We haven't had a blog to just tell everyone about what we do on the ship, so here it is. Enjoy...
Well, what we do on the ship depends on what day it is. We don't have days of the week, we just have "A days" and "B Days". On A Days, Kate and I usually wake up at about 7:30 and get some breakfast before everyone else stumbles in around 9, and then get ready for Global Studies. It starts at 920 and everyone either sits in the union, or, when it fills up, in what we call "satellite classrooms" that have a screen where they can watch the class from around the ship. Global Studies has been an area of frustration for many aboard the ship so far, especially since we just had our first test yesterday, but that's a story for another day. Anyway, after Global Studies, we have a little free time, and I've started to go to the gym at this time since a lot of people are napping or in class. Kate has to work from 1040-1140 and then again at 1330 to 1420, so we usually schedule meals and such around when she works. I have to work from 1600-1700 on A Days, but other than that, we don't really have a lot to do until the evenings. We've started a tradition of having lunch with the twins and Pat at noon. There are two dining halls...one on deck 5 and one on deck 6. We always eat on 6, which is called "The Garden Lounge". Fancy, huh? We usually sit and talk with them for a while and then wander around bugging people in the piano lounge or Tymitz Square. This is also the time when we go lay out on deck in the gorgeous sunshine while "studying" aka sleeping. Eating, napping, and hanging out with people basically sums up our A Days. Very relaxing. At night, we usually have a few meetings, and we always have dinner with the twins and Pat as well (notice a pattern. haha). At 2000 every night, there's what we call Explorer's Seminars, which can be anything from a photography workshop to a presentation about a certain religion or something. They're usually always interesting, and we try to make it to most of them. Then there's snack time! It's at 2200, and it consists of the crew putting out delicious cakes, cookies, and sandwiches and all the students stuffing their faces while playing cards or going up to Pub night. Pub night is basically when the 7th deck turns into a bar, and you can have 4 beers or glasses of wine while hanging out with friends. The beverage vouchers are kind of expensive, so we haven't bought one yet, but going up to pub night and watching all the idiots on the ship is entertainment enough for us and our friends. It's ridiculous to watch girls who you just saw in sweatpants getting all dressed up...and I'm talking heels and short dresses, hair done and everything...just to go up to the pool bar and have a few beers. Kind of weird, but whatever....to each his own I guess.
Anyway, moving on.....B Days are my favorite. Or not. Kate has to work at 830, and then after Global Studies, which ends at 1035, we both have two more classes...I have East Asian History and Psychology, and Kate has Art and Economics... until 1330. Then it's a quick lunch (lunch ends at 1345), and we go somewhere to read the chapter assigned for our nutrition. After class again from 1455-1610, we usually take a nap, and then I have to work from 1700-1900. Then it's finally dinner time, and we usually find someone who's waited to eat dinner until then. It starts at 1730, so everyone's usually already done eating by the time we get there. The nights are basically the same both days, and we usually find time to hang out with Ellie and play with her :-)
Ship life is amazing. We live right at the bottom of the main staircase, and all we have to do is walk up two flights of stairs to get to class or eat. All of our friends are within a 100 ft radius and we usually always find something to do whether it's play cards or a board game, watch a movie, or sit on the deck and watch the world (literally) go by. Not to mention all the activities that go on....open mic nights, dance lessons, movies in the union, etc. It gets crazy around here, and the time is moving way too fast. It feels like we're in some kind of alternate time zone because I've never been anywhere where I can say, "wait...was that 6 days ago...I thought we did that an hour ago!". It's such a strange feeling. Especially because we've lost an hour every night since getting back on the ship, and we lose another one tonight. By tomorrow, we'll be 10 hours ahead of the east coast, and 11 hours ahead of Chicago! Crazy, isn't it? As much as I would like to complain, though, I can't. This is an absolutely amazing, unique experience that I can't seem to get enough of. At least once a day, I have to stop and think...is this really happening? It's kind of insane, but wonderfully enjoyable, and I think I could stay on this ship forever!
Well, work calls, so I should be heading out. We miss you all so much, and we'll write more after Sea Olympics. Love you!
Sarah and Kate
Friday, February 27, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Hello from Cape Town!
