i forgot big news last night!
we are officially in eastern standard time! its crazy to look at my clock on my laptop and have it be the right time!! it hasnt been like that since before june 15th! so weird!
anyways something is like seriously wrong with me.. im broken haha i woke up at 7!! on my own!!! yuck!!! tried to just lay in bed but eventually lacey and i went and enjoyed breakfast on the deck. then came back to the cabin for a little then went and laid out for a bit. all before 11!
at 11 there was a reentry shock meeting just about some things to maybe expect when getting back home.. and im just going to throw this out here now.. if you want to see my pictures and you tell me you want to see them.. welllll you better just be prepared to sit down for awhile and get real comfy because that wont be a fast event.. i tried pulling all the pictures i want to turn into a slide show tonight and there are 779 of them... and thats pictures of pretty much only me, hardly lots of sights pictures... just a lot cut out.. so be prepared for what your asking for.. because i want to share them but ill be really disappointed when half way through you get sick of it... just saying.
i had to leave this a little early to go have one last family lunch. deb is back in california now but it was amy and the 8 of us that our family has turned into! we played jeopardy sas style! we've learned so much =) do you know what city has a bigger population rome or cairo? or what flag the mv explorer flies? i do =)
after the very extended lunch i headed back to the cabin to find kristi in the last stretch of her packing.. then it was my turn! yikes. i dont know what i did wrong when packing to get here.. i have more room then i thought i did at least.. some how my clothes that i packed in the bigger purple suitcase to get here.. all fit in the smaller black one.. and i was able to get a bunch of souvenirs to fit in them too!! and i really havent gotten rid of like anything.. i really dont understand how it happened but im really okay with it! =) i just have a duffle and other bag that ill take off with me that ill fill with my breakable souvenirs.
after packing it was roomie relaxing time where we all laid in bed, kinda slept, and watched rudy. then we went and had dinner which was chosen by a student. (it was an auction item "pick dinner for a night") so she picked fried chicken and french fries and ice cream!!!! basically i had french fries for dinner yum yum yum!! the chicken isnt really all that good because its not boneless.. im looking forward to buying chicked strips when i get back!
after dinner we had a "preport" for the usa.. it was a funny one of things that they warn us for in all the countries but joking about it in the us.. then i came back to the room and picked out all my pictures for my slideshow that ill make hopefully some time next week... and now its bed time once again..
can you believe tomorrow is my last full day on the ship already?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
MY SEA IS THE LAST OFF THE SHIP!!!!!
just my luck huh.. this bites big time..
we had our first disembarkation meeting tonight and they told us the order.. the bright side is they said that if they were to start allowing us off at 11 everyone should be off after 2 1/2 hours unless there are problems with peoples luggage and such.. soooo hopefully i could be off no later than 130 so hopefully thats for real but i have heard multiple possibilities on this now.
in other news today.. i woke up at 9 which was nice and studied all morning and had my exam at 230 for global studies.. it wasnt hard per say but i didnt study a whole whole lot for it because of all my spanish work soo we will see how well i did.. then i had to write a global music paper today and i have just a few last sentences to finish it up and turn it in.. and in 10 minutes we have a milk and cookies break with my sea again =) yum. ohhhh and how could i forget after the test today we had an ice cream social for big brothers big sisters so that was good too! big free snacks day.. gotta love it!!!
tomorrow is just our study day so its free to do what we like which is always nice! only the second time thats really ever happened!
sad thing i realized today.. my finals day is in 2 days.. but in exactly one week i start classes at bg.. how much does that suck?1?1?!
last bit of news we gain back another hour tonight! so now we are only one hour ahead of everyone, we are getting super close! huh!
I am so mad that I can no longer sleep in…. what happened to me?!?!?? Woke up and lacey convinced me to go get breakfast with her.. so that means I was out of bed at 810 going to eat.. I still half asleep. After eating I climbed back in bed and started watching the holiday because it was on the loop today. I ended up watching the end half of this movie twice and the beginning once throughout the day.. but anyways for lunch today I was finally happy with food. It was TACOS!!!!!
Continue with my day by starting to watch Princess Diaries until my computer died and played bunts with Kristi, lacey, heather and myself. Then we checked out the silent auction. Today is auction day so no classes. It was actually our first day of having nothing to do unless we totally choose to participate in the auction festivities. All afternoon was the silent auction. There was a weekend stay in a beach cottage in Oak Harbor, OH that Kristi and I decided we really wanted to get.. only we started to get a challenge with this other girl wanting it.. when we signed it for the second time she goes “yeah im from osu so its like just a drive away” ha.. yeah we were are from closer… then as kristi is writing it out again she goes “well ive talked to my friends already and im willing to pay a lot more than that” really snobby… grr right then and there she pissed me off to no return.. its just like she thought she was all miss s- - t because she already talked to her friends and had the money.. well Kristi and I had already talked to mason and sean so its not like she was all that special.. well we decided that we would just act like we were still trying just to drive her prices up so that they would have to pay more in the end. So really she won in the end and im a little bummed about that but I guess its just an oh well situation.
