GOOOOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!

Xin chao! Just arrived in Vietnam... it is absolutely magnificent and all we have seen so far are the trees lining the Saigon River. This really feels like the start of the trip since what we have seen so far as been different, but not nearly as much as it will be from here on out. I can't wait! Two quick stories since I really just made a blog post on this so that I can make the title what it is (if you haven't seen the movie, go rent it) and wasn't planning on writing anything else...

1. My professor got arrested during a protest with Martin Luther King, Jr. He was bored in grad school, saw an ad of some sort for a protest in Florida, went there and learned that they needed 4 volunteers to be arrested the first day of the few day protest (2 white, 2 black, male and female of each) and he was the only white male in the audience. So, he was arrested with Martin Luther King, Jr. It might be the coolest thing I have ever heard.

2. We had a panel of speakers in our global studies class that were both in the Vietnam War and protested the Vietnam War. It was incredibly interesting to hear their stories, both veterans cried, and it REALLY put things into perspective. They were our age when they were in Vietnam and one of them pointed out that the next time that we complain about the five drink rule or the crappy food to think about how they were lucky to get a canteen full of water. I thought that was a really great point to have made. Anyway, they also said that if you are going to protest a war hate the war not the soldiers. Thought that was also a good point.

Off to Cambodia I go in a few hours as well...

Tam biet!

China Summary and Shanghai, China

Ni Hao! I am going to try to write as much as I can about China in the next few hours that I have on the ship but I had eight days there and did A LOT. So, for right now I will make sure I get out Shanghai because that was a pretty uneventful place.

But first! Here is a day-by-day summary of what I did…

Day 1: Arrived in Shanghai. Woke up to watch the sun rise over the skyline. Walked around People’s Square and some markets. Had a fever at night so stayed in to rest up before leaving for Beijing the next day.

Day 2: Shopped in morning. Flew to Beijing in afternoon. Walked around and got dinner in Ho Hai at night in Beijing.

Day 3: Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, Silk Market, Great Wall (slept and hiked)

Day 4: Great Wall (hiked and ziplined), Olympic Park, hot pot dinner

Day 5: Temple of Earth and Temple of Fire New Years Fair, Hutong rickshaw tour, lunch at a local home, Summer Palace, duck dinner, Acrobatic Show, clubs

Day 6: antique market, hot pot lunch, Temple of Heaven, Pearl Market, business class flight to Hong Kong (all 10 SAS people on my flight were bumped to it!)

Day 7: Family insight tour in the government funding housing district, Jumbo’s Floating Restaurant, Lan Kwai Fong bar street

Day 8: Victoria’s Peak, Modern Toilet restaurant, light show as we departed

Shanghai was a very interesting city. Coming from the very clean and calm country of Japan it was a rude awakening and definitely a culture shock. There was garbage all over the street, people spitting everywhere, and beggars coming at you from all sides trying to sell you stuff. The first thing that we did when we got off the ship was stop at an ATM with half of SAS. There was this whole weird money-scamming attempt with a man that collapsed on the sidewalk next to line of students getting out money. It was weird. We got the security from the building who told him to leave. After we finally got money out, we got into a cab to get to somewhere that according to a friend was seven miles away. Turns out, it wasn’t, but we were taken to somewhere that was about a 10 minute ride away and we could have walked to easier. (My friends went to the place we originally wanted to go to later that night and it was right by the port). Anyway, we ended up at some really cool New Year decorated street with a bunch of restaurants on it, which was perfect since we wanted lunch. The cab ride was less than 2 dollars, but we didn’t realize exactly how cheap China was until we went to lunch. For five of us, we got a 3 course meal, three beers and two cokes for under 10 dollars TOTAL. It was incredible.

We went to People’s Square after lunch and walked around for a while, ran into some SASers and went with them to an underground market which was pretty cool. Finally, we went to a street that has a Times Square-esque block that was a lot of fun. We went to one of the back alley markets and had a lot of fun bargaining. When we went back to Times Square it was dark out and SO AMAZING. Everything was incredibly colorful and beautifully lit up so that was really cool to see. At this point we started to walk to find a cab, and I was incredibly achy, had the chills and really wasn’t feeling great. We got back to the ship and I went to lie down and warm up but was incredibly shaky an hour later so I ended up not going out with my friends. I figured that I was leaving for a LONG Beijing trip the following day and I would rather not be sick for that so I took some medicine and took a nap. My roommate came back about an hour and a half later so I hung out with her and her friend who also weren’t going out. I hadn’t eaten dinner so even though I wasn’t hungry I went to get some food at the snack bar. There ended up being a ton of people staying in that were there so I spent some time with them and felt like I didn’t entirely waste a night. My friends ended up coming back right after they ate dinner so I didn’t miss anything and I was feeling significantly better for the rest of the trip minus a cold that picked up the next morning.

I went to sleep fairly early that night and woke up the next morning to meet up with my friends. We went to one of the streets that is known for its markets and did a LOT of shopping while spending VERY little money. I got an entire winter outfit- uggs, northface coat and spyder gloves (all incredibly cheap but fake). I also got lots of souvenirs. When we walked out of the store, we were going to get some food and then head back to the ship since I had a flight a few hours later. I ran into one girl from SAS that was walking by herself and after talking for a little we realized that we were on the same flight to Beijing. So I ended up joining her on her walk back to the ship and we met up with some people to take a cab to the airport. There were about 45 of us on the flight to Beijing on the trip we were on and we took over the airport… and plane. So, I said goodbye to Shanghai and made my way to Beijing!

That about sums it up. More to come about the many adventures of Beijing and Hong Kong… AND Vietnam and Cambodia in about five to six days when we have an ENTIRE WEEK on the ship!!! BEFORE INDIA!!!!! Tam biet!

Japan Days 4 and 5- Nara, Kyoto and Kobe

The following morning in Osaka, we woke up, very quickly got ready since we overslept, and headed out so that we could tour Nara and Kyoto in one day. We took a train from Osaka to Nara, went right over to the information desk at the train station and got a lot of really helpful advice. They spoke English extremely well there, which was very different to hear after a few days of having extreme difficulty communicating. She even told us that there were lockers to leave our huge, heavy backpacks in while we sightsee. It was perfect. While we were figuring out the locker situation, we met someone that was also traveling who lived ten minutes away from my friend that I was with in Canada. It’s a small world. So, he decided to tag along with us as well for the morning. We saw two temples and a shrine throughout a few hours, and everything was breathtakingly beautiful. There were a lot of large buddhas and statues so that was really amazing. The entire area was a park so we got to walk around there, and the park was FILLED with tons of deer.  They were more domesticated deer than you would ever see at home, and they would come up to you roaming around and sometimes look at you or sometimes, in my case, bite you. I was not happy with them. I know that they were biting some people that had food on them (we saw one girl surrounded by 10 of them because she had food in her hand). After we finished touring the more historic and important part of Nara, we ended up in this HUGE shopping/eating area with all different types of food (including a big falafel restaurant). We ended up eating at some regular Japanese restaurant; it was an interesting meal since I had no idea what exactly it was I ordered. The menu was extremely vague- the descriptions were assorted appetizer, small bowl, sashimi and that was about it.