How do I even begin to describe South Africa?? There are no words that could ever possibly do our experience here justice. South Africa is by far our favorite port so far, and we really wish we weren't leaving! Especially since the Captain came on and told us we were going to be delayed leaving port because of high waves. This sort of frightens me because they have to be bigger than last time for us to be delayed, and I'm not too excited. I secured the cabin and made sure everything was put away. This time, they told us the ship would rock as much as last time, if not more, from now until we reach Mauritius in 4 days. Ruh-roh! Not just 15 minutes like last time....we're talking about DAYS with it like that. And we have our first global studies test on Tuesday, so this should be interesting!
Anyway, back to Cape Town! I have no idea how I'm going to convey to you just how amazing the past 5 days have been, but I'm gonna try. This might be a little long, so bear with me. We arrived Wednesday, and instead of pulling into port at 0800, we got here at about 10 because of heavy fog. Then we had a diplomatic briefing in the union and had lunch on the ship. Then we finally got to get off, and we went exploring the waterfront. It was beautiful! We were docked literally next to a mall along the waterfront, so unlike Casablanca and Namibia which were both very industrial, we walked off the ship into a tourist's paradise. The mall was huge and had restaurants along the dock outside all the way into the middle of the shopping area. We looked around and walked all over the area, basically doing nothing, because we were waiting for Stephanie and Victoria to get done with an FDP that was being held on the ship. At about 1300 when they finished, we went to have lunch at the mall. We found a cute 50's-looking diner and ate chicken fingers (surprised? haha), and then for dessert had the most delicious thing-waffles with gelato on top. It was sooo good! Here we also heard some songs that were American- some we recognized and some we didn't. It's weird that we hadn't known the newer songs because we've been gone for more than a month. Anyway, we had bought tickets to go to Robben Island at 1500, so we headed over to the ferry and as soon as we got on, we regretted it...we had just gotten off of the ship and now we were getting on a boat....what were we thinking? It was okay, though. During the 30-minute ride to the island, they played a movie about the history of it and about why they turned it into a museum. If you don't know what Robben Island is, it's basically an island for prisoners. During Apartheid, the South African government sent all of the political leaders (one of whom was Nelson Mandela) who disagreed with the policies and laws, and also a lot of regular criminals were sent there as well. Before it was a prison, in the middle-to-late 1800's, it was a place where anyone who had Leprosy was sent to live in exile. It was a very interesting visit. We got off the ferry and got on a tour bus that took us around the whole island, showing us the quarry where the prisoners worked, the prisons, and we even saw some of the 15,000 penguins that live there! Interesting fact: all of the tour guides on Robben Island were once prisoners there themselves. So they intertwined personal stories with the tour and it was so great to hear their perspective. After the driving tour, we saw the prison, and go inside the community cell and see the cell that Nelson Mandela spent 17 years in. It was intense, and I really learned a lot. Someone we talked to from South Africa said, "Oh- you must know a lot about Apartheid, right? Because they teach it to you in school..." and we said, "No, actually we never learned exactly what it was". I found that very interesting that I never noticed before, but we didn't really learn a whole lot about it- ever. It's become one of our favorite things to do on this trip- to compare America, our life, our education, our culture, to everything that I'm seeing and learning from an outside perspective. Well, we napped on the ferry ride back, and we went back to the ship, got dressed up, and went out to dinner with Blair, Stephanie, Victoria, Pat, and Britton. We went to Long Street since one of our inter-port students said the nightlife was good, and we picked out a restaurant called Royale Eatery. We had some really good food and the most amazing drinks.
Okay, I want to pause for a second and talk about something we've been having a lot of conversations about on the ship. Drinking...and America's take on it. As soon as we got to the Bahamas, we were able to drink anything we wanted. On the ship, we can have alcohol, and in every port, we've had free reign to drink whatever. For some people...and this is what bothers me...this means getting wasted every chance they get. For example, in Namibia apparently, there were some students who got so rowdy at a bar that the owner called Captain Jeremy, and another group of students got kicked out of their hotel. This is what makes me mad at the United States. If you deny a kid candy, they're just going to want it more. If you tell America's youth that they can't drink- they're just going to find a way to do it- and do a lot of it! In all the ports we've been to so far, we've talked to the local people, and they've said they don't have a big alcohol problem, which doesn't surprise me. America has gotten this "taboo" attitude about drinking, so now young people usually only drink to get drunk and have completely forgotten the concept of social-drinking. It's been so nice in Cape Town- and everywhere we've been- to order a drink or two with dinner or drink a glass of wine while listening to Jazz at a club. We...and by we, I mean the mature people on the ship...have a few drinks and just talk, and it has become really normal. My mom asked us if we'd been carded yet, and I almost didn't know what she was talking about. I don't even carry my ID around with me because no one asks. It's just the culture here to casually drink, and I've got to say- I really like it. I am not going to want to go back to the US and be told I can't even have a glass of wine at dinner. It makes me feel like a child. We can vote, own a house, and go to war, but we can't have a beer. Kind of ridiculous, huh? Sorry about the rant, it's just something we've talked a lot about here, and anyone who knows my mom or dad knows they think the same way I do, and we've talked a lot with them about it before, so I thought they'd appreciate it.
