love India, I don’t know how much more of this I could have taken. Feelings that I had never felt before were present, and frankly, I didn’t really like them. I didn’t like feeling so depressed, so disheartened, so helpless, and I really didn’t like the feeling that I was constantly going to break down and cry. And I don’t cry.

Flippin sweet…

After working out for 2 hours Megan and I decided that we would grab a quick bite to eat before showering. This was rather out of the ordinary for both of us as we always shower after working out and before going to eat. As you can imagine, after working out for 2 hours we were completely sweaty/stinky. We were also seriously hoping to come into contact with as few people as possible while scarfing down dinner. But apparently God had other plans for us. Father and Mrs. Father (Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wonderful wife) came to our table and asked if they could join us. Megan and I were speechless, looking up as if they were out of their mind to want to eat dinner with two really sweaty girls who were shoveling food into their mouths as if was their last meal. But apparently this was attractive to the couple and they sat down regardless. Megan and I chatted with Father and Mrs. Father for about half an hour about everything and anything. I was honestly quite nervous, not really sure what to ask or what to say, but somehow, words came out of my mouth and questions formed. I don’t think I have ever enjoyed a conversation more. Father is such a wonderful man with an incredible sense of humor and his wife is just the sweetest woman. Wohoo for a flippin sweet dinner with Father and Mrs. Father.

Mauritius

Mauritius started off a little bit different than the other ports that we have been to thus far due to our late arrival (because of rough waters) to the island. And let me just shout out how fun filled rough waters are! Oh boy! Because we didn’t even pull in to Mauritius until around noon, I did not get up at a ridiculous hour to follow my usual pattern of watching the sunrise. When we finally did get off the ship, we did our typical wandering around town to check everything out. What we found out about Mauritius was that there really wasn’t much to it. The most exciting thing, I felt, about Mauritius, was that it was home to the once great Dodo bird (now extinct because the Portuguese ate them all). They also grow lots of sugarcane and have nice beaches and good Chinese and Indian food, but that is basically it. Not really sure what to do with ourselves because we couldn’t see any real Dodos, we decided to take a public bus to the botanical gardens. I love public transportation. This had the potential to be the most chaotic experience ever. The bus station, with probably around 100 buses was in Port Louis, where we were. So we found a bus, with the help of some locals, that would take us where we needed to go. The drive to the botanical gardens took about an hour providing us with a little scenic tour of Mauritius. Once we arrived at the botanical gardens we climbed trees, frolicked in the gardens, and saw ginormous Lilly pads. No joke, they were huge. This was pretty cool, except I got eaten alive for the second time on this trip by lots of bugs. My legs look like I have chickenpox. Yay! Oh, and one more thing. I almost forgot to tell you about our French friends. So, our ship was docked right next to a French marine ship in Mauritius. A ship full of French marines docked next to a ship 2/3 full of American women. Interesting…They spoke French and we spoke English. We tried to communicate with them because we wanted to tour their ship (I don’t know, something about battleships are pretty exciting), but this really didn’t work out so well. However, it did provide for a good time. They made it clear that it was “forbidden” to come on their ship, and when they tried to get on our ship, we made it clear that our ship was “forbidden” as well. After this “conversation” we asked if we could take pictures with them, which was quite exhilarating. One of the marines was fully dressed in his uniform, looking rather snazzy. When I took a picture with him he took off his really sweet hat with a funny little palm on top and placed it on my head. Then he and I posed, looking rather mischievous, creating a dang good photograph. Wohoo for French Marines. They were fun. That is pretty much all for Mauritius. Off to India…and I couldn’t be more excited!

