this is getting harder and harder

  i cannot keep up on this anymore!!!! grrrr

 

busy day started my blog after dinner had a sea meeting tonight.. sea olympics are all day tomorrow (NO CLASSES!)   after the meeting i helped make our banner... then helped clean up the lip singing groups routine.. and now its 1230 and i dont feel like finishing the blog i started now because i have to be up and at breakfast at 8 and then go make up and practice a  sycronized swimming routine.. and then sea olympics all day... soooo ill see when i get back to this.. probably just not till tomorrow night

biblioteca alexandria

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

Cairo!

oh goodie blogging time once again.. so the past two days i have been on an overnight trip with SAS called cairo overnight.. this trip was amazing!!! and by far in my top 5 favorites!!!!!!

"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 =)

 

egypt.. the best of alexandria

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..

rough day...

...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

asia and studying

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

goodbye istanbul

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..

AMAZING DAY!

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!

Grand Bizarre!!!

I found my new favorite place today!!!!!  The grand bizarre is amazing I could spend soooooooooooo much time there!!! I only spent 100 lira =) don’t worry that’s only like 66 dollars!!! And I got sooooo many things!!! I got one big two little glass/ beaded candle holders and a lamp like it too.. and then more stuff that I wont name but something for Sean, my mom, Mindy, Mykaela!  I have so many good things from here im very satisfied! They love bargaining with you too.. we found really good earrings at one store and the four of us all bought some and took a really long time deciding which to get so they gave us apple tea while we were selecting them and it was so GOOD!  One place I was trying to find a plate for my mom.. I didn’t end up getting it at first they said they wanted 150 LIRA!!! HECK NO! sorry mom… but then they were trying to go lower and lower and lower to get me to buy it, they asked how much I wanted to pay I said 20.. they said 35 lowest.. but no 20 so I walked away and they like came after me!!! They were like 25! 25! 25! And I just kept walking and some other Turkish teenage guys were walking buy and they were like laughing and saying yeah 25 25 good price laughing.. it was funny.. then we walked past the shop again and they remember me and go 20!!! OKAY 20!!!! But I had already bought mom something else so I kept going again.. then we passed them AGAIN and it was just bad the same thing over and over.. really funny though.. oh ill give this one away too I bought two pillowcases for the living room at the apartment! Really pretty they are cream with 9 patches of different fabrics in the middle.. id been looking at them all day and everyone wanted 20 lira for each.. then 15 for each lowest 10 for each.. but I had found somewhere that was willing to do 2 for 10 soo I had to hunt that place back down and I did and I bought them! And the funny thing is is that a little kid like no more than 11 years old was the one selling them to me!!!!! =) I got a kick out of it.. it was really weird and they gave me a little stool to sit on and asked me the colors I was looking for and then just kept bringing more and more over then they offered Kristi a stool too so we were both just sitting there being shown all these pillowcases and then Jackie and Christina got stools it was just really funny… but I finally picked two that I really like.. now I just need the pillows… =) ha

So really it was awesome.. I love bargaining! Oh we got so lost in the bizarre there are over 4000 shops in there!!! And they all sell a lot of the same stuff.. by the end of the day we couldn’t remember where we had really been and I found out real quick where we’d been before when guys kept saying “lady from ohio lady from ohio you remember me from this morning” or “you are from ohio” I got them both… or just “you remember me” funny stuff… they would ask where you are from we’d say united states because we learned in a global studies class that we would all say our state the first two countries when asked where are you from and not the United States.. and if you were to ask someone else where they are from they would say their country so now we’ve like all started saying the US but then after we say that they then ask what state… we’ve met a few people that have been to ohio which is pretty cool.. and legit have been there one guy was talking about 80 and 90 and others about Dayton and Youngstown.. and different universities they have family studying at… just you can that its for real… 

Super good day…

So we came back to the ship and had dinner.. oh yeah we had lunch in the middle of the day.. that was interesting I had a meat that was like a mix of pork and lamb.. that was really brave of me.. I wouldn’t say I liked it but it was alright.. I ate it with rice and tomato in my same bite.. but yeah not the best… I just don’t like the thought of eating lamb for some reason… anyways we came back to the ship after the bizarre and had dinner then decided to go to starbucks to get internet… well for some reason it wasn’t working to well tonight and only some people could get on and not others and you needed passwords.. well the internet decided it didn’t like me or Kristi but it liked Jackie and Christina.. lucky them.. so Kristi and I left and that has been my night..

i cant wait to show everyone my good finds!!! =)

sufi dervish

Soooo today was really boring for most of the morning/ afternoon… Kristi had a trip that was from 9-3 but really got back at 430 and jackie and christina both had trips and all my other friends that I asked.. so everyone was gone and I had nothing and no one to go out with so I had to stay on the ship…. I only slept till 9ish surprisingly… then I read for a few hours.. looked through a lot of pictures.. had lunch

I felt like a pig at lunch today.. I left having used 3 plates! First I had a plate with salad, French fries!!, rice, and GRILLED CHEESE!!!! But guess what… the salad didn’t taste good… and neither did the grilled cheese =( =( I told sean last week how I was dying for a grilled cheese… and people on one of my trips were talking about it too.. and then there it is and it was bad.. I was very disappointed! Then I went and got another plate.. put more French fries on it because I figured that might be all I eat and then some of the cheesy pasta and the ketchup I forgot on the first round.. pasta= bad.. French fries were all I had to depend on.. only after so many they just weren’t very good either because they were wedge fries so they were very mushy potato-y and I don’t like that I like thinner, crisper fries… so then I decided I would have my very dependable backup meal.. a toasted peanut butter.. and I got tea…  yeah all that for me… ooopppsss =)

So after lunch I started working on my Spanish journal which im way behind on and it has to be 15 pages by the end of the voyage and its getting checked for the first time our next class day which is in like 4 days… so I got some work done on that, showered, tried to wash my shorts.. and then Kristi got back we watched a little of sound of music which is on the loop right now! And then went to dinner.. then had about 20 minutes to get ready for the sufi dervish ceremony!

