i forgot big news last night!
we are officially in eastern standard time! its crazy to look at my clock on my laptop and have it be the right time!! it hasnt been like that since before june 15th! so weird!
anyways something is like seriously wrong with me.. im broken haha i woke up at 7!! on my own!!! yuck!!! tried to just lay in bed but eventually lacey and i went and enjoyed breakfast on the deck. then came back to the cabin for a little then went and laid out for a bit. all before 11!
at 11 there was a reentry shock meeting just about some things to maybe expect when getting back home.. and im just going to throw this out here now.. if you want to see my pictures and you tell me you want to see them.. welllll you better just be prepared to sit down for awhile and get real comfy because that wont be a fast event.. i tried pulling all the pictures i want to turn into a slide show tonight and there are 779 of them... and thats pictures of pretty much only me, hardly lots of sights pictures... just a lot cut out.. so be prepared for what your asking for.. because i want to share them but ill be really disappointed when half way through you get sick of it... just saying.
i had to leave this a little early to go have one last family lunch. deb is back in california now but it was amy and the 8 of us that our family has turned into! we played jeopardy sas style! we've learned so much =) do you know what city has a bigger population rome or cairo? or what flag the mv explorer flies? i do =)
after the very extended lunch i headed back to the cabin to find kristi in the last stretch of her packing.. then it was my turn! yikes. i dont know what i did wrong when packing to get here.. i have more room then i thought i did at least.. some how my clothes that i packed in the bigger purple suitcase to get here.. all fit in the smaller black one.. and i was able to get a bunch of souvenirs to fit in them too!! and i really havent gotten rid of like anything.. i really dont understand how it happened but im really okay with it! =) i just have a duffle and other bag that ill take off with me that ill fill with my breakable souvenirs.
after packing it was roomie relaxing time where we all laid in bed, kinda slept, and watched rudy. then we went and had dinner which was chosen by a student. (it was an auction item "pick dinner for a night") so she picked fried chicken and french fries and ice cream!!!! basically i had french fries for dinner yum yum yum!! the chicken isnt really all that good because its not boneless.. im looking forward to buying chicked strips when i get back!
after dinner we had a "preport" for the usa.. it was a funny one of things that they warn us for in all the countries but joking about it in the us.. then i came back to the room and picked out all my pictures for my slideshow that ill make hopefully some time next week... and now its bed time once again..
can you believe tomorrow is my last full day on the ship already?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
MY SEA IS THE LAST OFF THE SHIP!!!!!
just my luck huh.. this bites big time..
we had our first disembarkation meeting tonight and they told us the order.. the bright side is they said that if they were to start allowing us off at 11 everyone should be off after 2 1/2 hours unless there are problems with peoples luggage and such.. soooo hopefully i could be off no later than 130 so hopefully thats for real but i have heard multiple possibilities on this now.
in other news today.. i woke up at 9 which was nice and studied all morning and had my exam at 230 for global studies.. it wasnt hard per say but i didnt study a whole whole lot for it because of all my spanish work soo we will see how well i did.. then i had to write a global music paper today and i have just a few last sentences to finish it up and turn it in.. and in 10 minutes we have a milk and cookies break with my sea again =) yum. ohhhh and how could i forget after the test today we had an ice cream social for big brothers big sisters so that was good too! big free snacks day.. gotta love it!!!
tomorrow is just our study day so its free to do what we like which is always nice! only the second time thats really ever happened!
sad thing i realized today.. my finals day is in 2 days.. but in exactly one week i start classes at bg.. how much does that suck?1?1?!
last bit of news we gain back another hour tonight! so now we are only one hour ahead of everyone, we are getting super close! huh!
I am so mad that I can no longer sleep in…. what happened to me?!?!?? Woke up and lacey convinced me to go get breakfast with her.. so that means I was out of bed at 810 going to eat.. I still half asleep. After eating I climbed back in bed and started watching the holiday because it was on the loop today. I ended up watching the end half of this movie twice and the beginning once throughout the day.. but anyways for lunch today I was finally happy with food. It was TACOS!!!!!
Continue with my day by starting to watch Princess Diaries until my computer died and played bunts with Kristi, lacey, heather and myself. Then we checked out the silent auction. Today is auction day so no classes. It was actually our first day of having nothing to do unless we totally choose to participate in the auction festivities. All afternoon was the silent auction. There was a weekend stay in a beach cottage in Oak Harbor, OH that Kristi and I decided we really wanted to get.. only we started to get a challenge with this other girl wanting it.. when we signed it for the second time she goes “yeah im from osu so its like just a drive away” ha.. yeah we were are from closer… then as kristi is writing it out again she goes “well ive talked to my friends already and im willing to pay a lot more than that” really snobby… grr right then and there she pissed me off to no return.. its just like she thought she was all miss s- - t because she already talked to her friends and had the money.. well Kristi and I had already talked to mason and sean so its not like she was all that special.. well we decided that we would just act like we were still trying just to drive her prices up so that they would have to pay more in the end. So really she won in the end and im a little bummed about that but I guess its just an oh well situation.
Now im sitting in the live auction and let me just say is people really surprise me… I mean 3 boxes of girl scout cookies was the first item for 135. Two people agreed to pay 450 each to be the first off the ship. Two shirts with the special question of the days printed on them for 600 like what the heck?!?!?!?! And two people payed 650 for a chance to go to a steelers training camp day.. for some special deal that you only get by knowing someone and that someone that can provide is this is of course Dr. Tanya who is one of the doctors for the pittsburg steelers.. this would be my little brothers mom. Anyways people are just throwing out money like its junk change and hundreds being thrown out its crazy.
This was my day that is all.. very relaxed but I was really bored throughout most of the day… back to dreadful classes in the morning.
Correction to an older post… the time difference is actually four hours ahead of ohio and five ahead of texas right now..
So I should probably start off with blogging about yesterday since I was a little lazy last night or well really just super tired!
We started off my sleeping in, I woke up at 7 on my own! What the heck is wrong with me!?! And I couldn’t fall back asleep so I made myself lay in bed till 1030 =) got up got ready and went to lunch. After lunch Kristi, Jackie, a girl named Lauren and I went out to the souks right outside our port in Casa. Well the port is very large.. it took us 25 minutes to walk out of it, by the time we were out I was already dripping in sweat it was disgusting. Oh and let me just tell you walking down the street smelled AWFUL! There were at least 5 different distinctly disgusting smells where we literally had to hold our breath to walk by.
We spent about 3 hours out shopping and finishing off getting all the last gifts I needed to get. And oh course a few unplanned purchases for myself! Its so hard to resist! =) also I got henna on my had and wrist and it is such a cool design!!!!!! I got it in brown because that’s the real henna but a lot of others have been getting it in black too.. after our day out we headed back to the ship, right inside the port a taxi was taking a woman to the other ship in the port by ours and offered to take us too, so we gladly took the offer and jumped in! we had to give a little something when we got out, he had told us to give him whatever we wanted. Well I was out of small money and pretty much everyone else was too. Jackie handed him 6 duram and he laughed, he didn’t really know how to react because it was such a small amount.. so kristi handed him a dollar too.
We got back on ship took some time to relax, shower off, and change into dry clothes.. yes dry aka no sweat. Then we headed to Rick’s Café for a dinner out. It was Kristi and I, Jackie, Christina and two grad students one of which that lives across the hall from us. Turns out she is from Chagrin Falls!!! And she went to BGSU!! What a small world and we are only just figuring this all out! Anyways we went to Rick’s, which is not the Rick’s that is in the movie Casablanca because that was actually filmed in the US. And the woman who opened this Rick’s was an US consulate in Morocco at one point and after her station here she decided to stay and open up the restaurant. It was gorgeous inside! So fancy!!! I had a fillet mignon with mashed potatoes and wine!! Oh My God It was just wonderful!!!!! And they gave us lots of these rolls that were so good, they had like cooked olives or something baked into the dough that was surprising really good. I ended up eating 4 rolls!!! Haha I ate sooo much but it was soooo good! We had to treat ourselves for our last night out in another country! =) we walked all the way back to the ship afterwards which was a lot better because it was cooler!
Once we got back I fell like right asleep I was so tired! All the wine wasn’t any help to that matter either.