So, continuing with Cape Town... That night, after spending 3 hours talking, laughing, and eating, we decided to check out a jazz club near the ship called The Green Dolphin. It was awesome. It was really dark except for a few candles, and there was a band playing really good jazz on stage. We all ordered a drink, passed them around the table so everyone could try them, and listened to them serenade us for over an hour. After a long day, it was nice to relax! We also got to talk to Mom twice, which was awesome! We loved hearing her voice and getting to talk and laugh with her instead of communicating through e-mail. I'm so glad we got to talk to her, especially since we probably won't get to again for a while. The next day, Thursday, we had told Kevin we'd hang out with him and Ellie (our neighbors), so we woke up, had breakfast, and headed out to find the aquarium. It was so much fun and we spent all morning and some of the afternoon there. We saw all kinds of fish I've never seen before because even though I've been to aquariums, all these fish were from the southern hemisphere. We also saw sharks, penguins, a puppet show (for Ellie), and a tank full of jellyfish (eww). While we were waiting for the penguin-feeding show, we had lunch, and it was great. Ellie decided to play a game where she'd tilt her head, expecting us to follow. So, of course, we did, and she'd tilt it the other way and we'd follow along. Well, Kevin got a picture of us with both of our heads tilted to the side, and it was hilarious. Ellie definitely looked a lot cuter doing it than we did...we probably just looked stupid. haha. But she got a kick out of it, so it was worth it. There was a play-place next to the cafeteria, so Ellie and I went to play and it was a lot of fun. Whenever Kate and I would switch, Kevin and I got to talking, and we basically told our life stories. It was great to just sit and talk to him because we'd been so preoccupied with Ellie that we hadn't really just talked. So it was a lot of fun. We finally got to see the penguins being fed, which was funny to watch. I love penguins!! They're so cute! Ellie was ready for a nap after that, so we headed back to the ship. It was so sad because she had a meltdown when she finally realized Amy was gone (she went on a safari for 3 days) and kept calling for her. Sleeping helped, though, and we all napped for a while. That night, we were supposed to babysit while Kevin went to a rugby match, but he didn't end up going, and we hadn't made any plans with anyone because we thought we'd be sitting, so the four of us went to dinner. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We all ate and, as we were sitting there, Ellie did NOT want to sit still, so I offered to walk around with her. This turned into an hour of me carrying her around/chasing her/going up and down the stairs with her. It was so much fun, and we were just hanging out together. We also found a band that was playing African music, so we danced around to that, which was so cute! She was really adorable (not like she ever isn't...) and I was so glad I got to hang out with her. After dinner, Kate and I went out to the Green Dolphin again with a few people, and this time they had a different band, so it was a good time.
