Hawai'i!

Hawaii was a great end to our trip. I wish we had more than a day there, but I think we have gotten really good at doing everything we want to do in a short amount of time. We started the day early since we had an SAS trip we got to get off the ship first. We went to Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial which was really interesting to see since on our last day in Japan we had been at Hiroshima. I wonder if the museum seemed as biased to other people as the Vietnam war museum did to us. The weirdest part for me was the reverse culture shock that I didn’t expect. There were Americans everywhere! For the past 100 days if I heard an American accent I knew that the person was probably with SAS. If they weren’t, we at least had a connecting point and usually started some sort of conversation. My favorite story of that was the bartender in Cambodia, I think he was from like Iowa or something. Anyway, it was really very weird to see all these people. Also, we were able to use American dollars in the store and actually get change back! And the ATM gave out dollars, and there were brands of snacks we knew. It was all a really weird experience. By the ATMs and vending machines some guy asked us for money and we just looked at him. Then he said “haven’t you seen that commercial?” and we all just started laughing. No! We haven’t! Add to that the fact that beggars have been a very real part of our lives for the last 3 and a half months, and we were just completely blown away. After we went through the memorial, we had a city tour of Honolulu. We saw the palace and the punchbowl national cemetery. When we got back from our trip, Kendall, Jeff and I went to Subway for lunch where they had... drum roll please…. FREE REFILLS!!!! That was super exciting, except the fountain that said Diet Coke was actually Dr. Pepper. I was disappointed. We were in a little shopping area, and the bathrooms had….. TOILETS!! and……. TOILET PAPER!!! This was an amazing afternoon. We were shopping a bit when we ran into Jen, one of our ship sisters. We all decided to go to Waikiki, which was supposed to be close. So after we walked for a really long time, we got to another beach and decided to hang out there. It was cool because it was much more of a local beach with people bringing their kids and surfing, not a bunch of girls laying in their bikinis. The picture above is of the Aloha I made in shells while we were sitting there. We played around a bit there and walked some more, then we found a mall with Taco Bell for dinner, yummy! Then we introduced Jen to the wonders of Dippin’ Dots. I never knew all of the things I would miss until I left, and I still didn’t think of things like Dippin’ Dots until I got home. Then we took the bus to an International Market where we met up with one of the professors and his family, and then did some really fast last minute shopping before heading back to the ship. By the way, there is one purse that I almost bought in Malaysia, and then I saw it again in China and thought it was good I hadn’t bought it since it wasn’t really that special, and I saw it again in Hawaii. I really want to come back someday, btu I'm very happy with the day I had there! This is Jen, Me, and Kendall a little after sunset on Waikiki beach.

Last night was had a meeting about what its going to be like getting off the ship and going home. It was kind of funny because they did it like they do meetings about what to expect in each port. They told us what the top 3 movies are and none of us had ever heard of them (except Spiderman 3). We also got to reflect a little bit on the voyage. I am really excited to get home, but at the same time I am a little bit scared. Luckily I have an amazing support system, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead!

SOS Auction/ Ambassador's Ball

The two big events that happen at then end of the voyage took place in the last couple of days. First we had the Students of Service Auction which I have been working on for the last month or so. Kendall put a ton of time and effort into it, but we all met and worked on preparing for it. We had a raffle for certain items (I won a stuffed ship and a pilates circle), a silent auction (a basket of my Ukranian eggs went for $45!), and a live auction. During the live auction one of the items up for bidding was to pie the academic dean in the face, but for some reason we had an apple pie instead of a cream pie. Dr. Matt ended up winning, and as "Vana White" for the evening, I held the plate while he took the pie and rubbed it in Dean Mike's face. With what was left over, he got me, it took me a long time to get the goo out of my hair, but it was really fun. We raised a lot of money, I'm not sure about the total but I think it came out close to $20,000. One girl payed almost $1000 to get off the ship second in San Diego.
The Ambassador's ball was kind of cool, but not as great as I'd hoped. The dinner was different from what we normally have, but it wasn't that great. The cool part was dessert. There was a giant chocolate Taj Mahal, some really cool carvings in watermelons, and various other cool things. I didn't get to eat any of it though, by the time I got up to the deck it was way too crowded and I decided just to go back to my room and hang out rather than fighting to get one cream puff or something like I heard a lot of people did.
Today was our last Global Studies exam, which is pretty exciting. I think I did pretty well, but I'm not sure if I got the 96 I needed to get an A in the class. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Tomorrow we're in Hawai'i!!