This morning I woke up at 7 yet again but was able to get myself to fall right back asleep again thank goodness, but just for another 45 minutes till Kristi woke me up. Guess what I noticed once I was up….. my henna was like half faded away already!!!!!!! I was soooo mad!!!!! We went and got breakfast, got ready and headed back to the souks. Thank goodness the shuttle was actually running today because we were able to take that and not have to walk!! Woohoo!! Everyone had some last items they wanted and money to spend so that’s what the goal was. my goal: get more henna!!!! My one on my hand/wrist is pretty much totally faded away now and im sooooooooooooo pissed off!!! Its supposed to last for at least 3 weeks, no I did not wash it at all so it wasn’t my fault either! Well I got more henna on my angle and in black so that it will stay longer and I really like this one too she put sparkles on it, which will be off in a few days, but she like accidently spilled a ton in the middle so its like half silver half black right now! And there are sparkles allllll over the cabin now!! We came back to the ship in time to get lunch.
The sad part about this though was realizing we were walking up the gangway and checking onto the ship for the very last time. EVER! It was really depressing actually…
After lunch I spent the afternoon watching P.S I Love You for the first time and crying my eyes out! Such a good movie though! Other than that ive really been just hanging around the rest of the night. Oh we had to get our laundry situated tonight! We are in terrible need of clean non smelly clothes so its about time its our laundry day again… I stuffed my bag fullllll!!! 10 shirts, 6 tshirts, 3 sweaters, 9 tank tops, a ton of underwear, 4 bras, a pair of socks, a pair of shorts, and 4 pairs of pants later my bag is overflowing and starting to rip haha but I made it all fit that’s all that matters!!! =)
I also tried to start sorting through my drawers tonight.. I was able to throw out hardly anything.. and im really outta luck when it comes to somehow packing this all back up… its going to be terrible.. I really don’t know what to do!!!! I might end up having to give Kristi a garbage bag full of clothes to take home since shes driving back and im flying! (I think).
Question of the day:
“do we have an interport student?”
Hhahah yeah about 700 or so =) lol
Oh and fantastic news!!!!! Tomorrow for lunch is TACO DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we’ve only had one so far at that was the day after Italy I think… im dying without my tacos!!! I cant wait!!!!! =) =)
So to end the day Kristi, steph, Cynthia and I went and watched us leave morocco.. I watched the ship pull into spain and now I watched it leave morocco and its totally crazy that we are officially now headed home. Just 10 more days on the ship before I make the final walk down the gangway! Ive been saying this whole summer how surreal it was being in each of the countries as we were there.. but the fact that we are officially at sea and making our way back to the states is even more surreal right now. Everyone told me how this was going to be a summer I never forgot. I remember on day one thinking what the hell am I doing I don’t know what made me get on this ship and this isn’t going to be what I thought.. and im not so sure its going to be an experience that is the best thing ever to happen to me… well my opinion has totally 150% changed.. I will never forget this summer, the places ive been, the people ive met, the memories ive made that really will last a life time. Im going to miss the ship and my friends and semester at sea in general 2 seconds after I get off the ship. Its going to be hard to say goodbye.
So no guesses on how I gained an hour last night? Okay guess im keeping the answer a secret then =)
It was a good thing I got that extra hour though because today was a very very very early morning 6AM! Yuck! I got to lunch at 640 which meant I was going to have 5 minutes to eat before I had to get to the bus early to try to buy a ticket for the trip I wanted on! But at lunch carol, one of the field office people, was walking around the dining room asking if anyone was wanting to sign on because there were a lot of openings so she could just do it then. So I went to Marrakesh today with Kristi and Jackie.
It was a three hour bus ride there which wasn’t too fun.. Marrakesh is one of the big, major cities in Morocco that everyone has suggested we go to. Lacey’s aunt and uncle had been there before and told her she had to had to had to go there. My tour guide yesterday said we should go to Marrakesh and the woman we talked with at the reception said we should too, so I went!
Once we got there our first stop was a botanical garden. It was really pretty and just full of vegetation. What gets me the most in all these countries has been the fact that cactus and palm tree grow hand in hand here which just seems so strange to me.. and lots of pretty flowers everywhere too, but mostly stuff we have back home too. After the garden we went to a palace and that was really cool and big! In morocco up till 1994 a man could have up to 4 wives!! But in 1994 there was a new law put into place that gives woman a lot more rights that they never used to have like equal divorce rights, and after they marry if their husband wanted to get another wife he would need the first’s permission. I learned that yesterday but im saying it now because I forgot to yesterday and this palace the man who lived there had had four wives. After the palace we went to museum and walked around that.. not a very good one though I must saw.. it was kinda random actually.. I learned something though that I think should totally come into use in the united states. Men are the ones in morocco who traditionally carried the purse that held everything not a woman.. idk I think that would be nice =) don’t you agree sean?! But what made it even better is the bags they had in the display were like bags I would like now! Haha
After the museum it was finally time for lunch! By this point my stomach was growling! We had an interesting appetizer but I surprisingly liked it. it was cucumbers, and some type of cooked and seasoned sweet potato or carrot and then some other thing that people were saying was eggplant but I really have no idea
Then we got cous cous with vegetables on it and meat.. I didn’t want to try to the meat because I couldn’t identify it and im still a little uncertain about eating meat here after what I saw yesterday.. well im really really glad I didn’t eat the meat… we were given one big plate of it all to feed our table so we just had to keep spooning portions on our plates.. well towards the end Kristi went to go get more meat and she thought it was a little hard.. she flips it over on her plate and kinda freaks out a little.. she thought it was an eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then of course the 2 guys at our table really wanted to check it out.. it was really round.. they don’t think it was an eye because it was too hard so the final thought was a joint but it was really really gross and freaked me out a lot!!!!! Kristi and I left from lunch early, we skipped desert so that we would have more free time.. after lunch was all free time for like an hour and a half to two hours to go shop around the market that we were at. Well that was a lot of fun got some really good things! We were shopping for these fun leather shoes that we each got and Kristi had started bargaining a price and was asking about 2 pairs.. well I thought she was saying she was getting 2 pairs so then I started jumping in saying id get a pair, but somehow Kristi missed the fact that he was starting to come up with a price for 3 pairs.. well basically long story short she had been talking about the pair I was going to get not 2 for her.. so when she told him she was getting one he got REAL pissed at her and started pretty much yelling at her… and I was trying to take my money back and just leave because he was being rude but he wouldn’t let me and was like no I get you your change and you take them and eventually he did and took kristis money for one pair but was just mean and last comment he said to Kristi was “that’s just really bad business, that’s bad business” really nasty like.. but oh well we got our shoes and they are cool =) then I had to go to the atm.. we passed snake charmers!!!! Crazy! And some woman was trying to get me to get henna we kept walking, she followed, she kept talking, we ignored her and kept walking, she grabbed my hand and tried to start going at it and I had to yank my hand away and walk off and I had some dots of henna on my fingers I had to try to get off so that it wouldn’t set in… it was just really annoying… I bought some really cute jewelry for really good prices!!! And some other gifts… less than 50 dollars for sure!
At four we had to meet back up and go back to the buses for the trip home. While walking to the bus these two young young boys came up to all of us with fans and were fanning us off and trying to sell them to us.. well Kristi caved and gave the youngest one that was next to her a dollar a us dollar.. and she wasn’t given a fan but we kept walking and they kept walking and following us and the kid kept saying something to her… but finally he got mad and stopped and said FUCK YOU and turned and went the other direction.. Basically Kristi gave a four year old a dollar didn’t get a fan and then was told fuck you… real nice huh…
We got back to the ship at 745 which was 45 minutes past the scheduled time.. they held dinner for us so that was good it was PESTO! Yum! Then I talked to sean for an hour! I decided I would use my precious minutes of ship internet time (2 hours total for the entire summer) to talk to sean tonight, only 28 minutes of internet left till I get back home…
Which isn’t too too bad because we will be back in less than 2 weeks now!!! How weird is that?!?! The countdown is on.. only 12 more full days of life on a ship! Its happy and very very sad at the same time. Last night Kristi and I were out in the hall checking our emails. Our hall is the dead zone on the ship and we have to go to the hall for internet to work instead of in our rooms like everyone else.. so we call it our little internet café.. well anyways kristi and I were sitting out there and jackie rounds the corner gets to the room and goes “what am I going to do when I don’t see you two sitting in the hall everyday.. can you come to Georgetown and just sit outside of my door for me” =) it’s so true though the things we’ve gotten so used to doing and seeing is soon going to be gone for pretty much ever and its really really sad! Im so used to seeing these people so many times a day and ill be lucky when we are somehow able to visit with them in a year or something like that.. which is just really sad.. but im really excited to get home and see my family and my dogs, and my boyfriend, and move into my apartment and see my roomies and have my doggie with me.. but its just so weird at the same time… and this probably made like no sense but that’s exactly what my thoughts on all this are like… confused.
