last day...

Today is the last day on the ship. It is strange because this place felt like home so fast and everyone bonded so quickly and got so close. I don't like to think that we're going to be scattered around the country (and stay in the same country for more than a week?!?) when we get back...

On the bright side prom... cough cough... i mean Ambassador's ball was last night. It was a lot of fun to see everyone all dressed up! The crew went all out and served us champagne, had a fancy dinner (complete with butter knives! where have those been hiding?), and made huge chocolate sculptures. Two nights ago was the talent show and me and my friends (Bridget, Georgina, Taryn, Lexi, Jill, and Allison) did a dance that copied one of the dances the crew did during their talent show. It was a lot of fun! We went first too so afterward we got to watch the rest of the show (which was awesome! Dean Michael sang us a lullaby! Didn't expect that...).

Alrighty. I'm off to get some sleep so that i can pack (ew), run around and take pictures of anything and/or everything, say goodbye to people i probably won't see tomorrow (sob), and steal people's pictures (yay external hardrive!!)

All done!

No more classes for me!! (at least for another 21 days...)

Morocco! ...last country : (

Whew! I finally got around to writing about Morocco…

Day 1:
Morocco started off nice by my dock time being taken back because they realized that the Prime Minister of Egypt speaking at the Alexandria library wasn’t exactly within my control.

After breakfast and waiting around for passport distribution (you needed one if you were going to leave Casablanca… aka everyone) me, Taryn, and Georgina went off to see the town. We started by going to the train station to check the train times to Marrakech. After the ridiculously long walk (there is a shuttle but they were on their lunch break) we grabbed a petit taxi and got overcharged for a short ride to Casa Voyager (the train station). After waiting in line I attempted to use my rusty French to ask what time the trains left for Marrakech and the guy got a little frustrated when I couldn’t understand his accent and finally wrote down the times for us. After that we got a much cheaper taxi to the souk (same thing as a bazaar). The souk was pretty cool but nowhere near as awesome as Istanbul. It could have been that it was only the middle of the day and it was a Sunday. We walked around for a while and saw lots of wooden carvings and boxes and lots of leather. We walked up to one vendor to look at some boxes and he asked if we had ever seen a magic box. When we said no he handed each of us a box and told us to try to open it, shook it, and told us the key was inside. 10 minutes later he finally showed us how to open the boxes! We each bought one : )

After looking at the magic boxes we walked around some more and ended up walking through a food market on the way out. It was rough to walk through all that appetizing looking fruit when the ship has been running kind of low and a lot of the fruit I hadn’t had since America but we couldn’t eat it because it wasn’t safe to eat. After we got back to the regular streets Georgina wasn’t feeling well so she caught a petit taxi back to the ship and me and Taryn went to find the mosque. We had to stop and ask for directions a couple of times and by then my French was starting to come back to me. The last guy we asked for directions ended up walking with us and telling us his life story, including how he is from Norway but has also lived in a couple other countries and is now a YouTube star. Don’t worry… he wrote down the name of his video so that when we finally get some internet we can look him up.

We eventually found the mosque and it was GORGEOUS! It’s the 3rd largest mosque in the world and after seeing that one I want to go find the other 2 that are bigger. We walked down a street that had run down, drab, dirty buildings on one side and a beautiful building that was part of the mosque on the other side. We eventually reached a big courtyard with a beautiful view of the ocean, city, and mosque. Next to the courtyard there was a sea wall (thank you oceanography) that was packed with people sitting around eating snacks and watching a bunch of adolescent boys jumping off a ledge into the ocean. If I had a suit and wasn’t in an Islamic country I might have joined them. Instead we walked back to the mosque and attempted to get in but it was closed for the day so we walked around a little bit more and made our way back to the ship.

We finished packing really quickly and went to get dinner and wait for Ashley and Bridget to get back from their trip so we could go to Marrakech. They got back really late so we missed the 6:15 train we were going to try to make but as we were sitting there eating dinner someone informed us that it was actually at 6:50 so we scarfed the rest of our food and headed out to go to the train station. Me, Georgina, and Bridget took one taxi and Ashley and Taryn took the other one. The cab driver only spoke French so me and Georgina told him that we wanted to go to the train station. After a little while I realized that we were going in a different direction than that morning when me and Taryn had gone and I said that I though we were going to the wrong place but Bridget said that there was probably more than one way there so we didn’t say anything. Eventually the cab driver pulled up at a really fancy hotel and said “Twin Hotel?”. He thought that that was where we wanted to go. After saying train, making choo choo noises and pointing to the green sheet he finally understood and took us to the train station. Shockingly enough we actually got there before Ashley and Taryn so we got our tickets and waited for them. They finally got there and got their tickets and we went to the platform to wait.

While waiting on the platform a Moroccan guy struck up a conversation with us and told us that yes we were on the right platform and yes Moroccan trains are normally late. His friend didn’t speak English so he just awkwardly stood there the whole time. At one point it came up that I like to dance and he mentioned that he watches “that American dancing show” and I asked So You Think You Can Dance? And he said “yeah, that one lady that screams a lot is annoying!” That cracked me up and made me think of home.

Finally after about 30 minutes the train came and we rushed to get seats and even though we were some of the first on the train we still ended up standing in the hall. The train look like harry potter only not as great (especially since I couldn’t figure out how to open the window and the guys behind us were smoking). After a little while we got to the next stop and someone in the compartment stood up to leave and the smoking guys behind me let me sit down (how nice of them!). I sat and listened to music and after a little while Georgina and Taryn joined me in the compartment and told me that Ashley and Bridget were in the other compartment. After a long time Bridget came over and said that there was room for us in the other one and we went over and all sat on the same bench which was clearly not made for 5 people. Finally at about 11:00 we made it to the train station.

We went to Hotel Oudya (that’s probably spelled wrong) and put our stuff in our room, got ready and attempted to go out. I say attempted because everywhere in Marrakech is really expensive and has a dress code for guys. As a result we ended up getting pizza at 3 in the morning and going to bed.

Day 2:
We got up somewhat early (9ish) and went and got breakfast. We then asked the front desk if we could leave our stuff there for the day and got a map (and directions!). We set off to go to the old town part of Marrakech but kept getting distracted. First by a place to exchange money to Dirhams (my friend Jill kept forgetting the name and called them Dali Lammas the whole time) and second by a place that had payphones to try to figure out if we could go white water rafting. When the guy on the phone informed me that the white water rafting place was closed down we ended up walking toward town again. The last place we got distracted by was  a Segway tour shop. We might have passed it up but we had been talking about segwaying in another country so we decided to sign up. After talking the tour guide into giving it to us for 200 dirhams each (only 24$, 150 dirhams cheaper than it was supposed to be) and giving us a free shirt we went segwaying!!

It wasn’t hard to get used to. The trickiest part was that instead of turning the handlebars to turn you had to pull them either left or right and lean forward. We went for a pretty long tour and saw everything. It was pretty funny when at one point we went to the giant souk in the middle of Marrakech and kept seeing S@Sers there and eventually saw the videographer Tiffany. She laughed at us and filmed us a little bit and then we headed off to get 3 dirham orange juice (still on our segways). At another part of the tour I was in the back of the line videotaping us rolling around Marrakech and some police officers saw me and got angry. You aren’t allowed to take pictures of police officers while they are in their uniforms apparently. The guy asked me what I was taking a picture of and I said the segways and he went through my entire camera just to make sure before handing it back to me and letting me leave. Finally it was time to head back.

Our tour guide, Karim, took us to lunch at a little place that had grilled chicken and French fries. It was really different eating at a Moroccan restaurant. They don’t give you water automatically (not that we could have drank it anyway). They also don’t put salt and pepper or silverware on the table or have regular napkins or bathrooms. The food was really good though! Everyone in the restaurant (including us) was eating with their fingers which was interesting when we were done and had no napkins, just scraps of paper.

After lunch we went back to the souk and wandered around for a while. I bought a really cool mirror (which broke on the way back to Casablanca on the last day sadly) and eventually we went back to the train station so that we could all buy our tickets for when we were going back which was at all different times. Ashley and Georgina had a S@S trip so they went back right then, Taryn had a S@S trip on the last day so she bought a ticket for the next morning, and me and Bridget bought tickets for the last day.

After that Taryn, Bridget, and I went back to the hotel and relaxed before going out.

Day 3:
We got up pretty a little later this day and walked Taryn to the train station and got some lunch at the McDonald’s. They had a sandwich called a McArabian! It’s Tangine beef on pita bread. I was tempted to try it but I’m not that brave. After that me and Bridget went back to the hotel and took a nap and then decided to walk to the old town and ended up stopping and shopping at a store called Zara. I got a dress that I think I’m going to wear to the ambassador’s ball and then we went across the street and Bridget bought a really big bag.

Eventually we made it to the old town area and started walking toward the gardens. We stopped at the souk on the way to get CD’s that we heard about in one of the explore seminar movies (I <3 Hip Hop Morocco, it’s a pretty good movie if you have time to watch it). We got some more orange juice and walked around some more. Before heading out to try to find a cab that would use their meter. After finally finding one we went to the palace gardens. They weren’t as great as they sounded. In fact it was just a bunch of rows of trees with a big cement sidewalk down the middle and a giant dirty swimming pool that I joked was meant for Bridget to practice her synchronized swimming in.

We grabbed a cab and went back to a movie theater we had seen near our hotel and attempted to see Harry Potter but it was in French with no subtitles so we went and got dinner instead and then went to an internet café (where I sat and memorized the Chi Omega Symphony because I was getting a little rusty). After a while we went to check if Ashley and Georgina’s S@S trip was at the hotel yet and they were so we took another nap, got ready, and went out. It was kind of sad that it was our last night in port together. : (

Day 4:
We had to get up super early on this day (and by super I mean like 8) and go to the train station. After the trip there we had learned our lesson and bought first class tickets so that we were guaranteed seats. 3 hours later we were in Casablanca. We went back to the ship and Bridget realized that Georgina had her id so she stayed on the ship and I went out to spend the last of hers and my dirham. I decided that I wanted to buy a big overnight bag for the way home and while I was at the ATM a random S@Ser came up and said that she had some dirham left over that she didn’t want and handed me 40 dirham! Perks of Semester at Sea!

