The End

变动.

This is the Chinese word for change. And walking off the ship for the last time, back into the real world, I realized I had changed. Physically, emotionally, spiritually- this trip had molded me into a new person in just under 4 months. I now knew what it meant to look poverty in the face and feel completely powerless to stop it. I knew what death smelled like and what real fear was. But I also found out what happiness was; what it feels like to stand on the edge of my future and not know what may lie ahead. Looking at the sunrise over Florida on that last morning, I didn't know exactly what these changes would mean for me in the months or years to come, but I knew that they would come- eventually.

I knew that the world I had left, what seemed like a lifetime ago, would now be different. Like an old pair of jeans that doesn't quite fit anymore. And I had thought that maybe the people who I'd known and loved for my entire life just wouldn't understand me anymore. On the ship, my friends and fellow shipmates really got me. They, too, knew what India smelled like, and how amazing a sunrise in South Africa was really like. The people at home....wouldn't. If I needed something on the ship, there was no doubt that someone would be there- only a few doors away. Whereas at home, communication has been reduced to e-mailing or texting each other. Our executive dean, Les McCabe, always quoted the Archbishop Desmond Tutu by saying, "Ubuntu", which roughly means "people are people through other people". I knew that the people I had met- Kelvin, the cab driver from South Africa; Samak, the orphan from Cambodia- had made me the person I have become today. Watching the ship pull into the last harbor, my new friends- no, my new family, stood there in silence not saying anything for fear of time running out. All feeling as though there was a rug under our feet being pulled out slowly, with no way to stop it. I, along with everyone else, was in denial of this chapter of our life coming to a close...fearful, excited, and anxious for what was to come. We all knew our lives would never be the same. How could they after this amazing journey? After our Semester at Sea.....

Home

Hey everyone...

We're home. Can't believe it's over.... We'll update soon with the last few days on the ship and extra thoughts and such soon, but until then, just wanted to let everyone know to e-mail us at these addresses from now on: sshields_007@yahoo.com, shield41@msu.edu. Also, our new phone numbers are: Sarah- (269)274-4890, Kate- (269)274-5783.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and leaving comments!! It was an amazing adventure, but now it's only the beginning, so stay tuned :-)

-K & S

Guatemala

The last port. The last country. The last adventure....

Guatemala was amazing! But before we got there, this was the country everyone kind of forgot about. It was right around finals, we had already been back to the US (Hawaii), and it was at the end of the voyage. And on top of that, everyone scared the crap out of us before we arrived, saying that it was on its way to being a failed state, the situation was unstable, and that we would most likely be robbed or mugged while there. So this was a port that we all had somewhat lower expectations for. But I think that's why it turned out to be so great- it was ten times better than we could've ever thought it would be!

Two nights before we arrived, one of our fellow students, Eric, gave a fantastic pre-port that told us all about it, showed us what it looked like, and what to do when we get there. We had really no idea what we were going to do, and the night before we arrived, we (the five of us) were invited by John (one of the ship's doctors) and his wife, Sage, to go ziplining with them and their extended family. So, the first morning, after the diplomatic briefing (again, scaring us into basically staying on the ship), we boarded a shuttle to Antigua, which is about an hour and a half away. We slept the whole way, and we were there at around 11 am. The tour company wasn't coming to pick us up until 1:30, so we had some free time to look around. Antigua is a beautiful city! It is paved with cobblestone streets, the buildings are all colorful, and the people are so nice. One of our friends, Jen, came with us, and we ate at a great restaurant and talked for a while. We all walked around the town square and shopped for a little bit, and then went to the trucks to go up the mountain to zipline! These trucks looked like safari vehicles- open air utility trucks with a canvas top- and we drove these the twenty minutes or so to the company's location in the mountains surrounding Antigua. On the same property is a coffee farm, so we saw the SAS trip, and once we had all paid and ready to go, we started our ascent to the top. There were about 17 of us at this point, and we all sat in the scary trucks that drove on very narrow roads, close to the edge of cliffs, up to 6,000 ft where the ziplines were. We got suited up in harnesses (which looked very good on us, if you wanna know), and they gave us a little instruction before we just started going. It was so much fun! We were surrounded by trees and lush greenery on all sides, not to mention we were on top of a mountain! Ziplining was really exhilarating and a little scary, but we all had such a good time! We did 6 regular lines, about 100-200 meters, and then we got to go on the "Canyon Express", which is a 500 meter line from one mountain to the other and then back again. It was awesome!! I was the first to go, and they just pushed me off of the platform and I sailed through the air, looking down at the valley where the town of Antigua stayed tucked away, and the wind was rushing through my ears- I was going so fast. The best part was hearing people come across, especially Emmett, who screamed like a girl and kicked his legs out like a bicycle! It was definitely an experience! We were all full of adrenaline and excited that we just got to do ziplining in Guatemala! We said thank you to the tour guides (they were sooo nice!) and made our way back down the mountain and into Antigua. From there, we had about 3 hours until the shuttle back to the ship was leaving, so we had pizza and walked around. The interesting thing was that everything closed at 8 o'clock or earlier. We were getting ice cream and the shop we were in closed before we were even done, and our plan to go shopping was ruined when the market, and every other shop, closed as well. So we ended up walking around the square, meeting and talking with other SASers who were waiting, and playing funny word games. The shuttle came, and we drove back to the ship, exhausted from the day. On our way, we saw a volcano (I believe it was Fuego) that was erupting. Antigua is surrounded by volcanoes, and some of them are still active. The lava was shooting out of it, and the fire blazed against the contrasting night sky. It was an amazing sight to see!! Back on the ship, we hung out with the girls and Pat, and said goodbye to Joan, who was leaving the next day.

The next morning, our plan was to stand in line and see if we could get tickets to climb Pacaya volcano. Victoria, Stephanie, Amy, and Pat already had tickets, so we got out there at 6:45 to see if there were extra seats on the bus. It turns out we were not the only ones with that plan because we ended up being 4th and 5th in line. We waited and waited, and at 7:15, Kate O. told us that they could only take 4 of us. And since we didn't want to split up, the first three got to go, and we were left on the pier, waving pitifully at the girls and trying to decide what we were going to do. There was another trip leaving at 8:30 that was going on a service visit to Camino Seguro (Safe Passage) in Guatemala City, so we decided we were going to try and get on that one. We went inside, hung out for a while, and then went back out and stood in line- again. After only about ten minutes, though, Kate told us that we could hop on because some people hadn't shown up. Yay! So all of a sudden, we had new plans, and we were on our way to the capital led by one of the professors on the ship, Mark Shadle. When we got there, we were taken to the city dump, in the middle of zone 3, where thousands of people work everyday (they are called huejeros) to pick through the trash. They find anything they can- cardboard, plastic, clothes- and resell it to companies or other people for a minimal amount of money. They even take out old food that's been thrown in there, re-cook it, and sell it to the other workers there. There is a market economy down in the dump, which means these people could dig through the waste and chemicals for 6 hours one day and not make anything, if people aren't buying what they're trying to sell that day. The dump is about 10-12 km long, and we were standing at the edge of it, looking down into a very steep ravine at all of these people walking through garbage, just trying to make a living. We stayed there with our guides and asked a ton of questions, and then we drove to a different zone, at the opposite end of the dump, to see the Camino Seguro facilities. The first building we went to was the gymnasium (where the kids are taught to play basketball, lacrosse, an even break dance!), the pre-school rooms and playground, one of the cafeterias- where the kids are fed most likely their only meal of the day, and some of their offices. The kids were so adorable! We played with them on the playground, and they were fascinated with our cameras, so we took a lot of pictures. After we were done there, we drove to their final facility, which is their main building. This houses the grade school to high school kids, another cafeteria, the mothers' building, and the clinic, which is run by Bayer. The children come after school- about 1:30 or so- and eat lunch, do homework, and take English classes. Then they have time to be kids for the rest of the afternoon before they return home. The mothers' building was a new addition a few years ago, and they have the moms of the kids in the program come in throughout the week to learn English, math, reading and writing, and other things. This enables them to get ahead in life and get a job that allows them to not have to work in the dump. The program works around their schedule, and it gets the family and community involved instead of just the kids. Just recently, actually, the mothers started making jewelry out of material they would find in the dump (magazines, plastic, etc), and people who would come to the building started to notice it and wanted to know if they could buy it. So the moms got together and started a business...all by themselves. They were taught how to run the meetings, keep inventory, balance the accounting part of it, and the business just took off. Now they sell their jewelry to the U.S. and around Guatemala, and they are making more money than they did working in the dump, so most of them don't work more than one or two days a week there anymore. We got to see some of their jewelry, and we all bought A LOT of it. They were so excited! Now that I've told you about the program, let me tell you how it all got started. Hanley Denning, who lived in Maine, was in Guatemala studying Spanish for a few years, and a week before she was supposed to leave, a friend brought her to the dump and showed it to her. At this time, in 1999, the kids were all still working in the dump, some as young as 3 years old, and she felt like she had to do something. So she called her parents back in Maine, told them to sell all of her stuff- car, computer, everything- and with the profits from that she started Safe Passage. At the beginning, there were only about 50 children, and it slowly started to grow. They added the new buildings, and the program started to gain interest and funding. The, in January 2007, Hanley was killed in a car accident in Antigua. Everyone back in the U.S. heard about what she had been trying to do, so that year, the program got millions of dollars in donations and sponsorships, and they were able to add families. Now they have almost 600 kids, which is great because you can actually see that helping the whole community, instead of just one or two kids. I was so glad we got to go and see it, and I hope that we can volunteer for them or with them sometime in the future! After we left Camino Seguro, we drove back to the ship, sleeping the whole 2 hours, and when we got back, it was only 4:30. So we decided to go out to dinner, and Kevin, Amy, and Ellie were getting ready to go out. In Puerto Quetzal (where we were docked), there is nothing to do- it's all farmlands and industrial complexes. We decided to take a cab to the restaurant on the other side of the port area, and we got caught in a nasty rainstorm. We watched the lightning out over the water during dinner...it was pretty cool. Until the power went out at the restaurant. haha. But we still had a great time, and when we got back, we got some homework done and hung out on the ship until we went to sleep.