Now im sitting in the live auction and let me just say is people really surprise me… I mean 3 boxes of girl scout cookies was the first item for 135. Two people agreed to pay 450 each to be the first off the ship. Two shirts with the special question of the days printed on them for 600 like what the heck?!?!?!?! And two people payed 650 for a chance to go to a steelers training camp day.. for some special deal that you only get by knowing someone and that someone that can provide is this is of course Dr. Tanya who is one of the doctors for the pittsburg steelers.. this would be my little brothers mom. Anyways people are just throwing out money like its junk change and hundreds being thrown out its crazy.
This was my day that is all.. very relaxed but I was really bored throughout most of the day… back to dreadful classes in the morning.
Correction to an older post… the time difference is actually four hours ahead of ohio and five ahead of texas right now..
So I should probably start off with blogging about yesterday since I was a little lazy last night or well really just super tired!
We started off my sleeping in, I woke up at 7 on my own! What the heck is wrong with me!?! And I couldn’t fall back asleep so I made myself lay in bed till 1030 =) got up got ready and went to lunch. After lunch Kristi, Jackie, a girl named Lauren and I went out to the souks right outside our port in Casa. Well the port is very large.. it took us 25 minutes to walk out of it, by the time we were out I was already dripping in sweat it was disgusting. Oh and let me just tell you walking down the street smelled AWFUL! There were at least 5 different distinctly disgusting smells where we literally had to hold our breath to walk by.
We spent about 3 hours out shopping and finishing off getting all the last gifts I needed to get. And oh course a few unplanned purchases for myself! Its so hard to resist! =) also I got henna on my had and wrist and it is such a cool design!!!!!! I got it in brown because that’s the real henna but a lot of others have been getting it in black too.. after our day out we headed back to the ship, right inside the port a taxi was taking a woman to the other ship in the port by ours and offered to take us too, so we gladly took the offer and jumped in! we had to give a little something when we got out, he had told us to give him whatever we wanted. Well I was out of small money and pretty much everyone else was too. Jackie handed him 6 duram and he laughed, he didn’t really know how to react because it was such a small amount.. so kristi handed him a dollar too.
We got back on ship took some time to relax, shower off, and change into dry clothes.. yes dry aka no sweat. Then we headed to Rick’s Café for a dinner out. It was Kristi and I, Jackie, Christina and two grad students one of which that lives across the hall from us. Turns out she is from Chagrin Falls!!! And she went to BGSU!! What a small world and we are only just figuring this all out! Anyways we went to Rick’s, which is not the Rick’s that is in the movie Casablanca because that was actually filmed in the US. And the woman who opened this Rick’s was an US consulate in Morocco at one point and after her station here she decided to stay and open up the restaurant. It was gorgeous inside! So fancy!!! I had a fillet mignon with mashed potatoes and wine!! Oh My God It was just wonderful!!!!! And they gave us lots of these rolls that were so good, they had like cooked olives or something baked into the dough that was surprising really good. I ended up eating 4 rolls!!! Haha I ate sooo much but it was soooo good! We had to treat ourselves for our last night out in another country! =) we walked all the way back to the ship afterwards which was a lot better because it was cooler!
Once we got back I fell like right asleep I was so tired! All the wine wasn’t any help to that matter either.
This morning I woke up at 7 yet again but was able to get myself to fall right back asleep again thank goodness, but just for another 45 minutes till Kristi woke me up. Guess what I noticed once I was up….. my henna was like half faded away already!!!!!!! I was soooo mad!!!!! We went and got breakfast, got ready and headed back to the souks. Thank goodness the shuttle was actually running today because we were able to take that and not have to walk!! Woohoo!! Everyone had some last items they wanted and money to spend so that’s what the goal was. my goal: get more henna!!!! My one on my hand/wrist is pretty much totally faded away now and im sooooooooooooo pissed off!!! Its supposed to last for at least 3 weeks, no I did not wash it at all so it wasn’t my fault either! Well I got more henna on my angle and in black so that it will stay longer and I really like this one too she put sparkles on it, which will be off in a few days, but she like accidently spilled a ton in the middle so its like half silver half black right now! And there are sparkles allllll over the cabin now!! We came back to the ship in time to get lunch.
The sad part about this though was realizing we were walking up the gangway and checking onto the ship for the very last time. EVER! It was really depressing actually…
After lunch I spent the afternoon watching P.S I Love You for the first time and crying my eyes out! Such a good movie though! Other than that ive really been just hanging around the rest of the night. Oh we had to get our laundry situated tonight! We are in terrible need of clean non smelly clothes so its about time its our laundry day again… I stuffed my bag fullllll!!! 10 shirts, 6 tshirts, 3 sweaters, 9 tank tops, a ton of underwear, 4 bras, a pair of socks, a pair of shorts, and 4 pairs of pants later my bag is overflowing and starting to rip haha but I made it all fit that’s all that matters!!! =)
I also tried to start sorting through my drawers tonight.. I was able to throw out hardly anything.. and im really outta luck when it comes to somehow packing this all back up… its going to be terrible.. I really don’t know what to do!!!! I might end up having to give Kristi a garbage bag full of clothes to take home since shes driving back and im flying! (I think).