Japan- Part Dos

Yes, I still love Japan! Aside from everything being really expensive, it is an incredible place. The things that I have seen and done in the last few days have been so great. First of all, my sister says I forgot to talk about the internet cafe really. They are huge here! Right now I am in booth 60 of who knows how many. They also have vending machines with free drinks of almost every kind of soda or coffee you can imagine. If you want, you could buy a beer instead. The seats are super comfy and if you want to pay more you can have a reclining massage chair or a sofa with a flat screen monitor. There are balnkets, showers, toilets with heated seats, and even a tanning booth! You really could live here if you wanted to only eat the ramen noodles or other junk food that they sell. On our last day in Kyoto, we saw some temples and a geisha apprentice girl came and talked to us and danced for us, which was really cool. Then we saw the temple of 1000 buddhas which has (surprise!) 1000 buddhas. After that, Kendall and I left the group to catch our train to Tokyo. The taxi dropped us off by the station at a place where we could do a little shopping and have lunch since we still had an hour or so before we had to get on the train. When we had to cross the street people were looking at us weird because we were giggling so much because the walk signal plays this happy song while you walk across the street. We had to find a post office since thats the only place there are international ATMs, and then we could not figure out where our train was supposed to be, so we had to ask a lady at information. Finally, we figured it out and were on our way. Before we left, we had agreed to meet our friends at the exit of the Tokyo train station. In retrospect, this was possibly one of the worst ideas anyone has ever had being that there are at least 7 main exits. That was like telling someone you would meet them at the exit of Grand Central Station. Needless to say, we didnt find them and were kind of panicking because things were starting to shut down and we didnt know where to stay. We found a Kinkos in the train station and after doing some quick internet research, reserved a hotel close to Disneyland. This was definitely not the cheapest way of doing things, but it was all we could figure out at the time. After doing that, we had to figure out which train took us to the area of Tokyo that we needed to be in. That took us a while, and it ended up being in the 4th level below ground! We finally got off the train, and found a taxi with a driver who spoke no English and didnt understand when we showed him our hotel information. We eventually got things figured out and got into our room ok. The next day we went to DISNEYLAND!!

It was one of the best days of my life. We had so much fun, it's hard to even describe. The people that worked there were so into what they did, it made the whole place just seem so real and magical. It was such a great time, and even more fun to listen to all the stories of the rides in Japanese. It started raining at about the time we were done with everything we wanted to do, and so we headed back to Tokyo to get an earlier train back to Kobe. Once we got back, we had to figure out how to take the subway to the station for our lightrail thing back to the ship. This brough tup the interesting subject of how many forms of transportation we have used on this trip. The list includes: plane, bullet train, regular train, ship, ferry, water taxi, taxi, bus, monorail, motorcycle, rickshaw, trishaw, tuk tuk, walking, tender, and a safari jeep. We almost got on a street car in Hiroshima, but we couldnt figure out how to buy tickets. The next morning, we went to visit the memorial at Hiroshima which was a really powerful experience. I was amazed at how unbiased and fair the information seemed in comparison to the very anti-American feel of the war museum we saw in Vietnam. When we got back to Kobe after that we hung out for a while and ended up at this huge store that had everything from lumber to wedding invitations. It was so fun to look around, but everything was really expensive. We had McDonald's for dinner and I tried a Teriyaki McBurger which was actually very good. Then it was time to head back to the ship. After we got back on the ship we met up with all the people we missed in Tokyo and had a great time just sitting around and talking. I haven't heard of anybody that had a bad time in Japan, everyone loved it. I can't wait to get home, but Japan was so much fun I definitely want to go back soon!