The next morning (last day), we got up at 6, had a little breakfast, and met for our mountain biking trip. We had two busses, and we left for Antigua at 7. Kate and I (and the rest of the bus) fell asleep on the way there. About 45 minutes into it, we hear our driver yelling and our bus started to swerve and brake really hard. We woke up just in time to see a chicken bus (the really crowded busses that the locals ride in) slam into an 18-wheeler. It turns out that the chicken busses had tried to pass one of our busses, and the semi-truck was in the oncoming lane. So it swerved, trying to avoid a collision, jack-knifed, and the bus ran right into the back end of it. It was crazy! The truck was blocking the entire road, so we just sat and watched all the people on the bus jump out, some bleeding, carrying all of their stuff. Our guide and one of the videographers, Skye Fitzgerald, ran out immediately to try and help, and we gave them our water and any first aid stuff we had on the bus. After about a half-hour, they moved the truck and we were finally able to continue the drive. None of us slept after that, we all just watched the road like a hawk, and we narrowly avoided two more accidents involving chicken busses. Needless to say, we were all very excited to get to Antigua in one piece. We went to a building where they were storing all of the bikes, then found one that fit each of us, grabbed our helmets, and we were off. Antigua is made up of cobblestone streets, and if you've never ridden a bike on them, let me tell you- it's tough! You pedal really hard and only get two feet. We rode through the streets, on highways, to 3 or 4 different villages and towns. It was amazing! We even got to see the oldest church in Guatemala and the place where our guide proposed to his wife! The surrounding areas are lush and green, and the little towns were adorable and tucked into the mountainsides. We were having so much fun!! And then......Kate decided to flip over her handlebars. We were on a dirt path, and I guess she hit a rock or something and went flying. She's okay...she got a huge scrape on her arm, and a few more bruises and cuts all over her left side. But she laughed it off and kept riding. And now she has a great battle wound/souvenir from the last port. haha. So after that, we kept riding, and it was brutal!! We were all huffing and puffing, and we thought our legs were going to fall off! I don't know why we signed up for it, since we all knew we were out of shape being on the ship, but we did, and we were struggling. We went up really steep hills and through hard terrain. But that's what made it really fun! We were all dying together, and it turned out to be a great bonding experience. We were all so happy when we got done! Except none of us could walk! We had a little bit of free time in Antigua after we got done, so a bunch of us went out to lunch and got some last minute shopping done before getting back on the busses. As soon as we got on the busses, we all passed out, and didn't wake up again until we pulled into port. It was about 5 o'clock, and on-ship time is 6, so when we got there, there was gigantically long line! There had to be at least a couple hundred people waiting to get on the ship! But since we were on an SAS trip, we knew we couldn't get dock time, which was nice. We waited in line and saw everyone coming back form their trips, and eventually, we took one last walk up the gangway in time to send postcards and take showers before dinner. Then we all stood out on the back deck and watched as the ship slowly pulled away. There was a lot of hugging and picture-taking because we all knew that the next time we stepped off the ship, it would be in the United States. I can't believe it.

Guatemala quickly became one of our favorite countries...probably because we didn't have any expectations, and probably because it was a TON of fun. We are really glad we got to go there and hope that we can go back one day and bring some of our friends. I know everyone would love it! Stay tuned for an entry about everything that's been going on on the ship since we've been back soon...

Miss and love you!!!!!

K & S

From the Middle of the Pacific

4/26/09

So we’ve been at sea for a loooong time. Sixteen days in all, with a brief but welcomed stop in Hawaii. There’s a lot going on on the ship…enough to keep us very busy every day! We went on a bridge tour, which was so cool! They take you up to the front and out onto the bridge, and we got to learn about all of the controls, look out the front windows for pirates ;-) and even sit in the captain’s chair! Dad- you would’ve been proud- we were talking with the first officer in boating terms. It was a lot of fun, and I’m glad we got to do it. We went to see the shipboard play a few days ago. It was a Greek tragedy, and we didn’t really get what was going on the whole time, but the acting was phenomenal, and we all liked it. We also had our sea social for the Bering Sea. The food was great- spring rolls, ice cream, mini hamburgers, cookies, chips & salsa…it was all delicious and we were very excited! We went up to the faculty/staff lounge and ate until our pants were tight. Yummy! We officially finished up classes, which is an amazing feeling, but also sad. No one can believe the voyage is almost over. And yet it seems like January was a different lifetime. The other night, we had a small reflection-type thing where some students, staff, and faculty members got together and talked through what the ending of the trip would feel like. It was good to get some perspective from a few of the staff that had been on it before, and they gave us some great advice. We have a full reflection/re-entry day on May 4th, so this was just a preview, but it was really great of them to do it for us.

A few nights ago, we had formal dining (by “we” I mean the twins, Pat, and us). You have to sign up for it in advance, and everyone gets dressed up and goes downstairs to classroom 9 where they have nice tables and tablecloths set up. When you sit down, they serve you champagne, and you get the choice of meals that are all fancy, and it consists of five courses! We all ordered the spring rolls, garden salad, beef & broccoli soup, herb chicken stuffed with spinach and cheese, and ice cream cake delight for dessert. It was fantastic! We were all dressed up, and the food was absolutely delicious and not like regular ship-food at all!

My extended family had a card night, and we played hearts for almost 3 hours! It was so much fun, and I’m really going to miss seeing them all the time around the ship and for “after-country” dinners on the 6th floor. Joan, the nurse, is leaving in Guatemala because she has an award to accept in New York City, so we had a surprise going away party for her. Her extended family told her they wanted to have a game-day, so she shows up, and about 30 of us were in the room yelling surprise, and she had a scorecard with her because she was ready to play cards! It was awesome! She is such a sweetheart, and we all will miss her so much! The last evening church service was last night, and Luke went up and spoke about the trip and how God changed him and others along the way, and it was really powerful. There’s going to be one more morning service on Panama Canal Day. Our movie night was SO fun! We got popcorn and sodas, about 12 people showed up (Stephanie, Victoria, Kelly, Greg, Phil, Brian, Patrick, Mike, Rachel, Amy, Eric, and Jose), and we watched Wedding Crashers! It was hilarious. I love that movie!!

Speaking of movies, we have all been really excited because they have been showing good movies on the loop! The Breakfast Club, Clueless, AND Ferris Bueller’s Day Off were on! We, of course, watched the last one three times in a row, and it was fabulous. It’s funny the things we are all amused by on the ship! Other things going on: we’ve been playing with Ellie a lot (what’s new?), and she has grown up so much! She talks all the time now, she’s super smart, and has the best manners. Every morning, she knocks on our door for breakfast and we eat together, and then we play until Global Studies. Then, we usually play with her until her naptime if we don’t have class, and she always comes to visit me when I’m working. Her favorite thing to do is play hide-and-seek behind the stacks of books. She’s absolutely adorable, and we’re going to miss her sooo much! We had our last Global Studies exam, which was horrible, and a lifeboat drill, which wasn’t too bad. We’ve been losing a LOT of sleep, and everyone is so tired from the constant jet lag. Other than that, we’ve just been getting ready to take finals and planning for Guatemala. We’re not entirely sure what we’re doing yet, but anything should be fun! We’ll let you know when we get back!!

Miss you and love you all!

-K & S

Pictures

We know you've all been waiting, so here you go...



Angkor Wat at sunrise. Siem reap, Cambodia


The MV docked in Hong Kong harbor


Our wonderful guide, Tony, with Tara and us before leaving Beijing


The whole group of us in Shanghai: the twins, Kevin, Amy, and Ellie. Pat's taking the picture.


Movie night! Watching Mulan after leaving China with Greg, Patrick, Victoria, and Stephanie


Kelly, Alex, and us at the baseball game in Yokohama, Japan


The girls, Kate & I at a garden in Tokyo, Japan


Sunset in the middle of the Pacific


Skydiving!!

That's all for now. Enjoy!

Aloha!

Hawaii.

Beautiful.

Those two words go together like peanut butter and jelly (mmm). Hawaii is a tropical paradise, and the weather while we were there was absolutely perfect, which made it all the more amazing! We were docked on Oahu, in the city of Honolulu, and we pulled in at about 6 am on Sunday. Because it’s Hawaii, and because we haven’t done it enough on this trip, we woke up for the sunrise at about 5:40 that morning and went out on deck 7. There were already a few people out there on their cell phones (being back in the US, most people’s cell phones worked again), and we ended up not being able to see the sunrise because it was blocked by all the tall buildings downtown. But it was quiet and serene, and we were very excited about being on American soil again. At about 6:05, we heard a song being played and didn’t know where it was coming from until we heard Luke’s voice on the loudspeaker saying, “Wakey wakey…it’s time to get up. Rise and shine!!” The song was, very fittingly, “Living in America”. It was quite hilarious to us since we were already awake, but I’m sure some people on the ship were not too happy about it! The reason we were woken up so early was because the immigration process was going to take such a long time. We had to go up to the faculty/staff lounge and complete a face-to-face inspection with the customs officials. They started calling the seas, and Kate and I waited patiently in the library until our sea was called….last. We didn’t get done until 7:30, and by that time, everyone was up and eating breakfast. So we went to eat breakfast after that, and everyone was in the dining hall. And I mean everyone. The line on both sides went out the door to the deck, and people were eating standing up because there weren’t enough tables. So we decided to wait and get ready first. We took showers, got dressed, and got everything together that we would need for the day, and then ate some fruit loops in the dining hall. It was so funny to walk around the ship because literally all you would see were people on their cell phones. Everywhere you looked, there was someone talking, or shouting, into their phone, and Jerry (the videographer) even got people to line up on the back deck while talking, and he ran down the line with his camera to capture the cell phone madness. We didn’t have a cell phone so we felt a little out of place, but it was still funny to watch! We did borrow a friend’s cell phone to call Mom, and it was great to talk to her without a delay for once. It almost felt normal to talk to her again, like it was no big deal, even though it’s been hard to do the past few months.