Africa Part II

So a little bit more South Africa…The last two days in South Africa were spent exploring the beautiful winelands, climbing a ridiculous large mountain that overlooks Cape Town (Table Mountain), and wandering around downtown one last time. The winelands of South Africa were incredible. It was basically a lot of grapes and flowers with a lovely backdrop of mountains. We tasted all sorts of wines, key word here being tasted, don’t worry mom. We also tasted a few different types of cheese. And for those of you who know me well…this was my favorite part of the experience. The cheese was incredible. I especially loved the spiced cream cheese. So good. After our wine tasting we went to this restaurant called Moyo. This is the place that everyone on Semester at Sea goes to, so chances are, if you are reading this and you know someone else on Semester at Sea, they went here as well and enjoyed it a heck of a whole lot. It is a must. It is basically every childs dream come true. It is a restaurant in a tree. Or for lack of better words, a tree house restaurant. So not only are you eating lunch or dinner in a tree, but you are getting your face painted while they sing for you, in a tree. Ok, so moving right along. The last day in Cape Town Sarah, Megan and I decided that we would attempt to conquer Table Mountain. Everyone that had attempted to climb it earlier in the week had warned us that it was impossible and that we were going to get lost or frustrated and turn back around. Regardless of what everyone had said, we were determined to get up that bad boy. So, we got up at 7:30am and began our hike up Table Mountain. The beginning was easy. No big deal. We are all pretty fit, so we were practically flying up the mountain. Then, we could no longer see the little yellow footprints that guide you up the mountain telling you that yes indeed you are going the right way. We then decided it would be appropriate to make our own path up the mountain rather then give up and go back down. Great I thought, we are going to persevere and get up this thing one way or another. We are super. What a great attitude. Well, we decided the best way to get to the top of the mountain would be to go straight up, basically scaling rocks. Kind of scary and probably not the best idea. We had recognized that this was the wrong way, but decided to keep going regardless. It was only until James, a very nice outdoorsy man from far below, said that we were definitely going the wrong way that we decided to turn around. So we slowly made our way down the treacherous rock that we should have definitely NOT been climbing up. James guided us back to the correct path and we were back on our way to the top. Finally, after 3.5 hrs of hiking and scaling rocks (which should have probably only taken us 1.5- 2 hrs) we made it. We arrived at the top of Table just in time to see the cable car arrive, carrying all of the lazy people to the top who chose not to scale rocks like us. That was fun to see. Especially because they all looked quite refreshed when they arrived while we were in our sports bras, sweating like men, panting, and exhausted. They all looked at us in a confused fashion as if they couldn’t imagine someone to be so idiotic as to actually climb Table. It was all in all another good time. I wouldn’t take back climbing that beast for anything. Later that day, even though being a bit sore, we marched on to visit the District Six Museum. South Africa just has so much intriguing history, how could I, the history nerd, not learn about it? So we educated ourselves about the relocation of the individuals in District Six during the Apartheid. Following the museum we walked around town for a bit and made friends with some guys that worked in a surf store. They educated us in the culture of the South African surfer. Sweet brew. And then it was time to leave and I was sad. South Africa is/was AMAZING and I can’t wait to go back. Yay.

Africa Part I

South Africa hit me with a bang. A big bang. Day one I woke up quite early again for the sunrise. As our ship pulled into Cape Town the sun rose directly over Table Mountain, a huge rock formation/mountain that lines Cape Town. This was beautiful. Following our sunrise watching a bunch of us wandered around town just checking everything out, talking to everyone and anyone who would talk with us. This was great fun. That night I left for my safari in Kruger National Park. What a way to start off my visit to South Africa. I visited Kruger, specifically Skukuza in the southwest end of the park and a private game reserve 2 hrs from Skukuza, for a 3 day safari. This experience included staying one night in a bungalow and one night in a tent (yes, that’s right…I camped in the Bush with lions and other fun creatures). Not only was I blessed to see zebra, wildebeests, impalas, giraffes, kudus, hippopotamus, baboons, jackals, crocodiles, eagles, buffalo, rhinos, elephants, and other various creatures while on safari, but I was also fortunate enough to see a lion. Most kids who went on safari did not get to see one. ☹ for them. ☺ for me. Ok, so not only did we see a lion, but we saw a lion from about 3 feet away. As you can imagine, I was glued to my seat, jaw open wide, not believing what was sitting directly across from our vehicle. And this was no baby Simba (for those of you Lion King fans, you know what I am talking about). He was more like grown up Simba, or a Muffasa. You get the point. So to me the safari was a success.