With that im going to go take a shower and sleep till whenever I decide to wake up tomorrow! Just shopping outside of the port for the day tomorrow.. and either doing dinner with a Moroccan family tomorrow night or going to Rick’s Café… probably the second…
This voyage is coming to a close SO fast! The days have been flying by recently! Today we got back to spain (kinda sorta)! We had to repass through the Straight of Gibraltar this afternoon. which means we have made the full circle of the Mediterranean Sea! So we actually didnt just pass through the straight today we were anchored there for most of the day to bunker. If you don’t know what that is don’t feel out of the loop because they kept saying it for days prior but never explained it. it means that we had another boat come up alongside of us today and refuel us. In other words we got our last round of gas today before heading back to the US!!! That’s so weird!!
Pretty low key day yet very nice at the same time. Classes like usual, crappy lunch like usual, then I laid outside reading for about an hour came inside read some more and was able to finish book number 2 for the voyage!! How impressive for me! Im on a role! Im going to try to read kristis last book before we get back too! =) after I finished reading I took a nap and woke up just in time for dinner!
Tonight was my last full family dinner! One of my moms, Deb, is leaving in Morocco. Amy my other mom is one of the professors. But deb is going to visit family in Germany and then has to get back to work. So tonight we had a pizza night!! And thank goodness because I saw tonights ship dinner and it was grosssssss. So they ordered us pizza and pop and it was yummy =) then we took family tours of the different cabins. We got to go check out deb and amy’s room with big bed, couch, fancy bathroom with tub and a balcony! Then we checked out one of the economy cabins….. thank god I wasn’t in one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was literally a set of bunk beds and that’s it.. and no room at all it was sooooo small!!! Then I showed them all my 3 person, and then the family night was over..
I spent the remainder of my night updating my external hard drive, going to preport and now im getting ready to go relax and get to sleep.
So big news about tonight… its going to be intense! We are apparently going to hit some really really bad current changes in the middle of the night.. they warned us to put everything on the floor because it will be getting tossed around if its not. They said this is going to be worse than anything we’ve experienced so far…. Im a bit nervous im just glad its in the middle of the night and so hopefully I can just try to sleep through most of it… but if there are intense draw slamming we will see what happens.. other news for the night we gain back another hour
New official time differences: ohio- 5 hours behind, texas 6 hours behind
Most of the day was pretty much classic day on the ship event worthy. Breakfast on the deck, classes, reading while laying out, and then spending the rest of the night writing the big Global Studies paper! We signed up for our dinner slot for the Ambassador’s Ball. My dinner table will be me, Kristi, steph, Cynthia, Jackie and Christina. I’m really excited for it! best of all though is we should be getting really really good food… or at least the options that we had to pick from sounded good! I went for the fillet mignon im hoping it turns out much better than any other ship meat so far!!!
The highlight of today however was not writing my paper or signing up for dinner table but the Crew Talent Show! The crew are not allowed on our floors unless they are working so we really hardly get to interact with many of them.. really only our cabin steward and the dining staff. Well today was crew appreciation day. So in honor of it Lacey, Kristi and I all made our beds (or at least attempted to) so that Shane didn’t have to today. I think Lacey’s turned out the best.. mine was a little bumpy and lumpy throughout but in my defense I do have the bunked bed! Shane commented on our bed making skills when I passed him in the hall today and he said while laughing of course, that he saw we tried to make our beds today and it was a good thing they weren’t too good otherwise he might be out of a job. Thank you shane… haha.. but let me tell you what these beds are not easy to make! So I really appreciate how well he makes them every day for us! So anyways tonight is the chance that they get to have a little out of work fun with us by putting on their own talent show. It was very entertaining! Lots of singing and some really good solos and the best of all though was the dancing!!! Also I would just like to point out that the crew can really clean up nice!! =)
Mkkkk I really think that’s it.. sea days are nice short blog writing days!!!!
Test day means all I did was study..
To start out my day however my alarm for some reason didn’t go off so I woke up on my own at 815 and decided to just not go to Spanish… went to global studies… but on the way back from it I got sick.. literally.. and so I slept during global music. I woke up for lunch… and ate nothing.. only 4th of a toasted peanut butter.. and then studied all afternoon. Tried to study outside for awhile but I was sitting by really annoying girls so that didn’t last long and I just went back to my cabin to study instead.. dinner sucked too.. I ate 2 rolls and 2 oranges.. =/ after dinner Kristi and I studied more and questioned each other. This was actually a really good thing because the things we questioned each other were actual questions on the test so that was good! Eight o’clock was test time.. it went alright.. about as good as I expected it to go im thinking high c low b… perhaps.. not really sure.. but a grade to keep me passing the class at least which is what is important! I have a family movie night with my doctors family at 9 which is in like 15 minutes.. and that is my day.
Last night at the talent show the opening act was HILARIOUS!! It was our deans who are both older, have white beards, white receding hair, a little bit a tummy well they dressed up in sloppy suits and lip sang to I’m On A Boat and it was just priceless! There was lots of singing and piano playing and guitar playing, and some other stuff but it was all enjoyable!
There wasn’t a question or comment of the day today but one I think I forgot to write here was said in Egypt
SASer: I need someone who speaks the language
Egyptian: I speak Arabic
SASer: No I need someone who speaks Egyptian
Not much going on today again, I was able to make it to all my classes though! The water is a lot calmer today so no sea sickness feelings for me! =) food is sucking more and more and we still have a couple more weeks of it =/ im glad I made myself save so many snacks because now it’s a little easier for me to enjoy them and find food for the day! I took another small nap today and read for my global studies exam tomorrow and attempted to start to study. Tonight is the talent show and that’s about to start and is scheduled to go till 10 then it will be shower and bed time.
GREAT NEWS!!! Tonight we set our clocks back one hour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooohooooo more sleep!
Ohio= 6 hours behind us now
Texas= 7 hours behind us now
17 days till we are in Virginia!
question of the day:
"were there any cows in egypt because i just saw cattle"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MYKAELA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe it!! today is Mykaela’s 5th birthday!!!!!!!!!! How exciting is that!? Im really sad im not home to celebrate with everyone though! =( it is the first birthday ive missed of hers… im missing everyones this summer… I never realized that my whole family has summer bdays except heather…
I woke up early had a very peaceful and relaxing breakfast out on the deck again and then went to Spanish. Next was global studies but I only lasted 5 minutes in there before I had to go take sea sick meds because I was not feeling well at all.. in fact this was the first time ive felt literally sea sick where I thought I was going to throw up… thank goodness I didn’t though.. but instead of returning to class I decided it was best to lay down and sleep for a little.. I was able to wake up and go to music though so that’s good. We got our tests and papers back in here..
I don’t think I ever posted my global studies exam results yet…. I got a 100% on the map quiz of course because im just that good =) yes sean I got it all right!! Be proud! Then on the midterm #1 I ended up with a 87%... the midterm exam for my music exam I got back today was a 92% and my paper was a B+ not bad not bad on my grades so far! And all I have to do is pass, but im still doing good! All I have to do is worry about Spanish BIG TIME! Yikes
So after that all ive done today is eat sleep a lot more, eat, then read for global studies (our midterm #2 is the day after tomorrow), did my Spanish homework and now im going to go attempt to read some more for global studies.
The highlight of the day however is that it is Mykaela’s birthday, I wish I was able to video on the ship so I could tell her myself though!
dont forget to read my blog on yesterdays sea olympics!! i just posted that one too!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MYKAELA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe it!! today is Mykaela’s 5th birthday!!!!!!!!!! How exciting is that!? Im really sad im not home to celebrate with everyone though! =( it is the first birthday ive missed of hers… im missing everyones this summer… I never realized that my whole family has summer bdays except heather…
I woke up early had a very peaceful and relaxing breakfast out on the deck again and then went to Spanish. Next was global studies but I only lasted 5 minutes in there before I had to go take sea sick meds because I was not feeling well at all.. in fact this was the first time ive felt literally sea sick where I thought I was going to throw up… thank goodness I didn’t though.. but instead of returning to class I decided it was best to lay down and sleep for a little.. I was able to wake up and go to music though so that’s good. We got our tests and papers back in here..