A few days before docking in Hawaii, we had decided to go surfing with my boss, Lisa, and two other girls who also work in the library. She set it up with firefighters ;-) who were going to teach us how to surf, and we were all pretty excited. However, when Lisa called them to ask when we would be picked up, they cancelled. They didn’t even really give her a reason, so we were bummed. But, making lemonade out of lemons, Kate and I decided to go skydiving instead. So we met up with a bunch of other people who were taking a shuttle out to the place and headed out. It took about 45 minutes to get there, and on the way, our driver played a bunch of new songs we hadn’t yet heard (new to us, he said they were old because they came out in February). It was strange to have a driver who spoke English- usually they don’t talk to us so this was a real treat to be able to ask him questions and talk to him. The drive was really fun! Once we got there, we saw people falling from the sky trailed by huge parachutes, and we started to get really nervous. Not to mention, right after we got there, we had to sign our life away. They literally had forms that said, “If you agree not to sue us if you get injured or die, sign here”, and they outlined how you could get injured on the next page. It was pretty crazy, but we were all so excited. So we waited a few minutes, and a few people got called to go. They got suited up, ran to the plane, and about 15 minutes later, we saw them coming down and landing in the field. We waited for more people’s names to be called, and then we waited, and waited, and waited some more. Eventually they said that the trade winds had picked up, which was dangerous, so they were waiting until they calmed down. So we got some ice cream and hung around talking for about two hours. We used our friend Laura’s phone and called Anna. It was great to talk to her!! We told her what we were doing and she didn’t believe us at all! Then we basically spent the rest of the time talking about how much we missed each other. It was awesome. After almost three hours, the people in charge said they were canceling any more jumps for the day, and that we would need to reschedule. So we set up for a van to come pick some of us up at 6 am the next day, but because Kate & I, and a few other people, had a trip in the morning, we asked to be picked up at 1 pm. We drove back to the ship and had some lunch, and then Kate and I went to help out with an open ship program that we had agreed to be a part of.

The program allows potential students and parents to come see the ship, ask questions, and get a tour, and they needed us there to help out. There turned out to be about 15 people, and the director, Marty, talked about ISE and Semester at Sea for a little while before showing a promotional video that we had all watched about 100 times before coming on the voyage. A few other SASers showed up to help, too, and we were talking about how weird it was to be watching the video again after being on the ship and in the middle of our voyage. It was a very strange feeling. At the end, they show students getting off in Florida, reuniting with their parents and family members, and it was so sad. Jillian, Kate, and I started tearing up because we knew that would soon be us, and we didn’t want to think about it. After the video, we got asked a lot of questions- everything from classes to the food to what our favorite port was. It was cool to talk about our experience with people who didn’t know what it felt like, but at the same time, it was hard. We could try to describe how amazing the Taj Mahal or Angkor Wat was to see, or how it felt to talk to the children in Khayelitsha, but they didn’t really understand. It was definitely a preview of how it’s going to be to go home and try to tell everyone about this spring. At the end of the session, we all gave tours, which was easy. It felt like last summer again! I was able to answer all of their questions and relate my own experiences about what it was really like to live on a ship for 4 months. Altogether, the program went well, and I would love to do it again for anyone who’s looking at possibly doing SAS in the future because it’s an amazing experience, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone! The rest of our night was spent walking around Honolulu downtown and Waikiki, eating at Planet Hollywood (very cool), and just relaxing. We got back to the ship at around midnight and slept until our alarm went off at 6:45 am.

Monday morning, we woke up, ate breakfast with our neighbors, and then boarded a bus to go on a SAS trip to Pearl Harbor. This was one of the places Kate and I were so looking forward to going on the trip because, as you know, we are huge history buffs, and WWII is our favorite time period. So we drove to the memorial, got our tickets, and were ushered into a theatre to watch a video explaining Pearl Harbor, what led up to it, and what happened on that day in 1941. The movie, which lasted about 23 minutes, was excellent. It was very objective, just stating the facts, and it included a ton of footage from that time period and the actual day of the attacks. It was very interesting, and I like it a lot! After it finished, we got on a shuttle boat that drove us out to the Arizona memorial. The weather was beautiful, the water was calm, and it was hard to imagine what had happened almost 68 years ago. The destruction, fires, and death that had taken place back then was a complete contrast to what it looked like today. There was absolute silence as we walked onto the memorial and looked around. The building was actually built on top of the USS Arizona, which was never recovered from the harbor, but became a shallow grave for almost 2,000 men who lost their lives that day. All of the names were etched into the back wall, along with the names of surviving men who chose to be entombed with their ship when they died, two of which were as recently as 2008. It was eerie, but at the same time, peaceful, and I couldn’t help getting the feeling that I was one of millions of people who had already visited, and who were yet to come after me, and it felt less-than significant. It was very cool to see it in person, though, and I’m so glad we got to go. After taking a few pictures, we took the boat back to shore and looked around the museum and gift shop. Kate and I got a paper signed by a veteran who was there, and we bought a few books. The trip continued after the memorial, and we took a city tour of Honolulu. We got to see the Palace downtown, which is the only one in the US, the Punchbowl cemetery for military personnel and their families, and a few other historical and political sites. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, so it turned out to be a pretty great morning!

After getting back to the ship, we ate in the dining hall (they had fries!!), and then got ready to go skydiving- again. We went outside to wait, tried to call people but it wouldn’t work, and then sat drinking chocolate milk from Starbucks while waiting for the shuttle. Of course, with our luck, it never showed, and we waited around for it until about 1:45. A van from another company came to drop people off who had just gone, so we asked if they would take us back so we could do it, too. He sad he had to drive to Waikiki first but that he would be back to pick us up. So again, we waited and waited (sensing a pattern?). Just when we were about to give up, at 2:40, he came back. YAY! So we hopped in, immediately fell asleep, and were woken up as we pulled into the mini-airport. Side note: the show Lost is filmed on Oahu, and the plane that they use is kept at this airport. Pretty cool, huh? So anyway, we got there, filled out more papers, and within 15 minutes of arrival, we were in the plane flying up to 14,000 ft! It was kind of insane. When it was time to jump, they opened the door, and Kate, along with her tandem partner, fell out of the plane. I was like, whoah- she just dropped out of this plane!! Then it was my turn, and I can’t even describe to you what it is like to be up that high in an airplane and then just fall from the sky into nothing. It’s so loud you can’t hear anything but wind, and you twist and turn and float while looking at all of Oahu underneath, waiting for you. After about 60 seconds, my tandem instructor, George, pulled the chute and we began floating around, as if we had wings. He pointed out all of the sights below, and we flew over the ocean and back, and at one point, we even went through the middle of a full circle rainbow! It was incredible! I saw Kate parachuting a few hundred feet away, and then I watched her land. When it was our turn, George guided us smoothly to the open field, and we glided down, landing on our butts, and then I collapsed, with a huge smile, in awe of what had just happened. Then I got up and ran over to Kate and we just hugged and laughed. It was SOOO awesome! We took a few more pictures, paid, and then drove back to the ship. It was 5:00 by the time we got back, and on-ship time was 6, so we hurried to get everything we wanted from the small mall in front of the terminal. We saw Kevin, Amy, and Ellie, just returning from the beach, and they bought us ice cream ☺ and then we ran into Pat who was eating and waiting for the twins to get done so they could head back also. We went to a convenience store and bought wheat thins, gummy snacks, rice krispie treats, and magnets, and then we bought a couple Hawaii shirts before running back to the ship. There was a loooong line to get through security and get our bags checked, and the minutes ticked closer to getting dock time. Thankfully, we made it with nine minutes to spare (!), and we filled out postcards and talked to everyone about their two days on the island. Kevin was nice enough to let us use his phone, so we called Dad & Kathy, Mom, Jenna, and Liz! It was so great to hear their voices and talk to them all, even if we did wake a few of them up (sorry!). I can’t wait to see everyone in a few weeks!

Last night, we unpacked all of the stuff we got (Amy also picked us up some peanut butter, pop-tarts, Doritos, granola bars, and panda-cookies!! She’s awesome!), played with Ellie, and went out on deck to get some pizza and talk with the twins and Pat. They told us all about their trip to Kuaii to see a family friend, and we went to their room and showed them pictures from skydiving. Then we came back up, read our books, and went to sleep by 11:30. We lost another hour of sleep last night (8 hours total since leaving Japan), and we’re going to lose another 3 before Guatemala! We are definitely all feeling it, and finals are coming up in the next few days, along with FDP’s to turn in and papers to turn in! We’re having a sea-social tomorrow night, which should be really fun, and we get to have a movie night with popcorn and soda (from the auction), and invite 7 friends: Victoria, Stephanie, Pat, Gregg, Tara, Rachel, and Kelly. We’re watching “Wedding Crashers”, and that’ll be on the last B day of classes. It’s gonna be so much fun! We get to Guatemala in a week, and then we have 5 more days until we reach Ft. Lauderdale. I’ll keep you updated on everything going on, since there’s a lot!

Love you and miss you all!!

K&S

Looking Forward to Looking Back

Hellooooo!

So we have about twenty days left. It’s a little scary, if you ask me, and no one on the ship is really prepared for what it’s going to be like to come back to a place that, before we left was so comfortable, and now it’s going to feel completely different. It took us a while to get used to traveling and being without the comforts of home, and now we have adapted to our new environment- just in time to return home. There’s a whisper going around the ship. You can hear it in the dining halls and outside by the pool- the one question…What are you most looking forward to having when you get back home? And we’ve been talking about it a lot. What we’ve missed having, what we haven’t. So I thought I’d let you all in on our little game. Here are a few things we are going to be excited to have when we get back:

First, the food- mom’s chocolate logs & no-bakes, real peanut butter, Kathy’s tacos, Doritos, good cereal, microwave popcorn, pop-tarts, skittles, fresh fruit, milk, my dad’s pancakes, and ramen. Other things we are looking forward to: cell phones (really any consistent communication with the outside world would be great!), internet, cars (being able to go to the store and get something we need), more clothes, our little sisters to play with whenever we want, and CNN.

A few things we’re going to miss: having our friends/classes/food/everything within 100 ft walk from our room, the routine we’ve gotten into, being in a new country every couple of days, seeing/talking/having dinner with your professors (even seeing them laying out tanning or singing in the pool), the excitement of taco/BBQ days, waking up to see nothing but waves outside the window, Kenton (our cabin steward), our cute little neighbor/adopted sister, Ellie, being together at the “same school”, doing homework while tanning on the 7th deck, the wonderful crew, sitting in class while a man overboard drill is going on, the captain interrupts on the loudspeaker in his wonderful English accent, and the ship does a 180, the fun of rough seas- watching people try to walk/eat/sit in class while the ship is rocking, the awesome vocal stylings of Greg and Jillian, “Gooooood afternoon…” aka Luke doing the announcements in his creepy voice, being in a place “where everybody knows your name”, being in our own little bubble-in a sort of amazing alternate reality. That’s all for right now, but I’m sure we’ll think of more later.