The next day we were supposed to climb Table Mountain with a bunch of people, but they ended up leaving too late, and we had a trip that we had to be back at noon for, so instead we tagged along with Kevin and Ellie again, who were headed into town to go to a military museum/fort. I'm so glad we went because we never would've seen it otherwise, and it was really interesting. It's an old fort that's been through many wars, and everything is open to the public to see what it was used for. We saw the old prisoner-of-war jail cells, the armory, the old governor's mansion, the museum they had set up all about the wars that had happened, and much more. They even had a changing of the guards ceremony, where they set off a real cannon. It was really loud, but cool to watch. After having lunch, we headed back to the ship to leave for our trip to the township. Side note: in Cape Town, the "suburbs" are called townships, and this is where the extreme poverty and unemployment really show. Almost all of the houses there are what's called "informal structures" which are basically pieces of wood, tin, and anything else they can find, put together in a box shape. There's a huge divide between the people who have money in South Africa and those who don't, and it was definitely evident as we drove out of the city limits. The township we were going to was called Khayelitsha, and about 1.1 million people live there. As soon as we got there, it was hard not to feel extremely touristy and also sad. Here we were, in a tour bus, staring at everyone in their shacks, while we get to go back to the ship in a few hours which is basically luxury. We felt very humbled, to say the least. Our first stop was a school and a craft market. We bought a few things at the marker, talked to some of the sellers, and headed straight over to the school. The kids didn't speak English, but we interacted as best we can, and played tag, tickle wars, and hide-n-seek with them. I even taught one girl how to play patty cake. It was awesome. They were so excited to see us, to hold our hands, and above all, to take pictures with us. None of us wanted to leave, and I almost cried walking out of the school. Next, we went to a bed and breakfast run by a woman who wanted to encourage tourism in the area so she started a B & B for foreigners so they felt safe staying in the townships (violent crimes are common in the area). This was definitely the best part! After she talked to us for a while, we walked outside and encountered about 30 kids, ages 2 to 13. Vicky, the owner of the B & B, also feeds the neighborhood children every Tuesday and Thursday, so they hang out a lot around her place. The kids immediately took our hands and taught us how to play games with them, singing and dancing. It was amazing. We joined right in, dancing and trying to sing along, and granting every request to take a picture with them. When it was time to leave, they held our hands all the way back to the bus and ran after us as we pulled away. I will never forget them and my heart hurts to know the conditions they live in and what they go through everyday. The rest of the visit was to another B & B where we had snacks, and a walking tour of Khayelitsha. It was definitely one of those lie-changing experiences, and one we couldn't have done had it not been for SAS. We love this program, and are so grateful for the cultural experiences it's given us!
After the township visit, we had dinner and went to the Green Dolphin again. This time, however, there were a bunch of SASers there after hearing about it and how good it was. At midnight, we walked back to the ship, got our computer, and went to the mall for some free internet. Then we got to talk to Dad, Kathy, and the girls on Skype for a good 45 minutes! Laura started crying, which of course made me want to cry, but it was so nice to be able to see them and talk to them "in person". Julia was crazy, as usual, making silly faces and growling at the screen, so it was a good time. We also got to check our Yahoo accounts and then we headed back to the ship for much needed sleep. Saturday, we woke up at about 0700, had breakfast, and got on a bus for our "Cycling in the Winelands" trip. Our guide, Alex, told us all about the history of the area and the plan for the day as we drove the 45 minutes out of Cape Town to Stellenbosch. As soon as we arrived, we were given bikes and helmets, and we started biking. It was brutal! We are pretty good bikers, and we're in good shape, but it was extremely tough. We pretty much thought we were going to either fall over or our legs were going to fall off. It was on dirt roads, uphill, in the South African heat. It was so intense, and we cycled for about 10 km. It was absolutely gorgeous, though, the entire ride, so that was a nice bonus. It reminded us a lot of the countryside in Spain, and we took tons of pictures! When we finally got to paved roads and everyone else was way ahead of us, Kate and definitely started singing Sound of Music songs and taking our sweet time. It was a blast! It was a lot like when we used to ride our bikes through the metroparks, and we had tons of fun! We finally made it to the winery, called Lanzerac, where we had a delicious wine-tasting session. We tasted about 5 different wines- 2 white, a rose, and 2 red. My favorites were the shiraz and the rose. It was really cool and we all had a good time, and then they made us lunch, too! After lunch, we went on a tour of the winery and learned how they make different wines and the history of this particular winery. Then we drove to a second winery, seeing beautiful scenery along the way, and tasted more wine. This time, there were 8 different wines, and these were all blended wines, which were excellent. After 13 half-glasses of wine, we were all feeling pretty good, and we looked around the museum and headed home. It was a great experience, and we loved every minute of it- even when we thought we weren't gonna make it. haha. We also took some amazing pictures of the mountains and wineries.