I don’t think I ever posted my global studies exam results yet…. I got a 100% on the map quiz of course because im just that good =) yes sean I got it all right!! Be proud! Then on the midterm #1 I ended up with a 87%... the midterm exam for my music exam I got back today was a 92% and my paper was a B+ not bad not bad on my grades so far! And all I have to do is pass, but im still doing good! All I have to do is worry about Spanish BIG TIME! Yikes
So after that all ive done today is eat sleep a lot more, eat, then read for global studies (our midterm #2 is the day after tomorrow), did my Spanish homework and now im going to go attempt to read some more for global studies.
The highlight of the day however is that it is Mykaela’s birthday, I wish I was able to video on the ship so I could tell her myself though!
Today was THE BEST at sea day EVER!!!! It was the SEA OLYMPICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I never expected it to be so much fun but it really really was. So last night at the sea meeting after it I had met with the synchro group and they said they wanted to meet in the morning at breakfast and then go work on it.. so I woke up early and went to have breakfast at 815 with them all dressed and ready to go practice. Well I get to breakfast and I couldn’t find anyone, it didn’t help that I forgot what they looked like bc the weren’t girls ive really met before. So I ended up eating with my moms and sisters Jackie and Danielle. At 830 I headed up to the pool deck figuring I would just see them up there… I sat there till 850 with no one showing up and watching 3 other teams hard at work.. and we still didn’t have a song picked out! So I went back downstairs and knocked on meredith’s door (the only girl I remembered the name of) and what does she do… she comes out half asleep because I just woke her up!!! Then the other 2 were still asleep too! I was so pissed! Well Meredith went and was talking to the other two and supposedly they both “didn’t feel well” basically they just didn’t want to do it.. well we had to have 4 people on the team to be able to do it… I was able to convince Christina to do it after a long battle =P and then a girl who was innocently walking down the hall I got to bad it on too, Shelby!!! Well thank goodness last night I had found at least one sound that could work so that was it that was the song we used “Love Today” by Mika.. and during my 20 minutes of sitting and waiting at the pool deck I was able to start coming up with a routine so we just went with that too.. once we were finally all up at the pool it took us about an hour to come up with the whole routine and practice and get it down before we had to go change into all our green wear for the opening ceremonies!
Opening ceremonies consisted of the kids bringing in the “torch” the parade of flags, and then the chant competition. This is where each sea had to present their chant to the rest of the ship community.. ours went like this:
Girls- my green
Guys- my swag
Girls- you want my sea
Guys- and my crabs
All: BERING SEA
Caller- what do we have
All- we got crabs
Caller- what are we going to do
All- give you crabs, give you crabs, give you crabs
the bering sea is where the show the deadliest catch takes place, where they do all the crab fishing.. so our sea’s mascot became the crab… oh in the morning Cynthia and steph had spread out crabs ALL over the ship you could not miss them! One of Lacey’s friends came to get her for breakfast in the morning and when Lacey had opened the door Mindy very sleepy said “there are crabs all over the ship, they are taking over” it was great =) anyways back to the opening ceremonies.. next the dean of students gave an opening speech and then the captain gave a speech as well and declared the games officially open (after lunch of course). So when the opening ceremony was over it was lunch time then at 1 the games began! First I went and watched Christina do the Chinese Ice Cube Scramble and the pull ups competition that were both on the 7th deck aft (pool deck). At 130 jackie and Kristi had donut on a string, which ended up really being bagel on a string. They placed 2nd!!! Woohoo.. they owe it all to the guy on their team though because he made good time taking done his half a bagel in no more than 5 bites! Then it was time to head back to the pool deck for synchronized swimming at 215.. our team met back up at 2 though to go through the routine just a couple more times! We decided we wanted to go second and it was a good thing we did… it was sooooo much fun though!!!! We couldn’t hear when the music started though so we were off at first but were able to figure it out. I had someone tape the whole thing on my camera so I would have it and I have a couple other videos off it too from other views! We got a lot of cheering while we were doing it, which was the opposite of the group in front of us because well honestly they weren’t that good… the teams that followed us had some good some bad.. Many teams did jumps into the water which was stated as not allowed in the rules and would be a deduction of points and one sea just had one girl… you were supposed to have at least 4 and no more than 6. However, she hardly did a synchronized swim but more of a lap dance to the one male professor who was judging… highly uncalled for!!! the ones that we thought we had competition against were the yellow team, the orange team (which was comprised of 6 guys doing a dance to all the single ladies), and the diploma sea (the faculty/staff/kids team). They didn’t announce results right away though so we were nervous for awhile how we did… they did however announce the rankings right after synchro of all the other stuff (not including the swimming) and bering sea was tied with the diploma sea in last place!!! =( NOOO!!! Hopefully we at least placed in the swimming to try and gain us some points and the same with lip singing later! after synchro I went and changed and met Jackie and Kristi to watch the relay race but that was running behind so we went back to the pool deck instead to watch the mystery challenge.. this ended up being a “beauty pageant.” This was not your typical beauty pageant though.. the teams consisted of 6 girls and 1 guy for each sea.. they had 9 minutes to go back to their rooms and dress the guy up in the best drag the could. Then the guys had to do their best run way walk around the pool and then state: their name, where they are from and their hobby. the best was watching their walks though.. some were in heals which was funny, its nice to watch guys struggle in heals I like to think it makes them have a higher appreciation for girls that do it. also some did some nice dances during their walks a few belly dancers, and tom (the voice) he did it for diploma sea.. and well his dances were interesting… they are on video I cant describe them you just have to watch them!
After the mystery challenge there was a little break before dinner to relax and regroup. Right before we headed up to dinner the voice gave an announcement on the updated standings. He announced the scores for synchronized swimming.. there was a tie for 3rd, then the 2nd.. but we weren’t either of those.. Kristi and I were in the cabin and looked at each other like crap we didn’t get anything… but then he announced first place and guess what!!!! WE WON FIRST PLACE IN SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)) =)) can you believe it!?!? I was ecstatic! I mean im going to be real here… im the one who put that whole thing together! And only in an hour that morning! I was sooooo proud!!! I was freaking out and then I heard Jackie, Christina, and mesha screaming next store so we ran out in the hall jumping all over the place really excited =) we were too busy being happy about that we didn’t hear the rest of what tom was saying so after we calmed down we went to his office to ask him to repeat to us what he said since we were too busy celebrating =) well turns out we jumped from tied in 10th (there are 11 seas total) to being in 7th place, not bad not bad! So with all our happy news we headed off to dinner.
We got a BARBEQUE!!! For dinner again!!!! Wooohooooo!!! This means it was hamburger night (just in case you forgot that from last time). Kristi, Jackie, Christina and I ate outside on the 6th deck, very barbeque like =) after this there was a little more down time before it was time to head to the union to get good seats for the lip singing competition, the final competition of the day! Ummm… the bering sea kicked butt on this!!!! The first sea to go did “its raining men” an ode to the gender ratios on the ship =) ha it was good.. the other teams did some mixes of songs but had no real theme to them… then the bering sea went! Theirs was a mix of songs that went with every country we’ve been too, and they set up a scene for each one to highlight just a few of the 16 members at a time. They did a whole new world first, then for spain it was bailamos, Italy was its amore (I think that’s the name of it), then Croatia was fuego (I guess this was played in the clubs a lot?) then Greece was stereo love (again a club thing), turkey was the Turkish delight song, egypt was walk like an Egyptian, morocco was belly dancer, and then they played party in the usa and a clip of nsync “bye bye bye, bye bye” to end it off. It was great and I have a couple different videos of the whole thing! And the ones of my swimming!!!!!
So after all the seas went there was some stalling that was done while scores were tallied and the official results. First came lip singing results.. not third, not second, but FIRST PLACE GOES TO BERING SEA!!!!! Woohoooo =) I knew it all along though =) then they did over all results…. 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5th place bering sea! Not bad seeing as in the beginning we were in last! Over all the caribbean sea took 1st and that means that once we hit Virginia and the ship is cleared they are the first off. Which is actually okay because I wouldn’t actually want to be the first ones off… but I just also don’t want to be last… I don’t know how the rest of the order ends up but im hoping we get off somewhere in the middle!