As for ship life since we left Japan, there has been A LOT going on. We had our second global studies test, so the entire ship was studying for about two days beforehand, and you would randomly be stopped in the hallway by someone asking, “What is the Buddha of our time?” or “What are zooxanthallae?”. It went better than last time, but we were still all very relieved when it was over. We had the Students of Service Auction and raised over $12,000. Some of the prizes auctioned off were: Joe (our conduct officer and former LAPD policemen) tucking you in with a bedtime story, a trip for 8 to a cottage near Yellowstone Park, complete with a cultural and logistical pre-port from John, honking the horn as we pull into Ft. Lauderdale, a movie party for 10, including popcorn and sodas (which we won), and the chance to be “The Voice” for a noon announcement. It was really fun and we raised a lot of money (the money goes to charities chosen by ISE that we have visited this semester). We also had the “Explorer’s Got Talent” talent show last night. It was amazing. I swear it was a requirement for boarding the ship to have a special talent because there is so much of it on this ship!! There were acts like singing, playing guitar, Chinese Yo-Yo, tap dancing, lip-synching, swing dancing, spoken word, and more. The LLL’s even sang a song about SAS set to the tune of Gilligan’s Island, and Greg & Jillian did another amazing parody about SAS that was really fun. I sang a song while playing the piano and everyone said it went really well. I’m glad I got up the courage to do it…it was a lot of fun! The play is tonight, and we signed up for seating for the Ambassador’s Ball which is on May 3rd. The rest of the time has been filled with Scattergories, long lunches, studying, and sleeping. We arrive in Hawaii in 2 days, and we still haven’t quite figured out what we’re doing yet- except going to Taco Bell. haha. We’ll see. Until then…

We love you all and miss you tons!

K & S

A trip full of trains...

Japan was a blur. That’s the best way I can describe it. Five days of running around, seeing 7 cities, and having the time of our lives. Before we got to Japan, the twins, Pat, and us came up with a plan: to buy a rail pass and see as much as we can. And that’s exactly what we did. As soon as we arrived in Kobe, we headed to the train station. But not before we went through a rigorous immigration process that included getting our temperatures, fingerprints, and pictures taken, and we finally got off the ship at about noon. We exchanged a little money in the terminal and hopped on the monorail to go downtown to Sanomiya Station. Once we got there, we waited in line for almost an hour and a half to exchange our rail pass vouchers for an actual pass (you can’t buy a Japanese rail pass in Japan…you have to get a voucher in another country and then exchange it once you arrive). The line consisted of about 50 SASers trying to do the same thing and get out of Kobe. We started getting hungry while waiting in line, so we headed across the street to McDonalds (first time on the trip). It took us 20 minutes to order because they didn’t speak English, and we didn’t speak Japanese, and they kept mixing up our order. We finally got our food and paid almost $20 US for Pat and us to eat (oh yeah- if you didn’t already know, Japan is expensive!!!), and then we exchanged our passes. It took us a while to figure out which platform we were supposed to go to, but when we finally got on the train, it was awesome! It was called the shinkansen, or bullet train, and we were placed in the “silent car”, which is quiet- obviously. So we fell asleep right away and slept almost the whole two hours there. The time I did spend awake, I noticed how fast we were going. And it was fast. The countryside blurred past in a flash of green, broken up by the colorful cities. It felt like we were on an airplane- it was quiet, the pressure inside was different, and all we could see was the vastness of Japan, a few miles at a time. When we arrived in Hiroshima, we jumped on a cute little streetcar to go to the Peace Memorial Park. It was gorgeous. The first sight you see as you enter the park is the burned-out skeleton of the A-Bomb Dome sitting next to the river. It was eerie. Everything around the building was so beautiful, and this stood out like a weed in the middle of a garden, reminding everyone of the horrible events that had happened here. We took a few pictures and walked over the bridge to visit the museum. The city reminded me so much of a little New England town, where its citizens ride their bikes around, and everyone knows your name. It was quaint and peaceful and lovely. We stopped at the children’s memorial first which is very sad. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the story about the little girl who developed cancer as a result of the radiation from the bomb, and she thought that if she made 1,000 origami cranes, she would get better. Well, she ended up passing away, but her classmates erected this memorial for her and all of the other children who died or suffered during this time as a reminder that it should never happen again. It was a really nice memorial, and they had little glass booths that held all of the paper cranes that were sent from children around the world.

Walking across the street, we were in the epicenter of the memorial park. A long reflecting pool led up to the museum, dotted along the way with quotes from world leaders and a plea to never let this happen again. At the end of the pool, there was a box, and it held every single name of the dead in a registry, And it was not a small box. We walked to the museum and paid about 50 yen to get in. The museum was different than I thought it would be. More sad in some parts, more resilient and forgiving in others. In the first part, they had videos playing with footage of the bomb from the Enola Gay, and a complete military history of Japan from the early 19th century up until WWII. In the second part, there were boards talking about the atomic bombs themselves, how they are made, the Cold War, etc. And they had a globe that showed who has nuclear weapons now, and the U.S. had the most by far. How can we say we’re a peaceful nation and impose punishments on other countries when we are the ones with these deadly weapons? There have been many times on this trip that I have been less-than-proud to associate myself with our country. And there have been more times when I have been enthusiastic to tell others where I’m from. I think we’re headed in the right direction, but we have a lot of work to do, and that’s definitely been a gift of this voyage: to look at the U.S. from an objective standpoint, and see both the good and the bad. Anyway, I’m getting off topic… The third part of the museum was the saddest. The entire thing was a gallery of the aftermath: burnt clothes, melted lunchboxes, statues of people with their skin melting off. They even had a stone step, found outside of a bank nearby, where there was a dark spot in the middle of the step, where a person had literally been disintegrated when the bomb went off. There was also a tricycle that looked like a clump of metal, and the story next to it said that a 3-yr old had been riding it when he was killed, and his dad buried the tricycle with his son in the backyard so he could still ride it in Heaven. It was all very raw and eye-opening. The greatest thing was the feeling I got from the museum- they weren’t pointing fingers or feeling sorry for themselves. They were merely asking that you take what you learned at the museum and remember that day so that it doesn’t happen to anyone else. They just want peace, and I thought that was very mature and wonderful of them, and I applaud the Japanese for their resiliency.

The museum closed at 6, so we walked outside and saw the SAS trip there. We talked to some of our friends and then got back on the streetcar to catch our train back to Kobe. We played a couple games and read on the way back, and made it back to the ship at about 9:30. We were all really hungry, so we went out to explore the city and get some food. We found it very hard to find a restaurant that we could eat at because no one had English menus, and we couldn’t tell what anything was by looking at the few pictures they had. We settled on a small pizza café and ate some delicious pizza and fries! We were excited because we were allowed to drink the water and eat whatever we wanted, so we did! We had some really good conversations, amused a few Japanese girls who were sitting next to us, and then went to a different café to get ice cream. The dessert café was playing 50’s doo-wop music, which we of course enjoyed, and we had a great time. We got back to the ship around 12:30 or 1, packed for the next day, and went to sleep.

We woke up at 6:30, got ready, had breakfast, and boarded the busses to go to Kyoto. This was one of our favorite SAS trips so far. We had a really nice (almost to the point of annoyance) guide named Miyo, and a lot of people were on the trip, including R2 and D2, the Wittwer-Dukes family, Kevin, Amy, and Ellie, and the twins and Pat. The drive to Kyoto was an hour and a half, and the first place we went was the Nijo Castle, which was the summer residence of a few emperors way back when. We walked around the grounds, saw the huge, decorated rooms indoors, and learned about the castle (for example- we learned that one of the emperors had “nightingale floors” put in that squeaked every time someone stepped on them to warn of intruders. It was quite annoying when we were all walking around trying to listen to the guide speak). We had a little free time at the end, and we headed over to see the cherry blossom garden. We were lucky enough to be in Japan during the cherry blossom season, which only lasts a few weeks, so all over the country, we saw unbelievably beautiful flowered trees everywhere we looked. We danced among the snow-like petals falling around us, took a ton of pictures, and basked in the glow of the breathtaking scenery. It was really special, and I can’t believe how beautiful Japan turned out to be! We got back on the bus and drove to the next destination, the Golden Pavilion. This was basically a really pretty garden surrounding a lagoon, and the pavilion was in the middle of it. We had a great time just walking around the gardens, talking and laughing, taking it all in. And yes, Dad, we did take time to stop and smell the roses- literally! The weather was great and we all just relaxed and enjoyed the gardens. After leaving there, it was time for lunch. We drove to a park where hundreds of locals were picnicking, and vendors were selling everything from green tea ice cream to fried lamb’s leg. We sat and enjoyed our boxed lunch from the ship (these are infamous around the ship- they consist of a hard-boiled egg, some kind of sandwich, a piece of banana bread or something similar, a Capri sun, and a chicken leg. Yes, a fried chicken leg in saran wrap. Everyone always jokes about these lunches, so it was a real “treat” to get to eat them in Kyoto. haha). So we ate and talked and got ice cream, and then it was time for yet another couple of destinations. This time it was to a Buddhist temple and the Heian Jingu Shrine, a garden featured in the movie Lost in Translation. Both were very pretty and serene- a poignant display of the culture of Japan all around us. The last place was definitely our favorite! We went to the Kiyomizu Temple, which sits atop a very high hill overlooking the city. Legend has it that men used to stand on the balcony and make a wish, and then jump. If they lived through the fall, their wish would come through. If not….well…you get the picture. Standing at the railing, I couldn’t see how anyone could survive, and thankfully, this is not in practice anymore. This temple was gorgeous and consisted of several buildings hidden among cherry blossom trees and other plants and flowers. We walked along the path, coming up to what looked like a man-made waterfall. We had been told by our guide that if you take a drink from this water, you would add ten years to your life, if you take two drinks, you add twenty, etc. So we decided to give it a try. We each stood in line and took a drink from the “magical” water. We’ll see if anything comes of it. Haha. We shopped a little bit on the way back down the hill and boarded the bus. We drove back to the ship, quickly gathered our things, had a ship dinner, and ran back out to make it to our train. The train to Osaka was uneventful, and we ended up standing almost the whole time. When we got there, we walked around for almost an hour trying to find our hotel, with our bags, and finally checked in a little before 10 o’clock. Our hotel turned out to be awesome! It was an apartment with two rooms, a living room, a small kitchen, a bathroom, a shower room, and a TV. They even offered free wi-fi! So we were really excited to be there, and we checked our e-mail and watched CNN until we got hungry and decided to find some food. However, this turned out to be not so simple. We must’ve walked around for about 45 minutes looking for a restaurant that didn’t close at 11 pm, and we were about to turn back when we found a small place that was open until 5 am. At first we thought it was because it was a men’s club, but it turned out to be just a restaurant. We ordered a few dishes, thinking we would split them, but it turned out that the portions were tiny, the chicken was either all-bone or all-breading, and we paid more than $40 US for nothing. We did have a good time, though, laughing almost the entire time, due in part to the fact that we were beyond exhausted. At one point Victoria, Kate, and I put chopsticks in our mouths and pretended we were walruses. Needless to say, we had a great time, and I’m sure the waiters were quite entertained! We left still hungry, though, so we stopped at a 7-11 (these are all over Japan), and got some snacks. We also got milk and cereal for the next day, and then we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep.