After taking a train back to Kyoto after lunch, we realized that we spent too much time in Nara, which was unfortunate. We got to Kyoto at around 4, took a bus to a station near our hostel, dropped off our bags at the hostel and went to explore. There weren’t a lot of places that made sense to go to since most places close fairly early. We walked around some of the shopping areas by our hostel and one large, beautiful shrine, so we definitely had a good time. Kyoto is definitely a city, but the culture was much more apparent than in Tokyo. I really loved it. After touring a shrine in the Gion area, we went off to find dinner. My friend pointed at a few restaurants down a side street and said “the best places are always hidden.” So, we went to check out a menu. It was yakitori-style and was an EXCELLENT choice. One of the best meals I had in Japan.

After dinner we went back to the hostel to meet up with our friends who had just arrived. We hadn’t actually checked it out when we first went in, so we walked around the different floors exploring. It was such a cool hostel. Each floor was themed, and they had pictures and post cards all over the place from people who had stayed there. We even met someone who had lived at this hostel for a few months when he first moved to Japan and now finally found an apartment but comes back to hang out from time to time. It was really, really cool. Since it was a little while since we had gotten to the hostel, and we all wanted to go out to eat again, we headed off in search of some light food and drinks.

We had heard that the place to be in Kyoto was this area two blocks from us so we went to check it out. It was a series of these cool alleyways and a little stream running through. We tried to go into one place to eat, and they told us that they didn’t have any menus. Since we knew the words for the different types of meat, we said we would say that and they could serve us whatever they wanted. That didn’t work. Instead, they said to follow them to a friends restaurant where they spoke some English. So we did. We had learned at this point that people in Japan genuinely wanted to help and weren’t going to bring you somewhere to gruesomely murder you and then sell your organs. After going through a bunch of different alleys and up a flight of stairs, we arrived at this restaurant/bar. There were five long tables and a bunch of people that were in their 20s sitting all around the place. They didn’t have one spot for the five of us so we split two and three. It was the greatest night. The way that you sit there (at the big tables) forces you to socialize with the people around you and there was the most interesting mix of people. We originally met a few Japanese students and one French study abroad student- all of which spoke at least 3 languages and were speaking it with people all around them. The French student spoke seven… fluently. There were so many things going on around us and SO many different languages being used it was incredible. The rest of the night was spent doing what I can only describe as table jumping. There was a very communal feeling to the place and everyone was hanging out and moving from table to table. I met people from literally all over the world- most of them were Japanese students, there was a group of Australian tourists and then a group of them were teaching English from places all over the world. We learned that the bar is called A Bar, and that it therefore is one of the first things to show up in a phone book and is known for bringing in a lot of young tourists. One of my favorite parts of the night was that there was writing all over the walls- peoples names, places, etc.- that had been left there over years and years. I found one that said SAS ’03 and wrote next to it SAS ’10. It was a pretty awesome connection to Semester at Sea that we were all pretty excited about. Meanwhile, we had met this one guy named Yuji that took us to some late-night Japanese food place after we left the bar. That was also a delicious meal and it helped that he was able to order for us and translate everything. [A funny side note for people who are reading this that might appreciate it: Yuji kept calling my friend his girlfriend and we would all laugh. At one point somehow the topic of children came up and Yuji said he wanted two and my friend said that she wanted none. So he turns to her and goes, “OK, one!” It was amazing and we are still repeating it and laughing a week or so later. He also emailed all of us a few days ago asking if we remember him. So funny.] We went back to the hostel following the meal and crashed.

The next morning we woke up to go see the one thing that my friend REALLY wanted to see in Japan- they were a thousand red gates- if you have ever seen Memoirs of a Geisha, she runs through them during the movie. Each gate has writing on it and it looked really cool so that was exciting that we got to go. There are definitely a few things in Kyoto that I wish we got to do, and if you anyone ever reads this for suggestions, make sure that you allot yourself a good amount of time in Kyoto because it’s a big place and there is a lot to see.

We went to Kobe from the gates since that made more sense than going to the main station. We walked around there for a little, saw some cute malls, found a post office!!! And then searched for a place where we could eat Kobe beef for lunch. We were given extremely vague directions, but eventually found it conveniently close to the ship. It was a cute little place and a delicious meal. I highly recommend it. We walked around some more after lunch and stumbled upon an internet café. If you haven’t heard about Japan’s internet cafes- they are ridiculous. You rent out this little room by the half hour that has bean bag chairs, a computer and a tv, along with a safe because some people spend the night there. I actually know people that did because it is really cheap. There are bathrooms with showers and even kitchenettes. After experiencing the internet café, we went back to the ship and called it a day. We were SO exhausted. Getting back was a little complicated- you have to take a portliner train that takes you from the station to the port, it was pretty cool.

Seeing the ship for the first time in days was interesting. I wasn’t expecting to be as excited to see it as I was, but it was like getting back home after a vacation. I guess I have adjusted better than I thought. The next few hours I showered, wrote some postcards, caught up with some friends, watched the ship leave Japan and just relaxed.

So, that was my trip to Japan. It was an amazing five days and I would definitely go back there if given the chance. My final thoughts on Japan are:

It is an extremely polite country and everyone is respectful. I love the whole country- it’s a great mix of people, architecture, and culture. People were very nice and helpful but the language barrier makes things difficult. Talking to as many people as you can is key to learning as much as possible. The best thing that I did was buy a rail pass- it made things so easy, I was able to see as many places as possible in such a short period of time and soak the whole country in. The train and subway systems are incredibly easy to use and awesome.

Japan Days 2 and 3- Koyasan, Hiroshima, and Osaka

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. I did what I could on the ship between Japan and China, but with two days to do schoolwork, planning for Shanghai AND needed to have some sort of a life, it wasn’t easy to find the time to blog. However, I make sure to write down everything I can in a journal as I go from city to city (during down time on trains and buses) so it is not like I am solely recapping everything based on fuzzy memories. So far, we have been to 3 ports, passed the 1/3 of the way done with the trip line, and seen SO MUCH that I can’t even imagine how travel overloaded I will be by the end of the trip. I have to remind myself every day that I am in these countries and doing these incredible things because it doesn’t feel real. It is such an amazing opportunity and I am so so appreciative to be able to travel the way that I am. It has been such an incredible journey thus far and I am wishing I could do this for years instead of months. I am seeing things and meeting people that are opening my eyes to the world already, and we haven’t even hit the countries that are known for creating that kind of feeling. We all talk about every day how lucky we are to be able to be on SAS. I can honestly say that my expectations started off really high, and they have been surpassed to unimaginable heights, and that is a pretty fair consensus with the rest of the ship. It is so hard to believe that it has been over a month and that we have only gone to three places since it feels like years and thousands of places. I am not doing this justice since my writing skills are not that impressive and what I am feeling is so hard to put into words. But honestly, this is the greatest semester I could have asked for already.

Anyway, enough of that and more of what I have been doing these past 2 weeks… I can’t believe that it was only 2 weeks now that I am writing it out. This morning feels like days ago, and Japan, which was only 10 days ago, feels like years and years away. Anyway, I left off at leaving for Koyasan, Japan day number 2.