So this is a traditional ceremony.. the people who participate are males.. and they are known as dervishes.. during the ceremony there is music and then the dancers spin in circles repeatedly.. its all religious.. and is supposed to symbolize how life is circular.. its really cool.. and really hard to explain like this.. with pictures and talking it will be a ton easier.. so I guess you’ll just have to wait for that… oh it was interesting though during the ceremony you are not allowed to clap or take pictures/ videos.. so I only have brochure pictures but that’s okay..

So anyways that’s really about it… GRAND BIZARRE tomorrow!!!!!

Istanbul!

Today is the first day in Istanbul, Turkey! So crazy! Kristi and I had a city orientation today and to make this blog a little easier for me to write I copied and pasted the trip description and im going to add to it my own tidbits as I go.. so here it goes..

“Byzantium, Constantinople and Istanbul are names that conjure up images of a great city’s past: Byzantium, the city founded by Mergarian colonizers 2,600 years ago; Constantinople, built on seven hills by the Emperor Constantine; and Istanbul, the city that links Europe and Asia and the fabulous capital of the Ottoman sultans. Istanbul is not only a city with a colorful past, but also a bustling modern-day city full of life and activity. During this orientation to the city, view some of the most significant historical and cultural sites in Istanbul.

Drive through the streets of ancient Pera (Latin Quarter) and Taksim Square. Then cross the Golden Horn over the Ataturk Bridge to the old town. View the city walls dating back to the fourth century, which were destroyed during the conquest in 1453, and the Roman Aqueduct of Valens from the second century. “

So far all of this was a driving tour which was A-OK with me.  The city walls are the longest city walls in the world at 20 miles long and had a unique set up.. there was not just one wall but two.. one on the outside then an inside wall for a backup/ extra protection, the guide said they were impossible to cross or defeat. Go turkey!

Okay next we:

“Tour the Sehzade Mosque, which was designed by architect Mimar Sinan. As chief architect of the palace, Sinan designed more than 360 structures. The Sehzade Mosque represents his mature style and the first grand mosque he created.”
 
 This mosque was super cool and the first mosque I’ve ever been to, even though many groups and classes in bg take trips to the mosque on 75.. my first mosque experience though I would say is way cooler and more authentic ;)  so we had to take off our shoes to enter of course and then the inside was just beautiful. One thing that bothered me a little was how the people pray.. I understand that men and women in the culture are separated for things and that they are separated for praying… what I disliked was that women are given this small area in the back of the mosque that is fenced off essentially from the rest of the mosque and the men get to pray in the whole wide open beautiful area.. just not fair.. I didn’t like it.. then also they have special carpets in the mosques that have lines on them so that you know to stand on the line in order to give enough space between you and the person in front of you if you wish to kneel down on the ground.

After this first stop we took time to enjoy our wonderfully delightfully disgusting box lunches from the ship.. yum.. it started to rain!!!! This is the first rain we have seen since leaving! It was pretty exciting and it felt good but Kristi and I opted to eat on  the bus.. side note its supposed to only be in the 80’s the whole time we are here which is like unheard of for this time of year and just really lucky for us.. our guide told us today that it was really unusual for the locals that it was raining this afternoon because that doesn’t happen at this time of year!

“Drive by the Hippodrome and view the Serpentine Column and the Theodosius Column, both of which were brought from Egypt in the fourth century.” We did this after the blue mosque so this is out of order and we walked by them not drove.. it was cool to see the serpentine column which was originally in Egypt and some Turkish leader had it removed from their and brought to turkey.. it originally was three serpants that winded up together with three heads at the top but the heads are no longer there..

“Next, visit the Blue Mosque with its unique configuration of six minarets and bluetiled interior.” This mosque was much bigger than the first and had lots of colored tiles and was really pretty there were a lot of people here though.. the first mosque we went to isn’t one that is usually visited by tourist but the blue mosque is and I think that largely has to do with the fact that it is less than a ten minute walk to our next destination.. the Hagia Sophia.

“ Conclude your orientation with a visit to Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Cistern.”

The Hagia Sophia was originally built as a greek orthodox church. It was burned down, rebuilt and burned down again and then rebuilt to its current being of stone where it still stands today.. when the ottomans invaded and took over turkey they converted the church into a mosque.  To enter the building there is a hall that has 5 doors to represent the 5 senses of people.. then that opens into another hall that has 9 doors of varying sizes. The largest in the middle was for the emperor and then the next largest for all the other head honchos and then another smaller doors for all the other regular people.   All the mosaics that once existed on the ceilings in the main area of the church were covered in plaster and that was then painted in the designs.. no mosque has any religious figures in it, no paintings, statues or anything, its part of the religion.. so when it was converted all of these had to be covered.. they have enough respect for other religions to not completely tear down their original beings and think that covering them is the more respectful way to go.. well they left one mosaic at the front uncovered of mary and joseph. There are 4 angels on the ceiling whose faces were covered by wood and only recently has one of the faces been uncovered to show the real mosaic that it is… 

After the Hagia Sophia we headed to the Cistern which was really cool too.. it is underground! The romans had the aqueducts that were built around the city lead into one of 20 cisterns in the city.. we got to go down in the one and they created sidewalks in it so that you could walk around it.. they had used old columns that had been taken from all sorts of Roman places and used them to build the cisterns so that was kinda cool to look at too.. I can better describe this in person.. if you really care to know ask me about it when im back.. those of you who will get to sit through hours of me going through pictures and stories aka (family, sean, mindy) ill explain it to you then..

After the cistern we headed back to the ship had dinner on the ship and then rested.. kristi, Christina, Jackie and I were supposed to go out for desserts but I wasn’t feeling to good, so I stayed behind… and that concludes my day today..