Today, we were supposed to go cliff jumping, but decided against it because we had so much to do, and we'd be gone from 0600 until 1600, right before on-ship time, so we didn't go. Instead, we got up early, had breakfast, and went with the twins, Pat, and Blair to a cafe called Melissa's where we had the most decadent and delicious hot chocolate ever. They spread nutella around the glass and then poured the hot chocolate into it. It was soooo good!! Then we took a cab to Table Mountain and waited in line for the cable car. After about 45 minutes, we finally got to go up, and it was SO scary! The top of the mountain is about 1,067 meters high (over 3,000 ft), and the cable car goes straight up the side of the mountain. Inside the car, you're standing, and the floor rotates around in a circle, which is a very strange experience. You probably have to do it to understand, but it was very scary. I hate heights, and Victoria and I were both clutching Kate in a death grip as she laughed at us and got the best pictures of the mountain and the town below. When we made it to the top, it was really windy, and by really, I mean so windy that our eyes watered. It was also very, very, very cold. We quickly snapped a few pictures, looked around at the amazing and picturesque for about 15 minutes, and headed back down. On the way down, these two older men were standing next to us and were amazed by the fact that the four of us were twins. They asked if they could take a picture, and asked us all sorts of questions about that and, once they found out while we were there, about SAS. They were from upstate New York, and a few minutes later, a Canadian couple joined in and we had a fun ride down! I love meeting new people! After Table Mountain, we went to the Green Square Market, had lunch, and then took a cab back to the waterfront. We did some last-minute shopping, bought some postcards and stamps, and had one last gelato cone before walking, very somberly, back to the ship. No one wanted to get back on, and it was so sad to walk up the gangway for the last time and leave this amazing city! We know that we will definitely be back some day soon because we fell in love with the people, culture, food...basically everything! We can't wait to show you pictures of our time here!
We are still sitting in port and it's about 2245, which makes it even worse because we can't get off but have to sit and look at it. I'm almost thankful for the delay, though, because I am not looking forward to the rough seas ahead. Or the homework. Back to the real world. haha. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about wonderful, beautiful, amazing Cape Town and that everything is going well for you back in the states!! Hopefully it's starting to warm up a little! We miss and love you all! We'll keep you updated on the journey to Mauritius.
Talk to you soon!!
xoxo
Kate and Sarah
Anyway, back to Cape Town! I have no idea how I'm going to convey to you just how amazing the past 5 days have been, but I'm gonna try. This might be a little long, so bear with me. We arrived Wednesday, and instead of pulling into port at 0800, we got here at about 10 because of heavy fog. Then we had a diplomatic briefing in the union and had lunch on the ship. Then we finally got to get off, and we went exploring the waterfront. It was beautiful! We were docked literally next to a mall along the waterfront, so unlike Casablanca and Namibia which were both very industrial, we walked off the ship into a tourist's paradise. The mall was huge and had restaurants along the dock outside all the way into the middle of the shopping area. We looked around and walked all over the area, basically doing nothing, because we were waiting for Stephanie and Victoria to get done with an FDP that was being held on the ship. At about 1300 when they finished, we went to have lunch at the mall. We found a cute 50's-looking diner and ate chicken fingers (surprised? haha), and then for dessert had the most delicious thing-waffles with gelato on top. It was sooo good! Here we also heard some songs that were American- some we recognized and some we didn't. It's weird that we hadn't known the newer songs because we've been gone for more than a month. Anyway, we had bought tickets to go to Robben Island at 1500, so we headed over to the ferry and as soon as we got on, we regretted it...we had just gotten off of the ship and now we were getting on a boat....what were we thinking? It was okay, though. During the 30-minute ride to the island, they played a movie about the history of it and about why they turned it into a museum. If you don't know what Robben Island is, it's basically an island for prisoners. During Apartheid, the South African government sent all of the political leaders (one of whom was Nelson Mandela) who disagreed with the policies and laws, and also a lot of regular criminals were sent there as well. Before it was a prison, in the middle-to-late 1800's, it was a place where anyone who had Leprosy was sent to live in exile. It was a very interesting visit. We got off the ferry and got on a tour bus that took us around the whole island, showing us the quarry where the prisoners worked, the prisons, and we even saw some of the 15,000 penguins that live there! Interesting fact: all of the tour guides on Robben Island were once prisoners there themselves. So they intertwined personal stories with the tour and it was so great to hear their perspective. After the driving tour, we saw the prison, and go inside the community cell and see the cell that Nelson Mandela spent 17 years in. It was intense, and I really learned a lot. Someone we talked to from South Africa said, "Oh- you must know a lot about Apartheid, right? Because they teach it to you in school..." and we said, "No, actually we never learned exactly what it was". I found that very interesting that I never noticed before, but we didn't really learn a whole lot about it- ever. It's become one of our favorite things to do on this trip- to compare America, our life, our education, our culture, to everything that I'm seeing and learning from an outside perspective. Well, we napped on the ferry ride back, and we went back to the ship, got dressed up, and went out to dinner with Blair, Stephanie, Victoria, Pat, and Britton. We went to Long Street since one of our inter-port students said the nightlife was good, and we picked out a restaurant called Royale Eatery. We had some really good food and the most amazing drinks.