I spent about 2 hours in the Tokyo train station by myself, first trying to meet up with some friends to go to Koyasan, and then realizing that we were missing a person and waiting for her. It is really really hard to travel with people when we don’t all have phones. I don’t know how people ever did it. A few things that someone should know if traveling in Japan- DO NOT SIT ON THE FLOOR. The floor is where homeless people sit and homeless people only. Luckily, I was just joined by a man who was trying his hardest to speak English and was amused by Nemo and my little computer (I was watching Finding Nemo). I got up fairly quickly and walked away. There were no chairs anywhere though so that was sad. I have a friend who I later learned sat down in the station a different day and someone yelled at them for doing it. These are things that it would have been nice to have been told at our hour and a half long preports instead of some common sense things that people who are going to do them will do regardless of their warning (example: chase hard liquor with beer). Eventually, my friend arrived at the station, we got a quick breakfast and got on our very first Japanese bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka.

The bullet trains are pretty amazing. They are extremely comfortable, travel incredible fast, and are a very easy way to travel around Japan. My friend and I had gotten a rail pass- which is basically a flat rate pass that allows you to take unlimited trains around Japan for a set amount of days- it is meant for tourists and you have to buy to out of the country. It definitely made our few days run smoothly we were able to see a lot more than all of our friends without the passes. I spent a lot of the time on the trains staring out the window, and even though we were spending a lot of time sitting on trains and buses, we were able to see a lot of the country that no one really visits (like a lot of the small towns we passed through). The speed that we were going though was kind of like a plane right before it takes off. I kept waiting for us to lift up in the air. The first train ride was the most exciting because since all we had seen was Tokyo, I didn’t feel like I was getting a good taste of what Japan is really all about. I felt like I was just in a big city back home and that’s not what I wanted from the trip. So, as we passed by all the Japanese-style homes and the countryside I was very excited. When we got to Shin-Osaka, we needed to buy tickets for the subway to Namba. It took us a few different tries for someone to tell us where to find where the machines were. After the subway, we got on a train from Namba to Koya-san. Coincidentally, when we got on the train there were 6 other SAS kids there that were going to the same Buddhist Monastery as we were! It was nice to travel from there on out with more than just my friend and I. From Namba you have to take two trains, a cable car and a bus in order to get to the temple. It is literally in the middle of nowhere- on a big mountain. It was absolutely beautiful getting there though, and very exciting.

When we finally arrived at the temple we first got to eat dinner. [Fun side note: We were wearing these slippers all over the monastery, and then would take them off to go into each room. For the bathrooms though, they had bathroom slippers.] So, we were eating on the ground with this huge incredible feast in front of us. It was colorful and I had no idea what any of it was, but it looked interesting. I tried some of everything, which was shocking for even me. I didn’t really like much of it, but at least I wasn’t left wondering. When I described dinner in my journal immediately after I ate (I am looking at it now), I used the word interesting 3 times in 3 lines of writing. After eating, we got to tour around the monastery, which was extremely quiet and serene, and then we went to take a tour of the grounds aka cemetery. The cemetery that we toured is the biggest Buddhist cemetery in Asia, with over 400,000 people buried in it over many centuries. It was absolutely fascinating. We learned about some of the traditions, customs and legends and got to see some incredible statues, graves and monuments. The monk that was showing us around was also telling us about his sect of Buddhism. The only word that I can really describe it as is modern- they have electricity including televisions and internet, go out to clubs, and are allowed to marry and have children. It was really different than my former impression of what monks are.

On the grounds was the main “house of worship”. The story behind it is that the founder of the sect lives in the house, so they bring him food twice a day and pray over there. The different decorations surrounding the area were beautiful- they had gold flowers and lanterns lining the temples. The lanterns are actually bought by the family of a dead relative, and it is 2 million US dollars for one but means that the dead will be prayed for eternally. We did a lot of bowing and prayer saying and such as we walked through the grounds and that was definitely interesting. At the house of the founding monk, the monk that was showing us around sung a sutra, which he later told us was the most popular one in Asia. The meaning of the sutra was that everything in peoples lives are void; that all the more material things (difference between rich and poor) mean nothing. I don’t describe it quite like he did but I really like the meaning- I may just become a monkess (those exist) if you haven’t picked up on that yet. One other interesting fact of the night was that the only thing that they bury in Buddhist cemeteries are the throat bone because it looks like a Buddha. The rest of their bodies are cremated and put elsewhere. The final thing that I did that night was use one of the Buddhist baths. It was incredibly relaxing- basically a hot tub. After walking around with my backpack all day and being in pain it felt amazing.  I then put on the robes that they provided us, which were extremely comfortable and was very, very happy sitting around there hanging out with my friends. The beds were also incredibly comfortable and I fell asleep that night in no time.

At 6:30 the next morning, we all started waking up for the service and fire ceremony. It took forever for us all to get out of bed because we were all really comfortable and it was SO SO cold outside. Eventually I pulled through and did it, but was wearing a LOT of layers. We made our way to the main temple for the service, which was really interesting. The temple was absolutely beautiful and the entire service was fascinating. Then, we went to a different place for the fire ceremony which was very different from the basic chanting in the first service. There was one monk banging on a drum, while the other one was completely different movements with beads and fire and blocks of wood. It was very exciting and loud, which was surprising because up until that point everything that we experienced in the monastery was incredibly quiet.

Following the fire ceremony, we went to eat breakfast, which was once again interesting. Then, my friend Elena and I rushed to get our stuff and catch a bus that would take us to the cable car since we were headed to Hiroshima that day. One of the two trains that we took back to Namba was only 2 cars- it was so crazy seeing such a tiny train. We got to Osaka at lunch time and since we had about 45 minutes until our train we went on a search for sushi. Even in a restaurant area filled with 30 or so eateries, it was SO difficult to find sushi. Our former impressions of Japan being filled with sushi everywhere were completely off. We eventually found one place that had two or three sushi dishes so we decided to go there. They couldn’t speak any English so we ordered solely relying on hand gestures and hoping that what we were eating wouldn’t kill us. I got a platter that had 3 different colors of sushi- green, pink and yellow. It looked pretty more than anything else. I really clearly have become a good eater since I literally just took a bite of all of it having no idea what it was. Due to these new eating skills, it took me about half a second after my first piece to discover that the sushi had wasabi inside it. I have never felt like a weird burn from food- I could feel it in my nose. We finished our meal and quickly headed to our train. Due to some sign confusion, we literally got on the train as the doors were closing.