Other cool facts:
-       There are over 2000 mosques in Istanbul, 200 greek orthodox churches and a some synagogues
-       I learned this from sean before coming here but, Istanbul is the ONLY city in the world that is on 2 continents; europe and asia.. we are going to try to go to the asia side one night to get dinner or something so that we can say we’ve been to asia =)

i think that's it.. tomorrow i think im staying on the ship for most of the morning and afternoon kristi and everyone else have other trips.. and im not going out alone! i need time to work on my spanish stuff though so hopefully ill get some work on that down.. at night i have a trip to a sufi dervish ceremony that im excited about!

TURKEY DAY

So it is like i get two turkey days this year.. kinda.. sorta... but not really.... no turkey to eat this one.

 

anyways it was turkey day today which was just like italy day a few weeks ago.. we have been at sea all day but no classes all presentations on turkey and stuff to get us ready to go and our preport

 

so really today was dull and uninteresting a little boring at times and really nothing to talk to about..

 

we passed through the dardanelles at one point.. but i didnt see the monument that is there.. they said we should be able to see it better on the way back on saturday night..

 

i had to write a music paper today as well...

 

and the last of my daily points. food was bad.. and i realized how much of a struggle the way home is going to be.. ill probably lose lots of weight those ten days.. or cave and buy lots of food on the pool deck.. neither is really a good option.. but now that we are moving to these lasts three countries im going to be eating a lot more food on the ship and its going to get old quick again..

 

bought my pepto pills though today from the clinic. we are supposed to take 2 before every meal not really in turkey but more eygpt and morocco to prevent some not fun things from happening..

 

 

7-18 Final day in Greece

FYI: i just posted 3 separate blogs.. one for each of the past three days that i havent blogged for so if your keeping up on this make sure to scroll down because they are there..

So it being the last day in Greece I wasn’t about to venture too far from the ship. My plan was to only go out to get some lunch and that worked out to be a pretty good plan.  I woke up at 10 so that I could video with sean.. it was 2 am his time what a good sport huh =) it was nice though its been hard to talk to everyone because of the time differences so it was nice that we were finally able to talk. After that Kristi and I went out for lunch.. who knew most stuff is closed on Sundays.. we were lucky to find a little place and it was cool because dr. k and his wife came in too so we sat and talked to them for a little bit as well.  I had a really good greek pizza though it had feta and gouda cheese with green peppers and tomatoes on it.  then we went on a little hunt for a gift item that we both wanted.. but everywhere was closed so that was a bit difficult but we found it! woohooo then it was a walk back to the ship.. we got our computers for a last chance at the free wifi for a little bit only there were sooo many people trying to do the same thing that it wasn’t really working too well and it was really slow.. oh well.. while in port I did however finish uploading most of my spain pictures and started on Italy and have a little over half of the cinque terre trip up..  okay off we are for a day at sea on the way to turkey

Comment of the day/ week of Greece:
“I really do like these greek style gyros”

7-17 Beach attempt.. fail & awesome music show

So we slept in today and that was wonderful! We decided we would sleep in, eat lunch and then go to the beach.  Us being me, Kristi, Jackie and Christina.. if you want to creep enough to see who these two are that I keep talking about they are in my spain pictures there is a couple of the four of us sitting in front of the Columbus statue. 

So anyways at about 130 we headed out.. Kristi had a couple names of good beaches to go to from the interport student but we had no idea how to get there.. so we went to the newspaper stand guy that you buy bus tickets from to try to figure out how to get to them and how far away they are.. well they were apparently far.. and I had to get back at a decent time for a trip I had at night.. well he said that there was one that was a 10 minute walk away and was a pretty good one.. so we went for it..hmmm what an interesting walk it was…… everyone we have met and asked for help from as been really nice.. well we are walking along the sidewalk and an old man is coming from the other direction so we file into a line to pass him, I was last in line.. all was fine and dandy until he passes by me. He turns gets like 6 inches away from my face and spits at me!!! Im pretty sure it wasn’t like the good luck greek spitting like you see in the big fat greek wedding either.. it was a stick your tongue out spit like little kids do… it was sooo weird.. I wasn’t so much offended as I was just really confused… we all laughed for the next five minutes it was just really strange.  Im going to really hope it was just a good luck spit though.. anyways so  we couldn’t find the beach at first.. we came across a marina and found a pool and chill place that was really fancy that we went into considering just staying at the pool but when we were there we saw the beach and went there instead… yeah it wasnt too great… it was dirty.. lots of trash.. I mean im pretty sure ive been to equally or more dirty beaches before but still.. we were really hot though and just wanted to get in the water to cool off.. so we took turns doing so.. it was a little tricky though because it was rocky next to and in the water.. then we tried laying out but after being out of the water for 2 minutes I was already completely dried off It was so hot.. so we tried laying there and dipping in every once and awhile but we just didn’t last long it was just not a nice beach and it was really hot so we  weren’t too happy.. so we decided to leave an hour after getting there.. instead of walking back in the heat we went for the taxi option.. it was my first taxi ride ever how exciting haha.. it took like 5 minutes and only 3 euro not bad…

So we got back at a time that I was able to go and talk to sean for awhile which was really nice. Then I went and joined the girls up by the pool with snacks and my book.  Then I had to go shower and get ready for my trip!

So there is a theatre called the Dora Stratou and puts on about a two hour show of all the traditional music and dances of the greek regions. This was an FDP for my music class. The show was soo good! When I was watching I was thinking about how it was something that my family would like to see.. like a show that my mom heather and Mykaela would all go to together like the plays in Cleveland.. you guys would have enjoyed it.. I tried to take lots of videos but there were so many dances and not enough room on my memory card despite my efforts to make room during the show.. oh well I got some of it though! 