Okay, I want to pause for a second and talk about something we've been having a lot of conversations about on the ship. Drinking...and America's take on it. As soon as we got to the Bahamas, we were able to drink anything we wanted. On the ship, we can have alcohol, and in every port, we've had free reign to drink whatever. For some people...and this is what bothers me...this means getting wasted every chance they get. For example, in Namibia apparently, there were some students who got so rowdy at a bar that the owner called Captain Jeremy, and another group of students got kicked out of their hotel. This is what makes me mad at the United States. If you deny a kid candy, they're just going to want it more. If you tell America's youth that they can't drink- they're just going to find a way to do it- and do a lot of it! In all the ports we've been to so far, we've talked to the local people, and they've said they don't have a big alcohol problem, which doesn't surprise me. America has gotten this "taboo" attitude about drinking, so now young people usually only drink to get drunk and have completely forgotten the concept of social-drinking. It's been so nice in Cape Town- and everywhere we've been- to order a drink or two with dinner or drink a glass of wine while listening to Jazz at a club. We...and by we, I mean the mature people on the ship...have a few drinks and just talk, and it has become really normal. My mom asked us if we'd been carded yet, and I almost didn't know what she was talking about. I don't even carry my ID around with me because no one asks. It's just the culture here to casually drink, and I've got to say- I really like it. I am not going to want to go back to the US and be told I can't even have a glass of wine at dinner. It makes me feel like a child. We can vote, own a house, and go to war, but we can't have a beer. Kind of ridiculous, huh? Sorry about the rant, it's just something we've talked a lot about here, and anyone who knows my mom or dad knows they think the same way I do, and we've talked a lot with them about it before, so I thought they'd appreciate it.
So, continuing with Cape Town... That night, after spending 3 hours talking, laughing, and eating, we decided to check out a jazz club near the ship called The Green Dolphin. It was awesome. It was really dark except for a few candles, and there was a band playing really good jazz on stage. We all ordered a drink, passed them around the table so everyone could try them, and listened to them serenade us for over an hour. After a long day, it was nice to relax! We also got to talk to Mom twice, which was awesome! We loved hearing her voice and getting to talk and laugh with her instead of communicating through e-mail. I'm so glad we got to talk to her, especially since we probably won't get to again for a while. The next day, Thursday, we had told Kevin we'd hang out with him and Ellie (our neighbors), so we woke up, had breakfast, and headed out to find the aquarium. It was so much fun and we spent all morning and some of the afternoon there. We saw all kinds of fish I've never seen before because even though I've been to aquariums, all these fish were from the southern hemisphere. We also saw sharks, penguins, a puppet show (for Ellie), and a tank full of jellyfish (eww). While we were waiting for the penguin-feeding show, we had lunch, and it was great. Ellie decided to play a game where she'd tilt her head, expecting us to follow. So, of course, we did, and she'd tilt it the other way and we'd follow along. Well, Kevin got a picture of us with both of our heads tilted to the side, and it was hilarious. Ellie definitely looked a lot cuter doing it than we did...we probably just looked stupid. haha. But she got a kick out of it, so it was worth it. There was a play-place next to the cafeteria, so Ellie and I went to play and it was a lot of fun. Whenever Kate and I would switch, Kevin and I got to talking, and we basically told our life stories. It was great to just sit and talk to him because we'd been so preoccupied with Ellie that we hadn't really just talked. So it was a lot of fun. We finally got to see the penguins being fed, which was funny to watch. I love penguins!! They're so cute! Ellie was ready for a nap after that, so we headed back to the ship. It was so sad because she had a meltdown when she finally realized Amy was gone (she went on a safari for 3 days) and kept calling for her. Sleeping helped, though, and we all napped for a while. That night, we were supposed to babysit while Kevin went to a rugby match, but he didn't end up going, and we hadn't made any plans with anyone because we thought we'd be sitting, so the four of us went to dinner. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. We all ate and, as we were sitting there, Ellie did NOT want to sit still, so I offered to walk around with her. This turned into an hour of me carrying her around/chasing her/going up and down the stairs with her. It was so much fun, and we were just hanging out together. We also found a band that was playing African music, so we danced around to that, which was so cute! She was really adorable (not like she ever isn't...) and I was so glad I got to hang out with her. After dinner, Kate and I went out to the Green Dolphin again with a few people, and this time they had a different band, so it was a good time.