It was really funny walking around the souk because I started off by myself and ran into some people I knew on the walk to get out of the port and then after a while they stopped in a shop that I didn’t really want to go in so I kept going and ran into some more S@Sers I know. That kept happening both with S@Sers I know and some that I didn’t know. By the time I was ready to head back I realized that I had forgotten to get boxes for Georgina and snacks for me and Bridget so I asked a couple of people where a supermarket was and they send me on a wild goose chase for a supermarket that turned out to be a 15 minute cab ride away (I never actually went, I heard about it from some people on the ship though). I found a place really close to the port thought that had a bunch of junk food and boxes so I settled for that and went back to the ship.

S@S definitely saved the best country for last. I felt really comfortable in Morocco because it was kind of like a mix between France and Tanzania. I would go back in a second! (actually I really want to go back and see Rabat, Tangier, and Fez one day). It was sad that that was our last country and its really unlikely that all of us will every be together again in a foreign country. I’m going to miss waking up in a new country and just doing whatever I feel like with no homework, job, cell phone, etc. to worry about.

Things on the ship are winding down. Tomorrow I have my other 2 finals (global studies test day was yesterday) and then we have a talent show that me and my friends are dancing in. Then we are going to sleep on the deck (finally) and then its ambassador’s ball.

My favorite ship day has happened since the last time I wrote. It was the last day of class when the person who bought being the voice on the announcements did his announcement and said “Calling all turtles and dolphins out in the Atlantic. Please come closer to the MV so that we can take pictures of you. Whales and sharks stand by for further instruction.” That made me laugh. Then the person who bought picking the dinner menu in the auction picked the dinner so we had fajitas and French fries (it was the shortest I’ve seen the peanut butter line in a long time) and then Taryn’s theater class (theater for social change) had a playback theater show where they have the audience tell stories and they act them out. Bridget told a story from when me, her, Georgina, Taryn, and Lexi were in Rome. Then Captain Roman turned out the lights so that we could look at the stars. After a little while it started to rain and we were the only idiots that stayed where we were so that we could keep looking at the stars and got a little bit wet but it was worth it. Finally we crashed a mixer between a couple seas where they were showing the Hangover (funny movie!!).  ok lets recap… funny announcements, great dinner, funny theater show, star gazing, and movie! Best. Day. Ever.

Alrighty can’t wait to see everyone in 6 days!!!!!! (ok more like 7 because I’m not sure I’m going to be all there after the wisdom teeth get taken out)

Ps. Funny thing! My mom reads this one site that puts a bunch of blogs together and my friend mentioned that I lost a necklace I got in turkey and my mom emailed me about it and I told my friend about it so Courtney (the friend) put a little shout out to my mom in her blog and I just got an email from my mom about it!!! I’m so entertained!!! (yeah I have too much time on my hands now that classes are over)

back to school

Since leaving our last port the ship has gone from only having 1 day between the countries and very little time for school to having no countries left and too much time for school. Not to mention finals... I have 3 finals, 2 papers, and 1 project between yesterday and next wednesday so it is going to take a while for me to finish my Morocco blog...

On the bright side the ship got some real peanut butter!! No more organic, chunky, flavorless goop!! (as a result at every meal the peanut butter line normally takes about 15-20 minutes to wait in until you can finally get some peanut butter... especially when no one likes the lunch/dinner)

Oh S@S...

I swear this stupid program has such bad mood swings... First its all nice and "Oh! have a day off of class to sleep in. No fire drill or anything. We'll even have a crew talent show, casino night, and an auction. Then they're all "Hey there. We're giving you 3 hours of dock time because the Prime Minister of Egypt was giving a speech and you couldn't use the stairs. Sorry that we left you behind at the library but we're going to punish you for it."

Great job S@S. You're really making me want to spend too much money to go on one of your over priced, over scheduled, make-me-want-to-pull-my-hair-out trips.

oh dear...

I also just realized that i only have 18 days until i go home and 4 weeks until i have to have my wisdom teeth out... FML.

The rest of Egypt

So i got some motivation from somewhere today (i even cleaned my room!!) and finished my blog!! Happy reading : )

Day 2:
I decided to skip the S@S trip because they tend to be overcrowded so after donating my ticket I went with my friends, Courtney and Jill (everyone else is on overnights), to catch a cab to Cairo. In Egypt a lot of cabs have tourist services where they drive you around all day for a prearrange price and they wait for you outside the sights. Our driver, Hasan, is a really funny little old man who knew limited English but communicated fine. He really liked the word “wow” and would laugh and repeat us every time we said it. He kept saying we were like his children (he has 2 sons who are 22 and 21 and a 16 yr old daughter). He even called us habibti (again. Phonetic don’t judge) which means beloved one and is used for family members, children, good friends, etc.

It’s a 3 ½ hour drive from Alexandria to Cairo and I slept most of the way. When we got there the first place we went was the Egypt Museum. After checking our cameras and going through security we walked around and looked at the hieroglyphics on a bunch of tombs and a bunch of statues of kings and queens. It was really hot in there so we hopped from one air conditioned exhibit to another and saw King Tut’s tomb, a bunch of mummies, and then a bunch of old jewelry and other stuff that was in some guy’s tomb.

When we left I stopped at the little cart outside to get breakfast because we had left before breakfast on the ship was open. While paying for my super nutritious breakfast of Pringles I met a family from Poland who didn’t speak English. (I asked them where they were from by pointing to myself and going America and then pointing to them and shrugging and then they laughed and said Poland.) Nat you’re going to have to teach me more polish because all I could say to them was tok/tac/tak/toc however you spell it.

Next Hasan drove us to a little papyrus shop and a girl showed us how they make papyrus and then they tried to get us to buy stuff. I wasn’t going to but then I saw one I really liked and haggled them down from 50$ to 15$.

Jill really wanted to ride a camel because she wasn’t going on the S@S trip where you ride them and somehow me and Courtney (who didn’t want to go) got swindled into going with her. They put these little hat things on us and put us on donkeys and took pictures of us and then expected us to pay them for the hats. Since they had already opened the packaging and we couldn’t give them back we had to pay for the hats and then it was time to go in to see the pyramids. It was really cool riding a camel across a small part of the Sahara to see the pyramids. It was exactly how I imagined it. We stopped for a while a took a bunch of dorky pictures and then rode all the way up to the pyramid and climbed up a couple levels to take pictures. Next we rode over to the Sphinx and took some more pictures. That was when we realized that our tour guide was pretty sketchy. He had to pay off some tourist guard to let us climb on the pyramids and then snuck us in to see the Sphinx. We turned out to be right when we got back on our camels to go back to the taxi and the tour guide asked us how much we were going to tip him. When we told him $3 USD each he got really mad and started yelling.

Here’s the thing about Egyptians. Any time someone does something for you they will expect to be tipped. Also, they won’t ask for the tip they will stand there, look at the ground, and say, “It’s okay.” What they really mean is, “Its ok for you to give me money now.”

When we got back we had to deal with the camel guys and the charges. They overcharged us like it was their job (which it is). They plopped us on the camels (which me and Courtney didn’t even want to ride) and then charged us for hats we didn’t want, tickets to the museum, 25$ per camel which is about 5 times the amount they should have, and then told us we weren’t tipping them enough. Which made me really mad and I ended up standing there yelling at the Egyptian guys who handled the camels until they gave us back some pounds. Hasan looked kind of shocked and asked me if I was ok. We told him that we were out of money now and wanted to go back to Alexandria. He didn’t even argue or try to get us to spend more money. He just took us home.

When we got back I wrote my blog for the first day and then went to dinner where I was so dehydrated that all I had was 2 rolls with butter and an entire pitcher of water.

Day 3:
On this day me and Courtney went on a S@S trip. We slept the whole way to Cairo and then we drove up to the pyramids we had seen the day before and took some more pictures. I had learned how to deal with the vendors selling me stuff that I didn’t want and had a much more pleasant experience. Next we went over to the smallest pyramid and I climbed down to see the tomb (Courtney, who is 6 feet tall, decided to stay outside because it was a little cramped). It was pretty cool, much colder than outside and pretty deep.

After that we went to the Sakkara Country Club to go for a jeep safari and camel ride. The jeep safari was pretty fun. It was a bunch of jeeps driving around the Sahara. Our driver was pretty funny. He played Egyptian slow rock the whole time and every time we asked him a question he answered with one word.

After that we hopped out of the jeeps and grabbed camels. Mine was named Arabel and was led around by a 10-yr-old boy who didn’t speak English. All he knew was lean back, name, and tip. It was a fun little ride with about 60 other S@Sers.

After our camel ride we went to lunch and I had the single best meal of my life! (I’m not sure if it was actually that good or if I was just hungry because it was 2:00 and I didn’t eat breakfast) I finally had some hummus. They also had chicken, pita, rice (with almonds and brown sugar), watermelon, and 3 types of dessert! I was really full after that so once we got on the bus I fell asleep right away.

After lunch we went to 2 tombs and saw some hieroglyphics and the offerings thing and then we got on the bus and headed back to Alexandria. I didn’t really do much at night except for sit around the boat and watch movies.

Day 4:
On this day I slept in and then cleaned my room. Then me and Jill headed out to find the mosque and fort. It was a pretty long walk and we had to ask directions a couple times but we finally found it. It was really pretty! We took off our shoes and covered our heads and looked around a little bit. When we left the guy wanted a tip (of course) so we gave him a dollar and left to find the fort. It was a pretty long walk so we stopped for ice cream. When we got to the fort we hopped into a picture with some people and they laughed at us and took more pictures with us. We walked around for a while and then realized that we were really hot and headed back to the ship.

That night everyone got back from their overnight trips so we went out.

Day 5: 
This day we decided to

Wow. Ok I’m sitting on deck 7 right now writing this by the pool and my friend Courtney is working on her art project and it is really good so I just stopped typing and watch for like a ½ hour… wow! Ok where was I?