After the show we had the choice to ride the bus back to the ship or go to a tavern with dr. k (my music prof) well I opted to go out. It ended up being really cool and a lot of the staff was there and went out too.. the drama teachers (who are married) another prof and his wife the danzingers, and my prof and his wife, and the two librarians.  It was just really cool. So I had another greek salad and more baklava!!!! And half a glass of red wine that tasted kind of sparkling like from the drama professors because they didn’t want to finish the bottle that they had gotten! How cool is that =) haha.. well let me just tell you this is getting to be a very late night I wasn’t eating my salad until midnight at the earliest! It was crazy.. so when we are all done we all headed off in a group to make our way back to the ship.. we had to walk to the metro and then catch a bus.. only problem was when we got to the metro station the train we needed to take was roped off.. not totally sure why but we had to take a different train and then get on a bus and have a long bus ride till we were back at the terminal at 230AM! Geeze oh man.. that’s my latest night out this whole trip and it was with my professors! =) ha

7-16 Cooking and shopping!

So I started my day off by sleeping in! it was wonderful the first time ive slept till 10 in over a month!!! I woke up because I could hear Kristi typing, I was a little frustrated because I couldn’t fall back asleep so I rolled over and looked at the clock to see what time it was and it was 10!!! Whoops! My greek cooking class sas trip was leaving at 11, so I had to get up and get ready fast! I left the room at 10:53ish which is real bad because the buses here for trips are a little walk away from the ship so I had to run.. made it with like a minute to spare though..

So what was supposed to be like a 15 minute drive ended up being an over an hour ride because of the heavy traffic.. but finally we got there! The class was in a little restaurant we walked in and were greeting with a shot glass of this honey wine that was really good and then were asked to take a seat somewhere. Around the outsides of the room were chairs for everyone and they were grouped into five sections that each had a table in front of it that had lots of ingredients and supplies set up on it. this ended up not really being the cooking class I had anticipated it to be.. what we really did was a “game” We had to pick a team leader.. my group went for the nose goes method of picking on, but the girl who was last really didn’t want to be it so I stepped up to the plate.. little did I know that this would mean for the next two hours I got to wear a wonderful chefs hat.. they gave each of us an apron that we were able to keep as well.  So what the game entailed was that we were given a paper with about 7 recipes on it.. and by recipes I mean there were lists of ingredients.. then they would walk around with a sample plate of what it was we were trying to make and say ready, set, go..  two people at a time in a team could prepare the dish and had about 10 minutes to do so.. then they would “judge” the dishes and pick a winner.. in the end we came out in 4th place haha.. really this was not so easy to do.. we didn’t have the utensils you would really want to use, we had no idea how many plates we could use so that was  tricky too.. and on top of it all we were rushed and not given a whole lot of guidance so we more or less just had fun trying to figure it all out.. but our food wasn’t all that editable.. which was the point we were supposed to eat it in the end.. but seeing as one dish was mixed with someone’s hand, and another had sardine pieces in it that had bones.. yeah none of us were really all that ready to try our concoctions it was fun though and the food looked good in general.. and I have the papers so that I can try and recreate them someday!

After getting back to the ship it was time to rest for a little bit.. then Jackie, Christina, Meisha (our neighbors to the right) Kristi and I headed out for Palatka which is a street with lots of shopping in Athens. We enjoyed some more cheap pitas and shopped for the rest of the day.. I got a couple new rings and a pair of earrings! =)  we shopped until the stores started closing and then decided to get some good greek food for dinner before heading back to the ship.  We found a very cute little restaurant at the foot of the street we were on and decided it looked good. The guy trying to get people to come eat there said he would give us each a free glass of ouzo so that helped convince us too.. Ouzo is the greek alcohol.  It tastes like liquorish and none of us liked it.. it was also pretty strong. But if you watch my big fat greek wedding it’s the drink that they give to the millers.  =)  and we were told by many people we had to try it. we all ordered greek food for dinner but no actual dinner meal.. like just appetizers and salads.. I had a greek salad which I think is like one of my new favorite foods and ill be making it at home for sure..  its just chunks of tomatoes and cucumbers, pieces of onions, green peppers and olives (which I didn’t eat) and feta cheese.. and then on top of it you put olive oil and its really good.. then some of them decided to get some desserts.. Christina got baklava and I wanted to try it out.. I ended up splitting it with her because it was sooooooo GOOD!!!!! It’s a crispy dough with nuts and honey and just AMAZING! I fell in love =) after all this we made our way back to the ship for the night and got to sleep in the next morning!!!!

blogging.

tomorrow is going to be a long day or blogging.. i have a couple days to catch up on now.. sorry. but i figured you guys would at least like to know im alive so here i am.. 230 am and just getting back from probably the latest FDP SAS trip known =) anyways.. the blogs will come tomorrow.

check back later take two..

ill try to actually blog in the morning..

check back later..

im tired its been a good day. cooking class and shopping and yummy dinner.  im going to go to bed now we are sleeping in tomorrow and going to the beach after we have lunch on the ship so i think ill actu

Hydra

We officially went to a Greek island today! Now what most might picture is the view of white houses and blue roofs like in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.. but that was filmed on the island  Santorini. In order to get there It would be a 10 hour or more ferry ride.. no thank you.. so we traveled to Hydra, an equally beautiful place to be cream building burnt orange roofs, it resembled croatia a lot for me which makes since because i thought croatia looked like how i pictured greece to look. well it was much better island choice seeing that it was about a one and a half hour ferry ride over.  The ferry was interesting it was like a super big plane the inside.. for some reason not what I had been expecting

We got to Hydra at about noon, by the way it’s pronounced E-dra not hi-dra.. just so you know.. anyways upon arrival we checked out many of the local shops and spent our time doing so for about two hours.. in there we made a small stop for lunch too.. im really like the food here for a reason other than taste.. price! I got a pork pita that had lettuce, tomato, onion, and some special sauce (the the cucumber one at the one Maple Fest stand!) well it was big and delicious and only cost me 2.50 euro!!! Crazy good!!