When we arrived in Hiroshima at around 3, we first needed to find a desk since we were really just winging it and had no idea where exactly we were going. There were two places that they recommended going, but since it was late we had to choose one. (Between the Memorial Peace Park and floating gates, so we chose Peace Park since that was really what we came for even though we knew that the gates were supposed to be cool). The park was both touching and horrifying and I was incredibly ashamed to be an American and incredibly impressed with how the Japanese have taken a horrific event and created something magnificent from it. There was a mixture in the park of memorial structures and peace monuments that signified and instructed how peace is important and should be spread throughout the world. We went into the remembrance hall, which especially reminded me of the Holocaust Museum. There was a dome-shaped room that had tiles lining the walls for every person that had perished from the bomb. In the center of the room, there was a structure that represented the people who were in the A-Dome at the time of the bombing. (The A-Dome is the building that the bomb was dropped directly on top of and that because of the materials it was made of, is still standing today with the inside of it completely missing.) While I loved the general encouragement of peace that was found all over the park, my favorite part of it was the paper cranes found everywhere. I remember in sixth grade we completed a paper crane project with my social studies class in honor of Hiroshima. I relearned the story when I visited the city. I would prefer that you google it since I do not want to mess it up, as it is an incredible touching story. Anyway, these paper cranes were literally found all over the park, in chains and patterns and there was even an entire huge exhibit that was made of the cranes. It was amazing. We headed back to the train station after a few hours at the park. After a fairly quick train ride, we arrived back in Osaka station for the third time in approximately 24 hours.

When we got to Shin-Osaka, we met up with our friends who were getting in coincidentally at the same time from Tokyo. We were all staying at a hostel together that night, so we walked for a while in the subway station and then took two subways to get into downtown Osaka where the station was. We found our way to the hostel after a little, which ended up being an apartment that someone used as a hostel- there was only one other person staying there so we literally had an apartment to ourselves for the night. The other person was awesome, he was from Australia (as were so many people that we met there, since it is their summer break) and he ended up coming out with us that night. Since it was already fairly late, and we were hungry, we got ready quickly and left to go get food and drinks. Osaka is basically known for its nightlife- it is a young city, so that was really all we knew there was to do there. We searched for food for a while, but since it was already so late it was hard to find a place that was open.  We ended up at some hole in the wall place that was down a maze of alleyways (we discovered during our time in Asia so far that the best places are the most randomly located). It was an incredibly interesting dinner. It was hibachi style, and we basically just a ordered shrimp or pork dish (I don’t know how my friends who are keeping kosher are doing it) and they started cooking away. First, there was eggs, rice and a bunch of vegetables cooking, then they added the shrimp or pork, the there was more eggs, then ketchup, mustard, mayo, sweet sauce, spicy sauce, and some other toppings that I am not sure what they were(you could pick and choose your toppings). It was delicious, but I could feel my arteries clogging as I ate it. But hey, when in Japan…

Afterwards, we found a karaoke place, which was a lot of fun. We spent some time there and then walked around in this street area that had a bunch of shops and restaurants, but couldn’t really find places to go. At this point we decided that we had an apartment to ourselves for a night, it was late, and we should just go back and hang out there. It was perfect. I got to skype Lorrie and Amy and was really excited about that, as well as upload a bunch of photos. Then I went to sleep!

So, there is Koyasan, Hiroshima and Osaka in a nutshell—or a 4 page word document. Happy Dad??

Japan Day 1- Yokohama and Tokyo

Japan Day 1:

I woke up at 6:15 to watch the sunset rise as we pulled into Japan with some friends. We stayed outside for about a half hour and then I went back to sleep for an hour before meeting back up with people for breakfast. Following breakfast, we had a few hours before we would be docked and needed to go through customs. They had warned us that customs were going to be very strict and take significantly longer than when we went to Hawaii, and that after we went through we couldn’t reboard the ship until everyone went through. So, I spent my few hours showering, finishing packing and completing last minute things. At about 10, they started calling people off the ship by their seas (halls) and everyone was sitting around all over the ship waiting and wondering how long until their sea was called. Luckily, everyone that I was spending the first day traveling with that day was off the ship by noon. So, we headed off into Yokohama.

The first thing that I noticed as soon as we left the pier terminal was how unbelievably quiet the city was. While I have a loud voice to begin with, I felt as if speaking even quietly for me was too loud and disruptive. While we knew that we were in Japan and really excited about it, it didn’t appear and feel like we were in a foreign country. It was just as if we were in a big city that had more Asians around than normal and there was just more than average Japanese writing. The second thing that I noticed about Japan is that people clearly cared about their appearance—there was not a person in sight that was wearing sweatpants or the like. People in Japan are EXTREMELY fashionable and it is definitely a sign of status if they are dressed nicely.

Since we only had a small amount of time allotted for exploring Tokyo, we only walked from the pier to the post office to the subway station in Yokohama before leaving for Tokyo. At the subway station, we soon discovered that Japan’s subway system is EXTREMELY easy to use. It is color coded, and the price that you pay depends on the distance that you are traveling. Since it was our first time, we needed to ask one of the Japanese SAS students exactly how it works, but from then on we had it down. We found that when we needed help, there was always someone that we could find that was more than happy to help us, and even went out of their way just to make it easier for us to get around. So, after about 45 minutes in the subway and a train transfer, we made it to Roppongi station, right around the corner from where the hotel was located. Quick note about my day 1 plans- originally, I was down for a reservation with a group of friends that were staying at something called a capsule hotel (you sleep in these boxes basically that are equipped with all these cool technology thing) but the first day they wanted to go to the John Lennon museum and since I only had a half a day in Tokyo I wanted to go to more Japan-specific places, I ended up going with a different group of friends and planned on meeting up with my other friends later if it was feasible. My friends that I was with on the first day were staying at the Ritz because one of their mom’s works for a hotel and one of her past co-workers now works at the Tokyo Ritz and got them a really good deal. So, we ended up figuring out that it made the most sense for me to stay with them for the night and meet up with my other friends the following day. So, the Ritz was beautiful, extremely comfortable and amazing to stay at following 10 days on the ship. The building is the tallest in Tokyo and had the most beautiful views of the city. It was really incredible. We first went to the hotel to check in and drop off our bags, met up with my friend’s mom’s friend who works at the hotel who showed us around the immediate area next to the hotel and set us up at a restaurant for lunch that she loves. She was extremely helpful. Lunch was at a noodle place and absolutely delicious. Even though the waiters didn’t speak English very well, he tried his hardest to help us and even gave us advice on where to go following lunch by looking up the times that some of the temples were open. We ended up going to a temple in the Asakusa area and it was magnificent. There was also a nice shopping area there that had little trinkets so my friends shopped- I didn’t because I wasn’t going back to the ship for five days and I didn’t want to travel around with more than I had to. Instead, one of my friends and I went to a grocery store down the street for some water, and ended up in the first place that was solely Japanese. It was extremely cool to see how their grocery stores were and the different items that they had in them in contrast to American ones. I also bought my first store-bought beer ever since I was finally legal (!!) for my friend who was not  as we weren’t sure how strict they were about the 20 year old drinking age. Following our time in that area, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the rest of the night. I got to skype with Steph and attempted to skype with Mom and Brian but they couldn’t figure out how to work the computer.