Question of the day:
“do we have an interport student?”
Hhahah yeah about 700 or so =) lol
Oh and fantastic news!!!!! Tomorrow for lunch is TACO DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! we’ve only had one so far at that was the day after Italy I think… im dying without my tacos!!! I cant wait!!!!! =) =)
So to end the day Kristi, steph, Cynthia and I went and watched us leave morocco.. I watched the ship pull into spain and now I watched it leave morocco and its totally crazy that we are officially now headed home. Just 10 more days on the ship before I make the final walk down the gangway! Ive been saying this whole summer how surreal it was being in each of the countries as we were there.. but the fact that we are officially at sea and making our way back to the states is even more surreal right now. Everyone told me how this was going to be a summer I never forgot. I remember on day one thinking what the hell am I doing I don’t know what made me get on this ship and this isn’t going to be what I thought.. and im not so sure its going to be an experience that is the best thing ever to happen to me… well my opinion has totally 150% changed.. I will never forget this summer, the places ive been, the people ive met, the memories ive made that really will last a life time. Im going to miss the ship and my friends and semester at sea in general 2 seconds after I get off the ship. Its going to be hard to say goodbye.
So no guesses on how I gained an hour last night? Okay guess im keeping the answer a secret then =)
It was a good thing I got that extra hour though because today was a very very very early morning 6AM! Yuck! I got to lunch at 640 which meant I was going to have 5 minutes to eat before I had to get to the bus early to try to buy a ticket for the trip I wanted on! But at lunch carol, one of the field office people, was walking around the dining room asking if anyone was wanting to sign on because there were a lot of openings so she could just do it then. So I went to Marrakesh today with Kristi and Jackie.
It was a three hour bus ride there which wasn’t too fun.. Marrakesh is one of the big, major cities in Morocco that everyone has suggested we go to. Lacey’s aunt and uncle had been there before and told her she had to had to had to go there. My tour guide yesterday said we should go to Marrakesh and the woman we talked with at the reception said we should too, so I went!
Once we got there our first stop was a botanical garden. It was really pretty and just full of vegetation. What gets me the most in all these countries has been the fact that cactus and palm tree grow hand in hand here which just seems so strange to me.. and lots of pretty flowers everywhere too, but mostly stuff we have back home too. After the garden we went to a palace and that was really cool and big! In morocco up till 1994 a man could have up to 4 wives!! But in 1994 there was a new law put into place that gives woman a lot more rights that they never used to have like equal divorce rights, and after they marry if their husband wanted to get another wife he would need the first’s permission. I learned that yesterday but im saying it now because I forgot to yesterday and this palace the man who lived there had had four wives. After the palace we went to museum and walked around that.. not a very good one though I must saw.. it was kinda random actually.. I learned something though that I think should totally come into use in the united states. Men are the ones in morocco who traditionally carried the purse that held everything not a woman.. idk I think that would be nice =) don’t you agree sean?! But what made it even better is the bags they had in the display were like bags I would like now! Haha
After the museum it was finally time for lunch! By this point my stomach was growling! We had an interesting appetizer but I surprisingly liked it. it was cucumbers, and some type of cooked and seasoned sweet potato or carrot and then some other thing that people were saying was eggplant but I really have no idea
Then we got cous cous with vegetables on it and meat.. I didn’t want to try to the meat because I couldn’t identify it and im still a little uncertain about eating meat here after what I saw yesterday.. well im really really glad I didn’t eat the meat… we were given one big plate of it all to feed our table so we just had to keep spooning portions on our plates.. well towards the end Kristi went to go get more meat and she thought it was a little hard.. she flips it over on her plate and kinda freaks out a little.. she thought it was an eye!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then of course the 2 guys at our table really wanted to check it out.. it was really round.. they don’t think it was an eye because it was too hard so the final thought was a joint but it was really really gross and freaked me out a lot!!!!! Kristi and I left from lunch early, we skipped desert so that we would have more free time.. after lunch was all free time for like an hour and a half to two hours to go shop around the market that we were at. Well that was a lot of fun got some really good things! We were shopping for these fun leather shoes that we each got and Kristi had started bargaining a price and was asking about 2 pairs.. well I thought she was saying she was getting 2 pairs so then I started jumping in saying id get a pair, but somehow Kristi missed the fact that he was starting to come up with a price for 3 pairs.. well basically long story short she had been talking about the pair I was going to get not 2 for her.. so when she told him she was getting one he got REAL pissed at her and started pretty much yelling at her… and I was trying to take my money back and just leave because he was being rude but he wouldn’t let me and was like no I get you your change and you take them and eventually he did and took kristis money for one pair but was just mean and last comment he said to Kristi was “that’s just really bad business, that’s bad business” really nasty like.. but oh well we got our shoes and they are cool =) then I had to go to the atm.. we passed snake charmers!!!! Crazy! And some woman was trying to get me to get henna we kept walking, she followed, she kept talking, we ignored her and kept walking, she grabbed my hand and tried to start going at it and I had to yank my hand away and walk off and I had some dots of henna on my fingers I had to try to get off so that it wouldn’t set in… it was just really annoying… I bought some really cute jewelry for really good prices!!! And some other gifts… less than 50 dollars for sure!