Right. On day 5 taryn, bridget, georgina, and I decided to go find the bazaar. We walked around for a while and found a street that looked pretty promising so we walked down it for a while. We had to ask directions a couple times and we found some shops that looked cool but we never actually found the bazaar. We did however get followed for about 20 minutes by 3 creepers so we stopped into a shop that sold glassware to look around and hope that the guys would go away. The shopkeeper was named Sayed and was a hilarious man. He insisted on taking pictures with all of us and then showed us the way to the bazaar and told us to come back when we were done and he’d give us ice cream (we had asked him where the bazaar was and where we could get adda ice cream that we had heard was really good). We walked around for a while and then gave up and went back to the shop and had some ice cream. Sayed has a brother who lives in New York and he lived in New Jersey for a while so he like Georgina (who is from New York). Everytime he tried to tell us something in his broken English and we didn’t understand he would yell it. Some jems of his were “SIT DOWN! YOU TALK TOO MUCH.” to Taryn when she didn’t understand that he was getting us ice cream, “NO WHAT TIME!” when we told him that we were leaving that day, “NO! USE WATER!!”

It was very entertaining. So after that bridget and I went back the ship and georgina and taryn went shopping. I got some stamps on the way and then drew my postcards (yay!!).

Other than that things on the ship have been interesting. We get an hour tonight which is a nice change from losing an hour on the way home. Tomorrow is Georgina’s birthday so we are going to sleep on the deck and enjoy the full moon… for her birthday : ) The teachers have realized that its summer and no one really wants to do any work and have been lightening up a lot (aka my teacher moved back one essay and cancelled another one) YAY! Which means that we have more free time for stuff like blogging and playing taboo! Alrighty I’m going to go sit around and watch Courtney draw… night

Egypt so far...

Egypt has been an overwhelming country and I've only been here for 2 days. Since i'm positive i won't remember everything i want to at the end i'm writing about it now (the air conditioning isn't 1/2 bad either).

Day 1:
Bridget and I woke up at our normal 8:00 for port days and got breakfast with Taryn and watched us pull into Alexandria. My first question was which way is land because the port made a semi circle and it all looked equally industrial. After breakfast we went back to the room and got ready. I had a S@S trip yesterday called the Best of Alexandria so I went down to meet the buses and they informed us that everyone needs their passports and sent all 3 buses of students up to the 7th deck faculty lounge to get them (aka made us wait in line for 45 minutes because they didn't figure it out the night before). Once I had my passport sat on the bus for another 30 minutes while everyone else got theirs and then finally (an hour and 15 minutes late) we left. That was my first encounter with Arab time.

We went to the catacombs first. They were discovered by accident when a donkey was pulling a loaded wagon and fell down the hill into what is believed to be either a chapel or a place where people were killed. (Kind of opposites eh?) The catacombs had a long twirling stair case with 58 stairs and they reminded me of the Cupola at St. Peter's Basilica but in the opposite direction. In the center of the staircase is a large opening that looks like a well and it is where they lowered the mummies and sarcophagus's down to the tombs via rope. At the very bottom of the stairs there was a room with 3 big tables. The guide scared us at first by telling us that that was where they mummified the bodies but then she said that was false and it is actually where the families of the dead would have meals together to remember the person. After the dining room we went to seen the actual tombs. It was originally built for a governor of Egypt and his wife and son. It was interesting because Egypt has been ruled by many different people in the past such as the Greeks and Romans so all of the art in the tombs had 2 versions of everything, the ancient egyptian version and the greek/roman version. For example, outside of the governor's tomb there was the egyptian goddess of protection (i think her name is Bes? maybe) and also Medusa who was the greek goddess of protection (yeah the lady with snakes for hair who would turn you to stone just for looking at her...). The tomb was originally private and only for that one family but eventually it turned to a public tomb and was used for up to 300 other mummies. we got to walk around the public tomb and it looked like safety deposit boxes in a bank only dustier and bigger. The tomb of the governor and his family was beautiful. There were carvings everywhere and everything had some kind of symbolic meaning (i just had no idea what it was). After seeing the tombs we went and looked at where the donkey fell down (I asked. It was alright and lived) and also saw some rando horses bones. Our guide Miranda didn't know why they were there but some historians think that the area was a chapel to the goddess Nemesis who was the goddess of sports and so horses would be buried there along with their owners. (polo players perhaps?)

The Catacombs are in the 5th district of Alexandria and that is the poor district so my first impression of the city was that it was crowded, dirty, poor, and 100% unsafe to walk around in. That isn't entirely true. There is a much nicer area (which we went to later) and overall Alexandria is really dusty and crowded but it isn't all dirty (well... as dirty as the 5th district) and its not AS unsafe as the 5th district either.

After the catacombs we went to the National History Museum (Which is in the District of the Waterfall aka the rich area). The building started as a private home and then was the US consulate before being donated to Egypt for the creation of the national history museum. We started by going to the basement to see a tomb and a mummy. It wasn't as creepy as I imagined. It just looked like a long, dirty ball of rags with really big feet. After that we looked around at a bunch of statues and jewelry and pottery and pretty much anything and everything that they could cram into the rooms. The last exhibit we looked at was pretty cool. Alexandria is sinking (due to coastal erosion which i can tell you all about thanks to my fabulous oceanography professor) and some tombs that were originally on land are now under water. The last exhibit was all about the underwater excavating that has been going on. My other favorite part of the museum was learning about Hepsetshut (that is definitely not spelled right but i'm doing it phonetically because i didn't write it down). She was a queen of egypt but in all of her statues she is portrayed as a man except for her smile and make up. I'm not sure why she's my favorite. I was tuning out the guide by the time we got to her statues but apparently she was a pretty good queen.

After the museum we stopped by some pretty mosques and went to lunch at a greek restaurant (??). The food was DELICIOUS! I finally got some hummus and a bunch of other stuff that i had no idea what it was. I know one thing was some kind of rice rolled in grape leaves and there was some kind of really salty cheese in a fried ball and then something that had to to with spinach but it was really good. For the main course they gave us a choice between veal and sea bass so i asked if there was a vegetarian option and they gave me some buttered noodles with mushrooms in it (yay!) and then i have no idea what dessert was but it was ridiculously delicious and i think mine was gone in about 2 seconds flat.

After lunch we went to the library at alexandria (they call it the Bibliotecque at Alexandrina and i have no idea why). It was HUGE! 3 buildings, 9 floors, 3 museums under the buildings, a rare books section, whole separate libraries for both children and young people, and more stuff that i can't even remember right now. It can hold 2,000 people reading at the same time and up to 1 million books. After a short intro the guide showed us how to navigate the libraries website. It was really funny because at one point she wanted to show us how to find english documents and she showed us a page with 7 tabs at the top. She said, "You click the 5th button on the top" and clicked the 3rd one from the left. After a second i realized its because she speaks/reads arabic so she starts from the right when she reads! After that we had some free time so me and my friend Melanie went to check out the rare books section. We asked the librarian if it was ok to come in and she said yes but don't touch anything so i walked around with my hands in my pockets. The books were really cool. They all looked really old and had titles in english, arabic, and french. I saw everything from dictionaries of tropical diseases to law encyclopedias to guides to American military weapons. I think they might have all been original copies of the books. After looking through there for a while me and Melanie went on facebook (yay!!!!) and then it was time to go. Thats when the trouble started.

The prime minister was giving a speech/press conference/seminar at the library that day and we weren't allowed to take the stairs up 1 floor to the exit. Instead we had to wait for the elevator which wasn't that bad except that everyone else had to wait too on the lower floors and our floor so they were all full. I somehow got separated from the group and it took me 10 minutes to catch an elevator. Since i left 5 minutes to get back to the bus (where all of my stuff was since you can't take bags inside the library) I was only 5 minutes late. After weaving through the crowd and going to my group's meeting place I was only 7 minutes late but my delightful S@S sponsored tour guide had left without me. Thats right, a female tourist who doesn't speak arabic was left alone in Alexandria by Semester at Sea with no money, no phone, no green sheet, no passport, no ID card. All i had was my camera and a used ticket to get into the library. I looked around for the bus for a while but I didn't want to stray too far and miss anyone who might come back for me. I saw some S@Sers after a while and I asked them if they had seen my group or the buses and they said they had left a long time ago but they were going to the bus station and i had no money and couldn't join them. Then i saw another S@S and asked him the same thing and his exact response was, "you're only like an hour walk from the ship." yeah right!! an hour walk in a country that doesn't exactly see women the way that America does with no passport or money??? HELL NO!

So i went back and asked all the guards i could find if they had seen my group and the only one who spoke english didn't understand or hadn't seen them (i couldn't tell) so i decided to look for any other S@S bus and demand that they let me on. After walking about a block i found one and I asked if they had seen bus 1 and the driver looked a little confused and that is when my bus driver came hurrying up carrying the bus 1 sign that the tour guide had and going "bus 1? bus 1?" Needless to say by then i was crying and was a mix of really happy to see him and really pissed to see him. It was 5-10 minute walk to the bus. They had obviously driven for a while before they realized that they left without me. When i got on the bus the tour guide and the S@S trip supervisor were trying to be all nice and all "Oh Emily there you are! are you alright?" and I can say that i was polite but i can't say that i was very nice.

After that we stopped by the Egyptian president's summer home which is about the size of 30 of my summer home (especially since it consists of 2 palaces) and then we headed back to the ship. I stopped at the tourist stands and got an Egyptian shirt so that i have something i can actually wear in Egypt and morocco and i got a Kartoosh (again phonetic... don't judge) which is a necklace with my name written on it in Egyptian hieroglyphs. And then i had dinner and bummed around the ship.

Whew! just one day took longer than i thought it would so i'm going to go eat dinner and do today later.

ps. i have a sweet bruise from bungee jumping that finally started showing today. it only took 5 days for it to appear. goodness!

Bulgaria

Oh Bulgaria… what an interesting stop.

Day 0:
It only took us a couple hours to get from Istanbul to Varna (just up the Straits of Bosphorus and into the Black sea). So we were anchored in our tender spot by noon the day before we were allowed to get off the ship. Evil S@S… plain evil.

Day 1:
We slept in a bit on day 1. The night before they passed out all the passports because you had to have it with you at all times (which they changed ½ way through the port though because the port authorities kept telling people they didn’t need it to get back in). So the morning was fairly relaxed. We were tendering though so we had to wait for the first 2 S@S trips to leave before we could get our tender tickets and get off the ship. The ship was docked right next to a big park with a beach, an aquarium, a zoo, a dolphinarium (which is my new favorite word!!), and a kiddy park. Me, Bridget, Taryn, and Georgina went to find the dolphinarium and ended up walking for about and hour and 15 minutes. Oh yeah and we met up with Justine, Jordin, Ashley, and Alyssa.