Day 2 in Cape Town began with a visit to the Khayelitsha Township. This is quite possibly the most amazing thing that I have done so far on this trip. I have never seen anything like it. Millions of tiny shacks stacked right on top of one another. I was in awe. I had seen pictures of the townships numerous times before, but actually being inside of one was a completely different story. You were walking past and interacting with people who actually lived there. Once inside the township we were allowed to walk around for a bit and see the famous Vicky’s Bed and Breakfast. At the same time when everyone was checking out Vicky’s, a few girls and I went behind her B and B and found a childcare center. We asked if we could come in and the ladies working there said that it would be ok. And let me tell you, these kids were absolutely remarkable. They sang songs like “if you’re happy and you know it clap your hands” with possibly the biggest smiles on their faces I have ever seen, and other educational songs about the days of the week and the seasons. And they loved when we would take pictures of them. We would take their picture and then they would tug on our shirts and point to the camera in hopes that we would show them the pictures of themselves. As our exploration of the township continued we managed to go to two other childcare centers. Our trip leader had an impossible time trying to get us to leave the children when we had to get going back to the ship. The kids were glued to us and we were glued to the kids. We just could not stop playing with them. Along with the kids, I was thoroughly impressed by some of the women of the township and their desire to make a living. We stopped by a weaving center (I guess you could call it that) where numerous women of the township worked, weaving mats, bags, tapestries, and other crafts. This “employment project” is just one of the many that have been developed in the townships to provide jobs for those living there. I was, and am completely amazed at the effort put forth by these women to improve their and their family’s lives. This was a great day.

“Because you and I are made for goodness.” - Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Yesterday and today were incredible days. Not only was yesterday taco day (a very special treat for us), but it was also a day where everyone on Semester at Sea was blessed to hear the honorable Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak. When I think back about what he said I feel as if it is almost impossible to explain the impact of his words on myself and I am sure upon everyone else who heard him speak. He is simply inspirational. He believes that we, as young people, can truly make a difference. I do not want to sit here and try and type out his lectures or even attempt to give you a sense of what was said, because that would do no justification. However, what I will leave you with are a few quotes from Father.

“If we are going to get it right at all, it is because you say it must be different.”

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

“The only way we can be human is together.
The only way we can be free is together.
The only way we can ever be secure…together.
The only way we can be free…together.”

-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Salvador, Brazil- Part 2

So after running around the city and experiencing Carnaval at its finest a few friends and I decided that we needed a little break. And this break took place on an island right off of the coast of Salvador called Itaparica. The 6 of us walked to the dock where the “community boat” (basically a ferry with just people) would carry on our 30 minute ride over to Itaparica. When arrived at the dock we found a lovely little surprise for us. Because of Carnaval everyone had the week off of work, so the line for the community boat was about an hour long. And normally this would have been no big deal, however it was probably 95 degrees out without humidity (so think sauna with a bunch of Brazilians). It provided for some good times, full of sweat. Yay! Once we arrived on the island we took a taxi about 30 minutes because the place we were going to stay at was located on the opposite end of the island. This experience was rather entertaining as the taxi driver got lost about 4 times on the way and then when we finally did get close we had an “incident.” There were some friendly little donkeys simply chillin in the middle of the dirt road we were on and did not feel like moving when our taxi needed to get by. The taxi driver and his friend jumped out of the taxi and tried to get them to move, but they still did not feel like budging. So we had to back up. Once we arrived at our place we wandered around for a bit. We wandered first in the actual place we were staying, Zimbo Tropical and then the town. Zimbo Tropical is just a bunch of bungalows and a house (where we stayed) in what I like to call the jungle. There were all sorts of animals in the jungle, like little monkeys, or lemurs rather, birds, turtles and tortoises, lizards, and other fun things. I will try to post a picture of that so you kind of understand what this jungle I am talking about is. So the house we slept in was pretty cool, minus the mass amounts of bugs that were sleeping with us. Before we went to bed we all bugsprayed ourselves, however for some reason this did not help me as I am currently a walking bug bite. Now for the wandering around the actually town. Itaparica is not a huge touristy place to begin with, which was part of the reason that I wanted to go there…to kind of try and experience the real deal. And the real deal we got. The island only had about 35,000 inhabitants (according to the taxi driver who we conversed with in broken Spanish) and one paved “highway” (one lane on each side). And what I mean by less touristy and the real deal is that the 6 of us were the ONLY white people in the area. When we walked on the beach right after we arrived, little kids were yelling the word “gringo” out at us. We all just laughed. Also, while on the beach we tried to communicate with this little boy playing with us in the water. He asked my friend if he was “japaneso” and he responded back with “koreano.” I feel as if this kid may have never seen an Asian person before in his life. He then continued to ask if the rest of us were “italianos.” We just smiled and laughed a little, especially since my friend Sarah is very blond and blue eyed. So this was a cultural learning experience for both the little boy and for us, the italianos. And did I mention that NO ONE spoke English on this island. So imagine 6 American college students trying to get around, order a meal (this was really entertaining), or even hold any kind of conversation with anyone. It was quite interesting. Because of this language barrier I can now speak about 3 phrases in Portuguese including, “how much does this cost?” And “what is your name?” Pretty good huh? I also have been able to some how communicate with taxi drivers trying to explain to them where we need to go or that we need to get back to the port not the aeropuerto, as one taxi driver thought was our destination. Good thing we clarified that one. We left Itaparica and our cultural experience there that afternoon to head back to mainland Salvador for another evening of Carnaval activities. We went to Barra again and watched a reggae band for quite some time, dancing and singing with the Brazilians to Bob Marley. Apparently Bob Marley is universal. We then danced up the street again with the blocos (the floats and the procession of people following it) to end a fabulous evening. All ‘n all a good time. Ciao.