At four we had to meet back up and go back to the buses for the trip home. While walking to the bus these two young young boys came up to all of us with fans and were fanning us off and trying to sell them to us.. well Kristi caved and gave the youngest one that was next to her a dollar a us dollar.. and she wasn’t given a fan but we kept walking and they kept walking and following us and the kid kept saying something to her… but finally he got mad and stopped and said FUCK YOU and turned and went the other direction.. Basically Kristi gave a four year old a dollar didn’t get a fan and then was told fuck you… real nice huh…
We got back to the ship at 745 which was 45 minutes past the scheduled time.. they held dinner for us so that was good it was PESTO! Yum! Then I talked to sean for an hour! I decided I would use my precious minutes of ship internet time (2 hours total for the entire summer) to talk to sean tonight, only 28 minutes of internet left till I get back home…
Which isn’t too too bad because we will be back in less than 2 weeks now!!! How weird is that?!?! The countdown is on.. only 12 more full days of life on a ship! Its happy and very very sad at the same time. Last night Kristi and I were out in the hall checking our emails. Our hall is the dead zone on the ship and we have to go to the hall for internet to work instead of in our rooms like everyone else.. so we call it our little internet café.. well anyways kristi and I were sitting out there and jackie rounds the corner gets to the room and goes “what am I going to do when I don’t see you two sitting in the hall everyday.. can you come to Georgetown and just sit outside of my door for me” =) it’s so true though the things we’ve gotten so used to doing and seeing is soon going to be gone for pretty much ever and its really really sad! Im so used to seeing these people so many times a day and ill be lucky when we are somehow able to visit with them in a year or something like that.. which is just really sad.. but im really excited to get home and see my family and my dogs, and my boyfriend, and move into my apartment and see my roomies and have my doggie with me.. but its just so weird at the same time… and this probably made like no sense but that’s exactly what my thoughts on all this are like… confused.
With that im going to go take a shower and sleep till whenever I decide to wake up tomorrow! Just shopping outside of the port for the day tomorrow.. and either doing dinner with a Moroccan family tomorrow night or going to Rick’s Café… probably the second…
This voyage is coming to a close SO fast! The days have been flying by recently! Today we got back to spain (kinda sorta)! We had to repass through the Straight of Gibraltar this afternoon. which means we have made the full circle of the Mediterranean Sea! So we actually didnt just pass through the straight today we were anchored there for most of the day to bunker. If you don’t know what that is don’t feel out of the loop because they kept saying it for days prior but never explained it. it means that we had another boat come up alongside of us today and refuel us. In other words we got our last round of gas today before heading back to the US!!! That’s so weird!!
Pretty low key day yet very nice at the same time. Classes like usual, crappy lunch like usual, then I laid outside reading for about an hour came inside read some more and was able to finish book number 2 for the voyage!! How impressive for me! Im on a role! Im going to try to read kristis last book before we get back too! =) after I finished reading I took a nap and woke up just in time for dinner!
Tonight was my last full family dinner! One of my moms, Deb, is leaving in Morocco. Amy my other mom is one of the professors. But deb is going to visit family in Germany and then has to get back to work. So tonight we had a pizza night!! And thank goodness because I saw tonights ship dinner and it was grosssssss. So they ordered us pizza and pop and it was yummy =) then we took family tours of the different cabins. We got to go check out deb and amy’s room with big bed, couch, fancy bathroom with tub and a balcony! Then we checked out one of the economy cabins….. thank god I wasn’t in one of those!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was literally a set of bunk beds and that’s it.. and no room at all it was sooooo small!!! Then I showed them all my 3 person, and then the family night was over..
I spent the remainder of my night updating my external hard drive, going to preport and now im getting ready to go relax and get to sleep.
So big news about tonight… its going to be intense! We are apparently going to hit some really really bad current changes in the middle of the night.. they warned us to put everything on the floor because it will be getting tossed around if its not. They said this is going to be worse than anything we’ve experienced so far…. Im a bit nervous im just glad its in the middle of the night and so hopefully I can just try to sleep through most of it… but if there are intense draw slamming we will see what happens.. other news for the night we gain back another hour
New official time differences: ohio- 5 hours behind, texas 6 hours behind
Most of the day was pretty much classic day on the ship event worthy. Breakfast on the deck, classes, reading while laying out, and then spending the rest of the night writing the big Global Studies paper! We signed up for our dinner slot for the Ambassador’s Ball. My dinner table will be me, Kristi, steph, Cynthia, Jackie and Christina. I’m really excited for it! best of all though is we should be getting really really good food… or at least the options that we had to pick from sounded good! I went for the fillet mignon im hoping it turns out much better than any other ship meat so far!!!