We picked the right island for sure to go to! We saw lots of SAS faculty throughout the day always a reassuring sign!  We saw the dean of students and her husband and 2 daughters, my moms, and one of the counselors and her husband!!

So after we shopped ourselves out a bit we decided it was time to find a place to jump in the water and lay out for a bit.  Well this is about the time we ran into the counselor and her husband (whom we ate lunch with like two days ago) well they suggested a little place we could go to just around the corner so we took their suggestion and went with it.  so what it was just a little flat concrete area that had a stairway into the water and a jumping cliff just to the right of it.. well this worked for us so we got in the water for a little bit then sat out to read in a half shaded part after a chapter of reading we hopped in again and then read some more it was a nice way to spend the afternoon very relaxing and peaceful and I finally am getting to read the book Kristi gave to me to read back at school!

After a couple hours of sitting out we decided to pack up and actually go buy all the stuff we had looked at buying earlier which worked out well we got some really good things and some good gifts. I got a really pretty necklace today from some guy that had a stand on the street set up im very exciting about it!

So after the shopping round two we found another little pita place to eat at got another cheap pita (this time chicken) and a glass of wine and enjoyed our little meal mine only costing like 3.80 euro in the end! How cool is that! Then we sat and were just talking for awhile and then moved on to a place for Kristi to get dessert from then it was time to catch the ferry back to Piraeus our port city.  

GREECE!

Can you believe it we are at our 5th port already!! That means we are half way through the countries and pretty much half way through the voyage! I really can’t believe its been this long already because I feel like it is just flying by!

Alright so we are in Greece now what.. well the thing to do seems to be to visit an island. So Kristi and I went and bought ferry tickets this morning to go to Hydra tomorrow.. it took us a lot longer than expected though about a half hour walk then after that I had to stop at a bank to transfer some more money into euros.. we waited 40 minutes for our turn at the bank yikes..

Kristi had an SAS trip at 1 that was titled Sights of Athens and the Acropolis. My Athens by Bike tour that I had wanted to do got cancelled due to low interest for the day I had wanted to go so I realized I had no trips that were going to tour me around Athens so I wanted to hop on this trip too. Well we left the bank at 12:15 to have another 10 minute walk to the ship (on the way I ran into one of the field office staff and was able to buy a ticket for the trip!) then we had to stop in the cabin to get a few things and then grab lunch super fast and get back out to the buses. It was a rush but we made it!

Let me mention how this morning I felt like crap when I woke up, I think I had a fever last night into this morning. I was really light headed and congested as well. It was bad I didn’t want to do anything.. well I was able to fall back asleep for about an hour after taking some meds so that when I woke up I was feeling a little better but not great.  So then we had gone to the ferry and the bank and I had not eaten anything because I had missed breakfast..  but I still wasn’t hungry at lunch.. ive really lost my appetite.. I had 2 rolls and a couple glasses of water but really that’s it… so we get to the buses and off we are on the trip

We got to see some Olympic buildings, the parliament (which has cool guards outside that we got to get a picture with!) and a few other sights then we got to the acropolis.  It was cool but I wasn’t feeling well so I don’t think I enjoyed it as much as I could’ve.. it also didn’t help that it was over 100* today… =/ HOT!  I was pretty much miserable.. and felt like I might have been close to heat exhaustion.. I headed down to the bus a couple minutes early and took a break at a shady spot where our tour guide was sitting.. she mentioned how July is the hottest month of the year.. and we were at the acropolis at like the hottest part of the day, how nice.

So we headed back the ship. I had to lay down for awhile because I still wasn’t feeling great, I attempted to go get dinner didn’t really eat a whole lot again… then went and spent some time on the internet! Free wifi in the terminal!! Woohoo. It’s funny though because there were like 40 sasers in the terminal with their computers they probably thought we were crazy! Oh well =) I was able to text with sean a little bit on his lunch break and catch up on the pcc discussion board and add more pictures to facebook! Im still working on spain and got some more for it yet but at least it’s something right?!

Alright that’s all for tonight tomorrow going to Hydra should be relaxing-ish im excited!

I'M ALLERIC TO MY SHIP!!!!

So I slept awfully last night for the first time this whole voyage.. I woke up at 1 coughing and couldn’t fall back asleep till close to 2.. then I woke up this morning, very tired, and totally congested, and coughing.. im doing just grand on this trip huh…

Went to classes somehow made my way through them with a 20 minute nap between global studies and music..

So for lunch I decided we should try eating outside so that I am breathing fresh air not ship air.. I pretty much completely stopped coughing out there! It was wonderful, then I was still hungry and there was really good stir fry today so I decided to go get seconds.. well low and behold im standing in line and boom I started coughing again.. I really think it’s the air!!! So I figured that it would be the smart thing to do to grab my stuff and sit outside for the afternoon.. so I went to the shady part of the pool deck and was reading emails and replying and it was HOT! I was sweating so bad! Then  I went to start working on my Spanish homework and realized I don’t have class tomorrow and not for over a week again! So I said screw that and shut the book.. I was really really hot.. and tired.. so I decided I would just go inside and take a nap.. I didn’t wake up till 520!!  When I went to the clinic yesterday twice.. they asked me to come back this afternoon for a follow up to see if anything was working.. so I told her how im pretty positive the cough is the ship air and I think it will be better when I get out into port but that I am now also congested.. goodie for me I have like everything that is going around  on the ship.. there is a virus going around and I just so happened to get it along with the cough to the air which many others have as well.  So I got Sudafed and now I have like my own personal drug store going on its ridiculous but I just want this to go away so I can enjoy my time here!!

At dinner I hardly had a bowl of soup because I wasn’t feeling good and then came back and napped some more.. up until the preport.. Greece should be interesting to say the least… so to clarify my next country is Greece and we will be getting there at like 2am tonight.. we have 5 days there.. so we sail out on Sunday night again.  Last week there was a port strike.. a metro strike.. and a  ferry strike.. and they suspect that there is going to be an air strike on Thursday.. so this should all be really interesting to work around.. they just told us to be flexible because there is nothing we can really do.. also just to let you know if they didn’t feel it was safe for us to go there they wouldn’t let us.. and they is a lot of people looking at the situations of each port so really we will be okay!