Since we had an extremely late lunch, we decided to go to a karaoke bar that we knew had some food at it and eat and sing there. On the short walk over, someone had come over and handed us a flyer for a bar that had no cover charge (which was rare it seemed) and we said we might check it out after. Karaoke was a lot of fun and we were there for about an hour. Then, we decided to go to the club, and while walking out, the same man that had given us the flyer came out of nowhere to tell us to go there. We said we were and headed over—it was extremely skeevy. I was happy because it was 3 guys and 3 girls AND Japan is extremely safe, but still was not 100% comfortable. We got up to the bar (it was on the fourth floor) and it was basically a hole in the wall place, which was cool. They were playing American music, and there were some Japanese people drinking at one of the three tables. We debated on staying, since we had heard that some of the bartenders at the places in the area would drug guys’ drinks so that they would pay more and this seemed like it could be the place. The bartender clearly noticed that we were hesitant and grabbed a beer, and then opened it right in front of me. So, we stayed, and my friends made sure to watch them when they poured. It was a really fun night. We ended up dancing with the Japanese people in the bar and it was hilarious.. will try to put some videos on the blog in Shanghai or Hong Kong. At around 1:30 am (they have no bar time) we left to go back to the hotel. I attempted to skype with Annie but failed before going to bed at 2, with my alarm set for 4 am to wake up for the fish market.

So, at 4am my alarm went off and I spent five minutes debating whether or not I should shower (since I didn’t know the next time that I would have shower usage)… I finally made the decision to. Probably not a good choice since the fish market stunk and I smelled like fish the rest of the day anyway. BUT I had clean hair!! So, the fish market… it was really cool and smelly and made me never want to eat fish again, but definitely amazing to see. There was so much going on, and so many different types of fish and seafood both alive and dead all over the place. In some areas of the market, you could see the larger fish being cut up in large machines. The most interesting part of the morning was the tuna auction. The tuna were absolutely gigantic and the bidding was very lively (specifically the auctioneer). I was really excited that I got to go and see it and really enjoyed my time there. At around 7am, I needed to rush out of there to catch a subway to Tokyo and meet up with my friends for the journey to Koyasan!

That’s all for now, folks! More to come post-China! Bai-Bai (informal way to say bye bye in Chinese)!

The Japan Lowdown

I have yet to even finish writing everything in my journal, so I am holding off on a blog post for now and am not sure if I will be able to do it until after Vietnam since we only have one more day on the ship until China and then two days between Vietnam and China. BUT, I figured I would give everyone a little idea of what I was up to in Japan. After getting back on the ship yesterday and sharing stories with everyone, it seems that my friend Elena and I did the most traveling out of most people- 8 cities in 5 days. So, here is what I did:

Day 1: Got to Yokohama, took pictures with the skyline, went to a post office, tried to find the subway.

Took the subway to Tokyo, checked into our hotel, toured around Tokyo for some time, ate, drank, was merry. Went to sleep at 2 am

Day 2: Woke up at 4 am. Went to the Tsukiji Fish Market (largest in the world). Saw a tuna auction. Left Tokyo for Koyasan. Spent 10 hours traveling to Koyasan. Arrive at Koyasan where the largest Buddhist cemetery is located, stayed at a Buddhist monastery. Took a tour of the cemetery at 9pm. Slept in the most comfy beds ever.

Day 3: Woke up for Buddhist service and fire ceremony. Left for Hiroshima. Arrived in Hiroshima 6 hours later. Toured Hiroshima, loved Hiroshima, was reminded a LOT of the Holocaust Museum. Left for Osaka. Arrived in Osaka, checked into hostel, went out for dinner and karaoke, went back to hostel, skyped, slept.

Day 4: Woke up at 8am, left for Nara. Nara was beautiful, toured around, ate lunch, left for Kyoto. Toured Kyoto's Gion area and a few shrines. Checked into hostel, went out for dinner and ended up at the most incredible bar I have ever been to, met some incredible people from all over the world. Passed out back at hostel.

Day 5: Woke up early, finished traveling around Kyoto, headed over to Kobe. Toured around Kobe, did some shopping, experienced a Japanese internet cafe (they are ridiculous) and finally got back on the ship. Never did I think the ship would look so comforting.

So, that's my trip to Japan in a nutshell. Check back for more details later! I miss everyone!

En Route from Hawaii to Japan {Part 2}

We are almost to Japan! We are almost to Japan! On the map that we can see on the tv’s in our room, it looks like we are touching Japan. Today was Asia Day- which basically means a day of no classes and a bunch of seminars and activities that you can go to and learn about different things in the Asian countries we are visiting. I watched the movie Good Morning Vietnam with Robin Williams- very funny, I highly recommend it.

Anyways, to recap my time since my last post (which happened to finally post itself a few hours ago but was written 4 days ago), the same day that I had a test, I had a pop quiz in a different class. I got 100% WOOT WOOT! I did aerobics afterwards that was led by a friend, and that was fun but interesting because of the boat rocking. And for the rest of the night, as per the usual things, played lots of games and discovered that I really suck at Pictionary.

The next day we gained another hour again AND my morning class was cancelled. It was incredible. My email broke that day though (as did everyone elses since the server on the mainland broke down) and it really bothered me. Lots of my emails apparently didn’t get through to me too during that time. It was Friday and one of my friends had mentioned that I should go to Shabbat services so I did. I have yet to go to one in college, so I don’t really know what to compare it to, but I know that it was different. It was a service filled not only with Jewish students, staff, faculty, children and professors, but non-Jews too that were curious as to what the Jewish thing is all about (2 of my friends who are extremely religious Christians attended as well). Since I was singing and reading and sitting with them I was very aware of what they must have been thinking listening to all these people singing songs, some of them clearly memorized, in a gibberish language. I also found (and so did a lot of my friends when we talked about it after) that transliteration is MUCH more difficult to follow than Hebrew when you are accustomed to it. The melodies of the prayers were different than what I know, and I couldn’t process the words in English and learn the melody at the same time. So, they are now making more copies of the prayers in Hebrew for next time.

Following the service and dinner, I headed to the Union to participate in a Swing Dancing seminar being taught by my good friend. I can officially say now, that I know the basics of swing dancing and can complete them without stepping on peoples toes and falling over more than once every few steps. It was a ton of fun though, and they got so much positive feedback from everyone there that they are going to make it into a recurring activity.

The next day (Saturday if you’ve lost track by now), I woke up, had a pretty average day, did some studying for the upcoming Global Studies exam, etc. One really cool thing that happened was during my Global Mental Health class- we were discussing a book that we had just finished (which I highly recommend, called An Unquiet Mind) and our professor was explaining to us how the author is one of the most well-known psychologists in the field and wrote the first textbook (or the first good one) on people with mood disorders, or specifically Manic-Depressive Disorder. He then showed up an email that he had sent to her with hopes that she would respond and answer a question we had. Of course, no one expected HER to actually respond, but she had and while unfortunately she had no answer to our question, it was crazy that my professor and this incredible doctor were emailing each other personally! Moving on… after my third and last class of the day, I went to play board games with some of the children and one of my friends. It was a lot of fun- the kids are absolutely adorable. It was a great hour. BUT, we eventually had to go back into the real world of people our own age.