Japan (Part 1)

I LOVE JAPAN!!! I know I have said that about a lot of ports, but this has been so much fun! Everything here is so happy and smiley and fun. The people are incredible, and there is always just so much energy. On the first day, we kind of just hung out in Kobe. We met some college students at a reception we had on the ship, and later they took us out for Karaoke, which was amazing! I never thought I would be in a karoke bar in Japan singing We are the World with 4 American friends and about 6 Japanese friends. It was such a great time. We also had dinner at this place where you order from a machine by touching the picture of what you want to eat. When you insert your money, the animated waitress on the screen bows and prints a ticket. Everything here is in vending machines. Soda machines are everywhere, but so are cigarette machines, coffee machines, even machines that you can buy french fries, hot dogs, and hamburgers from! Today we went to Nara and Kyoto, which were both old capitals of Japan. We saw the oldest wooden building in the world (a pagoda), a place where deer roam around and come right up to you to be fed, and the famous geisha district including lots of places from Memoirs of a Geisha.

We had a great lunch and an incredible dinner. I forgot the name of the dish, but tonight we ate cooked beef and vegetables that were dipped in raw egg. It sounds really gross, but it actually was not so bad. We are staying at a traditional Japanese ryokan Inn, with futons and kimonos and everything. Tomorrow we are seeing the golden pagoda and some other things, then Kendall and I are meeting some friends in Tokyo. We will stay the night in a hostel, then go to Tokyo Disney the next day before going back to the ship in Kobe. The last day we might go to Hiroshima, or we might stay in Kobe, but either way it will be super fun! More on Japan later!

China

Ok, so sorry this is really late but the internet on the ship has been rediculous. I am currently in a really strange internet cafe in Japan which you will get to hear all about in my Japan posts. Unfortunately, I have no pictures with me so that will have to wait for another time. Also, if you are wondering why there are no contractions in this posting, it is because I cannot find the apostrophe on the Japanese keyboard.

China was amazing! I had a really great time, although I am now official tired of museums, temples, and other various historical sights. As soon as our ship arrived in Hong Kong, we had to leave for the airport which is sad because everyone said they loved Hong Kong. Oh well, I just have to go back some day. The airport was great though, and I have never in my life been more excited for Burger King. We also saw a random vending machine where you could buy reusable shopping bags. Pretty smart idea!

Our first stop in mainland China was Beijing. We had Peking Duck at the restaurant that supposedly invented it. I think that lots of places say that though, so who knows for sure. They sure were into their duck though! Every dish we had contained duck and all of the decorations were ducks. We walked around Tian-an-men (that is how the Chinese spell it) Square both at night and during the day. There were so many people there! The weird thing was how many asian people wanted to take pictures with us, I felt like a celebrity. We also got to see the Forbidden City, which was HUGE and the Summer Palace of some emperor. Of course, the Great Wall was really cool, because I really did not think I would ever be there in my life. I climbed the first part of the area we were at, but it was really steep and so I did not make it all the way to the top of the hill.

The second city we got to in China was Xian, which actually has an apostrophe between the i and the a, but we already addressed that issue. I really enjoyed our time here, especially at the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum. It is the underground clay army of an emperor that was discovered in 1972 by some farmers digging a well. There are over 8000 life sized soldiers standing in battle formation. We also saw another museum that was the tomb of a later emperor who did not have as much money and so it was an army of smaller soldiers. Later in a market we met some Chinese students majoring in English and walked around with them. They were so cute, and so happy to talk with us. I felt bad because they knew so much about American movies and music, but all I could think of that was Chinese was Kung-Fu movies. They were super nice though and Kendall got their e-mails, so I hope we can stay in touch.

On the last day we met the ship in Qingdao and explored the city a little bit. We went to a small place for lunch where we just had to point at things we wanted to eat, and we never really found out what some of them were, but for all four of us to eat and have drinks, it was less than $8. We also found a really cute cafe/bar with a really nice waitress. She told us that we could borrow DVDs for free if we brought them back, but when we told her we were leaving for Japan, she got really sad and told us that she wanted us to come back and visit. She even gave us little pins with the name of the place as gifts. We had a pretty fun time, except for when it came time to get back on the ship. The taxis could not drive into the port area and had to drop us off like a mile away from the ship from where we had to walk through places that would be illeagal to be in without hardhats in the States. Overall though, good times in China!