So that’s the end of an AMAZING DAY! Sea Olympics was by far the BEST day at sea ever and I had soooooooo soooooooo soooooooooooo much fun!!! And I got first in swimming!! =) =) =)
In reality this all happened yesterday august first so today is now the second but im going to post a separate blog for it because it is a very special day today!
today was another interesting day
started off by sleeping in and waking up and just reading in bed for awhile relaxing.. finally decided to get up and get ready and was done by 1030.. lacey her friends heather and daniel and i went out to the stores that are like right off the ship and within the port limits to try and spend the rest of my european pounds. i was able to by myself a tunic that is white and has silver stitching i like it and im really glad i was able to find one i liked.. although the one i really really wanted was white with white stitching but no one had it in my size and in short sleeve so i went with the silver.. i also bought two other things as gifts.. the guy i bought these from didnt like my knowledge of one of the items and my toughness in bargaining =) after i finally got my way and payed he turned to daniel (they had been to this guy a few times and he remembered them) well he turned to daniel and goes "next time you come alone.. dont bring her she is tough!" ahahhahahhahahah go me =)
so we went back on the ship and got lunch then i had about an hour to kill so i updated my list of things ive bought everywhere and made a list of what i got for everyone so far and what i still need to get and... well let me just put this out here ahead of time you boys are real hard to shop for everywhere!!!! im trying but my options are limited! so i hope you all like and appreciate everything i have gotten... i guess we will find out in a few weeks huh!
so at 130 the trip to the orphanage left and i went. on the way there the tour guide was telling us about the place and some different laws that are related and throughout egypt.. there is no adoption in egypt so all kids in the orphanage are there until they get married or in public orphanages there until they turn 21. the orphanage we visited was a private one owned by a "rich" couple and there were about 35 kids in it... the guide said they decided to open it and treat the kids as if they were their own even though they cant adopt them... she said that they get the best of food and treatment in egypt and they go to private school as well... but what i was anticipating after that and what i saw were two different things.. more general information though before i explain about my actual time there.. there are a few ways that a child becomes an orphan.. either by being a "street child" or their parents getting in an accident of some sort that kills them and sometimes when the parents really really really cant take care of them.. the unusual way though that you become an orphan however is when you dont have 2 parents.. and this was really surprising to me.. if you are a woman and you get pregnant without being married you are not allowed to keep your child they instantly go to an orphanage.. you are not able to give them a "name" when you are a woman... meaning the last name... and even if you were for some reason able to keep your child you would be completely shunned in your community and from your family.. you would not be able to get a job, stay in your apartment or family home, or anything! really different from back home... Egyptians (which really means the Muslims) live with their families until they are married.. and marriages are many times still arranged.. although some are selected on your own.. there is no dating allowed, you do not have a boyfriend, it is not allowed.. if you select your own spouse the guide said you only see/meet up with them like 3 or 4 times before saying yes we are going to marry.. then they have a year long engagement where they are able to get to know each other better.. divorce is allowed for Muslims in Egypt but the Christians here which was interesting too.
So when we got to the orphanage and walked inside we had to walk up a few flights before getting to the room where the kids were.. the young kids were all lined up against the wall and the first few sasers in were able to plop down in front of them and play with them.. but then rest of us were kind of left hanging… after like 10 minutes a few more older kids showed up but overall known of them were all to interested in hanging out with you… if you didn’t have anything fun to do they didn’t give you a second glance.. if you had something fun they would come up to you take it from you and then walk away leaving you stranded there by yourself and now joining the crew of people with nothing fun to do… this happened to me.. so after awhile I ended up sitting in one corner and started talking to one of the girls who was working.. there were a bunch of workers around too, I believe I was told there were 10 there.. well one little boy, sammy, came over to show this girl this picture he made which was just a bunch of foam animal stickers on a piece of paper.. (all anyone brought this time was craft stuff, which is good since we were inside). The girl started pointing to each animal and having the boy say the name of it in english, I was really impressed he was real good! There was even a hippo! And both the little boy and the girl working said hippo and looked at me to confirm it was right and I said yea.. but really its hippopotamus and they both tried to say it, it was cool. Then she had him tell me his name and ask me what mine was. Later I asked her hers and its Hema. Then she wrote my name in Arabic for me.. and then my last name too!!! Sooo cool. Did you know they write from right to left, not left to right?! After this I just started talking with hema a lot! Soon after we were given the option to either go upstairs and talk with the owners or stay and play some more. At this point I was really wrapped into talking with hema so stayed and 3 others ended up staying too and joining us in the corner, and 3 other workers joined us too. It was just really neat to get to talk to them and compare and contrast some differences from the US and Egypt. I also learned some words in Arabic! I learned how to say hello, my name is, and elephant (it was one of the animals on the paper.. she named them all its just the only one I could actually say and remember!) =) it was a lot of fun! After this we headed back to the ship and we were there for the night because on ship time was once again 6.
At 930 we had another sea meeting, it was our last chance to get ready and prepared for today!!! After the meeting I somehow managed to get myself very involved in the making of our sea banner…. So I was up working on that for at least an hour.. then when we finally finished we took it into the room where the lip singing group was practicing because that’s where our sea captains were at.. everyone loved it!! so we sat down and decided we wanted to see their routine and how it was coming along.. they had a lot of cool idea but mesha and I sitting there watching them were able to tell them more of what each needed to do to go along with everyone else.. and just help them clean up some of it.. we didn’t leave till 1230… I got back to my room and Kristi and lacey were already asleep.. I climbed into bed but decided I should really listen to some songs and try to come up with one to use for our synchronized swimming routine that we were coming up with in the morning.. I went through 250 songs… I came up with love today by mika… and figured that was good enough as an idea for the night and id see what the others came up with in the morning so at 130 I was finally able to go to sleep for the night!
Today was a much more low key day compared to the last 3!
I went to bed at about 10 last night and woke up at like 8… darn it.. I really wanted to sleep in lots today but I just couldn’t do it.. so I laid in bed till like a quarter after 11 as did Kristi and lacey.. it was a real relaxing morning for us all =)
At 1130 I went to get lunch with Steph (neighbor across hall) and Kristi and Chaara (the one we spent our time with on cairo overnight) were soon to follow. At 1 we left for our day out. We walked out of the port and got essentially chased by an obnoxious cab driver even though we were ignoring him completely… finally we were able to get away from him though.. something I haven’t mentioned that that is kinda interesting.. I feel like im famous or something here.. every day on the bus the few days whenever we drove places and everyone on the sidewalks would look at us.. the windows weren’t tinted at all.. and they would stare and smile, wave, and occasionally blow kisses at us… weird… so anyways walking down the sidewalk there were woman and their kids sitting there and they smiled up at us and started waving at us it was cute… but its just really weird at the same time… so we got a cab for 10 pounds (2 bucks) to the library, we got there early tried to walk around and look for shops but nothing real good was around so we wasted some time by going into a mcdonalds for water bottles and then to a baskin robins (?!?!) mhmm for Kristi to get ice cream and steph a chocolate shake. Then finally it was 3 the time the library opens on Fridays
So we headed back to the library and instantly got on the computers… the other day when we had our tour there we were told how you cant access emails but they conveniently left out the fact that you cant use ANY chat site…. That included facebook chat.. but I could use the rest of facebook.. well that really sucked because I had planned to talk to my mom for a little bit.. but clearly that didn’t work out.. but I guess in good news I was able to read all 107 posts on the pcc discussion board for the incoming freshman that came in since I was in Greece… craziness! All in all though that was nice because I really wish I could get to know them better like I was able to last year before we get to school.. I think its more comforting that way.. that you can go in and have someone you can kinda trust that you kinda sorta know already.. but I guess that’s not totally going to happen… bummer.