QUOTE/STORY OF THE DAY:

Background: The little boy who called us Italians also decided to tell our friend Matt that he was crazy in Portuguese because of his “crazy” haircut. Matt had just recently shaved his head with a strip down the middle. One of us used our hands to signal the crazy sign in regards to Matt’s shaved head and he did the same thing saying “doide, doide.” The word quickly became our favorite Portuguese word. We haven’t stopped saying it since.

So the quote of the day is…“Doide” (aka- crazy…at least we think so)

P.S. these pictures are of the jungle and the house.

Salvador, Brazil- Part 1

Day one of my adventure in Salvador began with Megan and I dragging ourselves out of bed at 0500 hours so we could watch the sunrise as our ship pulled into Salvador. Several hours later after immigration, breakfast, and a political debriefing 6 of us set out to discover Salvador. We began our adventures by exploring the Mercado Modelo- basically a market full of Brazilian art. Although I found it rather commercialized (geared towards tourists with lots of the art being mass-produced) I still thought it was pretty cool to just check it out and people watch. After the Mercado we walked to the elevator, literally an elevator that takes you from the lower part of the city to the upper part of the city, so we could wonder around in the upper city. Right outside of the elevator there were men practicing Capoeira (a Brazilian martial art), which was absolutely incredible to watch. We then walked around, checked out some of the pre- Carnival festivities, had lunch, and shopped a bit. This is when we met the Chilean and the Argentineans. The Chilean was the first person we found in Salvador that actually spoke English so we took that opportunity to chat a bit with him. He was an artist from Chile who was traveling throughout Latin America. He had only been in Salvador for 2 weeks, but he had great stories to share with us regardless. After our discussions with him we headed back to the ship to prepare ourselves for Carnival. That’s right- Carnival, the worlds biggest party. We formed a group of 20 or so of us, hopped in 4 taxis and traveled to Barra (apparently the biggest place for Carnival in the area). Once there we followed the crowd down streets with all sorts of venders selling everything from little nic- nacs to food and of course drink. At the end of these streets was the main street with all of the floats and masses of people. I was just fine, being as little as I am, standing where we were watching the floats go by from a slight distance and not getting smooshed by millions of people, however my group decided they wanted to push forward. So push forward we did. All 20 of us jumped into the middle of the street in front of the floats and danced our way up the street with the Brazilians. It was the most ridiculous experience of my life. I still cannot even believe that I did it. It was so out of my comfort zone…Just picture millions of drunk people on one street, dancing, singing, and sweating all over the place, rubbing up against you, pushing you every which way, dumping beer on you, and grabbing you, all as you try and make your way up the street walking/dancing through a nice mixture of pee, beer, sweet, and other fun liquids. But regardless of all of those things, I did it. And I LOVED it. It was an experience that I will never forget. Dancing and singing with thousands of Brazilians was incredible. Everyone, regardless of race and/or nationality was able to dance and sing together in the street. Now picture that. This is why I loved it. Everyone was just there to have a good time. And while having such a great time we met awesome people from all over the world. We met a kid from Iceland, a kid from Israel, and randomly 2 kids who just graduated from UCSB, one who went on Semester at Sea in 04. Such a small world. So after miles of dancing up the street we decided that it was time to retire. It was getting late and some of our group had to get up in a few hours to catch a flight. We couldn’t find a taxi so we opted for the next best thing…the public bus. Oh yes. We went on the public bus in Brazil-it was only 1 real (.50 cents) and it provided for a fun time. So 20 of us got on the bus with our 2 new friends from UCSB and took it back into town. Forty-five minutes later we arrived by the dock and made our way back to the ship. By this time we were all exhausted and glad to see our ship. P.S. Sorry I do not have any pictures from Brazil except the sunrise one. I did not take my digital off of the ship for fear it could get stolen. I did take a disposable out with me, however those pictures are not yet developed…so hang in there for those.

