Mar 2006

On the ship there have been some stretches where all I want is off this ship because we’re at sea for so long and there’s not a whole lot to do. But sometimes they have events planed for us which are a blast. On March 4th they had something called Sea Olympics which was a blast. It was full of all sorts of different events. All of the seas (it’s how they separate the decks students live on) were competing in the events. If you won, then your sea will be the first ones off the ship in San Diego. The second place team will be the second sea off and so on. They had different events such as board game mix up, dodge ball, tug of war, water drop, synchronized swimming, twister, chubby bunny and a karaoke contest. The day was completely FULL. I live in the Red Sea and I love my sea. I competed in the tug of war, which we came in second place. I got a “war” wound though, nothing serious. In the championship match, we lost and they let go of the rope, so we all went tumbling down, and someone landed on my ankles and I got a huge bruise and bump on it.

Overall we came in 5th, which is right in the middle of the 9 seas, which I’m happy about it. I really didn’t want to be the first ones off the ship because it’s pretty much going to be the last time I’ll be hanging out with all of my friends together. Yes, I’ll be able to visit them, but we won’t all be together. That evening they threw us a huge BBQ dinner full of hamburgers, chicken, and CORN ON THE COB. It’s been forever since I’ve had it and it tasted so good. Overall the day was excellent!

In between Myanmar and Vietnam we have 4 days at sea and it’s completely full of events they’re putting on for us. Tomorrow we have a crew talent show which should be extremely entertaining. The next day we have no class. The third day is a movie night and then the last day is a Drag show put on by the Gay/Straight Alliance. So these four days should be extremely busy with events and tests.

On another note, we only have around 38 days of this trip left. It’s amazing how fast this is going and I don’t really think I like how fast it is going. It is amazing to see the world. It’s really indescribable. I’m explaining everything that I have done to you guys and I don’t feel like it’s doing any justice at all. I am so glad I am doing this because it’s an experience I will never forget!

Wow is all I have to say about Myanmar. It is SO beautiful. So far I think I’ve been impressed with Myanmar’s beautifulness. We were told in the little class I was able to attend (from being sick and quarantined) that Myanmar was a different country. Legally in the US, no one from there is supposed to travel to Myanmar, so we were already stepping over lines there. For a while now, Myanmar is a country that has military dictatorship. The military is absolutely horrible to those who live there. Also, Mauritius is the second poorest country in Asia and is a third world country. I think since it is very poor and is a third world country that made it even better to travel here. I thought India was different, but I think Myanmar was even more different because of how underdeveloped it is. India is one of the more powerful and more wealthy countries in the world, and Myanmar is completely different then that. If Myanmar can somehow get rid of their military dictatorship, then it would be an awesome and amazing country. The people there (not military) are probably the most friendly people ever. They were so welcoming to us, especially the people in the villages. The military never smiled to us and were really restricting on what we could see and do. We were told millions of times to not take pictures of the military or else we would be thrown in jail. I didn’t really see any instances where the military beat the people, but we were told that it happens a lot and we had to be really careful what we said to people. My friend Courtney told me that when she was walking along the streets, little girls came and gave them huge hugs and told them that they wanted to hold their hands and walk with them. This was how nice the people were there. But then the military came up to them and pulled out a stick and started beating the girls and running after them. That’s how life is in Myanmar. I’m glad I went but I don’t think anyone should visit until the military is out of power. I know that the US always gets involved in everything in the world, and I hate that about us. But after being in Myanmar, I really wish there was something the United States could do to help the people of Myanmar.

Our port was about 45 minutes to an hour away from the city Yangon. So to get to the city we had to take a bus provided by SAS. While driving the first time I’m pretty sure my jaw was as far down as it could be. The people live in these little houses made by bamboo and other plants like that. There were tons of wide open fields, some with agriculture growing there. Then out of no where, a pagoda shows up. Myanmar is the country of pagodas. They are EVERYWHERE.

The first day there a group of us went to Scott’s Market, which was their market place. It was really cool to go there. The whole time we were in Myanmar people stared at us. Not very many people from the US or Europe will travel there, so the white skin is really foreign to them. I felt like a movie star because when you walked around on the streets everybody’s eyes went straight to you. They looked at our clothing, at our hair, at our movements. They pretty much stared us up and down, which is fine because all they wanted was to learn more about us.