So once we had been walking for a really long time and had no idea where we were we decided to ask for directions. So we stopped a man riding a bike in a speedo (thank god that trend never caught hold in America) and he pointed to where we were on the map, which was WAY farther than we wanted to go, so we back tracked and found the dolphinarium. When we got there the show had already started (at noon) and the next one wasn’t until 1530 so we found a nice Bulgarian guy who spoke English and asked where there was an ATM. He told us that there was a petrol station down the street with an ATM and a mall right by there with one as well. We walked down the road for about 15 minutes until we found it and we all got money and then went over to the mall for lunch. I got tortellini and it was delicious! After that we went back to the gas station and got some ice cream for dessert and then cabbed it back to the dolphinarium.

Ok so on S@S before each port we get a green sheet with important phone numbers and the times for the S@S trips and we also get a blue culture card that has some important phrases in the language of the country, common culture things like if tipping and if you should haggle or not, and the top 5 things to see in the port city. The dolphinarium was on the culture card as the #3 must see thing in varna and it was horrible. It was super cheesy and like a worse put on version of the dolphin show at the aquarium in Chicago with dirtier facilities. But we had fun anyway.

After the dolphin show we walked around the park some more and took pictures of things. It was interesting to see a country so defined by war. There were all sorts of tanks and helicopters etc left over from the war used to decorate the park. They even had those little kid things that have springs on the bottom and normally have a horse or something on top and the kid sits on it and rocks back and forth but instead of a horse they had a panda bear, Thomas the tank engine, and a tank.
After exploring the park we walked with Meli (another S@Ser) over to her hotel for a quick bathroom break and walked into town to explore. After that the ship was done tendering so we went back to eat dinner.

S@S has been a little upset because of  bunch of other S@Sers learned how to sneak on alcohol and they decided to crack down. So at preport they announced that they would be making the punishment for bringing alcohol onto the ship more severe and they made the checks more thorough. As a result I got felt up trying to get back on the ship. They went through my entire purse including my wallet and spilled all my lev coins into the bottom of my purse and then after I swiped on the lady who usually checks my purse went all Turkish baths on me to make sure I hadn’t hidden alcohol in my dress.

After dinner we took naps and went out.

Day 2:
I started my day at a nice late 11:00 and headed out to Karin Dom, a rehabilitation center for disabled children. Taryn was on the trip too. We started off by the man who started the center coming out and giving a speech and then the children sang a couple songs for us. It was really cute. One of the older children sang a song for us as well. Then we had to wait for the musicians to show up so some S@Sers sang some songs for the children (You Are My Sunshine, The Eensy Weensy Spider, and Twinkle Twinkle). Finally the musicians arrived and played a couple little flute things and some bag pipes and we did traditional Bulgarian dancing and finally got to play with the kids. I got some pizza and pop and chatted with a guy with twin 3 yr old daughters who had a mental disability. Him and his Bulgarian wife had been taking their kids to Karin Dom since they were a year old. After I was done with my pizza I took the trash for the group and then went to the playground to play.

I met this little girl at the playground (I have no idea what her name is. Every time I asked her she talked so quiet that I couldn’t hear her). We ended up going down the slide together a couple times (I counted to 3 every time before I went and before she went) and then she showed me the stickers she picked out and then she went down the bigger slide. I didn’t want to crawl through all the tubes to go there so I waited at the side. When she saw me there she sat and waited. I didn’t know what she wanted and then I realized that she wanted me to count to 3. After a while she ran away and I watched one of the twins try to figure out the videographer’s camera. It was adorable! Especially when the videographer turned the screen around so she could see herself. After a while she lost interest and started looking for these little red beetle things that scared the living daylights out of me. I saw a bunch so I pointed them out and she started walking around looking for more. I followed her and after about a minute she decided that she was going to sit on my lap. Her mom told me that she knew the alphabet song so I sang it and she grabbed my hand and tapped it in time to the music. So cute!! After we sang a couple other songs together (she tried to do the hand motions to the eensy weensy spider… it was funny) it was time for the kids to go so I walked Gabi back and they both looked shocked that she had sat still for so long.

After that it was time for a tour. They showed us the business rooms and the therapy rooms for speech therapy, Montessori therapy (that made me laugh!), physical therapy, music therapy, etc. It was really cool to see things like an alphabet poster and a colors poster in Bulgarian, especially since I spend so much time at Jumpstart putting up posters and have seen my share of English ones.

After that we boarded the buses again and headed back to the ship. I had dinner on the ship, took a nap (yay!), and then went out.

Day 3:
We slept in again and then had lunch and headed out to find the bungee jumping bridge. Taryn had heard that it was a short walk so we headed out in the right direction. After about 20 minutes we were pretty sure we were lost so we asked some truckers via charades where the bungee place was and as soon and we pretended to jump off the bridge they all went “Bungee! Bungee!” and pointed up the bridge. So we walked for another 15 minutes or so and finally found the place. There were 11 people in front of us when we got in line and so we had to wait for about an hour before we could go. Taryn went first and yelled “F***” the entire time. She was the most excited about it because she loves heights. Bridget went next and didn’t even scream. I was getting bundled up in my harness when she went and I didn’t even notice she was gone until I looked down and she was dangling from the cord.

One lesson I learned on the ship before we headed out to bungee jump is that it is a bad idea to do extreme sports on S@S because there are a lot of nervous nelly’s on S@S and they will tell you stats you don’t want to hear such as bungee jumping is the leading cause of detached eyeballs and 1 in every 6 people who bungee jump die. After I was strapped into my harness the dreadlock guy sent me to talk to the guy who would attach me to the actual bungee cord and I decided to ask him if it was actually that scary. His response was, “Oh the first time is not that bad. The second time is worse because you know what is coming.” As you can guess that wasn’t exactly comforting.

The place we were jumping from didn’t have a platform or anything so we had to climb up on the rail to jump and that was the part I was most scared of. I was sure that I was going to fall over backward before I actually wanted to jump. The guy gave me a 5 minute bungee lesson so I’d know what I was doing. I climbed up on the rail and the guy said “ok you can go now” and I turned around and yelled “What?!?” and then I realized that it was time to jump and freaked out slightly. I decided to jump right away before I lost my nerve.

The jump was AWESOME!!!! I felt like I was going to hit the water and seriously thought I was going to die and then the rope pulled me back up and I bounced around for a while. The first thing I had to do was figure out which way was up so I started by looking at my up and everyone elses down (the water) and then figured out where the bridge was. Then I had to figure out what side of the bridge I was on so I looked for the heads hanging over the side and found them. Then I had to grab the rope that the non-dreadlock guy sent down to me and that took a little while. Then I hooked it to me and they pulled me up and I was done! Whew!

Georgina went next and she was really nervous! She literally turned about 4 shades lighter than normal. It took her a little while to work up the nerves to stand up and actually go. She started saying “I can’t do it. I can’t do it.” And we thought that she was going to get down from the railing. But she jumped! And I could see her swearing to herself the entire time : )

After that we caught a cab back to the ship, ate dinner, took a nap, and went out.

Day 4:
I woke up pretty early on the last day to go on an orphanage visit. There were a lot of people signed up for it so they split us up into 3 buses. One for the baby’s orphanage, one for children ages 3-8, and one for disabled children. I picked the baby one (birth to age 3). The bus ride was pretty short and when we got there our tour guide translated for the lady who runs the place and she told us a little about how it got started and what happens with the kids when they get older. After she talked for about a half hour we all washed our hands and split into disabled, baby babies, and older babies (aka 2 and 3 yr olds). I picked the older babies and we went out to the playground.

I had so much fun playing with the kids! As soon as I got out there a little boy came up and said hi so I put down my purse on the side of the sidewalk and gave the little boy a high five. While I was doing that another little boy, Georgi, came up and took my purse. I had to chase the little guy to get it back and once I tickled him enough that he let go he grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the S@Ser handing out wafer cookies and got one. He at it in like 2 seconds and dragged me over to a S@Ser handing out pretzels and grabbed 2. He kept going between the 2 until both his hands were full and then he tried to feed me a cookie. I said no and once he was done eating we played for a long time. He was really funny and when he saw another S@Ser using a wheat looking thing to tickle another kids foot he took off his shoe and handed me a wheat thingy and then stole my shoe and tickled my foot. Such a cute kid : ) If it didn’t take a couple years I probably would have adopted him.

After that I went back and ate lunch at the ship and then headed out to town in search of postcards and stamps. This was the first port that hasn’t had a touristy shop with everything from jewelry to postcards to shirts available. It took me an hour of walking to hunt down a place that had postcards. It probably wouldn’t have taken that long if I spoke Bulgarian but the word “postcard” is really hard to mime (I tried… there is a reason I’m not an actress). Once I found the actual post cards it was easy to ask someone where stamps were because I could point to the post cards with the little square in the corner where the stamp goes. I spent the last of my lev on the way back to the ship and wrote my postcards when I got back and then (shocker) I took a nap and ate dinner and then watched Law and Order: SVU with my friends which was funny because we fit 5 of us in mine and Bridget’s room.

We get to Egypt tomorrow and i'm really excited for it!! Yay africa : )
Day 1- S@S trip, The Best of Alexandria (gotta love a city named after Alexander the great : )
Day 2- Cairo day trip
Day 3- Pyramids with Camel and Jeep Safari
Day 4- TBD
Day 5- TBD but probably stay in Alexandria and shop

Alrighty… I’m going to go listen to the deans try to scare us during the preport. Hope everyone is having a fabulous summer and is getting super tan and enjoying America for me : )

Just for fun...

Hey there!

Since i'm too lazy to write my blog for Bulgaria and my mother is impatient (BAHAHA! love you mom) i figured i'd give her something to keep her entertained while she waits to hear about Bulgaria...