After the library we headed back to the ship had really bad dinner.. tomorrow is our last day in Egypt already! I had originally had a service visit to an orphanage that was supposed to be today but a few weeks ago I had been given a notice that the day had changed till yesterday so I had to give up my ticket since it interfered with my overnight cairo trip. Well somehow I miraculously got a ticket for the second trip there that is tomorrow! One of my “sisters” decided she wasn’t going to go anymore and asked me if I would want to buy it from her instead so of course I accepted the offer so tomorrow im going to an orphanage and then its back to sea for awhile
"Day 1: Depart from the pier by air-conditioned motorcoaches for a journey through desert scenery to the outskirts of Africa’s largest city, the legendary Al Qahira, internationally known as the teeming metropolis of Cairo. A guide will discuss the history and culture of a timeless land on a journey lasting approximately three hours. Arriving at Cairo’s outskirts, continue driving southward through verdant countryside heading to the oldest ancient Egyptian cemetery, Sakkara. The world’s first monumental stone building, the Step Pyramid of King Zoser, built by the engineer Imhotep almost 5,000 ago, still stands here. After visiting the complex, continue to one of the mastabas (tombs) built nearby, such as those of Ptah-Hotep, Mereruca, Idut or Ti, for an inside visit."
we had to wake up at 6:30 am to get ready, eat breakfast, and be in the union by 7:30.. early morning after going to sleep at 11.. so first we took a 3 hour bus ride to get to cairo!! yeah not fun, very long, and your butt starts hurting after sitting in those seats for so long! but i got maybe an hour of sleep throughout it. our first stop was Sakkara. here we first went and visited the mastaba of Idut. a mastaba is a burial tomb that is built underground and what shows above ground is just like a square block building.. and they are ridiculous! there are several rooms to each mastaba and all sorts of carvings and colors on every space of every wall about the person who is buried there.. Idut is a woman..dont really remember her importance or if she had any for that matter.. ancient egyptians believed that your tomb was your home in the after life so that is why they made them so big and have several rooms they also have all sorts of things that are buried with them that they believe they will need in their next life.. basically the mastaba was really cool, the etchings were insane and they still had some colors on them too! red was blood of animals, blue was turquoise, and there was also some green but I don’t remember how they made that.. after we explored the mastaba we headed over to the Step Pyramid, this is the first pyramid ever built! As soon as someone became king they started the work of their tomb because the afterlife was the life to be waiting for not the one we are living now… so King Zoser started the work on his mastaba.. well he decided he was sick of this style of tomb and wanted something different so after he started constructing the mastaba he came up with the idea of adding a second tier to it.. well he liked it and it worked and stayed, so he ordered another tier be added and it stayed so he had another built.. till he had created the first ever pyramid.. after some free time here we loaded back on the buses and headed to lunch!
“A sumptuous buffet lunch will be served afterward at a leading hotel in Cairo. Next, travel to the Tahrir (Liberty) Square, the heart of downtown, where the National Archaeological Museum is located. Here you will have the opportunity to acquaint yourself with Egypt’s ancient history spanning a period of 50 centuries. The museum houses the richest collection of Egyptian antiquities, including the magnificent King Tut Ankh Amun collection.”
Lunch was alright but was a lot like ship food: rice, bread, pasta… nothing too Egyptian.. after refueling we headed to the museum. It was big, and really hot, who has ever heard of a museum not being air conditioned?!?! It was bad.. but inside we got to see lots of tomb findings, mummies and all the goodies.. there we statues of different kings too.. every statue of a king is him portrayed when he was younger to look strong and in power and handsome.. also everyone has their left foot stepped forward, there are a few different ideas as to why though.. one statue was of Remises (sp?) II our guide told us that he had about 100 sons and 70 daughters!!! How crazy is that?! He had a wife and then 40 “other women.” At the museum we also saw a mummification table.. where they prepare the body and turn it into a mummy- a process taking 2 months! They take out the brain and just throw it away. They keep however, the liver, lungs, stomach and intestines, but they pull these out and mummify them too.. they leave in the body the kidneys (because they didn’t know they existed) and the heart. We saw lots of artifacts including beds, chairs, pots, and more that were found in King Tut’s tomb! Also housed in this museum are many of the casings to his tomb and his head piece! His mummy is in Luxor with a couple more of his other casings.. we got some free time in the end of our tour to walk around and explore the museum and we were able to see a bunch of mummies, the details that went into all of that was incredible!
“Check in at a leading hotel in Cairo and enjoy a short siesta. In the evening, attend the English version of the Son et Lumiere at the Giza Plateau. This sound-and-light performance brings the history and achievements of the ancient Egyptians to life as the illuminated pyramids and the mysterious Sphinx dominate the surrounding darkness.”
So last night I stayed in the nicest hotel I’ve stayed in in my life… like pretty much nicer than the Atlantis.. my room’s balcony had an AMAZING view of the Great Pyramid! Apparently, this is the same hotel Obama stayed in when he came to Egypt if that says anything, which I think it does! =) So all 200 SAS’ers on overnight cairo where here along with another large group of SAS’ers on another trip… we dominated this place, it was like our temporary ship haha. But the place was huge and beautiful.. it used to be a palace! Don’t worry I took lots of pictures all around the place and my room! It was wonderful! And although I had to share a bed with a girl I hadn’t met before, it was the most amazing 5 hours of sleep I’ve ever had! But before sleep came the light show which was 50 minutes long, and just alright.. I wouldn’t say it was the best thing ever but I guess when we only get to visit Egypt so few times in our lives that is something to see while youre there.. we got back to the hotel at 10 and this is when we got dinner… mhmmm long time since lunch! We all stuffed our stomachs and headed off to bed. Oh! And at dinner I was able to get my cartouche! It’s what our tour guide said is the thing that every Egyptian has and is a good thing to get as a souvenir, it’s pretty cool and I know im not explaining it and im not on purpose so that you all have to ask me about it when I get back =) After dinner I headed back to the room, showered and went to sleep.
I got a whopping 5 hours of sleep! Woohoo… =/ I went to sleep at 11:30 and our wakeup call was at 4:15 AM!!! We had to wake up get ready, pack up, check out, grab our box breakfasts and be on the bus at 5:15 AM. Yuck!
“Day 2: Early risers will be transferred to the Giza Plateau for a chance to view the Great Pyramids at sunrise while enjoying a boxed breakfast from the hotel. For those not participating, breakfast will be offered at the hotel. After check-out, proceed to the Giza Plateau where the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World is found, the imposing Pyramids of Giza. During the visit to the pyramids there will be time for unique photo opportunities of the three Pyramids from the Western Plateau, as well as free time to explore and enjoy the site.”
So basically I’m pretty sure almost all 200 of us did this! And it was cool! Only we were allowed in they opened the site special for us to be able to watch the sunrise there! How cool! So we sat there and watched that, enjoyed our breakfast and watched the sun rise over the pyramids some more.. we took a ton of pictures and it was well worth the 4:15 am wakeup call.. then we got to have the biggest adventure of the day.. RIDING A CAMEL!!!! This was intense!! It standing up and walking down the hill was the scariest part! We had to share camels which is fine so of course Kristi and I buddied up. We have some cool pictures despite our rude camel driver guy who was fat and mean and demanding… “lady hurry I know how” “lady you tip”.. more understandable if I give you an impersonation in a couple weeks. All in all totally worth it. So it is now 7:30 am and we are back on the buses to move up next to the pyramids.. yes 7:30 I have already spent two hours at the pyramids watching the sunrise and riding a camel.. crazy.. so up next to the pyramids we had time to explore, take lots and lots and LOTS of pictures, and go inside one of the pyramids of a queen (which are the very small pyramids next to the very large kings pyramid).
“Continue down the valley where the guardian of this mortuary complex, the mighty Sphinx, bears witness to the passage of time and man in eons of silence.”
We loaded in the buses went down the the sphinx and took more awesome pictures, we have lots of really good ones from today!
“Continue to the exotic and colorful Khan El Khalili Bazaar. The bazaar offers shopping and colorful photography options. Bargaining is an art and expected when negotiating a purchase.”
By 9:30 we got to the streets of this place, I took about a 10 minute siesta right at the end of the half hour drive there so I was totally half asleep when we first started walking around and the people were really pissing me off at first because I just wasn’t in the mood to deal with them.. eventually I woke up and found some very exciting things.. I got a really pretty pashmina scarf and 4 alabaster bowls! Which I am totally in love with!!! And something for heather which im quite proud of my find, I think you will really like it.
“Board the motorcoach and head to the banks of the Nile River where a cruise boat awaits for a sail on the same timeless waterway traversed by pharaohs, queens and nobles thousands of years ago. Enjoy a buffet lunch as you glide past Cairo’s waterfront landmarks. A folkloric presentation and belly dancing demonstration will take place during lunch. After lunch, make the return journey to the port.”