Vietnam/Cambodia

I love Vietnam! I love Cambodia! The few days we spent in port at Vietnam were some of the most interesting and fun of my life. I didn’t have a lot of time to spend in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), but the time I was there I had so much fun. I got a beautiful traditional Vietnamese outfit tailored for me, and it fits me so well. It is a gorgeous deep red silk top with satiny white pants. I also visited a school for deaf children and children with Down’s syndrome. The kids were so cute. We played with play-doh and colored in books. I also showed them a game that we play at Girl Scout camp. Yay for counselor skills! The older class wanted to show us a dance that they do, and when we watched them, it turned out to be the Macarena! They were really excited that we knew it and did it with them. A lot of the children at the school get mainstreamed and go to high school, but those with the most severe hearing loss who cannot communicate very well at all end up getting job training at the school. I bought some embroidery that was made by the kids. Here are some of the kids.

In Cambodia, I was amazed by what I saw. The area where we were staying around Angkor Wat was really highly developed with a huge number of hotels. My favorite temple was called Angkor Tom. It’s also called the jungle temple because the temple was so engulfed by the trees and roots in the jungle.

It was so cool, it reminded me a lot of Indiana Jones. Angkor Wat was huge and beautiful in its own way. It was very interesting to see how it had been built as a Hindu temple to Vishnu, but then the Buddhists took it over. Most people think that Angkor had been lost for a long time, but to the Cambodians it has never been lost. The area had been vacated due to Siamese invasions, but they always knew it was there. We also saw a floating village. The playground of the school was like a big floating cage. It was really cool to see. The people around the lake build their houses out of bamboo so that they can easily pick them up to move them when the seasons change. The lake grows about 3 times its dry season size during the rainy season. I'm sure there's lots more that I can't think of right now because we're going to be in Hong Kong tomorrow and I have a huge trip all through China leaving in the morning. Great Wall, here I come!

Malaysia

Malaysia was the perfect place to stop after India! It brought me just enough back into my comfort zone to let me relax a little bit, but it was still different enough for me to realize that Asia is something completely different from anywhere I’ve been before. I found some beautiful clothes there, I swear Malaysian designers make clothes just for me. The night we got into Kuala Lumpur we saw a cultural show with our dinner. The Malaysians sure love their bananas! There was banana bread, baked bananas, banana pudding, and some other random banana things. During the show we saw traditional Malay, Chinese, and Indian (the 3 main cultures in Malaysia) dances. Here is a picture of the one of the Chinese dancers.

We also got to see the Petronas Towers which were the tallest towers in the world when they were built. They are 88 stories high because in Chinese culture, 8 is a lucky number and about 26% of the Malaysian population is of Chinese descent. That also means there was delicious Chinese food there. Too bad we ate it so much though, I’m already sick of Chinese and we aren’t even in China yet! On the first day we went to an enormous shopping mall and had Pizza Hut for lunch. That’s the third port in a row where I’ve had Pizza Hut, and it has been good every time. It’s not that I’m not willing to try the local food, but I can only eat so much rice. That seems to be the staple both in India and Malaysia and I don’t see it changing much as we enter Asia. Malaysia has a really large Muslim population, so in our hotel there was an arrow pointing toward Mecca so people know which way to pray. Our guide was this adorable Chinese man who was a retired high school teacher. He had the perfect mix of telling us what things were without being obnoxious and talking too much about nothing. We visited the national history museum and the national monument. At the monument some Malaysian girls on a field trip asked if they could take pictures with some of the American boys. They were so giddy, it was really cute.

We also stopped at the KL Tower which is an amazing place to view Kuala Lumpur from. It was built to help with Cell phone reception, but the Malaysians realized that tourists would pay to go up it, which was true. We are in Vietnam in on Monday morning (Sunday evening for the US) and I have a visit to a school for disabled children and then my big trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. I’m really excited!