Semester at Sea Lingo:

S@S-hole- any student on S@S, also commonly referred to as a S@Ser... it is generally a good idea to refrain from using this term in the presence of life long learners

life long learner- retired or generally older people who enjoy learning so they join the voyage and sit in on the classes, they do everything the same as us except get college credit

pub night- nights they serve alcohol on 7th deck

port night- the night before we get into port when everyone is a lazy bum and pretends like they have no homework, similar to a weekend

ship day- days when we have class and are on the ship

dean's memo- a daily publication put out by the deans that lists all important information such as the movies playing on the tv, requests from the crew (stop wiping make up on the towels, doors aren't to be propped open, etc), any special events going on the union, and many more

bridge report- a report letting us know where we are in the world by latitude and longitude, includes the nautical miles since the last port/to the next port/to the nearest land

"Good morning voyagers..."- likely the start of an impression of our assistant dean, Dia Draper, possibly Dia herself, usually very funny

preport- the meeting the night before we get to a port where they try to scare us into good behavior

diplomatic briefing- when important people from whichever country come onto the ship to tell us about the current situation and any other important information we need to know, i generally sleep through these

LLC- Living Learning Coordinator, pretty much an RA/camp counselor

work study- the students that work on the ship in addition to going to class

RA- the work study position that does basically nothing

cabin- your room

port- left

starboard- right

movie theater status- (this one only applies to my group of friends) pulling down the shade and turning off the lights and turning your cabin into a movie theater to watch any of the seriously lacking movies they show on loop on the TV

Tymitz square- the meeting place of the ship, also where the purser's desk and program desk are, if a student's name is called over the loud speaker to meet here with a man named sean you know that they are in trouble and that is when the rumors start to fly

Rumor Ranger- part of the deans memo that debunks rumors (some are true, most aren't, i have a feeling that most people just get bored and send in random rumors that they make up)

shipwide email- an email to the entire ship, a while ago a couple people sent an email to the entire ship and started a 2 port long thread of ridiculous sarcasm, very entertaining

dock time- an on-ship time out... they get mean and take away your ID card and passport

snack time- 2200 when the kitchen staff puts out the left over desserts and sandwiches from the staff meetings of the day

the grill- the 7th deck food place right by the pool, much better food than the dining rooms

the union- the place where you go to get sea sick, also unfortunately the place where global studies is held

disembark- to get off the ship, remind me to tell you a funny story about dia and disembarking when i get home... its not quite suitable to be posted on the internet

embarkation- leaving a port... for the first couple weeks i was convinced it was called take off

nap time- self explanitory, daily occurence, sometimes multiple times a day!!

Dean Mike- dean of students, has cute kids

Dean Michael- academic dean, funny funny man

Casey- the guy who saves all our computers when we screw them up (he went to DePaul!)

interport student- students from whichever country who join us on the ship from the port before their country until their country, usually hard to find

Ambassador's ball- the dance that is happening on the way back to Norfolk, kind of like a cheaper version of prom

Yeah that's all for now... i'm off to take a nap!

more Turkey!

Day 3:
We started the day at 9:00 with a delicious complimentary breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast is the one meal that the ship doesn’t do very well so it was nice to have different fruit for once. Remzie’s 16 yr old niece, Merve joined us on the second day since she is learning English. She was such a sweetheart. She wants to be a cardiac surgeon and likes to sing. After breakfast we went horseback riding at some place that is owned by a lady from Colorado and her Turkish husband.

Since they didn’t have 14 horses we split into 2 groups. I went with the first group. The ride was really pretty! I thought it was going to take us by some fairy chimneys or caves but it didn’t. I kind of felt like I was in Minnesota. Then the next group went and we sat and drank apple tea (a Turkish specialty… they call it tourist tea though because its not the tea they drink all the time) and sat around a table and got annoyed by the flies. While we waited Merve taught us some Turkish and at one point we asked her how to count to 5 and she thought we were asking her how to say Turkey in Turkish so for a while we thought that 1, 2, 3 was Tur ki ye (its actually beer, ick, ung, dir, besh… that’s phonetic don’t trust the spelling). There was a gypsy kitty who came and sat on my lap for a while and then we went in search of some puppies the guy told us about. When the other group came back we still hadn’t found them so as we were paying for our horse rides Merve talked to someone there and they found them and so we got to peek at them before we left. After that we went to lunch and got some gyros. I sat with Amanda, Merve, and Tyler. The food was really good. I had a huge plate of seasoned chicken, lettuce and tomato, and rice. I was so hungry that I forgot to put mine on the bread.

After lunch we went to the underground village (ok… actually I can’t remember and we might have gone to the jewelry shop after lunch and then gone to the underground village but I can’t go back and look at my pictures because my stupid computer deleted most of them). It was so similar to Tanzania and how the Chagga dug the underground tunnels for protection from the Massai except that the Turkish people literally had a whole village down there. Only 10% had been excavated and it was 8 floors down and really wide and long. Being claustrophobic I wasn’t a big fan of the tiny tunnels you had to walk through to get from one room to another but I sucked it up. There was everything down there; bedrooms for the families, a kitchen that everyone shared, a winery, a chapel, a morgue (ew). Everything! After the underground village we got back on the bus and went to a jewelry place to see how they make jewelry. They showed us how they polish the stones and taught us that turquoise is actually Turkish quartz and then showed us the shop. I bought an evil eye necklace because almost every country we’ve been to had evil eyes (they’re good luck) all over. We ran into the S@S Cappadocia trip while we were at the jewelry shop and I talked to Ryder for a little bit. It was funny because he tried to explain the Turkish flag to me and ended up saying something like “It a moon and its special because its little and there is a star.” That kid says the funniest things!

After the jewelry shop (possibly underground village) we headed back to the hotel and had some down time before dinner so I got a head start on my postcards. (To those of you who have been getting them I’m sorry about the short messages/ugly pictures. I feel really awkward writing actual notes on postcards because anyone and everyone can read them and I’m obviously not the most talented artist…) and then we headed out to this place a couple towns over where for 90 lira we could have dinner, all you could eat appetizers (popcorn and fruit), all you could drink (pop, wine, beer, and water), and a show. The first dancers were whirling dervishes aka guys in long white skirts with funny hats on their heads spinning in circles. It was very entertaining! Next came some Turkish folk dancers who did a mock wedding thing (they were better dancers than actors…) and last came a belly dancer. It was really funny because she went around the room and grabbed guys from the audience and the first person she grabbed was tyler! He did pretty good. There was also some rando british guy who was wasted and wearing a fanny pack and a really big, tall guy with a pot belly whose shirt she rolled up. The british guy was my favorite. Dinner was ok but I wasn’t a fan of the meat or one of the appetizers but the rest of it was good. After dinner we all got up and danced with the folk dancer guys who had changed into regular clothes.

Day 4:
We got up a little later on this day (9:30) and got breakfast. After that we headed to a place whose name I can’t remember and we went for a hike. Remzie tried to scare us by telling us there were 550 steps but that was a total lie. The walk was BEAUTIFUL! It looked a lot like the Marangu falls in Tanzania. There were bunch of giant rocks that had slid a bit and made mini tunnels that we had to crawl through and there was a really pretty river that I stood in for a little bit. We found a donkey and went to visit it but we weren’t sure if it was nice or if it would bite us so we left it alone. After the hike we went to lunch at a place along the river (it was crawling with gypsy kitties). They had a choice of 4 dishes one of which was a whole fish (ew) and both the people next to me (Amanda and Angie) got that one. It sucked. Especially since they each named their fish and the dead fishes’ eyeballs were looking at me. I got chicken.

After lunch we went to a rug workshop place where they weave rugs and make thread from silk worms. They showed us how they weave the rugs and I got to try it. I was so much slower than the lady and it took her a couple months to a couple years to finish a rug depending on its size. Imagine if I tried to make a rug. Maybe I’d finished by the time I’m 30 but its not likely. After they showed us how they weave they took us in the back and showed us how they make the thread from silk worms. It was really cool and they let us hold the silkworm cocoons as they were going through the unwinding thing. It felt like the dead worms were actually moving (gross)! After that they took us to the show room and showed us the different patterns of rugs and told us where they were from. Merve and Remzie both pointed out the rugs from where they were from and we drank some delicious apple tea (tourist tea). After that it was time to head to the air port. We dropped off Remzie at his house and we gave him a Semester at Sea shirt that Aubrey had brought with and said goodbye and then Husseyin (that’s the actual spelling… I had it wrong in the other post. Oops!) drove us to the airport and Merve came with to say goodbye and gave us another Turkish lesson along the way. She taught me the most random things like how to say “I see the sunflower.” And “You smell like cheese.” And then taught me the basic stuff like the colors and numbers. It was really sad saying goodbye to her but I’ll probably try to find her on facebook so I’ll talk to her again. The flight home was delayed for a little while and I was too hungry to be patient. When we finally got back to Istanbul ½ the group left really fast so the rest of us waited for people who had to use the bathroom and while we were waiting some people talked to the cab to negotiate the price and the cab driver almost ran over Angie’s foot! So she went to the bathroom to clean herself up and (against her will) rode in another cab back to the ship with us.

Day 5:
Since I had only gone to the Bazaar on my other day in Istanbul I wanted to fit in as much as possible. I got breakfast in the street which was only 1 lira for a big bagel thing (it was delicious). Me, Bridget, and Georgina started by going to the bazaar so that Georgi could get a tea set (I got some apple tea because that stuff is just plain addicting) and then we went to the Turkish bath. The Turkish bath is a public bath where you can pay to have someone wash you. Yes that means naked. I don’t like being naked in public. So we changed into our swim suits and wrapped ourselves in our thin towel thingys and went into a really hot room (sauna style). It was about the size of the atrium in the stu cen and there was a big, circular, heated stone in the center. They told us to lay down on the stone and relax until it was our turn and I started sweating within 3 minutes. Me and Georgina went first and I tried to keep my bathing suit top on but the first thing the lady said was “off off off” and my first words were “F my life.” She started by dumping cold water on me, which took me by surprise, and I jumped and accidentally hit the lady (oops!). I giggled the entire time and Bridget and the lady washing me laughed at me the entire time. It was kind of cool though because they had a big bag that they soaked in soap and then dipped in water and when they opened it up it filled with air and when they squeeze the air out it made tons of bubbles. After they scrubbed us they sent me and Georgina to another room and they came and washed our hair. My lady was super cute and knew that I had curly hair and braided it for me and then walked me over and told me to get in a giant heated pool. I only lasted about 5 minutes in the pool before my claustrophobia got the best of me and then me and Georgi went and relaxed on the stone until Bridget was done. On the bright side there were water fountains all around the room with cold water so I could cool off a little bit. The whole thing was a cool experience and if you go to Turkey I’d recommend doing it but I think that was my one time at a Turkish bath.