The next morning, we made ourselves breakfast in our little kitchen, called Mom and Dad & Kathy, and took the subway to the aquarium. It was such a neat little aquarium- not very big- but included a ton of different fish, seals, and penguins, and its claim to fame- the whale shark! We saw two of them, and they are gigantic! We took a few stupid pictures, and we even bought Ellie a little white seal that we named, “Sammy the Seal”. Yeah, we are so cool. After we finished at the aquarium, we rode the ferris wheel. It is one of the largest in the world, and it took us 15-minutes to get all the way around! Victoria and I were really scared, but it was so beautiful, and we could see the entire city from the top. We were again blessed with the clearest skies and warm temperatures, so it was a great ride! By the time we got down, we were hungry, so we ate at the food court in the attached mall, and of course got some Haagen-Dazs ice cream before going to the train station. We played word games until we were able to board the shinkansen to Tokyo. Once we arrived there, we were extremely exhausted, and really weren’t looking forward to walking around trying to find our hotel. And then the best thing happened- we walked up the stairs from our train and ran into our hotel! It was on top of the train station and it was really nice- a 4-star hotel! We were so happy, AND we were on the 24th floor so we could see a lot of Tokyo!! So we checked in, took showers, got dressed up, and went out to explore the town. We actually ended up eating at a Chinese restaurant called The Giant Panda because we couldn’t tell what anything was in Japanese, and the menu at this restaurant was in English. It was really good, and we ended up turning it into a 3-hr dinner. Once we were full, we went to find karaoke. We wanted to find a karaoke bar, where we could sing in front of locals and make fools of ourselves, but it turns out that all they have in Japan are these places with a bunch of rooms, and you go in and sing with your friends. So we paid a ridiculous amount of money to go into this tiny room and sing, “Hit Me, Baby, One More Time” and Frank Sinatra Medleys until we lost our voices. Don’t worry, we got a lot of it on video, and Pat took enough embarrassing pictures of us to go around! It was a lot of fun, and we left extremely hyper, yet still delirious from lack of sleep. We got ice cream and walked around some more, bumping into other SASers here and there, until we called it a night and went back to the hotel.

Our second day in Tokyo, we woke up early, packed, and spent $14 US on Krispy Kreme! It was so worth it, though ☺ Kate had a phone interview for a peer minister position at the Wesley Foundation at her school, so she called from a pay phone while the rest of us hung out and walked around. Once she was finished (she said it went really well), we found a park to go hang out in. It was the cutest little scene- it reminded us of Central Park in NYC, and there were hundreds of families picnicking under the breathtaking cherry blossoms, children running around piercing the quiet beauty with their squeals and giggles. We walked almost the whole way through the garden, passing young couples by the pond and businessmen taking their lunchtime naps in the shade, and we left feeling refreshed and relaxed. We got lunch before taking the subway to the train station, and caught a short train to Yokohama. Just like in China, the ship left Kobe while we were in Osaka and sailed to Yokohama, where students who were traveling could meet it. We didn’t think it would take as long as it did to get back, and we ran to the ship to make it to our trip to the baseball game. Someone (I’m not mentioning names) from the field office was not a very nice person when we got there, and because of her, Stephanie and Victoria almost missed the game for no reason. Ask me to tell you the story later, it’s a good one. Well, we eventually made it to the game before it started, went back out to get food, and then cheered our hearts out for the Yokohama Bay Stars. If you didn’t know, baseball games in Japan are very different than the ones in the U.S., and a lot more fun. While your team is up to bat, you cheer. And I mean cheer! There’s even a “leader” who conducts the crowd so everyone is saying the same thing and everyone knows the songs and cheers- much like a college football game. Everyone gets dressed up and waves bats and gloves and flags in the air. It is SO much fun, and we cheered along, even though everything was in Japanese. Plus, they started playing the YMCA near the end of the game, so, obviously, Kate and I started dancing. And we looked up at the screen, and we were on it!! About half of SAS was there, not to mention half of Yokohama as well, so everyone saw us dancing up on the big screen. We are now famous in Japan, so you might want to get our autographs now before we hit it big time. Haha. It was a lot of fun! After the game, we were about to leave when we were stopped by a couple guys asking us if we were on SAS. We said yes, and they started talking to us. They told us they were Navy officers stationed here, and we stayed and talked to them for almost an hour. They invited a few of us to go out with them, so we did. They took us to a speakeasy-type place under a store, which was so cool! You had to pick up a phone outside, tell them how many people you had, and then knock on a mirror/desk inside and it would open to let you in. Even the bathroom once inside was hidden- you had to turn a knob on a sewing machine and a panel would swing out from the wall to let you in. It turned out to be really fun, and we talked for a couple hours over sangria. We were exhausted, so we exchanged e-mails and walked back to the ship. It was great to be able to talk to Americans who weren’t on SAS…haven’t done that in a long time! They were the nicest guys and had some great stories to tell. All in all, it was a fabulous evening!

The next morning, the five of us woke up, got breakfast, and headed out early to go once again to the train station. We had one goal in mind: to see Mt. Fuji. So we had to ask about three different people how to get there because they kept telling us different things, and by the time we actually figured out which trains to take, we hopped on, and rode the almost two hours to the little town in the valley of the volcano. We ate at a cute little café that had statues of cats everywhere (strange, I know, but we were in heaven. haha), and had amazing dessert. By the time we got done, it was after one o’clock, and we were running out of time. We started walking up the road toward Mt. Fuji, so at least we could try to find somewhere to take a picture in front of it, and we ended up walking for about twenty minutes. At 1:30, we realized we’d have to turn back to make it back by on-ship time, and we were nowhere near the mountain, so we went to the highest thing we could see- a parking garage- and climbed to the top. We took a few pictures and admired it from afar, and that was the extent of our trip to M. Fuji! We took the long train ride back, even more exhausted now, and went through another face-to-face passport check before getting back on the ship. Thankfully, post-port reflections were set for the following night, so we were able to have a nice dinner and then go straight to sleep!

Leaving Japan was surreal because it was our last real port…our last exotic place. Not to mention, we hadn’t had more than five classes in the past month, and now we had to go back to an A/B schedule for the nine-day trip to Hawaii! Real life was beginning again, and we were anxious about everything that had to be done (and there was a LOT). There was a change in the mood of the community. You could tell that the end was drawing near, and that any mentions of going back to the U.S. were getting more common as soon as we pulled away from the dock. But we are looking forward to all the fun things coming up…and we still have Hawaii and Guatemala before arriving in Ft. Lauderdale. Asia definitely had an impact on all of us- physically, mentally, emotionally, and we will all miss it a lot! But we’re looking forward to going back and seeing more!

Miss you and love you all!

Sarah and Kate

Two Easters

Happy Easter everyone!!!!!!!!

Today is April 12th…well, the first April 12th. Tomorrow will be the second Sunday, and therefore, the second Easter. Due to the time changes and the crossing of the International Date Line, we are adding another day. We have two April 12ths, which is so cool! Who gets to repeat days (except Bill Murray)?? AND we get to celebrate Easter twice! This morning, we had a sunrise service on the 7th deck and we got to sing and listen to the gospel while watching the sunrise over the Pacific. It was awesome! Kate and I got dressed up today, since we have never not dressed up on Easter, but unfortunately we have 4 classes today. So, instead of spending the day with family, eating, and going to church, we are sitting on the ship, in class. But that’s just a small downfall of getting to be in the middle of the Pacific on this trip, so I won’t complain. Tomorrow night (the 2nd Easter), we’re having a full church service, so we’ll let you know how that goes. We also don’t have Global Studies tomorrow because on the 13th, we also have our second GS exam, so they’re giving us the day to study (when in reality, we’re going to use the extra time to sleep)!

Two other big things are happening soon- the SOS charity auction and the talent show. The auction is on the 13th, and our group, Students of Service, is putting it on. We have a raffle, a silent auction, and al live auction at night. We have over 65 prizes that can be bid on, including a week stay at a vacation home in Hawaii, being the first person off the ship in Ft. Lauderdale, and getting free popcorn for you and ten friends to watch a movie of your choice. We’ve been working really hard, and I have high hoped for it, so we’ll let you know how it turns out. Should be a lot of fun! The other thing coming up is the talent show. I signed up to play the piano and sing. I thought it would be more like an open mic night- the chance to perform. But apparently, they can’t have too many acts, so they’re having auditions on the 15th, and if they pick you, then you get to participate in the talent contest, not show. I’m a little nervous about it, but I’ve been practicing, so hopefully it turns out okay! Even if I don’t get to perform, it’ll still be a great night- there are so many talented people on the ship!!

Well, I think that’s all for now. We get to Hawaii in 8 days, which is very exciting, and a little bittersweet. The next two ports will be fun, but the major part of the trip is over, and you can feel the mood changes on the ship- excited to get back home and see everyone, but sad at the same time to be leaving all of the new friends we’ve made and the environment and routine that are so familiar to us. We still have a long way to go, and we are all cherishing every minute of it because it’s going to fly by, and before we know it, we’ll be disembarking. Hopefully it doesn’t come too soon, though ;-)

We miss you all! Love you lots!!


K & S

Hong Kong, Shanghai, and the wonder that is the Great Wall

So, I wanted to start off by apologizing for not having this one done yet. We have had so much to do, and the entire ship is exhausted, trying to chug along to Hawaii, so it’s extremely hard to sit down and write a blog when we really just want to sleep. But here is the blog on our adventures in China….enjoy!