That evening, I had a “sea social” which is basically a social with our sea. Each sea is a hall or a part of a hall. It was really great because not only did I meet some cool people on my hall, but it was in the normally off-limits faculty lounge and we were able to drink and talk with all the professors and other staff who went up there during that time… it was definitely different than anything I have ever experienced. Later in the night, I went to sleep while the extremely loud crashing of the ship into waves persisted. (We had to go extremely far off-course because there was really bad storm in our path. Each big wave brought with it the sound of a bomb, the 30-second aftershock vibration of an earthquake, and REALLY scary dreams because of it. Luckily, I was so tired that night that when we hit the waves I would wake up in a panic initially but then just pass right back out!

Sunday, which was the next day, was spent mostly attempting to study for the Global Studies test that we were taking that night. It was nice to take it and be done with it. I thought it was definitely fair and that seemed to be the general consensus. That night I played poker with some of my friends- we ended up getting shut down because people were caught playing for money the night before and they have it temporarily banned until they can figure out a way to permanently ban it. Regardless, the guy who told us we had to stop was really nice so at least that was that. Anyways, when we stopped I had the most chips, and 2 out of the 3 guys we were playing with (out of 6 total) were out, and the third had the lowest amount of chips left. Moral of the story: girls should play poker more. After we stopped, we went to watch the last few acts of an open mic night and then headed to bed... which finally brings me to:

SUPERBOWL MONDAY MORNING! Due to the time difference, I woke up at 8:30 on Monday, no classes day, and watched the superbowl in bed while reading Lovely Bones. It was awesome, but different, as everything seems to be. Since they were streaming it they announced twice that no one should be on the internet so that they could use all the bandwidth.. of course, they announced it at 8 am on a morning where no one had to wake up for classes or do any work because our next class day isn’t for a week and we only have 4 total class days left in February (yes, I am on the best study abroad program ever), and people went on the internet out of spite. Anyways, after the game ended, I went to get lunch and spent the rest of the day playing cards with my friends (literally, spent hours and hours playing). I also figured out that I will not be in South Africa for the seders as previously thought, and that was a really sad discovery. I had the cultural and logistical pre-ports for Japan, where we learned everything we should and shouldn’t do in the country that we already have all our plans laid out for as we will be there tomorrow, so that was NOT useful, but we also learned that it is much safer than the US so we shouldn’t worry about crime and that the drinking water is good. The customs process will be very intimidating tomorrow- they are extremely strict about it there. We have to get fingerprinted, go through a thermascan to check for fever, be checked out one on one, and who knows what other kinds of shenanigans- but I guess its all part of the adventure. It just sucks that we are getting in a few hours later than planned so it takes away even more of the day.

Well, I am off to bed. Gotta wake up to see us pulling into port in just a few hours. The next time I blog, will be during or after my stay in Japan. GOODBYE!!!!!!!!

Vicarious Voyage

"Dear friends"... this was at the top of 22 letters that myself and a fellow SASer named Danny received earlier this week.  Danny and I are partners for something called Vicarious Voyage, a classroom-ship penpal program that has been part of Semester at Sea's traditional program opportunities since the early 90's. With over 5000 students participating over the years, Semester at Sea students have reached out to 50,000 K-12 students in 1500 classrooms across the country. While we are traveling the world, we communicate with the teachers, send packages back and forth, and give the students an up close look on the world they live in. Some classrooms have a theme that they are focusing on (such at latitude and longitude, or diversity) while others, such as ours, is just generally tracking our voyage and introducing the second grade students to other cultures. It is truly an incredible program and I am happy to be partaking in it.  It is so influential in fact, that one of the girls on our current voyage was part of a classroom when she was in fourth grade that was part of Vicarious Voyage, and now she is a Semester at Sea student herself.

Our students that we are paired with are from a school in New York and the teacher referred to them as a diverse population with varying abilities. Their letters certainly showed it, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every one of them. There was one girl who said that she is from the Dominican Republic, another who, although it was erased, wrote that he doesn't listen, and yet another who wrote in pretty print letters about how she likes to read a lot because every day she learns how to read big words. This one girl also added that she likes books about Christmas because "I get presents and my whole family does." I got a lot of great laughs out of the letters, and can't wait to write them back and send our first package of things from Hawaii and the ship.

 While they clearly had a list of questions and "my favorite..."'s their teacher had supplied them with for the letters, I was amazed by how many of them wrote that their favorite thing to do is read. Having participated in a program that focused on increasing reading interest and abilities in pre-k children, and worked in schools where the biggest goal is to promote good reading habits, it is clear that reading has become to be an outdated activity among most children.  So, I thought this was great. When I return to Madison, I am hoping to promote the Vicarious Voyage in some of their schools, since after speaking to one of the staff in charge, she informed me that there are VERY few schools in the Midwest that participate. It is necessary to have schools all over, since Semester at Sea students are from all over, and one of the nicest parts about working with a school in NY is that we plan on visiting it after we return for the summer. I am so happy to have the opportunity to share the world with these twenty-two students this semester, and hope that they can grow and learn from it as much as I am.

Your friend,

Ali

En Route from Hawaii to Japan - Part I

* The dates of this post are way off since I wrote it a while ago and the email server was down so they weren't going out for some time (I email my blog posts to save internet minutes). This also means that some emails were being bounced so its possible that I didn't receive emails that anyone might have sent. But let's pretend that this was actually posted when I originally tried last week...



Yesterday was Tuesday, February 2. Today is Thursday, February 4. How does that happen you wonder? We went over the International Date Line, which is an imaginary line that does a Pirates of the Caribbean bouncy sky type thing when you cross it (kidding). It is basically just the line which is the basis for all time zones… on one side of it, we were at the last possible time zone (-12, if you are looking on a phone), behind in time from everyone else in the world. On the other side of it, we are +12, ahead in time from the rest of the world. So, in some sense, we went from 3:15 on Tuesday to 3:16 on Wednesday (since that was when we crossed it), but for easier scheduling purposes we just went from Tuesday at 11:59 to Thursday at 12:00.


It has been a pretty boring few days since we left Hawaii, and most of my time has been spent playing card games and studying on our no classes day yesterday. I am also involved in a lot of clubs and have a lot of projects to work on for classes, so I have been planning and organizing things for that. Since two of my friends were leading it, I went to try salsa dancing the other day. It was a sad, sad attempt and I gave up after a few minutes. Some of my friends can do it excellently though.


On Saturday night, my friends and I attempted to sleep outside. It’s supposed to be amazing and we wanted to do it on a day where we wouldn’t have to be very awake the next day, OR it got too cold. At midnight, we headed outside with blankets, sleeping bags, yoga mats, pillows, etc. and were watching a movie. I kept falling asleep during the movie so that was a major fail, BUT my sleeping bag was incredibly warm and comfortable and amazing. After the movie, we lost 3 or 4 people who decided that they were sleeping in their beds. So about 6 of us were left outside. At 4am I woke up to extreme winds, with yoga mats flying at my head. It was terrifying, but hilarious because one of my friends was running around chasing after things that were flying around. There were only four of us left, and as we all woke up from the wind, we decided to call it a night. At least we can say we tried. I was so tired and it was so warm in my room, that I passed out on top of my bed and slept really late the next morning.