This was fun.. more of the same food we had at all 3 meals and have every day on the ship but oh well what are we really going to do.. the belly dancer was cool and there was another guy who did a little show that was kinda like the dervish spinning except totally not religious in anyway what so ever.. by this time its like 1 and im really just beat for the day and ready to get back home to the ship.. the ship has really become home which is nice.. but after this boat ride we had another 3 hour long drive! And I was only able to sleep for maybe an hour and a half.. we got back at 5:30 and I showered right away! It was wonderful.. then checked my email to find that for some reason no one cared to email me for the past two days except school…mhmm thanks everyone appreciate it… then ate dinner (really yummy pesto! Tasted like home!) and have since been spending my time writing this whole thing out.. now im kinda tired but sure I’m sure I’ll crash as soon as I hit my pillow.. so goodnight =)
I LOVED OVERNIGHT CAIRO!
p.s. I appreciate emails!!!!!!!! Ahemahem-japenrod@semesteratsea.net-ahemahem =)
We are in EGYPT!!! Its our 7th port already!! Only one more! This trip is so close to over!!
So for our first day in egypt Kristi and I had a sas trip- the best of Alexandria.
We started off the day at 10 and going to the catacombs.. which were pretty cool but very eerie! Then we went to the national museum in Alexandria, we saw a mummy here!!! Then after the museum we went to lunch! I was very hungry by this time! And lunch was really yummy surprisingly. So at the beginning of our day our guide, Mona, told us the main dish for lunch was going to be fish!!!!!! AHHH!!!! Noooooooo!!! To my relief though, she followed this statement by saying that if we did not want fish our other option was beef! Phewww that was close, I panicked a little that I was going to have to eat fish!
Lunch was really good! And I tried fish! TWICE!!! You should all be soooo incredibly proud of me.. when we got there they had all sorts of sauces for the pita bread they had for us and then they brought out some fried cheese ball things that were not good.. and then fried fish pieces… so I took a bite of it to try it out.. I squeezed a lot of lime on it to make it much better! And then I got my beef that had rice too and it was really yummy probably the best and the only actually real meat ive had all summer! And Kristi had taken the fish option so I took a bite of that.. it wasn’t bad.. not totally fishy, but I still didn’t like the texture, therefore I still wasn’t much of a fan.
After lunch we went to the Library of Alexandria!! SOOOO COOL! The best library in the world.. really like nothing can compare to it! we got a tour of it and had a little time to look around but not nearly enough time.. its 7 floors!! Four of the floors are below sea level and three above.. Kristi and I decided we want more time to explore there so on our open day on Friday we are going to go back there! And even better they have free internet access and its only 5 egyptian pounds for students to get in! which is 1 u.s. dollar!!!!! Sooo worth it!
After the library we made a few stops for pictures and then headed back to the ship.. we ate dinner and now are watching a movie… guess what movie!!!
PRINCESS AND THE FROG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D =D
Soooo excited! Love this movie, Mykaela would be proud of me =)
Alright im going to get back to watching my movie! Tomorrow I have my sas overnight trip to cairo! I get to see the pyramids! The #1 most visited archeological site in the world.. (but Pompeii is the biggest, but hey ive been there this summer too =)) so point being I wont be blogging again till Thursday..
...in more ways than one
yet another day at sea... so today i had a global music exam..
started out by waking up at like 7, got ready, went had breakfast outside =) (this i think is my new favorite thing.. sit on the deck alone and eat breakfast), went to spanish, got my journal back... it looks like a spider's web i've never seen a paper soooo marked up before it was ridiculous oh and he only looked at the first of my 10 pages im sure of it because he only wrote on that one and said that i made the same mistakes through the whole thing which is not true because the first page was the one i wrote before i figured out how to change the language settings in word and umm you get better as you go along anyways... basically im pissed and dont care at the same time.. i really dislike this class mucho.
then i was pissed, i mean what a way to start your day and i needed to study for my exam so i didnt go to global studies and stayed in my cabin studying.. only that didnt go so well because we hit another rough patch in the waters.. we were rocking a bit again which made us all get seasick feeling again and not able to walk straight anymore.. we really dont have the sea legs we think we do because we really havent been moving to much lately... the way back over the atlantic is going to be BAD! so really i couldnt read my papers without feeling sick so studying really didnt end up going so well.. and boom before i know it its time for class.. the test wasnt too bad not the best but not the greatest.. i expect a B i think.. ill take it
then after the test i went and found kristi laying out so i went and joined her.. i finished the book i started reading yesterday finally... i got it from her in the spring about time... but while laying out i started reading a new book "the last song" we'll see maybe ill be able to finish it before we get back!
after sitting out for awhile we went and had lunch and then i went back to the room and napped for a long long time.. then woke up for dinner again.. we were sitting there eating and some kid comes and sits with us.. his name was ryan and reminded me soooo much both how he acted and how he looked like my cousin ryan.. it was weird! so many people remind me of people back home!
food today sucked! i didnt eat like anything today.. again showing how bad the way back is going to be... i basically had rolls a lot for both meals.. highlight was ice cream at lunch though! so after dinner came back and pigged out on a chewy bar and chips.. yesterday we counted our pops and we can have one every day but 7 of them and i was checking out my snacks and i think im doing pretty good on those too so i came to the realization yesterday i dont need to ration myself as much as before.. so i made up for my dinner of 4 rolls by eating more junk.. went to a pre-port lecturer and it was real boring.. then we had the longest preport meeting ever!!! 8-9:30!!! so apparently egypt should be realll interesting... there are some tidbits i might leave out till afterwards though just to prevent over freaking out people.. nothing bad but just more cautious here.. my first 3 days though i have full days of SAS trips so its all good..
then at 10 tonight we had a sea meeting to get ready for the sea olympics which are on sunday.
so i have a few comments/ questions of the day i havent posted yet:
- "why do i have to get a turkish visa if i already have a credit card"
- student 1: i wish they had crunchy peanut butter here
student 2: they cant do that because some people are allergic to peanuts
other tidbits:
- our passports have been getting stamped the past couple ports! only they are really lame and only say the date that we get there basically... bummer but ill have something at least from everywhere except spain and croatia so far, i know they are stamping them tomorrow dont know about morocco yet.. the trip is almost over its insane!!!
i feel like there was a bunch more i wanted to say but i dont remember..
rough day: spanish journal, seasick, test, bad food, lonnggg preport... yep rough
yesterday was our last day in turkey! =( kristi and i woke up early and had breakfast so that we could get a good use of our time that day.. we started off by going to taxism square.. it was somewhere we were told we should go to and we hadnt yet so it was time to get ourselves there.. we walked a little bit to get out of the port area and then i called a taxi.. mhmm that was my first time getting a taxi and i was real good at it =) ha.. so it was about 7 lira to get us there and we got there at about 9am.. well basically there is this square where people meet up but then there is a street of a shopping district off it too so thats where we headed.. well nothing was open yet so we walked down the street for awhile and then decided to go to starbucks for a little bit while we waited for stuff to open.. we were able to pop into a few stores.. spend some of our left over lira and get some gifts for people and then headed back to the ship.. we got a taxi, made sure it had a meter like we were told to do and get in.. we go not very far at all.. and the whole time we are both watching the meter (again like we were told to do) its ticking away the price getting higher than the ride there and not feeling like we had been driving for so long.. well its at like 6 something lira i look out the window for seriously 5 seconds tops and look back at the lira and it had somehow jumped to 11 something lira!!!! well we both noticed and spoke up to the driver right away, he tried to fight us for awhile that it was right and blah blah, well we finally decided to just get out where we were and walk the rest of the way because we knew where we were at so a 15 lira ride and another 10 minute walk later we finally got back to the ship.. very mad that the driver screwed us over.
at noon we left with Jackie and another girl in our hall cynthia to go get lunch in asia! the process was relatively simple and very cheap (compared to the dumb taxi) we had to take the tram (1.50 lira each way) and a 1.50 each way ferry ride.. when we got off the ferry we really had no idea where to go so we just started walking.. well finally we came across some restaurant looking places and some nice girl standing outside one asked if we wanted to look at a menu so we looked and decided to go there.. we debated between sitting outside or inside, they told us upstairs in the loft of their restaurant area was the air and it was cooler so we went there.. we sat at a table and were sweating like crazy.. they were only able to speak very little english so figuring out what the menu said was a bit of a struggle but the waitress from outside was trying her best to help us out... after like a 15 minute struggle to order something we were still sweating away.. well we were like the only ones there so the man whom i believe owned the place or was at least the most in charge moved us to a table that was in front of the air conditioner which was much better.. cynthia and jackie got really good looking sandwiches and kristi and i had both gotten pizza.. well after a long long long wait at least 20-30 minutes they came up and tried telling us they didnt have it and asked if we would be okay with this other pizza so we said okay.. they felt bad and brought us treats mini desserts as a gift and some were really good they kept coming up and checking that we were okay and trying to make everything perfect to satisfy us it was cute..finally our pizzas came out and we picked off some stuff we didnt want like the crap ton of olives and hot dog looking meat we were able to eat and then asked for the check.. the girl came up with more desserts for us and gave us each an evil eye on a pin and the check we left a good tip becuase they tried so hard to make us happy and the girl was overly grateful.. she asked us to wait a minute and went nad brought us a business card to a the same restaurant that is apparently in taxism square.. she said that her and her friends were going to some music festival thing there that night and wanted to meet with us and take us with them.. BUMMER we felt so bad because we couldnt go because we had to be back on the ship at 6 to sail out... it was a really cool experience though..