The first day, March 28th, we docked in Hong Kong at about 8 am. We got cleared to get off the ship around 10, after the diplomatic briefing, and we went out with the twins, Pat, Kevin, Amy, and Ellie. It was very surreal to see the skyline after seeing it in pictures so many times and hearing about it from Grandpa. It’s a beautiful skyline with the coolest architecture! We walked around for a while, had lunch at a restaurant called the Red Ant (very good Chinese food and watermelon smoothies!). Then Ellie had to go take a nap, so they left, and the rest of us went to walk around. While we walked on the “Avenue of the Stars”, we literally had a photo shoot. One person asked to take a picture with us, and it turned into a 15-minute long extravaganza of flashes and peace signs. It was quite entertaining and we had a good time hamming it up! After we escaped, we decided to see the rest of Hong Kong on a bus tour. Now, normally, I hate these busses because it’s so touristy, and you feel as though you’re looking in at a museum and taking pictures of things people probably don’t want you taking pictures of. But since we only had one day in Hong Kong, we figured it was the best way to see a major part of the city, so we did it. We took the bus around the Kowloon side, and I’m really glad we did! We got to see the whole side and were told what everything was and what we were looking at along the way. Plus, we were really hyper so it made it so much fun. After we got off there, we got ice cream  and met Kevin, Amy, and Ellie again to go up to Victoria Peak on the Hong Kong Island side. We heard it was a must see, so we took a ferry across the river and then hopped on a double-decker bus to go up the mountain. It was quite an experience. I swore I saw my life flash before my eyes several times…the bus driver had a tire over the cliff at least a few times, and it was really scary. But we made it up there in one piece and got to see the view, which was amazing! You could see everything from up there! We even saw the MV- a tiny speck in the vastness of the harbor. We took a few pictures, and then Kate and I realized we needed to get back because we had promised Luke (the asst. dean) that we’d baby-sit for him that night (there were a lot of big shots on board for a reception that night because they were going to announce the plan for a Sino-US university and other big steps for SAS. The captain for the old ship, Captain Chang, John Tymitz, and C.H. Tung, whose father came up with the idea of SAS, were on board, so it was a big deal). So we took the tram down the mountain and Kate and I hopped in a cab to get back to the ship. It took us about 20 minutes to make it across because of traffic, and we literally sprinted through the terminal (we were attached to a mall, so we ran through that and got some very strange looks!) and made it on, only being 7 minutes late. We baby-sat Abi (3) and Lily (1) from 6:30 until about 10:45, and we watched the Lion King, played “jail” and “house” and had a great time. By the time we were finished, we realized we had missed the light show, which we were really bummed about it because that’s one of the things we were really looking forward to, and we only had one night in HK. Oh well- next time, right?! Victoria, Stephanie, Pat, and us went out to the waterfront to try and find dinner. We went to a really expensive hotel and had dinner at their restaurant/lounge overlooking the harbor and the HK skyline. It was so gorgeous at night, and we all felt very surreal that we were there at all. We had a great meal, listened to some jazz music, and walked back to the ship around 1 am, exhausted! We packed for our trip and fell asleep at 2.

The next morning, we said goodbye to everyone, boarded busses, and drove to the HK airport. It was the biggest and most beautiful airport I’ve ever seen! There were something like 40 terminals- just on our side of the airport- and every restaurant, souvenir shop, Starbucks, and bookstore you could think of! We got to hang around there for a little over an hour, and Kate and I got Starbucks’ hot chocolates and waited for our flight. After boarding, everyone fell asleep, which was perfect because we had a little over 3 hours until we got to Beijing. After landing, we transferred to our hotel in one of the hutong neighborhoods near the Forbidden City, went to dinner with Kara, Danielle, and Brittany, and ate pineapples that someone had just peeled for us- right off the stem. It was great. Then we went back, watched some Chinese Soap Operas, journaled, and went to sleep. The first full day in Beijing, we had continental breakfast, met our awesome guide, Tony (more on him later), and visited the Ming Tombs. On the ship, I’ve been taking a Chinese History Class, so it really fascinated me to actually be in China looking at the wonderful sights and relics I had been reading about. The tomb was huge, and the grounds were so pretty. We even got to walk down the Sacred Way, lined with stone statues and animals (about 1 km), which was really cool! Then we drove about 2 hours to the part of the Great Wall we would be visiting, hiked up to the top of one of the towers, and watched the sunset for an hour. It was absolutely breathtaking. Much like the Taj, it looks nice in pictures, but when you’re actually there, it is awe-inspiring and beautiful in a way you can’t describe in words! From where we were, we could see mountains and valleys, and the Wall built all along it, almost like a snake crawling through China to protect it from enemies. The sunset was amazing, and being there was something we never thought we’d get to do, so we were speechless. We all just sat there in silence watching the sun drop lower and lower until it disappeared behind the mountains- coming up on the other side of the world to wake everyone with dawn. After it was dark, we walked back down the mountain, had dinner at the bottom, and went to the bus to change (aka put every layer of clothing on that we own) and get our stuff ready for the night, and we walked back up to a different part of the wall. After hiking, we set up camp- a mat and a sleeping bag- and just hung out on the Wall for the next couple of hours. We played cards, danced and sang, explored creepy ruins in the dark, and made a really funny video where we jumped out and scared people. Good times. Eventually we had to go to the bathroom, and it was a pickle because there were no bathrooms on the Great Wall, so we found a bucket, went up to the top, and did our thing. It’s interesting because not many people can say they used the restroom on the Great Wall of China. We are truly lucky. Haha. It was an adventure, anyway. Eventually, it was time for sleep, so we all went and snuggled up in our sleeping bags, and tried to fall asleep. That did NOT happen. I’m pretty sure we slept no more than 40 minutes that night. It was FREEZING! I think Tony said it was below 0 and cold is an understatement! My toes hurt so bad- even after I had put on two pairs of socks and my shoes- that at about 2:30, tears were coming out of my eyes, they hurt so bad. I can’t even describe to you how cold and uncomfortable it was! We are never going to complain about it being cold again! We were all counting down the seconds until 6 o’clock when we could get up, and when it came around, we all jumped out of our sleeping bags and started walking/running around trying to warm ourselves up. It was definitely an experience- and one that I’m glad we got to take part in- but also one that I know I’ll never do again!

As we were eating breakfast (moon pies and apple juice), we watched the sunrise, which was just as beautiful as the night before. This time, though, it was amazingly serene and quiet, and because we were on a part of the wall where no other tourists were, it was so quiet and peaceful, you could practically hear the sun whispering as it came over the Wall. As soon as the sun came up, we packed up our camp and headed out for our 6-mile hike to another part of the Wall. This is definitely one of those moments on the trip that we will never forget, such a defining “how-the-hell-did-we-get-here” moment that we were truly blessed to have. The hike was brutal- climbing along the ruins with no handles to help, and sometimes not even stairs. It took us about 3 hours, and we all had backpacks on that slowed us down and made our legs feel like they could give out at any moment. We talked the whole time with Tara, took a bunch of great pictures, and just kept walking and climbing, struggling to make it to the end. We finally reached the end, where we were surprised to see a zip line off of the wall! We waited in line, and then got to ride a zip line from the Great Wall, across a river, to the bottom, where a little boat was waiting to take us to lunch. The zip line was the perfect ending to an amazing day, and I still can’t believe we did it all! We went to lunch and had dumplings, rice, pork, chicken, vegetables, and much-needed hot chocolate, and then got back on the bus and passed out for the ride back to Beijing. Once we got there, we went on a hutong tour, which is the traditional neighborhood in China. We rode rickshaws around, visited a kindergarten (so adorable!), a temple, and a man’s house where we saw newborn puppies and a couple kittens! It was all very interesting, but at this point, we were not even coherent, we were so tired, so we were excited to get back to the hotel. We ended up stopping at a silk marker later that night, where Kate and I haggled for coats, dresses, skirts, and a couple t-shirts before heading back for dinner. That night, we slept like babies, in our warm hotel beds, sheltered from the piercing Beijing winds outside.

The next morning, we got up at 8 am, had breakfast, and took a bus to Tiananmen Square. It was, again, very surreal to be standing somewhere I had learned so much about and seen on the news so much. We took pictures, discussed what the square meant, both historically and now, and even got to walk inside and see Mao’s tomb! It was really creepy to see his preserved body, but it was interesting at the same time. After exploring the square a little more, we visited the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace. Both were beautiful, in their own, contrasting, ways. The Forbidden City was majestic and huge- very imposing and packed full with the history of rulers and dynasties that came before us. We got to see where the last emperor sat, with his mother behind the curtain, ruling until the beginning of last century, and we learned all about the different building strategies that protected the center of the city from attacking enemies. It was very cool. We took a break for lunch where we ate at a fabulous restaurant inside a mall. Tara ate 23 dumplings by herself, we paid a girl 30 RMB to eat the eyeball of a fish, and we made an awesome video that includes Tony drinking beer and yelling, “I’m a ninja. I’m a ninja!” It was one of the funniest times of the trip, and we all had a blast! After lunch and a stop to get a McDonald’s hot fudge sundae, we went to the Summer Palace, and it was gorgeous. It was such a pretty day, and not too hot, so we walked around the gardens and took in the beautiful lake in the middle and the palaces and temples sitting like thrones on top of the hills. We even walked the entire length of the “long hallway”, which was neat. We stopped at the little souvenir shop, ate some authentic Chinese candy and headed back to the busses. The driver took us to a famous pearl market that was 5 floors of souvenirs, clothes, shoes, and of course, pearls. I bought a strand of pearls to wear at Chi O events (they have red pearls in the middle of white pearls accented with gold- how perfect is that?! We bought a bunch of souvenirs for our friends and then it was time to leave and go to the train station. When we got there, we hung out and got snacks, waiting for our turn to board. We talked to Tony for a long time. He was the BEST guide we’ve ever had, and one of the nicest, funniest guys we know! Tara, Kate, and I really clicked with him, and he became a friend throughout the course of our time in Beijing. He kept saying he didn’t want us to leave and how much he was going to miss us, and we all did not want the trip to end. When it was time for us to board, he came with us and we took a picture together. He then snuck onto the train, like the little ninja he was, so he could make sure we got on and settled okay. He stayed in our cabin for a while, and we all talked, and then all of a sudden the train started moving! He jumped up, yelling something in Chinese, and ran and jumped off the train. We all stood at the window, waving, as he ran after us, and we all thought we were going to cry. We really are going to miss him, and hopefully one day we can see him again! The train was so nice!! Chris, Tara, Kate, and I had a compartment to ourselves that consisted of 4 beds and a little table in the middle. Tara and I took the top bunks, and after reading for a while, drinking some cheap “Great Wall” wine, acting like we were in Harry Potter (we kept asking the snack lady if she had chocolate frogs…I think she hated us after a while. hahaha), we finally fell asleep and slept straight through the night. The rocking of the train reminded us of being on the ship, so we were all very comfortable!