After Scott’s Market I went back to the ship for an FDP for my Religion class. I went to Shwedagon Pagoda at Sunset. Absolutely amazing! Shwedagon Pagoda was the largest pagoda in Yangon and it was amazing. It was HUGE. When you got inside, there were even more smaller worship type buildings. It’s extremely hard to explain but you’ll see my pictures or look it up online and see what I mean. Being there at Sunset was probably the most amazing thing I’ve seen in a while. The light reflecting off all of the gold and the calmness of being there put a huge smile on my face. The one thing that stood in my head was our tour guide was talking either on the way there or way back and he said that people are more comfortable when they have nothing in this country, because the military will come and take things away from them. They will take anything and everything they want to from the people. Afterwards, I went back to the ship and packed for my trip the next day.

The next day I left for Mandalay. The airplane ride was insane. It was this little thing probably 15 rows with 4 seats in each row. Landing was the most nervous thing ever. It’s like they go down as fast as they can, and they hit the ground and then slow down. As you’re going down you’re shaking from left to right so you never know which wheel will hit the landing strip first.

Mandalay was even less developed then Yangon. It was definitely a place you picture when you think of a third world country. The first day we stayed in a town called Pyin Oo Lwin, which was about 2 hours outside of Mandalay. It was only about 40 miles away, but because the roads are so bad and so many people use them (people walking, bicycles, slow cars, carts, etc) then we went really slow. The town was an old British town. There were a ton of old buildings from when the British were there. We went to Kandawgyi National Park, which was a Botanical Garden. It was absolutely beautiful! We were there at sundown which made it even more beautiful! There were a bunch of monks there too.

One thing that’s really cool about Myanmar is 80% of the people are Buddhist, so there are a bunch of monks and nuns. There are three different types of Monks. 2 of the types are only monks for little bits of times, and the 1 kind is monk for life. Tons of the people are monks or nuns at different times in their lives. So there are tons of monks walking around the city and everywhere you go.

After the Botanical Garden we toured the town and little and then went back to our hotel for dinner and then to sleep since it was such a long day. The next day we woke up extremely early! We took stage coach rides to a market. It was so cool to ride in the stage coaches and see the town and experience a ride like the people there do. The market was fun too. We walked all around it. A group of us ended up somehow in the food area, which was cool but also grossed me out. They had so much fish and meat and weird smelling things. Definitely a different and interesting experience.

Then we went to see this waterfall, which was supposed to be their big one where people go to hang out. But compared to ones in the Northwest of the US, it was tiny! But still very beautiful. After that we went and saw a Buddha statue. Buddha statues are EVERYWHERE. A good slogan for this country would have something about Buddha statues and pagodas because they are everywhere. After that we drove back to Mandalay. I loved seeing the different cities and towns. Probably my favorite thing about the trip was driving from town to town because I got to see the different sides of the country.

Mandalay was beautiful (everything is beautiful that I have explained, or at least that’s the only word I use). We saw another place with another Buddha. This Buddha you could add gold to it, but only males could do that. Females had to sit and watch. Something about their religion makes it that way. Then we ate lunch at this place called Green Elephant. The food is okay. Not my favorite but it’s tolerable. I really couldn’t stomach anything still in Myanmar and I get full extremely early. It’s amazing how little I eat and I still don’t get full from being so sick during and after India.

That night we visited the night market and then watched a cultural show at our hotel during dinner. The cultural show was very cool to see all of the different dances that the country has. That night our whole group pretty much went straight to bed because our days were SO long and Myanmar is REALLY hot! In Myanmar, no one was really allowed to wear shorts, and then to go in the pagodas you had to be covering your shoulders. So wearing the longer pants and t-shirts made things a lot hotter.

The next morning we flew back on another interesting plane ride back to Yangon. We then visited this reclining Buddha that was HUGE. I took a picture of me with it in the background and I look so small. It’s not even the biggest in the country, which is unbelievable. The one thing I learned about Asian countries is they LOVE gold. Gold is everywhere. On pagodas and they wear jewelry that’s gold.