After the bath we went to walk to a shopping center and on the way we passed the Blue Mosque so I left them and went to go check it out. When I got in the courtyard I met a couple from Virginia and they said that it was closed to tourists because it was prayer time so I walked over and looked at the Hagia Sophia (I didn’t go in because it cost money and I have a bad habit of ending up with only having like 3 lira/kuna/lev/euro with me). I took some pictures of it and got another bagel thing (only .75 lira) for lunch. I went back to the Blue Mosque and sat around in the courtyard with the rest of the tourists. At one point I went to look in the window so I could see the praying and I was standing right behind the women’s section. It took me a little while standing there but I finally realized that I was standing right behind a woman who was about the same age and me and it was strange because I was standing there all American in my jeans and a tee shirt and she was standing there all Turkish with her long skirt, head scarf, and no shoes but we probably weren’t that different. After a while prayer time was over and I couldn’t find the visitor’s entrance so a woman in a burka with her little kids showed me where to go and I went in and it was BEAUTIFUL! And then I had to find my way back to the ship. I had 3 hours so I wasn’t worried but I had to go through the bazaar to get there and that is a little bit of a nightmare when you look like a tourist, you are a woman, and you’re alone. I made it through the bazaar to the gypsy’s bazaar with limit comments (“Marry me baby” “oh look its Miley Cyrus” “Looking is free”) and then I got to the gypsy’s bazaar and asked which way to the ship and they guy told me how to get there via bus so I asked him where to go walking and he looked at me like I was crazy so I went back through the bazaar to the busy street and got a cab (I had my debit card with me so I put up with the fees and got money out). When I got back to the ship I got dinner and turned in my post cards and took a nap.

I would definitely go back to Turkey in an instant! I’m going to go eat dinner but I’ll try to finish Bulgaria tonight or at the latest tomorrow.

Turkey!!

Ok here is the beginning of my blog... I did a LOT in Turkey so i'm not done yet but i want to go to sleep.
Let me start off by saying that I had no expectations for Turkey. I knew nothing about the country and never expected to visit. I didn’t know any of the major cities or landmarks but I LOVED it! Hands down favorite country.

Day 1:
We were all pretty tired on the first day because we only had one day between Greece and Turkey. Me and Bridget slept in (missed breakfast) and then had to wait around all morning until the landing cards were ready to pass out. In Turkey if you don’t have a visa they can take away your passport so in Istanbul if you are a tourist you have to carry a landing card that says that you are allowed to be there without having to buy a visa. If you traveled outside of Istanbul (which I did) you had to have a visa (which I had : ).  We ate lunch on the ship and then headed out to go to the bazaar. The boat was in a really convenient location so we didn’t have to walk for 30 minutes to get to the actual town for once!!

Once we crossed the Bosphorus river from the asian side to the European side we were instantly in the gypsy’s bazaar. It was ridiculously overwhelming. It was a less fancy version of the actual bazaar except outside and selling cheaper stuff (black market perfume, used xbox 360’s, etc) I could safely bet that a good ½ of everything sold there was stolen and the other ½ was food (spices, roll thingys, fruit). There were TONS of locals and tourists all mixed so there were a bunch of languages being spoken at the same time with the vendors yelling whatever they were selling from every stand. We were walking through there around 12:30 which is one of the busiest times of the day so we had to weave through people and there were people walking around trying to sell stuff and a man walking around in the traditional dress with a giant fancy cooler of something on his back and he was pouring glasses of some kind of drink for people.

We finally got to the spice bazaar and almost immediately tried some Turkish delights. These are little gummy cube things that come in different flavors and are DELICOUS! The nice vender guy let me try a couple different favors and then Bridget bought some and we split them. So then we had to go back through the gypsy’s bazaar to get to the actual grand bazaar and Bridget and Taryn took care of asking for directions (we had to ask about 8 different people before we actually found it). The bazaar was HUGE. If I bought 2 items at every stand I could probably decorate every dorm room in every dorm at depaul. We walked around a good sized chunk of it before actually buying anything. I got to haggle again (just like in Tanzania : ) so that was fun. I also got good at converting from Lira to dollars in my head (you have to multiply by 2 and then divide by 3).

We stopped for some food at the bazaar because we had been walking for a long time so I got chicken schnitzel and it was pretty much a giant chicken nugget on a piece of white bread with cold vegetables on the side. It made ship food look like a 5 star restaurant.

After our snack we went back to the ship and had nap time before dinner. After dinner we went out to a hookah bar. It was really cool because they had these strange shaped bean bag things around tables and giant hookahs all over. It was outside and they had really pretty lanterns that looked cool in the smoke. The best part of the place was the waffle stand. There were a bunch of people walking around selling fruit and drinks (tea, water, pop) and nuts and then there were some small stands for ice cream and other stuff and we went to the waffle stand where they make the waffle when you order so its still warm and they put in your choice of fruit (me and Justine shared one and had strawberries) and your choice of any other toppings (me and Justine had nutella, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate chocolate chips… it was the ultimate chocolate covered strawberries on a waffle). It was probably the most delicious dessert I’ve ever eaten. I fully intend to make them when I get back to America (hopefully before my wisdom teeth disappear… maybe as part of my last meal). So then after hookah I went to bed early.


Day 2:
On day 2 I got up at 6:15 (ugh) because I had to meet the group I was going to Cappadocia with at the gangway at 7 (ew). When I got there I found out that 2 girls had opted to go later to the airport so they could sleep in so only 12 of us were there and we fit perfectly into 3 taxis. On the way to the airport I had a nice overview of Istanbul and I tried asking the cab driver (I was sitting in the front seat) a little about what I should see while I was there but he didn’t really speak much English. He only knew enough to tell me that he grew up in Istanbul.

When we got to the airport we had breakfast. I attempted to order Turkish Toast and ended up with a grilled cheese sandwich and a brownie. It was really good though! While we were waiting for everyone to get there Paul went to take money out of an ATM and it ate his card. I felt really bad because I had just solved my money problems and his were just starting. So when the final 2 came our whole group was there (Stephanie, Aubrey, Angie, Caroline, Amanda, Sarah, Dan, Alex/Allix (I’m not sure about the spelling), Tyler, Melanie, Cara, Paul, Lindsay, and me). Dan gave us a little airplane lesson because he works at an airport back in america and we got on the plane. The ride was really short but they still gave us a full meal! (I sat next to a 3 ½ year old boy who kept rolling his eyes at me.)

When we got there our tour guide, Remzie, picked us up in our awesome white creeper van (yeah we roll in style) and our drivers name was Hussein (I sat up front with him and Melanie). We went right to a little area off the highway to look at the caves and fairy chimneys and Sarah ended up riding a camel for 5 lira. After a group picture with Remzie giving us really complicated things to say instead of cheese (the name of the place in Turkish… beyond my abilities after getting up at 6:15) we got back in the van and headed to another place that was similar (Remzie called it the grand canyon of Turkey). Next we went to a place that had churches and a nunnery carved into the rocks. There was also a kitchen and dining room for the priests. The churches were really cool because there were frescoes from either the 8th or 11th century (I can’t rememeber which…) all of the pictures were missing chunks and a lot of them were missing their eyeballs and Remzie explained that it was because people were superstitious and would come and scrape off parts of the paintings and mix the scrapings with water and drink it for good luck, to ward off evil, to cure a medical thing, or for fertility. The open air museum had a bunch of random foods growing there. They had apples, apricots, walnuts, poppy seeds, almonds, coffee, etc. Most of us tried some of the poppy seed and dan tried a walnut which was apparently a bad idea. Remzie knew a lot about the area and could answer any question we threw at him. He also started most of his sentences with “My dear friends…” which led to a lot of funny impressions of him.

Finally it was lunch time (2:00… keep in mind we had breakfast at 7:30) and we went to a restaurant and sat on the roof top terrace and I had vegetarian pizza and a pop. They gave us appetizers beforehand and it was bread, salsa, and random vegetables in some kind of dressing. It was a random mix. After lunch we went to another place to see the fairy chimneys and then went to a pottery place to see how they make pottery. After a demonstration they let us try. Amanda went first and then I went (I accidentally broke the clay ball in ½… oops!) and then Alex/Allix went. After that we saw how they decorate the pottery. Then they showed us the store area. The stuff was cool so I got 2 small bowls. Then it was time to go to the hotel. We were staying at Gamirasu Cave Hotel. It was in a really small town and where Hussein dropped us off was a little sketch so I was pretty skeptical but after short walk down the hill we saw the actual hotel and it was BEAUTIFUL! Saying we staying in caves doesn’t even begin to cover it. They were giant rooms and all of them were shaped different with different decorations and big bathrooms. I roomed with Stephanie and our room (#5) looked a little like a cottage but cave style. We had some free time before dinner so I pretty much sat around and did nothing. Though I find a friendly stray cat to pet. (there was a running joke that all the stray animals are gypsies so we referred to every cat we saw as gypsy kitty… and don’t worry mom. I washed my hands!). We had dinner at the hotel that night and it was the best meal I’ve had on S@S so far. We had vegetable soup, Turkish ravioli, salad, and then rice and chicken. I have no idea what the dessert was but it looked like dried grass sitting in a pile on a plate covered in honey. It was pretty good though! We listened to sarah’s Turkish music CD while we ate and since ½ the group had gone into the tiny town for dinner there were only 7 of us. It was nice to be able to hear what everyone was saying and all have a big conversation instead of splitting into little separate conversations. After dinner I took a shower and then we had a bathrobe party on the terrace (aka we drank wine, played backgammin, used the free wifi!, and sat around in our bathrobes).


I'll try to finish the rest tomorrow but since i have a paper due in 2 days it might not happen. Its also harder to do this blog because the hard drive on my computer is almost full and so i had trouble uploading pictures and most of my pictures from Cappadocia got deleted off my camera and didn't upload properly so I can't remember a lot of the names of places and the order we did stuff in.