The highlight of today however was not writing my paper or signing up for dinner table but the Crew Talent Show! The crew are not allowed on our floors unless they are working so we really hardly get to interact with many of them.. really only our cabin steward and the dining staff. Well today was crew appreciation day. So in honor of it Lacey, Kristi and I all made our beds (or at least attempted to) so that Shane didn’t have to today. I think Lacey’s turned out the best.. mine was a little bumpy and lumpy throughout but in my defense I do have the bunked bed! Shane commented on our bed making skills when I passed him in the hall today and he said while laughing of course, that he saw we tried to make our beds today and it was a good thing they weren’t too good otherwise he might be out of a job. Thank you shane… haha.. but let me tell you what these beds are not easy to make! So I really appreciate how well he makes them every day for us! So anyways tonight is the chance that they get to have a little out of work fun with us by putting on their own talent show. It was very entertaining! Lots of singing and some really good solos and the best of all though was the dancing!!! Also I would just like to point out that the crew can really clean up nice!! =)
Mkkkk I really think that’s it.. sea days are nice short blog writing days!!!!
Test day means all I did was study..
To start out my day however my alarm for some reason didn’t go off so I woke up on my own at 815 and decided to just not go to Spanish… went to global studies… but on the way back from it I got sick.. literally.. and so I slept during global music. I woke up for lunch… and ate nothing.. only 4th of a toasted peanut butter.. and then studied all afternoon. Tried to study outside for awhile but I was sitting by really annoying girls so that didn’t last long and I just went back to my cabin to study instead.. dinner sucked too.. I ate 2 rolls and 2 oranges.. =/ after dinner Kristi and I studied more and questioned each other. This was actually a really good thing because the things we questioned each other were actual questions on the test so that was good! Eight o’clock was test time.. it went alright.. about as good as I expected it to go im thinking high c low b… perhaps.. not really sure.. but a grade to keep me passing the class at least which is what is important! I have a family movie night with my doctors family at 9 which is in like 15 minutes.. and that is my day.
Last night at the talent show the opening act was HILARIOUS!! It was our deans who are both older, have white beards, white receding hair, a little bit a tummy well they dressed up in sloppy suits and lip sang to I’m On A Boat and it was just priceless! There was lots of singing and piano playing and guitar playing, and some other stuff but it was all enjoyable!
There wasn’t a question or comment of the day today but one I think I forgot to write here was said in Egypt
SASer: I need someone who speaks the language
Egyptian: I speak Arabic
SASer: No I need someone who speaks Egyptian
Not much going on today again, I was able to make it to all my classes though! The water is a lot calmer today so no sea sickness feelings for me! =) food is sucking more and more and we still have a couple more weeks of it =/ im glad I made myself save so many snacks because now it’s a little easier for me to enjoy them and find food for the day! I took another small nap today and read for my global studies exam tomorrow and attempted to start to study. Tonight is the talent show and that’s about to start and is scheduled to go till 10 then it will be shower and bed time.
GREAT NEWS!!! Tonight we set our clocks back one hour!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wooohooooo more sleep!
Ohio= 6 hours behind us now
Texas= 7 hours behind us now
17 days till we are in Virginia!
question of the day:
"were there any cows in egypt because i just saw cattle"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MYKAELA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe it!! today is Mykaela’s 5th birthday!!!!!!!!!! How exciting is that!? Im really sad im not home to celebrate with everyone though! =( it is the first birthday ive missed of hers… im missing everyones this summer… I never realized that my whole family has summer bdays except heather…
I woke up early had a very peaceful and relaxing breakfast out on the deck again and then went to Spanish. Next was global studies but I only lasted 5 minutes in there before I had to go take sea sick meds because I was not feeling well at all.. in fact this was the first time ive felt literally sea sick where I thought I was going to throw up… thank goodness I didn’t though.. but instead of returning to class I decided it was best to lay down and sleep for a little.. I was able to wake up and go to music though so that’s good. We got our tests and papers back in here..
I don’t think I ever posted my global studies exam results yet…. I got a 100% on the map quiz of course because im just that good =) yes sean I got it all right!! Be proud! Then on the midterm #1 I ended up with a 87%... the midterm exam for my music exam I got back today was a 92% and my paper was a B+ not bad not bad on my grades so far! And all I have to do is pass, but im still doing good! All I have to do is worry about Spanish BIG TIME! Yikes
So after that all ive done today is eat sleep a lot more, eat, then read for global studies (our midterm #2 is the day after tomorrow), did my Spanish homework and now im going to go attempt to read some more for global studies.