After Buddha we had lunch with all the other SAS groups and then went to Scotts Market again. On our way back to the ship, during the hour ride, we stopped at an orphanage in the middle of this little village. Probably the saddest thing I have ever seen. SAS donated money for a meal for them, and our group put enough money together for them to pay for about three more meals. So we were there to witness the meal. We actually got to serve the soup to the kids, which was great! The kids smiled to see us serving them food. All of the rest of the people from the village came to the place because they were not used to seeing people with lighter skin. It was a HUGE event for our group of about 23 people to visit the village. So all the orphan kids were in this building and all the village people and kids were surrounding the windows looking in. The orphan kids sang grace to us and during that time I got really emotional. To see all of these kids live in conditions with these. While all the other SAS people were talking to the orphans, I started talking to the village kids. I was teaching them to give fives and they loved it. This little girl I fell in love with. They were so cute and so happy to see us. They LOVED getting their pictures taken with us and then seeing themselves on the screen. I didn’t take my camera with me and part of me wishes I did now. I started playing chase with the kids and they had huge smiles on their faces. There were really only a couple of us who was really playing with the kids. As we started to leave that was probably the hardest time for me. A group of the kids who I had interacted with the whole time and bonded with were giving me huge hugs and holding my hands. I tried to walk to the bus, but SO many kids were around me that I couldn’t even really step. A bunch of kids were holding my hands on the way out because they didn’t want me to leave. One random orphan boy came up to me and gave me a huge hug because of what we gave them. Even though there was a language barrier, you could tell how the kids were feeling. The girls who were holding onto me gave me hugs and then said bye to me and I walked back to the bus. I was the last one on because they wouldn’t let me go. It’s sad to think of how many kids in the world live like they do. I really wish there was something I could do for those kids. We can’t really send money to them because the military will take the money. It was a great experience but really sad and heartwarming at the same time. That night I was completely exhausted so I hung out around the ship and went to bed.

Today we were supposed to have until 1, but we had to be on the ship at 11:30, and since nothing really opens until 10, I didn’t leave the ship. So I’ve been emailing and catching up on blogs that I have been extremely behind on.

We’re now on our way to Vietnam, which I am really excited about. I have no big trips planned, just a couple of service visits. I get to go to an orphanage, a school, and a school for the deaf I believe. With the kids from the school for the deaf I get to go to the zoo with the kids. In the book that describes all the trip it says it’s like 2 students per SAS students so it should be a ton of fun. Also, outside of SAS trips I plan on shopping because I hear things are cheap and they have a ton of great things. Someone told me that in Vietnam they make tailor made dresses and suits that fit your body, so I am going to try to do that. I really hope I am able to! Anyways, I miss you all and can’t wait to see you all when I get back in a little more then a month!

India is a place that I cannot explain in words. India was shocking. I was in awe the whole entire time I was there. India is probably the place that I have gone so far that is least like the Western culture. The roads were incredible. Not only did they have cars that went on it along with other motorized vehicles, but they had motorcycles, bicycles, hand pushed carts, horse pulled carts, these little taxis like cars they used for taxis, plus people walking and cows roaming the streets. If I were to drive there I would probably kill a ton of things in the process. On the side of the streets were piles and piles of garbage. They have no garbage system so garbage was everywhere. People would pull down their pants and urinate on the sides of the streets. Guys would especially urinate on the walls. The water was absolutely disgusting. I would say the water was made of 50% bodily functions (especially poop), 30% garbage, and 20% water. It looked and smelled absolutely horrible.

Despite the grossness the country is full of people who are amazing. The culture and lives they live is something I don’t think any Westerner could do. There is like 1 billion people living in a space of land that is 1/3 the size of the US.

During India I was able to go to both Southern India and Northern India, both very different because of the languages spoken and religions they practice. I went on a trip called Dehli/Agra/Taj Mahal. We flew from Chennai to Dehli and then spent the night in this amazing hotel. It was probably a 4 or 5 star hotel that had numerous different restaurants and shops in it. Then the next morning we woke up extremely early and caught a train to Agra. The train was an experience all in itself. There were two different seating area. A “first class” and “second class” to create words for them. The “second class” seating was insane. Numerous Indian people who were commuting for work would jump on and off this section. It was also extremely packed. The “first class” section was where we sat and to compare it to the United States, it was probably similar to the worst seats on a plane. It was dirty and there were bugs everywhere. Little cockroaches roamed everywhere and I wasn’t aware of them until the end after I had woken up. Hopefully I didn’t swallow one in the process. GROSS. Anyways, Agra was probably the city that was the most interesting. There weren’t as many cars and most people walked or rode bicycles. Cows were EVERYWHERE. I don’t think I have seen as many cows as I did in Agra. They pretty much roamed wherever they wanted. The people of India in the villages use cow poop and turn it into pies and use it for medicine and fertilizer, so on the side of the roads there were a ton of dried cow poop created into piles.