On the bright side, in 2 days i'm going to be in Egypt!!!! Oh and another thing is that Natalia is the coolest person ever and found us the most amazing apartment for next year!! EEEEEK!!!!

alrighty goodnight

MOM! Stop being impatient!! : )

An update is coming either tomorrow or the next day about Turkey and Bulgaria so it will include Istanbul, Cappadocia, and Varna.

Teaser: I went bungee jumping today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY S. BROOKS!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR S. BROOOOOOOOOOOKS!!!!!!!!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

I hope your day is fabulous!! Enjoy Harry potter for me (i'm jealous.) and to everyone else- if you see sarah today give her a HUGE hug for me!!!!!

Greece!!!

I’ve decided that I love Greece and I’m coming back one day when my bank doesn’t suck and I’m not confined to 4 days!!

Day 1:
I started Greece off by getting breakfast with my friends and then going to the purser’s desk every 15 minutes because my debit card had arrived but they hadn’t given it to me yet and every time I went they said “Come back in a few minutes we haven’t gotten to it.” So to kill some time before lunch me, Taryn, and Bridget went to find where the ferries were so that they could check out the prices and I could see where I had to go on day 2. After finding it we went back and ate lunch on the ship. Then a bunch of my friends headed out to the S@S trip to Athens and me, Courtney, and Taryn went to find the Metro and go to Athens. It was a really long walk but we finally found it and got our tickets. When we got on the Metro I was being a stupid tourist and I saw a ΧΩ on one the signs and a Greek guy saw me and started laughing I asked him what was funny and he asked me if I knew what the sign said and I said no and he said that the sign said something like keep the windows closed because the train is air conditioned. We ended up talking to him for a while about what to visit in Athens and what was best to eat while we were there.

When we got off the train at the Thissio stop (Alex is that spelled right?) we walked up the hill to the Acropolis. Greece was completely different than Italy. In Italy if you wanted to see a historical site they charged you for EVERYTHING. For example you had to pay to get to Vesuvius, for a bus ride up the volcano, for a ticket to climb up to the top, for the bathroom, for water, everything. At the Acropolis a student ID got you a half price ticket (only 6 euros!) and the ticket worked at about 6 different historical sites. Not to mention that while we were walking I stopped at a random café to get a cup of water and when I asked how much it was they laughed and said no charge. (Yay Greece!!). I loved the Acropolis! Courtney is taking an architecture class so she played tour guide and told us fun facts like the Parthenon was built for the goddess Athena and there used to be a huge gold statue of her in it. Also, it was built with a slight curve so that to the eye it would look straight. Those smart Greeks.

So after the Acropolis, the theater of some Greek god that starts with a D (Dionysus? Or something like that) and a bunch of other sites we did some touristy shopping and heard from a shop owner that there were some more historical sites one metro stop away. Once we paid and got down to the metro we realized we didn’t know which direction so we asked some randos and they pointed us in the right direction. When we got off the place we were going (I don’t remember the name) was already closed so we walked around until we found a place to eat. I had some kind of Kebap (haha! Aka a kabob) that was really good. After walking around a little bit and shopping a little more we headed back to the ship where I went to sleep right after getting my debit card that had FINALLY been processed.

Day 2:
I got up at 5:15 to catch a ferry to Mykonos with Georgina, Jill, and Courtney. We got to the ferry about 20 minutes early so I tried to take money out of an ATM and had an unpleasant surprise when my pin number didn’t work. Since I didn’t have a calling card and my friends offered to lend me money I didn’t worry about it right away.

After a 4 hour ferry ride (which was fun because there were a lot of S@S-ers to keep me entertained even though I forgot my iPod), we got to Mykonos and waited a long time for the bus for Villa Vissilias (the place where some friends of ours were staying and added us onto their reservation). The Villa was beautiful! It was all white and it had 3 bedrooms with 3 or 4 beds each (which was good because there were 9 of us) since we were all hungry we walked down the street and found a cute little bakery. They didn’t speak English there so we just pointed at stuff in the windows to pick what we wanted to eat. Since pretty much no stores on Mykonos took credit card (which I would have loved if I had money) Courtney paid for me. There was a fruit stand/store next door and when I went over to buy a banana the lady behind the desk gave me a mini greek lesson (Yasoo is to say hello to one person, yasass is for a bunch of people, and to say thank you you say efharisto… pardon the phonetic spelling).

 After lunch we headed back to the villa to get ready for the beach. We asked the lady who runs the villas, Maria, and her dad how to get there and they described a 20 minute walk down the road. It ended up being a 45 minute walk with lots of hills and crazy drivers but we finally got there. The beach was beautiful! The water was pretty nice but 2 girls I know had gotten there early and gotten stung by jellyfish so I was a little paranoid and made my friends swim in front of me and would swim really fast until I got to the deep water (apparently in the deep water they are farther down and can’t sting you).

We headed back after a while and I opted to walk with Courtney and Mehmet to save money. I forgot that since we had walked mostly downhill on the way to the beach it would be mostly uphill on the way back… So we finally got there and showered before heading out to get dinner. Since the bakery was closed we walked around until we found a grocery store and we all bought pizza, sandwich stuff, or pasta and I got cereal and chips as well for the next day (they took visa!!!!). When we got back our villa and the 2 other groups of S@S-ers who were staying at the same place cooked dinner in our villa because we were the only ones with a stove and oven. It was a lot of fun! Our villa was full of people cooking, playing cards, singing and dancing to an iPod, watching the sunset, sitting and relaxing, etc. it was my favorite park of Mykonos. After dinner we all hung out at the villa with the other S@S-ers and some Australians that were staying in the other villa and then went out.

Day 3:
We all got up at 10ish and had Alexa (one of my friends who is a fabulous cook) make us breakfast. Jill and Courtney left shortly after to catch a ferry back because they wanted to see more of Athens. I didn’t go because I didn’t want to go to the Olympic stadium but I shortly realized that since they left I only had 2.73€ left and I didn’t know the rest of the people in the villa well enough to borrow money (Georgina had ended up staying the night with one of her other friends).

I had some of my cereal for breakfast and then walked to the downtown with some of the other S@S-ers. They wanted to go shopping so I told them I was going to find a pay phone and I’d meet up with them later. It took me forever to figure out the pay phone. The first one I went to you had to buy a special card for and so I went to an exchange place to ask how to use it and they said to buy a phone card but the mini-mart they sent me to didn’t take visa but luckily I ran into one of my friends, Justine, and she lent me 5 euros to get a phone card. When I tried the phone again it didn’t work so I asked a random person who walked by and luckily spoke English and greek why and they said there was a phone error. I walked around until I found another phone and this one had instructions on how to place a collect call on it and I called the number Chase bank had given me when I called to tell them my itinerary. I asked the lady if my card had been activated and if the pin number was still correct and she informed me that yes it was activated but my pin number had been changed by Chase even though it isn’t supposed to be when you get a new card and that they couldn’t tell me my own pin number to protect my account and the only way I could get money was to take my passport and card to a bank to get money except that this would cost a 10% commission cost. So after some not nice language I hung up on the lady and attempted to call my house only to realize that you can’t leave a message on a collect call. So I tried Natalia’s phone but I think her number got changed when she got an iPhone because it didn’t work. Since I couldn’t remember the number for my families summer cabin and I don’t have my aunt’s number memorized and I had left my passport on the ship thinking it would be smart for it not to get stolen and my friends had all either not gone to town, were back at the ship, or were shopping I ended up completely alone with no money and unable to call anyone in a country where I can’t speak the language. I ended up walking around Mykonos crying and ended up getting lost. I saw a shop that had a visa sign and I went in to see if they sold any snacks because all I’d eaten was some cereal but they didn’t so I bought some stamps and the nice lady tried to get me to smile (I ended up buying a ring as well because she was really nice and I wanted to give her some business).

I finally found some people I knew but they kept stopping to shop and I wanted to get back to the villa and get my stuff so I could change my ferry to that day so they pointed me in the right direction and I walked the 5 km back to the villa where it was locked. So I found maria’s dad and he opened for me and as I was opening the door some of my friends came back from where ever they had been and Georgina was with them so we both grabbed our stuff and Maria’s dad nicely drove us to the new port to catch a ferry. We ran into 2 S@S-ers there one of which had a ticket for the 5:00 ferry and one of which was trying to change his as well. When we tried to get on the ferry the lady said we had to talk to this other guy. Luckily the S@S-er who was trying to change his ticket speaks greek so he did the talking. The man told us we had to go to the downtown area to change our tickets at the office or to get money out of an ATM (there wasn’t an office or ATM at the new port) but since the 5:00 ferry was the only one to Pireaus on that day and we only had a ½ hour until it left we decided to walk back to the ferry. This time I did the talking and found someone who spoke English and explained that we didn’t have any cash and our tickets were for tomorrow and asked if they knew of any other way to get back to Pireaus on that day and the guy agreed that we could ride back on the ferry and he would go with us to an ATM when we got off. Luckily about ½ way through the ride Nick found his emergency money so we could pay the guy on the ferry and I now owe Nick money too. We got back at about 9:00 and went right back to the ship since we were both starving (I’d only eaten the cereal earlier in the day) so I got back and had the single best burger I have ever eaten in my life and then called mom and aunt and we figure out what to do about money. And then I went to bed early because I was tired.

Day 4:
As horrible as day 3 was is how perfect day 4 was. I got up in time for breakfast and then got my computer and found the free wifi spot I had been hearing about for days. After spending some time on facebook and checking my regular email I went to a bank to try the visa pin number my mom had given me and IT WORKED!!!! I was so relieved that I could finally get money and pay back Courtney, Mehmet, Justine, Georgina, Nick, and Justin. I went to the grocery store after to get some junk food (S@S has the whole healthy food thing covered) and then I went back to the ship in time for lunch. After lunch me and Jill went to Athens because she never had a chance to do her tourist shopping. It was fun walking through the stores and making fun of some of the ridiculous clothes we saw and I ended up buying a pair of sandals because they were handmade by the guy who was selling them to me. We got back to the ship before the line to get our bags checked and swipe in got long and I had just enough time to write my postcards and send them before it was dinner time.