The following day I had a bunch of meetings. One for my global studies group where we decided we are doing a project on how restaurants and markets are sustainable with their food. I went to a seminar on travel photography, which was really interesting and helpful. I had a meeting for a committee that I am chairing- it is the Students of Service Auction. There is a day in April that we have both a regular auction and silent auction and raise money to support the scholarship funds and the field programs. For anyone at home reading this- they have raised tens of thousands of dollars in the past, and have big selling things such as peoples timeshares or houses in fun vacation spots that students come together to plan a reunion, or the faculty and staff would like for themselves and their families. Tickets to sports games too--- so for all you season ticket holders… If you have anything that you would like to donate to the auction, it is truly for a great cause and would be extremely helpful! But, since I am posting it on here, so no pressure.


Two nights ago, we had a ship-wide dance in the union. Two notes here: everyone was sober and the Union is the rockiest spot on the ship. It was crazy, so much fun, but it even further reinforced that I really CAN’T dance. It was a mismatch party as well, so people were wearing crazy, ridiculous outfits that were very funny.
Yesterday was NO CLASS DAY. It was exciting, but most people spent the day doing more work than normal. It’s funny because no class days typically follow 4 days of classes, so it is like a weekend. However, at school, I do all my work during the week so that I don’t have to on the weekend. Here, it is the exact opposite. Now, we only have 3 days of classes not including today before we have a break for a WEEK while we are in JAPAN!!! WOOO. Anyway, I had some meetings also on no class day, and ended the day watching Jaws in the union. I had never seen it, but remember going to the ride at Universal, and Jason screaming and crying having a panic attack at the VERY fake shark… as I am writing this I hope that I have the memory right and that it wasn’t me. I had joked in the beginning of the movie that they were playing it for everyone so that people wouldn’t want to go cage diving (shark diving) in South Africa. Little did I know, one of the last scenes of the movie was the shark attacking and breaking the cage… so, not that I had any plans to go cage diving in the first place, it definitely convinced me to never go. 

This morning I had my first test in Global Mental Health. It was pretty easy… I did well on it. It is gloomy and dark outside, and it was extremely difficult for me to wake up this morning- further reinforcing the point that if I lived in an inside cabin I would sleep ALL DAY without sunlight. Now, I should probably go pay attention in class… Ja ne! (wikipedia says that's goodbye in Japanese, I hope its correct)

En Route from Hawaii to Japan {Part 1}

*The dates of this post are way off, since I wrote it a while ago, and the email server was down so they weren't going out for some time. (I email my blog posts to save internet minutes) This also means that some emails were being bounced so its possible I didn't recieve emails that anyone might have sent. But lets pretend that this was actually posted when I originally tried last week...

Yesterday was Tuesday, February 2. Today is Thursday, February 4. How does that happen you wonder? We went over the International Date Line, which, is an imaginary line that does a Pirates of the Caribbean bouncy sky type thing when you cross it (kidding). It is basically just the line which is the basis for all time zones… on one side of it, we were at the last possible time zone (-12, if you are looking on a phone), behind in time from everyone else in the world. On the other side of it, we are +12, ahead in time from the rest of the world. So, in some sense, we went from 3:15 on Tuesday to 3:16 on Wednesday (since that was when we crossed it), but for easier scheduling purposes we just went from Tuesday at 11:59 to Thursday at 12:00.

It has been a pretty boring few days since we left Hawaii, and most of my time has been spent playing card games and studying on our no classes day yesterday. I am also involved in a lot of clubs and have a lot of projects to work on for classes, so I have been planning and organizing things for that. Since two of my friends were leading it, I went to try salsa dancing the other day. It was a sad, sad attempt and I gave up after a few minutes. Some of my friends can do it excellently though.

On Saturday night, my friends and I attempted to sleep outside. It’s supposed to be amazing and we wanted to do it on a day where we wouldn’t have to be very awake the next day, OR it got too cold. At midnight, we headed outside with blankets, sleeping bags, yoga mats, pillows, etc. and were watching a movie. I kept falling asleep during the movie so that was a major fail, BUT my sleeping bag was incredibly warm and comfortable and amazing. After the movie, we lost 3 or 4 people who decided that they were sleeping in their beds. So about 6 of us were left outside. At 4am I woke up to extreme winds, with yoga mats flying at my head. It was terrifying, but hilarious because one of my friends was running around chasing after things that were flying around. There were only four of us left, and as we all woke up from the wind, we decided to call it a night. At least we can say we tried. I was so tired and it was so warm in my room, that I passed out on top of my bed and slept really late the next morning.

The following day I had a bunch of meetings. One for my global studies group where we decided we are doing a project on how restaurants and markets are sustainable with their food. I went to a seminar on travel photography, which was really interesting and helpful. I had a meeting for a committee that I am chairing- it is the Students of Service Auction. There is a day in April that we have both a regular auction and silent auction and raise money to support the scholarship funds and the field programs. For anyone at home reading this- they have raised tens of thousands of dollars in the past, and have big selling things such as peoples timeshares or houses in fun vacation spots that students come together to plan a reunion, or the faculty and staff would like for themselves and their families. Tickets to sports games too--- so for all you season ticket holders…  If you have anything that you would like to donate to the auction, it is truly for a great cause and would be extremely helpful! But, since I am posting it on here, so no pressure.

Two nights ago, we had a ship-wide dance in the union. Two notes here: everyone was sober and the Union is the rockiest spot on the ship. It was crazy, so much fun, but it even further reinforced that I really CAN’T dance. It was a mismatch party as well, so people were wearing crazy, ridiculous outfits that were very funny.

Yesterday was NO CLASS DAY. It was exciting, but most people spent the day doing more work than normal. It’s funny because no class days typically follow 4 days of classes, so it is like a weekend. However, at school, I do all my work during the week so that I don’t have to on the weekend. Here, it is the exact opposite. Now, we only have 3 days of classes not including today before we have a break for a WEEK while we are in JAPAN!!! WOOO. Anyway, I had some meetings also on no class day, and ended the day watching Jaws in the union. I had never seen it, but remember going to the ride at Universal, and Jason screaming and crying having a panic attack at the VERY fake shark… as I am writing this I hope that I have the memory right and that it wasn’t me. I had joked in the beginning of the movie that they were playing it for everyone so that people wouldn’t want to go cage diving (shark diving) in South Africa. Little did I know, one of the last scenes of the movie was the shark attacking and breaking the cage… so, not that I had any plans to go cage diving in the first place, it definitely convinced me to never go.

This morning I had my first test in Global Mental Health. It was pretty easy… I did well on it. It is gloomy and dark outside, and it was extremely difficult for me to wake up this morning- further reinforcing the point that if I lived in an inside cabin I would sleep ALL DAY without sunlight. Now, I should probably go pay attention in class… Ja ne! (wikipedia says thats goodbye in Japanese, I hope its correct)

Vicarious Voyage

"Dear friends"... this was the at the top of 22 letters that myself and a fellow SASer named Danny received earlier this week. Danny and I are partners for something called Vicarious Voyage, a classroom-ship penpal program that has been part of Semester at Sea's traditional program opportunities since the early 90's. With over 5000 students participating over the years, Semester at Sea students have reached out to 50,000 K-12 students in 1500 classrooms across the country. While we are traveling the world, we communicate with the teachers, send packages back and forth, and give the students an up close look on the world they live in. Some classrooms have a theme that they are focusing on (such at lagitude and longitude, or diversity) while others, such as ours, is just generally tracking our voyage and introducing the second grade students to other cultures. It is truly an incredible program and I am happy to be partaking in it. It is so influential, in fact, that one of the girls on our current voyage was part of a classroom when she was in fourth grade that was part of Vicarious Voyage, and now she is a Semester at Sea student herself.