That day we went on this “shopping” trip to a rug place that also had other items to buy as well. The rugs were really nice rugs, but I didn’t buy one because I don’t know what I would ever do with one. They were very beautiful. They also had other things to buy, like beautiful cashmere scarves and such. Then we went to our hotel, which was nice. In the lobby they played the theme song from Titanic over and over again, without lyrics. It was a saxophone playing the tune and it became really annoying!

That afternoon we went to a place called Fatehpur Sikri. It was a Red fort made a long time ago by an Emperor. It was all made out of red sandstone. It’s really cool to thing that people could make something like that in the days it was made. It was very beautiful. All of the ceilings were really low though. The door frames were extremely low. It pretty much was the size of me. People here are extremely short compared to the United States.

Then we had dinner at the hotel. Indian food is okay. It’s not really my taste of food. It’s really spicy and on this trip I’ve realized that I like plain foods with not a lot of spices to it. I really like their pita like bread though. It’s really good! They have it at pretty much every meal except for breakfast.

The next day we woke up really early and went to the Agra Fort, which was okay. Everyone was looking forward to the Taj Mahal, which was next, so the Agra Fort was just wasted time for us. We saw a lot of old buildings and forts like this one on the trip so they all run together and seem like the same one. When we were leaving Agra Fort, we got attacked by Indian men and children trying to sell us stuff. Well not attacked, but seemed like it. Right when they saw us they would run up to us and surround us asking us to buy all of these items. If you said a word they thought you were interested somewhat, so you couldn’t say anything. You couldn’t even look at them without them getting the wrong idea. It was extremely annoying, especially since they would do it outside the buses too. I think that if they were to make a stand, us tourists would much rather go up to it and see what they are selling. They don’t realize that we were completely turned off by them swarming us.

Then we went to the Taj Mahal. We had to walk up this huge street where more people swarmed us. We had to walk down not talking or looking at pretty much anything, which took away from the experience. If we looked at someone or something then we were followed the whole way. When we got to the gate they were very protective. You couldn’t take any bags or anything in with you. In India they have so many terrorists that like to bomb things similar to the Taj Mahal. Just two days before we got to India there were attacks in Verenasi (spelling is probably not right), which caused people on this trip to not go there by SAS orders. We had to wait in line to go through a metal detector and then be felt down by someone who worked there. They had separate lines for males and females both here and at the airport. The males had two lines and got in in about 2 minutes. We only had one line for females and it took 10 minutes to get through. On top of that people kept on cutting in front of us. Even though all of that bothered me, seeing the Taj Mahal was amazing. When I first saw it I did a little excitement jump that made others around me laugh. I was so excited. It was amazing. Everything within the walls was so symmetrical which was great, considering I’m extremely mathematical. The Taj was beautiful. The white marble was beautiful. We were able to go inside, but had to take our shoes off. The inside was really small. Well smaller then I was expecting. Inside was the tomb of her man who built it and his wife. I am really glad that we saw the Taj.

Next we went back to our hotel for lunch and then we went to Mother Terresa’s Ashram. They really didn’t tell us what to expect before we went there. It ended up being a home for those who were mentally or physically challenged. Everyone was shocked by it and it was good to see. The living conditions were pretty horrible but the people enjoyed seeing us there. Most of them smiled and smiled even larger when people in our group gave them stickers. Next door was an orphanage, which I loved going to. The kids were SO excited to see us and play with us. We played with the older kids, and held the babies and toddlers. One toddler that I picked up out of his crib got the biggest smile on his face because someone was actually paying attention to him. He cried every single time I tried to put him back in the crib. That was extremely hard. It was so great to interact with the kids, and some of them were learning English and were pretty good at it. I started to get really emotional because I knew that once we left, the smiles would become cries and things wouldn’t be great for the workers that night. For those of you that don’t know, my sister Lauren’s boyfriend Brett, his family just adopted a boy from India while I’ve been gone. While I was there all I thought was that this is where he lived and now he lives in a home in the United States. He is such a lucky boy because the difference in living conditions is huge. I’m excited to go home and meet him.