QUOTE/STORY OF THE DAY:
Background: During Carnival men like to try and grab and/or kiss you...

My friend Sarah, who is tall and blond (what the Brazilians tend to go for), was being slightly pestered by this man who wanted to kiss her. He made this very clear to her by blatantly asking her for a kiss. She proceeded to tell him that she was married and had 2 children (she is a very smart cookie). He then pointed to his beer can, shaking both the can and his head disapprovingly, drunkenly singing… “I don’t care.” It was funny.

Puerto Rico!

Alright, so now for the good stuff. As you all know I am currently in Puerto Rico, which is the first port on my journey. Heck yes. After only 2.5 days at sea I was already ready to get off the ship and begin my travels and cultural learning experiences. Once our shipped docked in Puerto Rico everyone was herded into the Union (our meeting place) at 8am for a mandatory presentation where some dude would ramble on about how amazing Puerto Rico is. Great I thought, who wants to listen to some dude ramble on at 8am (can’t emphasize the time enough) when you could be sleeping a little longer and then get off the ship and explore? Well, turns out that the some random dude was our good friend the Puerto Rican Governor and his friend the Secretary of State. Now that is pretty cool if you ask me. We were welcomed to our first destination by the Governor and Secretary of State and were on tv on about 5 different stations in Puerto Rico. Not too bad of a way to be welcomed to Puerto Rico if you ask me. Once his shpeal was done I had my first organized trip through Semester at Sea- a walking tour of the fort El Morro and Old San Juan. It was a very interesting fort with lots of history, so naturally I enjoyed it. Also on this trip I saw the capital building, a 16th century cemetery right along the ocean, and a really cool Catholic church. Following this tour 5 of us decided it was time for lunch. We found this great little restaurant and “had” some typical Puerto Rican food. Well, I guess you can call it “having” traditional Puerto Rican food…I had black bean soup and simply watched one of my new friends “have” typical Puerto Rican food. It was this Octupus and vegetable dish. It looked amazing, let me tell you! Following this my new friends and I wandered around Old San Juan for about 4 hrs. We found some of the most amazing spots in the city that normally you would probably never find. Leave it to the curious college students to discover these places. After wandering forever we walked back to the ship, showered, and prepared ourselves for a meet and greet with some local university students. We attended Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico where the student government greeted us with typical Puerto Rican food, music, and dancing. It was an all around good time. I learned a lot. One of the most important things that I learned there was that Puerto Rican men can dance…really well. VERY educational.

Day two of Puerto Rico began with an early wake up to watch the sunrise. I decided that I wanted to see at least one sunrise in every country. So, I got up at 6:30, walked to the 6th deck, and watched the sunrise, by myself. It was beautiful (picture #1. Beautiful I know). Not only did getting up early provide me with the ability to see an amazing sunrise, it also provided me with a little surprise. Walking around the deck at 6:30am, apparently getting some exercise, was Des (my nickname for Archbishop Desmund Tutu). He saw me there by myself and said good morning, and I, still shocked to be face to face with him, replied with a hello Father. It was great. This was my first interaction with Father Tutu. What a fantastic way to start my morning. So then my day continued with another adventure into the city where Megan (one of my new friends- big thanks to Prim for that one) and I went to Walgreens and Pueblo to pick up a few necessities. In both Walgreens and Pueblo (which is a grocery store) there were probably some 30 other SAS kids running around grabbing their bottle of shampoo that they forgot or an extra box of granola bars (realizing that they were definitely going to need them). We then proceeded to a ghetto jewelry store in hopes of finding a watch (since Megan did not have one, and mine some how had already broke). Fortunately for us the store carried some Casios for only $12. We each bought one. Hope they don’t break by Brazil. Later that night I went to probably one of the coolest places…bioluminescent bay. For those of you who don’t know what that is…it is a bay that has phytoplankton that light up when you touch the water like little pieces of glitter. Your body also lights up when you get in. In order to get there you have to kayak for about 20 or so minutes, which was a fun experience all in itself. My partner and I were such great kayakers- we only crashed into the sides of the path 3 or 4 times and only managed to get stuck once. When we got to the actual bioluminescent bay we were able to jump in and swim around, lighting up in the process. Very cool.