Life lessons learned in Greece:
-       Greek food= YUM!!!
-       Find a bank that takes just as good care of their customers and they take of their customer’s money (I’m looking for one… any suggestions?)
-       ALWAYS put sunscreen on your feet.

The next stop is Turkey and my plans are…

Day 1: Go to the giant market thing and maybe some palaces.
Day 2: Capadoccia
Day 3: Capadoccia
Day 4: Capadoccia
Day 5: TBD maybe visit the aquaduct or the Turkish baths… not real sure yet. Mehmet speaks Turkish and is from Cyprus so maybe I’ll ask him

Dubrovnik!!!

I LOVE CROATIA!!! I’d move there but then I would miss Chicago…

Before I get into what I did in Croatia I wanted to write down some things that I want to remember. I’ve noticed that hamburger, bus, no, and Disney are the same in every language! And according to Bridget so is magenta but I haven’t said that word in any of the countries yet. I’m keeping my eyes out for more so I’ll keep you updated. Also, I’ve noticed that the further we get into the voyage the more delightfully ridiculous the S@Sers are getting. For example, there are now running jokes about Dia (the assistant dean of students) and Roman (the captain… who by the way doesn’t even pilot the ship. It pretty much runs on auto pilot) having a love affair and people using their pillows as shields and running down the hallway and crashing into people. I love it! Its like summer camp but better. Yay S@S!

And onto croatia!
Day 1:
This day was Bridget’s (my roommate) 21st birthday!! So the first thing we did in the morning was get off the ship and get a beer. My first impression of Croatia, besides the clear water and beautiful mountains, was that a lot of people speak English. Their national language is Croatian but all the waiters/waitresses spoke English and explained Kuna to me. The Croatian currency is Kuna and the exchange rate is 5 kuna to a dollar aka. I’m a kunanaire! After sitting at the café (which was in the port… we didn’t get real far) for a while we went for a little walk toward the old town. Cadiz spoiled us and we assumed that most of the ports would be near the old historical parts of each port city but that is dead wrong. It was a 30-40 minute walk to get to the old town (ew). Since only me and Georgina had S@S trips and Bridget, Taryn, and Justine didn’t, me and Georgina went back to the ship a lot earlier than them. My trip was packed! We had about 5 buses of 40 students. We drove up the mountains to this one point where there were pretty views of Dubrovnik. The tour guide was adorable and said, “We start with nice drive up to mountains so you can have Kodak moment.” On the way up she told us random information about Dubrovnik. For example, its patron saint is Saint Blaise, the patron saint of throat diseases. On February 3rd (St. Blaise’s holiday) everyone, including exiled outlaws, go to the cities center to get their throats blessed by a priest. I thought that was hilarious so I bought a St. Blaise statue. If you ever have throat issues come visit me! When we got to the picture spot me and Georgina ended up standing on the guard rail thingy so that we could get better pictures. Then we drove to the actual old town and went on a tour of the city walls. The town is really old and so the walls were built to protect it from invaders. A lot of them were damaged in the early 90’s when the Yugoslav army attacked Dubrovnik. They had a really sad map that showed everywhere a bomb/missile (I don’t know the difference… are those the same thing?) landed and all the buildings that had burnt down. Our tour guide said that the whole town is still really sensitive about it. The walls were awesome! They have beautiful views of the city with the ocean in the background and at one point you can go really high into this old fortress and go into this little room that I call the Batcave (too much time with Zane I think…). The tour was fun but the tour guide was slow so me, Georgina, and Lexi decided to walk ahead. When we got to the ocean side of the walls we saw some people jumping off the cliffs into the Adriatic sea. We wanted to join in but I was a party pooper and forgot my swim suit. So we went and got gelato instead. After that we had to meet our tour guide for the bus ride back. When we got back we got dinner and got ready and went out for Bridget’s birthday.

Day 2:
We all decided to sleep in a bit on this day and when we woke up the ship was already tendering. Because Dubrovnik is such a popular port there were a lot of ships that needed to dock so the M/V Explorer went and anchored a little off port and we took little boats called tenders back to port. Me, Courtney, and Jill took one together right after lunch and then Taryn and Georgina met us on the dock. Since Jill, Courtney, and Georgina had an FDP, me and Taryn had to figure out what we wanted to do for the day. We decided to check out this tourist store where you could rent kayaks, buy ferry tickets, rent jet skis, etc. We decided on a ferry to an island and we asked when they were leaving and they said now (1:30) or 4:30 so we ran to catch the ferry before it left. They had just untied when we got there so we asked if we could get on and they said sure and pretty much pulled us up and then they asked what island we were going to and we said any island. We bought tickets and sat down and figured we’d just get off at any island when our friend Will who we had hung out with the day before came up and said him and his friends were sitting 2 rows behind us so we went and sat by them and asked them what island was best and they said the second island called Lopud. We got off and walked to the new beach which was GORGEOUS!! We had to walk over a big hill to get there and were gross and sweaty by the time we got there but it was worth it. The waves were huge so after we found a place to leave our stuff we went in and body surfed for a while. Then the guys (Aaron, Will, Casey, PJ, and Will) decided that they were going to launch each other into the waves. It was really funny because they flew so high! I only went twice since I was wear a bikini and they aren’t exactly made for falling into waves. After that we went to the restaurant and got burgers and I got a milkshake (yay!) we sat around for a while and just enjoyed the beach and then we walked back so that we could see the ferry when it came again. We were a little early so we went swimming on the beach on the other side of the island. It was strange because the water was really calm on that side so we just floated around for a while and skipped rocks. When there ferry came we got on and since it was the last one of the day it was packed and we ended up sitting on the front where there weren’t any seats. It was a beautiful ride back and when we got back to the dock the ship wasn’t tendering any more so we didn’t have to wait for another boat. So then we all showered and ate dinner and then some people went out but I was really tired so I went to bed early.

Day 3:
I had an S@S trip to Montenegro this day so I got up early and sat on a bus for 3 hours for the drive to Montenegro. Thank goodness I have the best little sister in the world and she gave me a bunch of CD’s for big sis reveal or I’d have been bored out of my mind! I got in trouble for taking a picture at the border too… oops. We stopped at this little medieval town called Kotor fist. We went to the old fortress and got a tour and then had a whole 15 minutes of free time! (that was sarcastic…). I ended up sitting at a café with 2 of my friends (both named sarah) and talking to the tour guide about the differences between Montenegro and America for one of my classes. Then we got back on the bus and drove up the mountain for about 3 hours (ew) it was beautiful but they only let us out twice, once to take pictures and once to sit in this cute little village and have a snack of ham and cheese on bread. That is pretty popular snack in Europe and that would be fine but the ham isn’t that great (its like mildy cooked bacon and its really hard to chew). So then after too little time in the cute little village we got back on the buses for another hour and a half to go to the main tourist town for lunch. I can’t remember the name of the town because I didn’t like it. The waiter at the restaurant ignored my table pretty much the whole time and when we finally got the lunch paid for by S@S it was mashed potatoes out of a box, soggy peas, soggy carrots, and chicken that was so hard I couldn’t cut it. I was a little crabby about this and then I remembered that Montenegro is a pretty poor country with 30% unemployment and that was probably a really good meal for their country and then I felt bad and ate the food. After dinner we had 45 minutes to walk around but the area we were in was overrun by tourist shops and so it wasn’t very interesting. So then we got back 1 ½ hours late so I got ready really fast and went out with my friends.

Day 4:
I got up super early for some reason on this day and went to the market to get groceries (aka pop). I liked grocery shopping in a foreign country because it was cool to see signs and foods similar to the US but in a different language with slightly different food. So then I got back to the ship and Bridget was awake so me, her, and Taryn went to get lunch. We went to this little sandwich shop and ordered kabobs and strangely they handed us huge sandwiches with gyros meat on it. They were delicious though! They let us pick the toppings so I got lettuce, tomatoes, corn, mayo, and some random other sauce that tasted kind of garlicy. So then we walked over to the old town and I finally got to jump off a cliff!! We had to walk through these curvy and confusing streets to find this bar that was on the outside of the city walls and so we went down and I went first from the higher cliff (40ish feet). I was pretty scared but I didn’t want to wait long to go because then I’d chicken out so I jumped and it was SO MUCH FUN! So then Taryn went off the shorter one (25ish/30ish feet) and then a guy was in line before Bridget. He was really nervous and stood there for a long time so Bridget went and talked to him and said she’d go really fast and show him where to stand and stuff and then we all cheered for him and did a count down for him to go. So then he finally went but when he got in the water he started splashing a lot and after being a lifeguard for 3 years I knew he needed help so I went and got him and dragged him over to Bridget and the two of us same him over to the rocks while Taryn climbed out so that she could help pull him up. On the way there Bridget asked if he could swim and he said, “Not really.”… Ok. Seriously? What kind of dummy jumps off a cliff into the Adriatic sea if they can’t swim?!? So after that we stood around for a while to dry off in the sun and watched other people jump. We ended up meeting some dancers on the Holland America cruise line. They were really funny because they were all scared so I told them it was like a grand jete with water at the end and they for some reason thought that was hilarious and all jumped off… so then we did some touristy shopping and got some more gelato (yum!) and went to take the bus back to the ship. The bus SUCKED. It was packed with people and it smelled horrible and it was so hot but there was no air conditioning. We ended up getting off a couple stops early and walking. The bus was so hot that the air outside actually felt cool! When we got back we got our computers and attempted to get some internet but it didn’t go well because everyone was doing the same thing. So I gave up and went to send out my postcards before on ship time.

Now we have 2 ship days, one of class and one for the Sea Olympics, before Greece. I had a test today in my second class and I’m normally fast when I take tests so I got out after 20 minutes and now I’m really bored. I already took a nap, watched a movie, and did laundry and now I’m pretty much done with my blog and I still have 2 hours until I got watch Ryder…

My only S@S trip for Greece (a service trip to a children’s village) got canceled because of some complication with the people at the village. I’m pretty bummed about that one because I was really excited about it but its fine because now I’ll just spend another day in Mykonos.

My plans are…
Day 1: Athens
Day 2: Mykonos
Day 3: Mykonos
Day 4: either Mykonos or back to the ship… I haven’t decided yet
Day 5: I can’t remember if we have 4 or 5 days in port so I’m not even sure if there is a day 5.