Tonight we are having an ice cream social with our sea, the Bering Sea, at 10! Lets just say we are all very excited for this! At it we are also figuring out who is participating in what during the sea Olympics which is a big event that every voyage does and all the sea’s compete against one another! So that should be fun!

Alright so that’s all the real stuff I have to say today here are some random facts from the day though:

-       Apparently at 10:40ish a Drone was flying over the ship checking us out like they flew to the front of the ship then turned and flew to the back really close… I didn’t witness this only heard about it at noon announcements and preport..

-       They warned any fraternity/sorority members on the ship to not wear their letters out in Greece that it is really not going to be the cool thing to do and you will get funny looks if you do… sometimes the greek letters actually mean something in Greek others don’t and you just look funny.. the examples they gave us of meanings are as follows:
o       AEπ means gross domestic  product
o       AKA is a type of flower
o       ΣAE is an Athenian street gang

-       Noon announcement question of the day
o       “what does the V on the SAS shirt stand for”  im sitting in the cabin with Kristi at this time and she goes “really what does it mean, is it for mV explorer??” ohhh krsiti.. for all those still not figuring it out it stand for Virginia.. the school that backs SAS

-       530 announcement question of the day
o       “a drone is like a copy of a human body right?” this was heard after the noon announcement telling people that “a drone flew over the ship today to check us out as some of you may have noticed” so this person apparently thought that a person flew over the ship???

-       At preport they clarified that a drone is a type of military plane.. they had a picture of one.. it had missiles on it they made sure to tell us the one that flew over us did not have any on it though

blah

Today my cough is getting worse again.. it has been for the past couple days but I was finally able to make it down to the clinic today.. I left Spanish early and went.. got more medicine.  Went to my last two classes.. had lunch and then took a nap for 3 hours! It was wonderful.. but I have a bunch of homework I really need  to work on.  Only my cough wasn’t getting much better at all so I went back to the clinic they gave me an inhaler this time.. they think I might be have an asthmatic allergic reaction to one of many possibilities either, the ship air, cleaning supplies being different than those im used to at home, or the different pollens and things in the air in these other countries.. so now I get to feel like dad with my super sweet inhaler and just hopefully something gets rid of this cough!

Exciting news of the day I had another family dinner! This is the best one yet because they bought us pool deck food! So I had a cheeseburger and a pepsi and chips!!!! How amazing are they! =) then we played our game of charades about our activities in italy and Croatia. It was a lot of fun like always! Only I couldn’t stop coughing during it… grr…

So for my Spanish class I am supposed to be keeping a journal everyday in Spanish and well the key word is supposed to… but I haven’t been really keeping up on it.. so now I have a lot of Spanish work to do because it is due after Greece.. for the mid voyage check.. at the end of the voyage it has to be 15 pages double spaced long.. I have like 2… =/ oops.. its okay I still have a couple weeks to write about, including spain and Italy adventures so hopefully that takes up some space!! I really just have to translate some of my blog posts and ill be set.. just a pain to actually do.. I also have to write a journal about food in each of the countries and that basically has to be like a page long for each country.. which I haven’t started at all yet.. and I have a global music paper due after Greece as well.. its going to be some fun homework days this week…

CORRECTION TO YESTERDAY’S POST:

Sean informed me I made a huge mistake.. it is not 1 kuna to 5.6 us dollars.. it is 5.6 US dollars to 1 Kuna.. otherwise like he said my parasailing trip would not have been $50 but more like $1400!!!

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

“When is the final game of the World Cup?”   this is really bad because people asked SAS to stream the match to the ship and they were able to get it to work so it was on last night and there were a few announcements made about how it was going to be on the TV…

Also at lunch he made a comment of the day.. some girl introduced herself to a guy at the pool deck and said” I am not here to make babies but friends”..  interesting way to introduce yourself..

the last 2 days of Croatia

So yesterday was a very early morning again, long day, and late night which = me being extremely tired and I had another early morning today so I decided to make sure I got some sleep so I could survive today and just blog about it all at once.. being now.

Lets begin with yesterday.  Kristi and I went PARASAILING!!!!  The company that did the snorkeling trip for sas also does parasailing and a number of other water activities. They were giving SAS people a slight discount on their other activities so I made a deal with them the day I snorkeled.  The snorkeling trip was in such high demand that they had a group go every day in Croatia so they said that Kristi and I could hop on the boat that picks up the group to get a ride over to the place then instead of it being 600 Kuna for the both of us it would be 500 Kuna.. so 250 each..  have I talked about the kuna yet? Its wayyy confusing.. I guess not really, it jut causes a lot of extra thinking and sticker shock because you aren’t used to the numbers..  1Kuna = about 5.6 US dollars. So really we were able to go parasailing for about $50 each!!! Very good price. So we had to wake up early and get on the boat over to the hotel. Then we had to wait awhile till they were ready to take us so we spent a good hour to hour and a half laying out in the sun working on getting a tan just a little bit more!

Then we were able to go and we couldn’t wait any longer!!!!! We were able to do it together  sitting next to each other at 200m for about 10-15 minutes in the air.  It was GORGEOUS!!!!!! I wish we would’ve had a camera up there!! It was so pretty! We were so glad we did it! I was concerned at first I would have to do a lot more convincing to get Kristi to go since shes never been but she was totally up for it! i went in 4th grade when we were in the Bahamas and it was kinda different this time I think from what I remember of the last time.. this time we couldn’t see so much into the water like in the Bahamas but we could see all the mountains and rivers, the ship and over looking all the beautiful houses and islands it was cool! So so happy! After our ride we had about another hour or so to kill on the beach before it was time to catch the boat back to the ship so we ordered some smoothies and enjoyed them on our lawn chairs! =)

We got back to the ship at like 1 had lunch and then bummed around for a little bit and left again at like 3 to head to the Old Town again for some shopping.  I was able to get a few things for myself as well as a couple others. We grabbed some dinner in a walk in place I got a really good chicken and cheese sandwich that had lettuce, tomato and cucumber on it, In amazing bread!  Kristi had a croissant like thing that had spinach in it.. we enjoyed our meal on the steps of a little chapel outside of the place it was nice. After some more bumming around the town we headed back to the ship for a little bit. 