The highlight of the day however is that it is Mykaela’s birthday, I wish I was able to video on the ship so I could tell her myself though!
dont forget to read my blog on yesterdays sea olympics!! i just posted that one too!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MYKAELA
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
I cannot believe it!! today is Mykaela’s 5th birthday!!!!!!!!!! How exciting is that!? Im really sad im not home to celebrate with everyone though! =( it is the first birthday ive missed of hers… im missing everyones this summer… I never realized that my whole family has summer bdays except heather…
I woke up early had a very peaceful and relaxing breakfast out on the deck again and then went to Spanish. Next was global studies but I only lasted 5 minutes in there before I had to go take sea sick meds because I was not feeling well at all.. in fact this was the first time ive felt literally sea sick where I thought I was going to throw up… thank goodness I didn’t though.. but instead of returning to class I decided it was best to lay down and sleep for a little.. I was able to wake up and go to music though so that’s good. We got our tests and papers back in here..
I don’t think I ever posted my global studies exam results yet…. I got a 100% on the map quiz of course because im just that good =) yes sean I got it all right!! Be proud! Then on the midterm #1 I ended up with a 87%... the midterm exam for my music exam I got back today was a 92% and my paper was a B+ not bad not bad on my grades so far! And all I have to do is pass, but im still doing good! All I have to do is worry about Spanish BIG TIME! Yikes
So after that all ive done today is eat sleep a lot more, eat, then read for global studies (our midterm #2 is the day after tomorrow), did my Spanish homework and now im going to go attempt to read some more for global studies.
The highlight of the day however is that it is Mykaela’s birthday, I wish I was able to video on the ship so I could tell her myself though!
Today was THE BEST at sea day EVER!!!! It was the SEA OLYMPICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I never expected it to be so much fun but it really really was. So last night at the sea meeting after it I had met with the synchro group and they said they wanted to meet in the morning at breakfast and then go work on it.. so I woke up early and went to have breakfast at 815 with them all dressed and ready to go practice. Well I get to breakfast and I couldn’t find anyone, it didn’t help that I forgot what they looked like bc the weren’t girls ive really met before. So I ended up eating with my moms and sisters Jackie and Danielle. At 830 I headed up to the pool deck figuring I would just see them up there… I sat there till 850 with no one showing up and watching 3 other teams hard at work.. and we still didn’t have a song picked out! So I went back downstairs and knocked on meredith’s door (the only girl I remembered the name of) and what does she do… she comes out half asleep because I just woke her up!!! Then the other 2 were still asleep too! I was so pissed! Well Meredith went and was talking to the other two and supposedly they both “didn’t feel well” basically they just didn’t want to do it.. well we had to have 4 people on the team to be able to do it… I was able to convince Christina to do it after a long battle =P and then a girl who was innocently walking down the hall I got to bad it on too, Shelby!!! Well thank goodness last night I had found at least one sound that could work so that was it that was the song we used “Love Today” by Mika.. and during my 20 minutes of sitting and waiting at the pool deck I was able to start coming up with a routine so we just went with that too.. once we were finally all up at the pool it took us about an hour to come up with the whole routine and practice and get it down before we had to go change into all our green wear for the opening ceremonies!
Opening ceremonies consisted of the kids bringing in the “torch” the parade of flags, and then the chant competition. This is where each sea had to present their chant to the rest of the ship community.. ours went like this:
Girls- my green
Guys- my swag
Girls- you want my sea
Guys- and my crabs
All: BERING SEA
Caller- what do we have
All- we got crabs
Caller- what are we going to do
All- give you crabs, give you crabs, give you crabs
the bering sea is where the show the deadliest catch takes place, where they do all the crab fishing.. so our sea’s mascot became the crab… oh in the morning Cynthia and steph had spread out crabs ALL over the ship you could not miss them! One of Lacey’s friends came to get her for breakfast in the morning and when Lacey had opened the door Mindy very sleepy said “there are crabs all over the ship, they are taking over” it was great =) anyways back to the opening ceremonies.. next the dean of students gave an opening speech and then the captain gave a speech as well and declared the games officially open (after lunch of course). So when the opening ceremony was over it was lunch time then at 1 the games began! First I went and watched Christina do the Chinese Ice Cube Scramble and the pull ups competition that were both on the 7th deck aft (pool deck). At 130 jackie and Kristi had donut on a string, which ended up really being bagel on a string. They placed 2nd!!! Woohoo.. they owe it all to the guy on their team though because he made good time taking done his half a bagel in no more than 5 bites! Then it was time to head back to the pool deck for synchronized swimming at 215.. our team met back up at 2 though to go through the routine just a couple more times! We decided we wanted to go second and it was a good thing we did… it was sooooo much fun though!!!! We couldn’t hear when the music started though so we were off at first but were able to figure it out. I had someone tape the whole thing on my camera so I would have it and I have a couple other videos off it too from other views! We got a lot of cheering while we were doing it, which was the opposite of the group in front of us because well honestly they weren’t that good… the teams that followed us had some good some bad.. Many teams did jumps into the water which was stated as not allowed in the rules and would be a deduction of points and one sea just had one girl… you were supposed to have at least 4 and no more than 6. However, she hardly did a synchronized swim but more of a lap dance to the one male professor who was judging… highly uncalled for!!! the ones that we thought we had competition against were the yellow team, the orange team (which was comprised of 6 guys doing a dance to all the single ladies), and the diploma sea (the faculty/staff/kids team). They didn’t announce results right away though so we were nervous for awhile how we did… they did however announce the rankings right after synchro of all the other stuff (not including the swimming) and bering sea was tied with the diploma sea in last place!!! =( NOOO!!! Hopefully we at least placed in the swimming to try and gain us some points and the same with lip singing later! after synchro I went and changed and met Jackie and Kristi to watch the relay race but that was running behind so we went back to the pool deck instead to watch the mystery challenge.. this ended up being a “beauty pageant.” This was not your typical beauty pageant though.. the teams consisted of 6 girls and 1 guy for each sea.. they had 9 minutes to go back to their rooms and dress the guy up in the best drag the could. Then the guys had to do their best run way walk around the pool and then state: their name, where they are from and their hobby. the best was watching their walks though.. some were in heals which was funny, its nice to watch guys struggle in heals I like to think it makes them have a higher appreciation for girls that do it. also some did some nice dances during their walks a few belly dancers, and tom (the voice) he did it for diploma sea.. and well his dances were interesting… they are on video I cant describe them you just have to watch them!