The train pulled into Shanghai at 7:15 am on April 3rd (the ship sailed for two days without us, from Hong Kong to Shanghai, while we were in Beijing, so we met up with it in Shanghai), and we all packed up our stuff and got busses back to the ship. There were 159 of us, so when we got back, we waited for more than an HOUR to board the ship! The gangway was on the 5th deck, and they only had one person searching our bags, so the process took forever and it was really cold outside! Once we finally got on, we headed straight to breakfast, only to find everyone else on the ship at breakfast, too. So we ended up standing in yet another line to get cereal for about 45 minutes. It was a long morning. Then we got ready and headed out with Tara, the twins and Pat, and Kevin, Amy, and Ellie. We got off the ship and just started walking along the waterfront. It was a ridiculously long walk, but we enjoyed it, and we all shared stories along the way about the different trips we had taken. It was great to reunite with everyone- it’s so weird not seeing them at least 3 times every day! After a long walk (and about a million games of “1-2-3”) along the way, we arrived in Old Shanghai. It was packed with people shopping and eating, and we made our way through the chaos to enter the garden in the center. It was beautiful, and it was exactly what you think of when someone talks about old Chinese gardens/architecture. We had a lot of fun looking for fish and taking pictures. As we were about to leave, we were told to move out of the way because someone important was coming. It turns out it was the former president of Pakistan, and we got to see him, flanked by all of his secret service, walking through the gardens. We felt really cool. Haha. After being allowed to leave, we ate lunch at a famous restaurant that Bill Clinton ate at once, and we ended up running into Captain Chang and his wife. They came over and ordered for us, and we had the best tasting food we had had all trip! We split up after lunch, Tara going back with Kevin, Amy, and Ellie, and the twins and Pat came with us. We took the weirdest ride through a tunnel across to the other side of the river (ever seen Willy Wonka- the part on the river with all the lights? That’s exactly what it was) It was quite strange, but fun as well. Our plan was to go up to the top of the TV tower, but when we got there, we realized we didn’t have enough money or time, so we looked at it from the bottom, and then went to Subway and blew the rest of our money on cookies and soda to bring back to the ship. We made it back across the river and to the ship just before on-ship time, and we sent some postcards and had dinner. We were so tired, we didn’t go to post-port reflections, but went straight to sleep.

The next two days on the ship were somewhat uneventful, albeit a tad stressful with all the work we had to do. We had cultural pre-port with the most adorable inter-port students from Japan, and they showed us a traditional tea ceremony, which was a lot of fun. We watched Mulan , talked a lot about the North Korean missile exercise and how I was affecting Japan, and planned what we were going to do once we docked in Japan. We got pizzas from the 7th deck, listened to Jordan and Bob jam in the piano lounge (Dad- they played “Give me one reason” by Tracy Chapman and we sang it and thought of you!), played with Ellie, and got our temperatures taken for the Japanese Immigration officers.

Hopefully, in the next couple of days, I can finish the Japan blog and post that as well. Miss you all and love you!!!

K & S

JAPAN!!!

Hey Hey Hey!!!

This is gonna be a quick post, but wanted to let everyone know that we are in Osaka, Japan using free wi-fi at our hotel. We arrived yesterday and have already visited Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kobe, and now Osaka. We're going to Tokyo tomorrow, then Yokohama, and Mt. Fuji. We are super excited and love Japan already!

We only have a month left of this voyage- it is definitely going too fast and we are all feeling the effects of the fast-paced trek through Asia! But it is amazing and we are all having a fabulous time! Victoria, Stephanie, and Pat say hello!!

Grandma Flo and Uncle Stan- if you read this, know that we are thinking of you both and praying for you. We love you! Please feel better soon!

We miss you all tons, and hope everyone is doing well!

Hopefully we'll be able to update after we leave Japan. Talk to you soon :-)

Vietnam/Cambodia

Hello everyone! Sorry this took so long to post- Cambodia and Vietnam were amazing experiences and with only two days before China and more homework than you can imagine, we couldn’t process everything in time to get the blog done. So here it is! We are going to try really hard to get the blog for China done before we get to Japan, but we’ll see….


3/23/2009
Good Morning, Vietnam!!

We have just left Vietnam, and it was very sad because this port was one of our favorites. I’m not sure how I’m going to convey everything we saw because it affected us almost more than India did. Partly because of the fact that we went to Cambodia for three days. It was amazing. Absolutely wonderful! But definitely packed with information and sights, and we are beyond emotionally drained from this port. It’s getting crazier and crazier now that we only have two days in between ports. I feel like we don’t have time to recover or process everything before we get to China. But I’m going to try so you all can get a feel for what we did. Beware: there are some graphic images being described here.

We arrived the first day in Vietnam at about 4 am, and we made our way up the river to Ho Chi Minh City where we docked just before 8 am. The dock was very close to the downtown, much like South Africa, and it looked very modern with high-rise buildings, lots of nice hotels, and the worst traffic I’ve ever seen. We woke up at 5:45 to see the sunrise over the river, and then went back to sleep until we got up at 7:30 for breakfast. There was a diplomatic briefing- not as interesting as other countries but still good- and then we had to finish packing, as our trip was due to leave at 11:30. Once we were done, we said goodbye to everyone and met up with our group. They provided us with the infamous SAS boxed lunch for the bus ride to the airport, which was only about 30 minutes. This lunch consisted of: a sandwich of mystery meat., an apple, a Capri Sun, a small pack of Oreos, a hard-boiled egg, and a chicken drumstick. No, it was not that good, but it was food, so we ate it. Once we got to the airport, we had to go through a ton of lines to obtain our Cambodia visas and other paperwork, and then we had about an hour and a half to hang out before we took off at 14:15. We were tired, so we thought it would be a good idea to take a nap. But after about 10 minutes in the air, they started the landing process, so they woke us up, and everyone was bummed because a “45 minute” flight was actually only about 10 minutes. But then we were in Cambodia, and we were all excited!

We got on the bus and met our guide, Kim, and headed to the Phnom Penh National Museum. Not the most interesting thing in the world- it was basically 5 rooms filled with different kinds of Buddha statues- and we are all a little museum-ed out. Plus it was 100 degrees with no air conditioning, so we were over it within a half hour. We ended up sitting in the courtyard eating really spicy shrimp soup, and then we drove to the Mekong River. Here, we boarded two small boats and took a sunset cruise down the river. It was gorgeous, and very relaxing, and we got to see little “river villages” where the houses are built in the water, and they either swim from house to house, or get in their canoes and row over to their friend’s house or the shore. It was very cool. We had some Cambodian beer, called “Angkor”, and then were brought back to shore where we boarded our bus. Then the trip became really great. We visited the Palm Tree Orphanage in downtown Phnom Penh, and it was one of the greatest few hours of our lives! This orphanage was started by two Semester at Sea alums, which I thought was such a great story, and we had a great time! As soon as we walked into the front gates, these two 12-yr old girls grabbed our hands and led us into their orphanage. They showed us where they eat, have classes, sleep, and play, and we ended up talking for almost two hours. They kept showing us off tot heir friends and saying, “Look at our new friends. They are from America”. We found out that one of the girls, Samak, who was attached to me, had five brothers and sisters at this orphanage with her, and Kate’s girl, Sevy Leak, had two. They loved taking pictures with our cameras, and they were mesmerized by our watches. They wanted to know how it worked, how to turn the light on, and how to set the alarm to make it beep. We eventually went out and played games with the other children until it was time to leave, which was really fun! We did not want to leave at all, and we all got teary-eyed and just hugged for about 5 minutes. They taught us how to say ‘I love you’ in Cambodian, and they kept saying it over and over. When we were about to leave, Kate and I took off our watches and put them on their wrists, telling them it was a gift for them. They were so happy and said they would never take them off. They showed them to all of their friends, and then disappeared. We were like, “Okay, bye, I guess….” And didn’t know where they went. Then they came running back, and they each gave us a bracelet. Samak put it on my wrist and told me that her mother had given her this bracelet. I said I could not take it because I knew it was special to her, and she said, “No. You are special to me. I don’t have a lot to give you, but I want you to have something so you don’t forget me.” It was amazing. Of course, Kate and I started crying, and we hugged them and traded e-mail addresses so we could be sure to keep in touch. We left, all four of us waving the “I love you” sign, and we walked back to the bus. I just find it amazing because we’ve never connected that much with anyone in that short amount of time, and these girls touched our hearts in just under 2 hours. We will never forget them, and I hope we can go back someday to see them.

After we left the orphanage, we were so tired, and a little sad, and thankfully we went straight to a restaurant and had dinner. It was on a rooftop, and we had traditional Cambodian cuisine, which is a lot like Thai food. It was really good, and we were all very full as we drove to the hotel. When we pulled up, all of our jaws dropped because it was one of the biggest hotels we’d ever seen! It was sooo nice, and Kate and I got a nice, big room all to ourselves. We didn’t do much that night. I think we watched a little TV, showered, and then completely passed out around 2300. The next morning, we got a wake up call at 6 am. We went downstairs for breakfast, where they made us pancakes, cereal, and the best watermelon ever. We had to be on our bus by 7, and then we drove to the Tuol Sleng Museum. This is the part of the trip that I cannot possibly put into words, but because I think it’s important to learn from history, I will try to convey what we saw.

We pulled up to the Tuol Sleng Museum, also known as the Genocide Museum, and saw about 4 or 5 buildings surrounded by a high concrete wall that was topped with barbed wire. The grounds were not much to look at, but there were signs explaining what went on there and what each building was. If you are not familiar with this museum or the situation, I’ll give you a brief history. In Cambodia in 1975, Pol Pot came into power and changed everything. The government wanted to eliminate the class system, so they drove everyone from the cities and into the countryside to work as peasants. This way, they thought, everyone would be equal. If you were intelligent, or worked in a professional career, such as a teacher, doctor, or lawyer, you were killed. Men, women, and children were brutally massacred without cause, and this museum, at the time code-named as S-21 Prison, was where they tortured and detained about 14,000 people until they either died there or were sent to the killing fields. Only seven people who entered this prison made it out alive. It was quite brutal, and people from the area had to pretend to be unintelligent in order to stay alive. This means that Cambodia lost almost an entire generation of its leaders, which hasn’t helped in the aftermath or clean-up of this beautiful country.