We haven’t gone out at night at all yet and this is pretty much one of our last countries we think we can do too much of that in. so we wanted to go out for a drink then get back on the ship by ten because they told us there were going to be fireworks last night! So we were going to just find a little bar along the street right out of our port.. only it didn’t quite happen like that.. none of the places were looking to appealing and 5 other SASers were walking by us and headed to Old Town so we ended up walking to Old Town which took longer than we would have liked and it was all uphill, yippee, ad just not what we were anticipating doing. So we get to Old Town at like 9:50 and we had heard that the fireworks might be at 10 so we decided to go try to find somewhere to watch them.. we went to a pier and heard people say they were to start at 10:30 well we got really lucky and were able to get some seats right on the edge of the wall so we sat down and waited.. at like 10:15 the fireworks started and we realized we had AMAZING seats! They were being shot off like right in front of us. It was cool most were red white and blue which I thought was interesting till Kristi reminded me those are Croatia’s colors as well. I didn’t know what to expect of fireworks in another country but they were pretty good. Nothing like the ones I saw last year in Washington DC but good none the less.  So only 6 days late but we got our fourth of july fireworks!  After they ended we found a bar inside Old Town and got a drink I got a Caribbean Cruise and Kristi got a Hawaiian something, hers was blue and turned her tongue blue haha =) then we headed to the bus and got a ride back to the ship at midnight, where I pretty much just crashed right away.
This morning I had to wake up even earlier to be on a trip at 8:15. My trip was a service visit to a children’s hospital and an orphanage.  First we went to the childrens hospital where one of the main doctors spent a lot of time talking to us about a lot of different aspects of the hospital, the patients they see, their healthcare, and how the whole system works for them. We got to see a couple kids and play with some and then after a tour around the building it was time to head to the orphanage.  The orphanage wasn’t really an orphanage but a children’s home.  It is the oldest “orphanage” in the world. Basically all the kids in the center (34 of them there currently) all have families. However they were all removed from their homes because the parents are either alcoholic, drug addicts, abusive, and overall neglected their children.  The goal is to give the parents help and the children can return to the home in the future but that is often not what happens. The court allows the parents a supervised visit twice a week, but many do not come.  If the child is not visited for 90 days then the orphanage sends this information to the court and the child is then put up for adoption.

After the manager of the center talked to us and told us all the information we were allowed to then play with the children for about an hour and a half.  First I started playing with a couple younger ones and an SAS’er who had bubbles. Then I met another little girl who was 9 and I believe her name was Lucia (I don’t know how to spell it though) I had brought a deck of cards with me so I took them out and her and I played cards the rest of the time.  I started out playing crazy 8’s with her.. it was the easiest to explain without having to talk since they speak Croatian and not English. Later I tried teaching her speed but that didn’t really work out to well so we stuck with crazy 8’s and a few others came and joined in with us a little bit and then would leave but it was still fun. It was a very cool experience and fun to get to interact with the kids!

I got back to the ship had lunch with Jackie, and bummed around a little bit. Then went to exchange my left over Kuna into Euro’s and I got my passport stamped!!!!!! Woohoo I have a stamp! Then back to the ship for a nap and blogging.. trying to use some more very slow wifi and about to go to dinner. Going to spend the rest of my night doing homework for tomorrow and sleep!!!

Every day the voice gives us a question of the day.. basically some dumb question that someone overheard someone else asking. . I keep meaning to post them every day but I forget because we don’t get them in port.. anyways we heard this one tonight

“Tour guide: this is where the prince was decapitated
SAS’er: did he die?”

One in Italy I remember was “How far is the bus ride to Capri?”  Capri is an island.. we all know that its kinda common knowledge to us on the ship..

a few more:

“Is lobster so expensive because it’s extinict?”

“What is in the Picasso museum?”

Just to give you the ones Kristi and I could remember..

So we went and had a not so great dinner but there was ice cream for dessert!!! Which is a first and a total treat!!! We are now off and on our way to Greece for the next two days. Shrek just started so guess what im doing before my homework! =)

Croatia day 2

So today has been an eventful day..  I woke up got ready had breakfast and off on an sas trip at 9. Guess what I did! I went snorkeling! Too bad we didn’t really see too much though.. anyways instead of getting picked up by a bus we got picked up by a boat! Pretty cool.. they took all 20 something of us to the actual place where we got all our gear and split up into two groups.. I was in group one which meant we jumped on another boat and headed off to an island to go snorkeling! While the others enjoyed about an hour or so of beach time.. there were a couple schools of smaller fish nothing very exciting though.. there was one colorful fish it was yellow.. then right towards the end I saw a couple bigger fish too not like huge by any means but still they scared me though because they got a little closer to me than I would have liked.. I love looking at fish but cant stand seafood at ALL and hate the feeling of swimming and fish touching me…

So after our time out snorkeling we went back and had beach time while the other group went out.. it was nice.. although I got an awful tan line again today.. this time I have a tag off my butt.. the tag to my bottoms was sticking out and now that will be hard to get rid of.. yay me for bad tan lines! That’s 2 times now!

So after all this we headed back to the ship where I showered got ready and grabbed some lunch! It was a good one too! Hotdogs and French fries!! What?!!? Totally unheard of here! Soo good though!