After the mystery challenge there was a little break before dinner to relax and regroup. Right before we headed up to dinner the voice gave an announcement on the updated standings. He announced the scores for synchronized swimming.. there was a tie for 3rd, then the 2nd.. but we weren’t either of those.. Kristi and I were in the cabin and looked at each other like crap we didn’t get anything… but then he announced first place and guess what!!!! WE WON FIRST PLACE IN SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)) =)) can you believe it!?!? I was ecstatic! I mean im going to be real here… im the one who put that whole thing together! And only in an hour that morning! I was sooooo proud!!! I was freaking out and then I heard Jackie, Christina, and mesha screaming next store so we ran out in the hall jumping all over the place really excited =) we were too busy being happy about that we didn’t hear the rest of what tom was saying so after we calmed down we went to his office to ask him to repeat to us what he said since we were too busy celebrating =) well turns out we jumped from tied in 10th (there are 11 seas total) to being in 7th place, not bad not bad! So with all our happy news we headed off to dinner.
We got a BARBEQUE!!! For dinner again!!!! Wooohooooo!!! This means it was hamburger night (just in case you forgot that from last time). Kristi, Jackie, Christina and I ate outside on the 6th deck, very barbeque like =) after this there was a little more down time before it was time to head to the union to get good seats for the lip singing competition, the final competition of the day! Ummm… the bering sea kicked butt on this!!!! The first sea to go did “its raining men” an ode to the gender ratios on the ship =) ha it was good.. the other teams did some mixes of songs but had no real theme to them… then the bering sea went! Theirs was a mix of songs that went with every country we’ve been too, and they set up a scene for each one to highlight just a few of the 16 members at a time. They did a whole new world first, then for spain it was bailamos, Italy was its amore (I think that’s the name of it), then Croatia was fuego (I guess this was played in the clubs a lot?) then Greece was stereo love (again a club thing), turkey was the Turkish delight song, egypt was walk like an Egyptian, morocco was belly dancer, and then they played party in the usa and a clip of nsync “bye bye bye, bye bye” to end it off. It was great and I have a couple different videos of the whole thing! And the ones of my swimming!!!!!
So after all the seas went there was some stalling that was done while scores were tallied and the official results. First came lip singing results.. not third, not second, but FIRST PLACE GOES TO BERING SEA!!!!! Woohoooo =) I knew it all along though =) then they did over all results…. 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5th place bering sea! Not bad seeing as in the beginning we were in last! Over all the caribbean sea took 1st and that means that once we hit Virginia and the ship is cleared they are the first off. Which is actually okay because I wouldn’t actually want to be the first ones off… but I just also don’t want to be last… I don’t know how the rest of the order ends up but im hoping we get off somewhere in the middle!
So that’s the end of an AMAZING DAY! Sea Olympics was by far the BEST day at sea ever and I had soooooooo soooooooo soooooooooooo much fun!!! And I got first in swimming!! =) =) =)
In reality this all happened yesterday august first so today is now the second but im going to post a separate blog for it because it is a very special day today!