Day three was once again a very jam-packed day of adventures. Traveled to the El Yunque rainforest (picture #2) and hiked around for a while. It was quite beautiful. Look below for some pictures of that. Also jumped in the waterfall, which was absolutely freezing, but well worth it. Had the most amazing lunch following this. We all cleared our plates and went back for seconds (picture #3). Then it was time for the beach. Luquillo beach was amazing. The whole time I kept thinking how incredibly unfair it was that I was swimming in such a marvelous place while my friends were either stuck in school or freezing in Colorado, perhaps both. Sorry guys. I enjoyed the beach for you. Promise. Hope everyone is doing well! I miss you all!

All Aboard...

Hi everybody! I most certainly hope that all of you have been doing your homework and following me on that exceptionally large map of the world I suggested that you purchase as I have officially begun my travels. I am currently in the first port of Puerto Rico. Very exciting. But let met just backtrack for a second here and start off by setting the scene for you. These past few days have been quite overwhelming, but of course overwhelming in the best possible sense. The MV Explorer, my ship, consists of 702 college students, which is overwhelming in itself…plus the numerous faculty, life long learners (adults ranging from early 30’s-early 90’s), the ships crew, and of course Archbishop Desmond Tutu (aka- Father). Ya, so basically my ship is a floating dorm with a minimal number of adults. And this is not just any ordinary dorm, it is one where you are eating, studying, sweating, traveling, and doing everything with these people (who might I add, you barely even know) while sailing around the world. If you love everyone, then great, you are in luck. However, if you don’t like someone, then that is just too bad, you are stuck with them. So I guess it is good that I love everyone huh? Also, good luck trying to remember who anyone is or how to find them after you meet them. For example, good luck trying to discover who that person was you had dinner with last night, because both you and your dinner mates have no idea who he or she was or how to get a hold of them. You all seem to remember that the name sounded like Mark, but it could have been Mike or Matt or any guys name that begins with an “M.” And then trying to remember or find out where he lives is an even more challenging task. Good freaking luck. I think he lives on the 4th floor…good thing there are like 400 people living on the 4th floor. Ya, it is quite a challenge. But I like challenges, so this is definitely a good thing. And now I feel like I just wrote a novel, so I will write again either tomorrow or the next day filling you guys in on my adventures in Puerto Rico, and if you’re lucky I will even include some pictures (I already managed to take about 200 of them).

Welcome to my life...

Hello Everyone. Welcome to my beautiful little blog. This will be my way of communicating with the rest of the world while I am running around on Semester at Sea causing havoc for the next 4 months (February to May). I will do my very best to update this little guy as often as possible (my goal is at least once a week), but do understand that I will be traveling the world and because of this my time will be occupied with such activities as chasing lions through South Africa and climbing the Great Wall of China. No big deal. So please be patient with me. I also hope to post pictures on this as well...so do check back as often as you would like for some sweet photography. Below is the tentative itinerary of my adventure, so I suggest you buy yourself a little map, or big map depending on how much you love me, and follow me as I travel throughout the world. Love, Catie.


Nassau, Bahamas
Sunday04 February
Puerto Rico
Wednesday 07- Friday 09
Brazil
Saturday 17-Wednesday 21 February
South Africa
Friday 02-Thursday 08 March
Mauritius
Thursday 15-Saturday 17 March
India
Sunday 25-Thursday 29 March
Malaysia
Monday 02-Thursday 05 April
(Stop in Singapore for Bunker)
Vietnam
Monday 09-Saturday 14 April
Hong Kong
Tuesday 17-Wednesday 18 April
China
Saturday 21-Sunday 22 April
Japan
Wednesday 25 -Sunday 29 April
(Cross International dateline, add one day)
Hawaii
Monday 07 May
San Diego, California
Monday 14 May