Going inside the buildings was a horrifying experience. On the first floor of building A were five rooms of pictures. Pictures of the victims, both dead and alive, and mug shots of children crying as they were catalogued into the system. Walking through, looking through these pictures, reminded me of all the people we had met so far during our short stay in Cambodia. These could have been any of them, and the thought scared me into moving onto the other floors. But these were worse. Much worse. As we walked to the 2nd floor, we encountered rooms no bigger than an average classroom, with nothing but a bed in the middle. On the bed, there was a blanket (well, I guess it was a blanket- it looked more like an old piece of plastic or paper with holes in it) and on the blanket there was some sort of torture device. I’m not sure how it was used, nor do I want to, but you could see that that’s what it was meant for. Then we looked to the wall and a photo caught our eyes. The picture looked identical to the scene that was in front of us, however, on the bed, there was a person. Dead. And there was blood everywhere. This is when we noticed that there were stains on the floor of the blood that was in the picture. Apparently their cleaning products weren’t very good, and you could still see the outline on the red-and-white floor. I started to feel what it must have been like for that man on the bed, and I had to get out. The rest of the rooms on the floor held more of the same, and I only glanced in before moving on. You could really sense the despair and depressing feeling of the whole compound, and I’m glad we only stayed for an hour. There was one room on the top floor that looked almost like a gallery and showed the history of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, etc. The pictures in here were gruesome as well, but it taught us a lot about what had happened and why. In the end, we came to the conclusion that it happened for absolutely no reason, which made the whole thing a little sadder and hard to take. So, of course, the next place we went was even harder. The killing fields were about a 30-minute drive, and on our way, our guide, Kim, told us how the war affected his family. When he was 5, Pol Pot came to power, and, being from Phnom Penh, he was forced to walk for 100 days out into the country with little food or clothing. He pointed out that this was almost the length of our voyage, which made it real to us. We really felt a connection to Kim and his story and couldn’t imagine what it must’ve felt like to be alive during this terrible time.

When we finally arrived at the killing fields, we were greeted with a gate, and through the gate was one building and a field. That was it. We walked over to the building, and you will never believe what we saw inside. Thousands of skulls were piled up to the 30 ft. ceiling in one mass memoriam to everyone who had died there. They even had little signs that said, “Women age 30-45” or “Children under 15”. It was eerie, to say the least. And underneath all of these shelves were clothes of the victims, dirty and stained with blood. Everyone was completely silent as we walked outside to see what else there could possibly be. We started wandering around, looking at the mass graves that were still there, when all of a sudden I felt a crunching sound beneath my foot. When I looked down, I saw human bones. They were everywhere, just peeking out of the surface of the dirt and grass, amidst more tattered clothing, and I had stepped on one. I literally thought I was going to throw up, and I had to get away. But there was nowhere to go. The whole place was littered with the remains of the millions of victims who could no longer protest to being trampled by tourists taking pictures. There were some wooden signs detailing what had happened around the fields, two of which read, “Women and children grave: no heads” and “This tree is where children were beaten against before being executed”. I felt like just sitting down and sobbing and it was all a little hard to take before 9 am. None of us will ever forget what we saw there, and we want to go home and educate more people about it so that history doesn’t repeat itself. Every time we think of genocide, we automatically think of the Holocaust or something far off. But it is still happening today, which makes me think the world is not progressing as much as we’d like to believe.

We left the killing fields at about 10 o’clock and drove to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda. Honestly, after everything we’d seen that morning, we weren’t really mentally there, and although it was beautiful and rich with history, we really just wanted to eat lunch and relax. So that’s where we went next. We had a delicious lunch consisting of about 20 different dishes that they kept bringing us, and a good amount of tea. The restaurant was located right next to a giant market, so after we were done eating, we walked around for a while. Kate bought a really cute skirt, and we bought 8 DVD’s for only $12 US! Yes, we each bought a copy of HSM 3…haha. We were pretty excited about it! We got back on the bus and drove to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap. Kim gave us a speech about how great it was to have us as a group and how touched he was by our compassion and eagerness to learn. He then sang us a Cambodian song about friendship, which was beautiful! We all gathered money for tips because he was an excellent guide, and when we counted it all up, it was enough to send his kids to private school for a year! He was so grateful and almost started crying! When we got to the airport, he followed us to the gate and then waved at us until he disappeared. We will all miss him so much! The flight was shorter than the last one, so not much time for a nap, and when we landed, we immediately drove to Angkor Wat to watch the sunset. It was amazing- huge, beautiful, breathtaking! Dad, it was better than you described, and you would’ve loved it! We just sat by the reflecting pool for about an hour and watched the sun go down, and then we headed to dinner. Dinner was buffet style, and we got to watch a traditional Cambodian dancing show while we ate. It was good, but we were exhausted by that point and excited to get to the hotel for some much needed sleep! It took us 45 minutes to find our room (we’ll have to tell you that story when we get back, it was hilarious!), but when we did, it was gorgeous!! The room was bigger than anything we’d ever stayed in; the bathroom had a giant shower and a window that looked out to the rest of the room, and we even had a patio that went at least 15 ft out and looked over the Cambodian countryside! It was crazy! We took showers, journaled a little bit, and then Chris came in and we watched HBO, The History Channel, and the Discovery Channel until we fell asleep.

The next morning, we had a wake up call at 4:30 am, and we were on the bus heading to Angkor Wat at 5 o’clock. We entered through the south gate, and we rented plastic chairs for 50 cents to watch the sunrise. We all sat in pitch-blackness, no one talking, for about an hour until the sun rose over the temples. It was so peaceful yet surreal, and one of my favorite moments from the trip! At 6:30, we left to go have breakfast, which was delicious, and then we had to be back on the bus by 8. We drove to a different gate of Angkor Wat (if you didn’t know, the whole complex is huge and there are many different parts to see), walked around the ruins and temples, and we also saw Angkor Thom. We took some stupid pictures with Alex and Kara, and talked about old Nickelodeon shows, and then we went back to the hotel to check out and eat lunch. By the time we got to the Elephant Terrace, we were all soooo hot (it was 104 degrees with 98% humidity) and tired that we opted to sit for an hour under a canopy and drink water instead of walking through the complex. I don’t think I could even describe to you how hot it actually was! We even had a couple girls suffer from heat exhaustion! While there, we talked for a while about SAS and made a couple stupid videos because we were so out of it. It’s gonna be funny to watch those later! After the busses finally came, we went to yet another airport for our final flight back to Vietnam. At the airport, we got foot massages for a half an hour (!) and they were amazing! After the short flight, we finally made it back to the ship! We were very excited to be back in our rooms, in the air conditioning, and be able to shower and put on clean clothes. We were supposed to arrive later, so they told us they’d have dinner ready for us at 2200, but we were starving and it was only 2000, so we went up to the pool bar and ordered a pizza. We talked to Edu and Turrell for a while, relaxed, and went to sleep early!

The next day in Ho Chi Minh City was a blast! We got up, had breakfast, and went out to an Internet café to call Mom, and Dad & Kathy. We talked to them for more than ½ hour, and even though there was a 3-second delay, it was so worth it and wonderful to hear their voices! With all of the other parents coming to visit, it was hard not to be able to just run up and hug them and talk to them. I can’t believe we haven’t seen them in person since the day we left in Nassau, which seems like a lifetime ago! After we hung up with them, we went to walk around HCMC downtown and see what we could find. We ended up buying these gorgeous paintings and going to Tutti Frutti (kind of like Coldstone but with frozen yogurt), before heading back to the ship for lunch. We ended up running into the twins and Pat which was perfect timing because we had planned to meet up with them later but didn’t know how we’d get a hold of them or where they were staying. We walked with them to the hotel Pat’s parents were staying at, met them, and ate lunch in the restaurant there. His parents are great and it was so great to finally meet them after hearing so much about them! Plus, if we couldn’t have our parents, at least we could pretend that they had come to visit. haha. Anyway, after lunch, we went to the War Remnants Museum- about a 45-minute walk- and it was brutal. I don’t know if you’ve heard anything about the museum, but it is basically a gallery of all of the bad things the American soldiers did during the Vietnam War. The pictures were sickening- children being burned alive, whole villages laying dead, having been shot, soldiers running after kids with guns, and even a case with fetuses that had been affected by Agent Orange. We didn’t think we could take anymore by the end, and it was beyond hot, so we were all physically and emotionally exhausted. The whole museum was so anti-American, and we were almost ashamed to be Americans walking through the galleries. I almost felt like a baby- unable to decipher what my emotions were telling me. I didn’t know if I should cry or throw up or feel nothing. I’m glad we went to see it, but I don’t ever want to go back. I really feel like it’s something that people should see, though- especially Americans. Because there is more than just the American view of the war. A lot more.

We walked back to the hotel- by this time past the point of exhaustion- and decided to go swimming in the hotel pool. It was sooooo amazing. Exactly what we needed! After more than an hour sitting in the pool drinking smoothies, we got ready and all went out to dinner at a Tapas Bar. It made us miss Spain so much! We drank a lot of Sangria, ate great Tortilla d’Espana, and had some good laughs. Kate and I left to catch the last shuttle back to the ship and went to sleep. The next day we woke up early again at about 6 am, ate breakfast, and drove two hours to the Cu Chi Tunnels on a SAS trip. This was one of our favorite trips so far, although it was also kind of mentally exhausting learning about it and seeing it in person. We got to go inside the tunnels, and if you know me at all, you know I am really claustrophobic, so a tunnel underground is not my favorite thing. Kate went right in, and I was set on going in, but it took me about 3 or 4 tries (I would go in and come back out) before I finally decided to go through. I really thought I was going to hyperventilate and couldn’t stop thinking that I was never going to get out, but I sucked it up and walked- well crawled- through 100 meters of tunnel! After all, why come all the way to Vietnam and not go in the tunnels? It was insane but I’m really glad we did it…what an experience! After leaving the tunnels, we drove back to HCMC and went to the Ben Tanh Market, which is the biggest in the city. We bought an unnecessary amount of souvenirs for people and each bought a new watch, and then headed back to the ship for a special BBQ! We had hot dogs, corn on the cob, and ice cream, and it was such a good time! We hung out with Ellie (we were so excited to see Kevin, Amy, and Ellie after being gone the whole time!!), and then went to the post-port reflections. The stories from Vietnam, and Cambodia, were so good, and almost as impactful as the stories we heard after India!

The next two days before China consisted of a LOT of homework, a family dinner, work, both cultural and logistical pre-ports, and watching The Office. Days on the ship go by so fast and there’s almost a set routine now that we go through, so there’s not a lot to say about that. But now we are on our way to Japan, and after that we have a ton of days on the ship, so I’ll try to write more about the little things that make this voyage so amazing when we have time to actually sit down and do so.

We miss you all so much! Love you and can’t wait to hear from you!!!