today was another interesting day
started off by sleeping in and waking up and just reading in bed for awhile relaxing.. finally decided to get up and get ready and was done by 1030.. lacey her friends heather and daniel and i went out to the stores that are like right off the ship and within the port limits to try and spend the rest of my european pounds. i was able to by myself a tunic that is white and has silver stitching i like it and im really glad i was able to find one i liked.. although the one i really really wanted was white with white stitching but no one had it in my size and in short sleeve so i went with the silver.. i also bought two other things as gifts.. the guy i bought these from didnt like my knowledge of one of the items and my toughness in bargaining =) after i finally got my way and payed he turned to daniel (they had been to this guy a few times and he remembered them) well he turned to daniel and goes "next time you come alone.. dont bring her she is tough!" ahahhahahhahahah go me =)
so we went back on the ship and got lunch then i had about an hour to kill so i updated my list of things ive bought everywhere and made a list of what i got for everyone so far and what i still need to get and... well let me just put this out here ahead of time you boys are real hard to shop for everywhere!!!! im trying but my options are limited! so i hope you all like and appreciate everything i have gotten... i guess we will find out in a few weeks huh!
so at 130 the trip to the orphanage left and i went. on the way there the tour guide was telling us about the place and some different laws that are related and throughout egypt.. there is no adoption in egypt so all kids in the orphanage are there until they get married or in public orphanages there until they turn 21. the orphanage we visited was a private one owned by a "rich" couple and there were about 35 kids in it... the guide said they decided to open it and treat the kids as if they were their own even though they cant adopt them... she said that they get the best of food and treatment in egypt and they go to private school as well... but what i was anticipating after that and what i saw were two different things.. more general information though before i explain about my actual time there.. there are a few ways that a child becomes an orphan.. either by being a "street child" or their parents getting in an accident of some sort that kills them and sometimes when the parents really really really cant take care of them.. the unusual way though that you become an orphan however is when you dont have 2 parents.. and this was really surprising to me.. if you are a woman and you get pregnant without being married you are not allowed to keep your child they instantly go to an orphanage.. you are not able to give them a "name" when you are a woman... meaning the last name... and even if you were for some reason able to keep your child you would be completely shunned in your community and from your family.. you would not be able to get a job, stay in your apartment or family home, or anything! really different from back home... Egyptians (which really means the Muslims) live with their families until they are married.. and marriages are many times still arranged.. although some are selected on your own.. there is no dating allowed, you do not have a boyfriend, it is not allowed.. if you select your own spouse the guide said you only see/meet up with them like 3 or 4 times before saying yes we are going to marry.. then they have a year long engagement where they are able to get to know each other better.. divorce is allowed for Muslims in Egypt but the Christians here which was interesting too.
So when we got to the orphanage and walked inside we had to walk up a few flights before getting to the room where the kids were.. the young kids were all lined up against the wall and the first few sasers in were able to plop down in front of them and play with them.. but then rest of us were kind of left hanging… after like 10 minutes a few more older kids showed up but overall known of them were all to interested in hanging out with you… if you didn’t have anything fun to do they didn’t give you a second glance.. if you had something fun they would come up to you take it from you and then walk away leaving you stranded there by yourself and now joining the crew of people with nothing fun to do… this happened to me.. so after awhile I ended up sitting in one corner and started talking to one of the girls who was working.. there were a bunch of workers around too, I believe I was told there were 10 there.. well one little boy, sammy, came over to show this girl this picture he made which was just a bunch of foam animal stickers on a piece of paper.. (all anyone brought this time was craft stuff, which is good since we were inside). The girl started pointing to each animal and having the boy say the name of it in english, I was really impressed he was real good! There was even a hippo! And both the little boy and the girl working said hippo and looked at me to confirm it was right and I said yea.. but really its hippopotamus and they both tried to say it, it was cool. Then she had him tell me his name and ask me what mine was. Later I asked her hers and its Hema. Then she wrote my name in Arabic for me.. and then my last name too!!! Sooo cool. Did you know they write from right to left, not left to right?! After this I just started talking with hema a lot! Soon after we were given the option to either go upstairs and talk with the owners or stay and play some more. At this point I was really wrapped into talking with hema so stayed and 3 others ended up staying too and joining us in the corner, and 3 other workers joined us too. It was just really neat to get to talk to them and compare and contrast some differences from the US and Egypt. I also learned some words in Arabic! I learned how to say hello, my name is, and elephant (it was one of the animals on the paper.. she named them all its just the only one I could actually say and remember!) =) it was a lot of fun! After this we headed back to the ship and we were there for the night because on ship time was once again 6.
At 930 we had another sea meeting, it was our last chance to get ready and prepared for today!!! After the meeting I somehow managed to get myself very involved in the making of our sea banner…. So I was up working on that for at least an hour.. then when we finally finished we took it into the room where the lip singing group was practicing because that’s where our sea captains were at.. everyone loved it!! so we sat down and decided we wanted to see their routine and how it was coming along.. they had a lot of cool idea but mesha and I sitting there watching them were able to tell them more of what each needed to do to go along with everyone else.. and just help them clean up some of it.. we didn’t leave till 1230… I got back to my room and Kristi and lacey were already asleep.. I climbed into bed but decided I should really listen to some songs and try to come up with one to use for our synchronized swimming routine that we were coming up with in the morning.. I went through 250 songs… I came up with love today by mika… and figured that was good enough as an idea for the night and id see what the others came up with in the morning so at 130 I was finally able to go to sleep for the night!