after lunch we walked around for awhile and then stopped at another place to get dessert again trying to use up the rest of our lira.. i got baklava!! yummm and then we headed back to the ship where i had spent the rest of the night working on my spanish journal... i got through croatia and have 10 PAGES!!! woohoo it has to be 15 at the end of the voyage no problem now!!! i skipped doing the journal i have to write about food in the countries that has to be 7 at the end because it was midnight when i finished the other one...
this morning i woke up printed out the journal grabbed a quick lunch and then went to class.. he said we have to have both in and gave everyone till tomorrow to work on them both some more.. so now i have to write that one tonight.. global studies was really boring today and i was super tired from lack of sleep the past couple days so when it got out a bit early i decided to nap for 20 minutes before global music.. well my 20 minute nap turned into about a 40 minute nap and i was just a little late to class... after class had lunch, took a shower and napped the rest of the afternoon.. literally.. tried to study a little bit for my music test tomorrow but was just too tired so i napped up until dinner time.. had dinner came back and now its study study study for the rest of the night for me and to write my other spanish journal... yipee school work
So today was our final day in Istanbul and the next two days we are at sea with classes.. and these days are going to suck..
my spanish daily journal that i am far far behind on is being checked tomorrow and so is the food journal that i havent even started.. and so that is obviously what i am working on for the entire night and do not have time to blog about my day right now.. so ill get to that tomorrow afternoon after ive been to classes and need something to procrastinate myself from studying for my global music midterm thats on the second day of classes...
okay sooo ill write tomorrow... goodnight..
AH! one of the best days so far! So we started our day off by sleeping in and eating lunch on the ship. We’ve been trying to get a lot more on the ship to help save some money.. and the food isn’t as good as it has been in the previous countries so that’s okay.. we left the ship, made a stop at the atm, got on the tram and went to the Spice Bazaar… yes that is B-A-Z-A-A-R…. once again a flaw in my blog has been pointed out by sean… it Is not bizarre like I had typed in my entire blog yesterday.. it is bazaar.. and the thing is I knew that, I have it written right on my calendar but I didn’t realize it one bit yesterday.. ohhhhh well… okay so back to today. We went to the spice bazaar and I got some cool things including apple tea for myself since it was so yummy yesterday!!! At one of the stands I was at the guy handed me and Christina each a candy nut thing.. it was like a gummy center and had some type of nut on the outside and was surprisingly pretty good.. he also handed all of us a candy square of a nut in the center of white chocolate, reallllllyyyyy good! This guy was all about giving us stuff because he also handed each of us a Kleenex so that we could wipe off the dripping sweat from our faces… mhmm then apparently a couple other people throughout our hour and a half stay In the bazaar gave Kristi more things to wipe her sweat with hahhhaha…
So after we got all our goodies we headed back to the tram.. one the way I found a picture that I really like and the asking price was 30 lira but with hardly any problem I was able to bargain it down to 20!
So we hop back on the tram and head to the most amazing part of the day, the TURKISH BATH!!!
So we all did the Luxury Treatment for 95 lira (about $63) this included unlimited time in the bath, a 15 minute scrub, and 30 minute oil massage! Umm really good deal! So a Turkish bath is not like anything in the US but it was super cool once you got adjusted to it.. and we knew what it was like going into it somewhat so we were a little more mentally prepared ahead of time as well.. so you go in they gave you a pair of underwear bottoms (or you can wear your own or swim suit bottoms) and a towel like cloth.. obviously you strip down to those items and then continue to the bath room. It’s a big open circular room that has this center slab that you all sit around, the room is warm kinda like a sauna effect.. well the bath woman call you over to their areas and you layout your towel and lay on top of it still on the middle slab so its hello boobs to everyone… you lay down and they first scrub you (when we entered they gave us each a box that had a cloth scrubby thing in it) and they scrub all of you.. then they throw a couple bowls of water at you.. and really they just throw them at you.. then they get the soapy stuff and do this really cool thing with the scrub thing that makes a crap ton of bubbles and they completely cover you in bubbles more bubbles than you can imagine.. then you scrub you down some more with the bubbles they flip you over and to Christina and Jackie they pulled down their bottoms to reveal their butts for me and Kristi however we got the wonderful wedgie effect.. then they sit you upright scrub your arms and your neck and then move you to a side room where the water comes from.. they sit you down on the floor and they sit up on a little seat behind you and remember this is all just wide open walking around to anyone there just the underwear things.. so in here they shampoo you, mine woman got a handful of shampoo put it on the top of my head rubbed back and forth like two times then rubbed it ALLL down my face and up and down a couple times! And then went back to my hair for a little bit more.. and its not like I can wipe the bubbles off my face because my arms and hands are still all bubbly from the scrub… so im really just FULL of bubbles! Then all of a sudden she starts rinsing me off.. to do this she threw about seven fast bowl fulls of water on me.. and its just being dumped on you to no care so its all just running down my face at this point.. good thing for all my swimming years I was able to hold my breath long enough through all of this and know the proper ways to breath and not have problems like Christina inhaling bubbles up her nose.. I was perfectly fine and it was really nice.. then you get to go sit in the bath which is basically a room off the circle one that had a pool and a Jacuzzi in it.. well me and Christina got scrubbed and bathed way before Jackie and Kristi so we were sitting in the pool for awhile like at least 20 minutes just waiting for them to come.. after they were done we all sat in the pool and Jacuzzi for about another 10 minutes before heading to go get massages..
So now to describe these women who bathed us.. adds WAY more to the experience!!! So these women are big boobed, big stomachs, how do I know this? Their uniform is the black underwear and a black bra… mhmmm my woman had a 10 lira sticking out of her boob! And Christinas I noticed had an arm strap not attached and it looked like her boob was going to pop out any second.. VERY INTERESTING!!!
we had to walk out of the circle room into this waiting room area where you get a towel to be able to dry off and then sit and wait for the massage.. I let the others go before me and it was a long wait at least 20 minutes, before I finally was let in.. but it was okay there were a TON of other SAS’ers there including the doctor and nurse they had the on call cell phone with them it was funny, what a way to be on call! So finally it’s my turn to go in for a massage.. the room is just lined with about 7 massaging tables and I saw Jackie at the very end which was surprising because she was the first to go in I really had thought I had sat outside waiting long enough that she would be done.. so they unwrapped me and then laid me down and started with my calves, feet and thighs which just felt amazing and they spent a long time on each leg so it was really nice! Then she moved to my back and did my back for awhile then my left arm and hand then my back a little more and she cracked my back!!! Which felt nice!, then my right arm and hand. Then back to my back and she moved over by my head and did my neck and this kinda really started to hurt here I felt like I was about to get a neck spasm on the one side and yet she kept going and going and going on that side I think she could feel that it was tight and was trying to work it out but that wasn’t going to happen! Then she did a little bit of my head which bummed me out at first because that meant she was putting oil my hair but oh well, then I got flipped over the top of my legs got massaged and my feet a little more and then my stomach and boobs got massaged and my shoulder/neck region then I got a face massage!! And a little more of a head massage and then it was over =( it felt soooo good though (minus the part that was about to give me a neck cramp) in the end we spent about 2 ½ hours there and it was well worth the money! Let’s just say that there really is no bonding experience like going to a Turkish bath together either! I’m very proud of myself for going and after like the first 5 minutes of being unrobed I was totally fine with it all, how unlike myself! ha! Go me! =)
After the bath we headed back to the ship and had dinner. Kristi had the sufi dervish ceremony tonight.. so I took a nap and then started this.. now its time for bed for real super sleepy today!