 

Our students that we are paired with are from a school in New York and the teacher referred to them as a diverse popation with varying abilities. Their letters certainly showed it, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading each and everyone of them. There was one girl who said that she is from the Dominican Republic, another who, although it was erased, wrote that he doesn't listen, and yet another who wrote in pretty print letters about how she likes to read alot because every day she learns how to read big words. This one girl also added that she likes books about Christmas because "I get presents and my whole family does." I got a lot of great laughs out of the letters, and can't wait to write them back and send our first package of things from Hawaii and the ship.

 

While they clearly had a list of questions and "my favorite..."'s their teacher had supplied them with for the letters, I was amazed by how many of them wrote that their favorite thing to do is read. Having participated in a program that focused on increasing reading interest and abilities in pre-k children, and worked in schools where the biggest goal is to promote good reading habits, it is clear that reading has become to be an outdated activity among most children.So, I thought this was great. When I return to Madison, I am hoping to promote the Vicarious Voyage in some of their schools, since after speaking to one of the staff in charge, she informed me that there are VERY few schools in the Midwest that participate. It is necessary to have schools all over, since Semester at Sea students are from all over, and one of the nicest parts about working with a school in NY is that we plan on visiting it after we return for the summer. I am so happy to have the opportunity to share the world with these twenty-two students this semester, and hope that they can grow and learn from it as much as I am.

 

Your friend,

Ali

Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A.

Aloha Hawaii… Konnichiwa, Japan! It has officially been two weeks since I left home, so in addition to describing my experience in Honolulu, I just want to quickly reflect back on the last two weeks.

I cannot believe that we have already finished the first stop of our journey, and that Hawaii is done and over with.  It feels like so much time has gone by, and yet, we still have most of the semester left. While Hawaii was a lot of fun and helped giveus some insight into the do’s and the don’ts for the other ports we go to that will not be as easy to get around (such as can’t travel in large groups), the other ports are clearly going to be much more interesting to visit. It was a great transitional starting point though.

So, my delayed Honolulu post, sorry about that. I haven’t had time to really sit down and write about it, due to a mixture of lots of stuff going on, homework, and rough seas. The first day in Honolulu, I woke up late and went to try to find some people but everyone was either off skydiving or doing FDP’s. So I went to get some stuff done that I knew I wanted to complete when I was in Hawaii, like getting a Japan Rail Pass, walking around Honolulu and seeing some of the pretty, old buildings, getting stamps at the post office and finding free internet.

I had passed by a café on my way back to the ship to drop some stuff off, so I decided to go eat there. It was delicious, but the weirdest mix of food I have ever seen at one place. They had Japanese food and American food—so sushi, chicken teriyaki, and turkey and chicken pesto panini’s. I guess that explains Hawaii though, since it is a mix of influences from Asia and America. Halfway into my meal, I decided to try to check if I got free wifi on my computer and I did! I was really excited, got to skype with Steph (and at one point Annie and Heidi too all at once). I also filled out my reapplication to Wisconsin.

After I finished eating, I went to meet up with one of my friends and walked around the shopping center next to the port. I got some post cards, souveniers, etc. Finally, at around 2, I met up with the rest of my friends to go to the beach (the one that is filled with more locals than tourists). We walked two miles to get there, and it was awesome. The beach was completely empty, perfectly pretty for me, and definitely worth not going to the more popular beach that we heard later was packed. I couldn’t believe how calm the water was until so far out in the ocean, I absolutely loved it. If you aren’t aware, I love swimming in the ocean but hate waves crashing on me, so this was PERFECT. I learned to play poker that day too.. Jason, we are going to play when I get back.  

We stayed for the sunset, which was the best decision ever. It was absolutely incredible, beautiful AND we got lots of amazing pictures out of it. However, staying meant that when we got back to the ship, I had a half hour to get ready to go out to dinner.

We ate dinner at Red Lobster, and then went back to the beach to hang out. (Just a side note- one of the weirdest things for me so far this semester, is the number of not only non-jews I am hanging out with, but the amount of them that have never MET a jew before. Definitely different from what I am used to- especially when I mention that I did a teen tour and no one knew what that was) We got MORE amazing and cool pictures that night, and basically just had a nice time hanging out doing nothing. When I got back to the ship  the whole mini bottle fiasco occurred (see last post) and I went to sleep.

The next day I dragged myself out of bed early to go to an FDP at the Hawaii State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital. The morning was way too long but definitely interesting. We got a tour of the facilities, and spoke with a few doctors and staff, but were literally not allowed to have any interaction with the patients (not even able to be in the same room). The most interesting, and clearly Hawaii-influenced, part of the hospital were the Aloha Gardens. The Aloha Gardens were created from a mix of staff, volunteers, and most importantly, the patients. The doctor we spoke with there explained that this type of rehabilitation (working in the garden), showed much different results than traditional rehabiitation. She said that there were patients who showed no improvement in the everyday programs and treatment and when they came to the gardens they were different people. So that was pretty cool.

That afternoon I went to Walmart and the mall with one of my friends. We bought a bunch of things at walmart, then walked around trying to find the mall. After we finally found it, we mailed some things at the post office, at shaved ice (delicious) and headed back to the ship. We grabbed our computers and went back off the ship to find internet and quickly do all we had to before we needed to get back onto the ship. It took me forever to put up just a few pictures so that was sad that I couldn’t get more on facebook or my blog. When we got back to the ship, a few FDPs had just returned to the pier, and we had to wait in line behind them. Also, for some odd reason, only one of the two security stations were set up so we had to wait in line for a while. Got back on the ship finally, wrote my postcards and got them to the desk in time for the crew to mail before the ships doors were closed.

So, that was my time in Honolulu. Definitely not as exciting as Hilo. After going to two different islands in Hawaii, I have concluded that while Honolulu definitely has beautiful beaches, Hilo is an all-around more pleasant place to be. In Hilo, the people were friendly and helpful, it was incredibly safe, it was as if we were in a different place (not in the US), and there was a much bigger feel for being in a community. One example that I have heard a few times now is the cab drivers. In Hilo, the cab drivers immediately were asking questions, friendly, giving good advice, not charging to much, helpful, etc. In Honolulu, they didn’t speak. They drove you around in circles. There was even one girl who said she went to speak to the cab driver and he turned up the music and her friends couldn’t even speak to eachother. Honolulu was just like any other touristy beach city, and to me, and it seems everyone else on the ship, not worth going to when you can go to beaches that are closer and in the mainland US. Well, that’s all for right now. Just an update: I was cleared of all charges with my mini bottles disaster. Aloha!