Then Kristi Jackie and I headed off to the old town.. let me just say Croatians really pack themselves into their buses… I mean not even any standing room left it was crazy.

So we got to the old town grabbed some gelato, walked down a couple streets and wandered a little bit trying to figure out how to get up to the walls.. finally figured it out and started walking our way around the town.. it was soooooooooo sooooooooooooo
sooooooooooooooooo pretty! Half way through we came across some sas’ers Brad and Preston.. they were nice and so we all continued along.. after we finished the walls like an hour and a half later at least.. we all decided to go get some dinner!!! We found a really good place called Moby Dick.  I had a yummy pasta delicious bread (with olive oil!!! Only the second time this whole trip!) and they started out with giving us this little shot glass sized glass of a really strong wine but it was really yummy

After dinner we parted ways and Kristi, Jackie and I went shopping!

Then Kristi got more gelado and then we packed ourselves back on a bus and back to the ship.

I was able to talk to Mykaela and my mom a little bit and now im really tired and off to sleep! Just wait until you hear about what im doing tomorrow!!!! =)

CROATIA!!!

First day in Croatia!!!! Today I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Practica) for my global music class.. they aren’t required but are just trips that maybe focus in on something that you might be learning about.. most of the trips ive gone on have been FDP’s for people but if your not in the class that it is an FDP for you can still go on the trip.. I hope that made sense…

Anyways I had a trip today that was from 1-8 and it was the Osojnik Village and Folk Show.  So I have had a ticket for this trip since like may but Kristi did not however she was able to get a ticket for the trip by showing up at the bus!!!!! It was really exciting because it was packed and both buses ended up being full. So we drove off to the village making a few stops for photo ops which im really glad our guide provided to us because it is soooo beautiful here!!!! All the houses are made out of this white stone and orange round tiled roofs and I really mean all the house and even buildings are like this and its soo pretty.. then to top it off its like in the mountains so even prettier with the water the mountains the houses just ahh I cant even describe how pretty on the way to the village we had to go up through a mountain so  that gave us a really goo view up high looking down and I have great pictures from that!!!

So we got to the village went into a little church because that just seems to be the thing to do in every country on this trip! Met the people who were hosting us and we walked to their house.. it was sooo pretty there too so just imagine like 100 sas people going to this village and to this one family’s home.. but this is apparently something that they do fairly often for smaller groups of tourists and for SAS every year.. well we get to the house and are greated with a shot of grape brandy (VERY STRONG!) instant burn and prunes and orange piece things that were like candy.. then we congregated for awhile most of us having another shot of the brandy and realizing just how strong it was.. but still good.  Then the man came out, I believe his name was Peter, not totally sure, but we are just going to go with it.. so they put a chair in the middle of the porch area and peter comes and sits on it with his traditional creation instrument that I forget the name of.. and plays a song. The two older women come and start dancing and then after a song they tell all of us we have to start dancing now too.. basically all it entailed was spinning in circles and clapping to the beat.. well the women kept grabbing different guys out of the  crowd nad doing this spinning dance with them too it was just really fun. Then there was more just conversing time and then people balanced out between the upstairs and downstairs porches.. then they handed everyone a stick… then plates of bacon, cheese, and bread were brought out and a fire pit was started.. we had to stick the bacon and then cook it and then you put it on the bread with the cheese and it was FANTASTIC! So good that I believe I had 4 but I kinda lost count because to accompany this bread/bacon/cheese deliciousness they also brought out wine! Really really good wine! Which after talking to one of the men about it I found out that it is homemade wine that they make and that the brandy was also homemade.. well let me just tell you this wine is the best darn wine I have ever had..  so I have about 2 glasses while eating my 4 sandwich things.. then they show all of us inside to tables that are all set for dinner.. and that was equally as yummy! More amazing bread, salad, potatoes and pork and desert in the end.. I mean this was just amazing oh and lets not forget a bottle of wine for every like 6 people along the table.. that we all finished off.. dinner was fun.. things were hitting everyone by then so it was a very happy time.. =)   haha  but seriously this food was AMAZING!!!  everything was just soo tender and delicious!  After dinner there was some more music playing and dancing before we had to say our goodbye and head back to the ship.. it was an awesome trip and def one of my top 5 so far!

Hmm lets see what are my top 5?

Inside la sagrada familia, monserrat, cinque terre, Pompeii, osojnik village and folk show in no particular order..

So anyways that’s all I got.. its been a good day.. good drinks good food just all is good!

the midterm

Today is not a day that I have a lot of interesting fun details to write about.. it was quite the dull day…

It was very easy to forget about this whole taking classes thing after spending the last week and a half in spain and Italy.. but sure enough we did have classes today and our first global studies midterm…

So classes this morning yippee nothing too exciting.. before I went to class though I did enjoy a toasted peanut butter sandwich out on the deck enjoying the sea =) great way to enjoy a breakfast…

After classes  Kristi and I went to get lunch before the studying began… my nose did not steer me wrong during global music today.. it was our first taco day!!!!  I know when I smell tacos! =)  so after a very large lunch (3 hard tacos, a taco salad, and bowl of soup)  was the start of studying because lets be real NO ONE studied before today why would you waste your time in Italy studying!?!?!

So I studied all day.. it was grand.. but not really.. went and had dinner not as good as lunch but not as bad as some other days.. people with last names A-K had to take the test at 6:30 and then L-Z were at 8:15… lets just say that when people came out of that first exam time they were NOT happy at all.. very outraged.. said it was awful and great now it’s our turn…

It wasnt horrible.. but wasn’t easy like Dr. Bowler had claimed it was in class today.. there were like 3 questions that I believe came from some reading I didn’t do.. so that’s my fault… and about another 7 that were a bit confusing and I took some guesses on some I felt good about my guess others not really so much..i guess we’ll see how that goes…

That is my day and night and to finish off my night I get to do more of this really not so fun thing known as homework.. another day of classes tomorrow