After that we left and took another train back to Dehli. This is where the trip turned from being great to okay. Everyone started to become sick. There were always SAS students in the bathrooms of the trains puking. It ended up that we had to have a doctor come to the hotel in Dehli because there were too many people who were way too sick. After this moment then people were becoming sick left and right; if they weren’t throwing up they had wonderful traveler’s diarrhea.

The next morning I woke up with a horrible stomach ache. But I went on the morning trips because I probably will never be in India ever again. Only about 30 people went out of our group of 69 because too many people were either sick or hung over from the previous night. We drove all around the city and saw all the old English buildings around the city. We also went to the Gandhi museum and saw where Gandhi was killed. That was interesting to see. Then we went to a Sikh temple which was very cool to go in.

After that we took a plane back to Chennai. More and more people were getting sick. I ended up being one of those who was getting worse and worse. When we were sitting in the airport at Dehli, I had a horrible stomach ache and felt lightheaded. On the plane I felt like throwing up but kept it in. I ended up falling asleep somehow and when I woke up I felt even worse. I was having horrible back pains to the point where I was in tears. I couldn’t move without it hurting more. I had to have someone carry my bag off the plane. When I got off I felt like I was going to faint I was so lightheaded. I was shivering too because I felt really cold. Tom, the trip leader, called the ship and told them to have the doctor’s team ready because so many of us were sick.

When I got back to the ship I had to carry my bag up to the 5th deck by myself, which made my back hurt even more and I was sobbing at this point. I went straight to the medical center. They saw me right away. My temperature was 101 and my blood pressure was a little high. They also thought something was wrong with my kidneys because of my back pain. So they put an IV in me and put 3 bags of fluid in me. They also had me pee in a cup to check my kidneys, which were okay. That night was a complete blur to me. I just remember them having trouble putting the IV in me. They had to try like 10 times. I remember shivering because I was so cold. When I left about 3 hours later, my temperature was up to 103 degrees. I was so lightheaded and weak that they had to get a wheelchair and wheel me to a room. They put me in a quarantined room on the third deck, when all I really wanted was to be in my own room. That night was absolutely miserable. I was so sick and the nurses said that I was probably the sickest person they had seen so far on the voyage. I stayed in the quarantined room for 2 days. It was absolutely miserable. I really didn’t talk to anyone and no one could come visit me. I did call my good friends Courtney and Dani so they could get some things for me out of my room that I needed. I just laid in bed doing nothing, and sleeping a lot. The cool thing was they brought me my meals to the room, which was bread and soup. I really couldn’t stomach anything! For the next 4 days, all I ate was bread and crackers. It was all I could stomach. If I tried to eat anything else my stomach ache came back and I felt horrible. All I wanted while I was in quarantine was to be able to be home. I was probably the sickest I have ever been and all I wanted was to be home. I had Courtney get me a calling card so I could call my mom because that’s really what I wanted. But now I am feeling much better. I have my appetite back (even though it’s been like 8-9 days of eating close to nothing).

The last day in India I was supposed to go on an FDP for my Religion class to see a bunch of temples in two cities nearby, but of course I couldn’t go on it. Overall India was great, but being sick absolutely sucked more then anything.

Hey everyone! I know it’s been forever since I updated this thing. Time is flying by faster then ever and between school work and traveling I haven’t really had time to sit in the computer lab and tell you about what happened in each country. So I’m finally making time to sit down and let you know what’s going on with me.

Mauritius was okay. It is by far my least favorite port to this date. Yes, it is beautiful, but I think Hawaii or the Caribbean is much more beautiful then Mauritius. All the students called this our “Spring Break” port. We were there for 3 days and all people did was drink, drink, oh ya and drink. Yes, people explored the country a little but it was more of a fun spot.

The first day there I went on a city orientation/service visits. We explored the city a little but I was able to participate in visiting some pretty interesting places. The first place we stopped at was a home for the elderly. Most of the people here were brought by their families because they couldn’t take care of them anymore. Most of the people were there because they were old, but there was a good amount that was there because of being mentally or physically handicapped. The families really don’t visit either. The elderly go on living and their family becomes the others living with them. Their living conditions were pretty horrible. I kept on thinking about Grandma and her process of finding a “home” that would suit her needs and wasn’t horrible and how she was so picky. The people here were living in one room with like 20 beds or more in it and having little to no space. It was absolutely horrible. The second place we went was another elderly home but only for women. This one was probably worse then the first. The cool thing was there was a woman who was turning 98 the next day so that was pretty cool. The third place we went was a school. In Mauritius, when students finish elementary school they must take a test and pass it to move on to secondary school. If the students do not pass (they get two chances) then they cannot move on and they end up doing bad things on the streets. Mauritius has created a numerous of privately funded schools for those students who want to continue their education but cannot. The place we went was one of these schools. There were about 25 students ranging from 12 to 15. The school was in one small room with white walls. The students sat at large tables. They explained the whole system to us and about their program and then we got to interact with the kids. Most of us didn’t know French and they knew little English so it made it difficult to talk to them. But we were able to communicate a little bit. They sang for us which was beautiful and we sang to them. Then we played a game where we walked in a circle holding hands singing a French song, and then the teacher would yell out a number and you had to get in groups of that number of people. It was a ton of fun and we all enjoyed it very much.

Then I headed back to the ship. My friends had left that morning and I didn’t know what they were doing. I found out later that they were going to get a bungalow in a city nearby for the 2 nights and then I was supposed to call one of their cell phones to meet up with them. I called numerous times but was unable to reach them. So I hung out on the ship pretty much the rest of that night until Danielle called me. The ship was easily 20 minutes away from the city and I didn’t want to go out by myself and everyone else had left to rent a bungalow. Danielle and I went out with the guys. We ended up going to the Waterfront and just hung out there; we got some dinner and drinks. Then Elliot, Eric and Andrew decided they wanted to go to Flic en Flac, which was a beach, to go meet people and drink. So I decided to tag along because I had already spent a lot of time on the ship that afternoon. I don’t think I have ever laughed as hard in a long time as I did in the taxi ride there. The guys were hysterical (and drunk). We got to flic en flac, and nothing was really there. But we found a bar, had a couple of drinks, went to the beach, and really just hung out around that area. That night was probably the best time I had in Mauritius.

The next day I slept in and then went to another SAS trip to another children’s place. This place was called Terre de Paix. Terre de Paix was a place for students ages 12 – 16 who lived with domestic violence. A large number of these students have been taken out of their houses and put into new ones or they live on the property. We were able to watch and see how their literacy program was used and how their music is taught. It was very interesting to see how the school uses domestic violence to help the students learn. For instance, for the literacy center, they had one of the girls read her story about domestic violence to us (with translation from another person). They do a fantastic job showing the students that they are special and even though they live/lived in horrible conditions, they can do something with their lives. I was able to buy a cd that had children’s stories in English/French/and another language that I cannot think of right now. It’s a native language to Mauritius. They are also written in the three languages so I was really excited about that. I think Mauritius does a great job of helping students who are struggling and I think the United States could look at Mauritius to help some of our struggling students.

When I went back to the ship, everyone was till gone so I hung out around the ship until Danielle got back from her SAS trip. When Danielle got back she really wanted to spend the night at Grand Bay (a beach) and hang out there. Since no one was really around, I went with her because I wanted to get off the ship. We ended up running into Courtney, Dani, Sarah, Rachel, and Anthony, which were the people I was supposed to stay with for the 3 days. It was good to see them and hear all of their stories.

The next morning I woke up early, took a taxi back to the ship to meet Court and Dani to go shopping and explore around Port Louis, which is where we were docked. We went to the market and explored.

Overall Mauritius really wasn’t that great. I don’t really want to go back. There’s a lot to see and it’s beautiful. But I would recommend people put more money into going to Hawaii then Mauritius. Another reason why I don’t think I enjoyed it that much was because I really just wanted to go to India. Mauritius was a great transition between South Africa and India because it had a ton of India culture and customs, but changed a little.