The next day we were supposed to climb Table Mountain with a bunch of people, but they ended up leaving too late, and we had a trip that we had to be back at noon for, so instead we tagged along with Kevin and Ellie again, who were headed into town to go to a military museum/fort. I'm so glad we went because we never would've seen it otherwise, and it was really interesting. It's an old fort that's been through many wars, and everything is open to the public to see what it was used for. We saw the old prisoner-of-war jail cells, the armory, the old governor's mansion, the museum they had set up all about the wars that had happened, and much more. They even had a changing of the guards ceremony, where they set off a real cannon. It was really loud, but cool to watch. After having lunch, we headed back to the ship to leave for our trip to the township. Side note: in Cape Town, the "suburbs" are called townships, and this is where the extreme poverty and unemployment really show. Almost all of the houses there are what's called "informal structures" which are basically pieces of wood, tin, and anything else they can find, put together in a box shape. There's a huge divide between the people who have money in South Africa and those who don't, and it was definitely evident as we drove out of the city limits. The township we were going to was called Khayelitsha, and about 1.1 million people live there. As soon as we got there, it was hard not to feel extremely touristy and also sad. Here we were, in a tour bus, staring at everyone in their shacks, while we get to go back to the ship in a few hours which is basically luxury. We felt very humbled, to say the least. Our first stop was a school and a craft market. We bought a few things at the marker, talked to some of the sellers, and headed straight over to the school. The kids didn't speak English, but we interacted as best we can, and played tag, tickle wars, and hide-n-seek with them. I even taught one girl how to play patty cake. It was awesome. They were so excited to see us, to hold our hands, and above all, to take pictures with us. None of us wanted to leave, and I almost cried walking out of the school. Next, we went to a bed and breakfast run by a woman who wanted to encourage tourism in the area so she started a B & B for foreigners so they felt safe staying in the townships (violent crimes are common in the area). This was definitely the best part! After she talked to us for a while, we walked outside and encountered about 30 kids, ages 2 to 13. Vicky, the owner of the B & B, also feeds the neighborhood children every Tuesday and Thursday, so they hang out a lot around her place. The kids immediately took our hands and taught us how to play games with them, singing and dancing. It was amazing. We joined right in, dancing and trying to sing along, and granting every request to take a picture with them. When it was time to leave, they held our hands all the way back to the bus and ran after us as we pulled away. I will never forget them and my heart hurts to know the conditions they live in and what they go through everyday. The rest of the visit was to another B & B where we had snacks, and a walking tour of Khayelitsha. It was definitely one of those lie-changing experiences, and one we couldn't have done had it not been for SAS. We love this program, and are so grateful for the cultural experiences it's given us!
After the township visit, we had dinner and went to the Green Dolphin again. This time, however, there were a bunch of SASers there after hearing about it and how good it was. At midnight, we walked back to the ship, got our computer, and went to the mall for some free internet. Then we got to talk to Dad, Kathy, and the girls on Skype for a good 45 minutes! Laura started crying, which of course made me want to cry, but it was so nice to be able to see them and talk to them "in person". Julia was crazy, as usual, making silly faces and growling at the screen, so it was a good time. We also got to check our Yahoo accounts and then we headed back to the ship for much needed sleep. Saturday, we woke up at about 0700, had breakfast, and got on a bus for our "Cycling in the Winelands" trip. Our guide, Alex, told us all about the history of the area and the plan for the day as we drove the 45 minutes out of Cape Town to Stellenbosch. As soon as we arrived, we were given bikes and helmets, and we started biking. It was brutal! We are pretty good bikers, and we're in good shape, but it was extremely tough. We pretty much thought we were going to either fall over or our legs were going to fall off. It was on dirt roads, uphill, in the South African heat. It was so intense, and we cycled for about 10 km. It was absolutely gorgeous, though, the entire ride, so that was a nice bonus. It reminded us a lot of the countryside in Spain, and we took tons of pictures! When we finally got to paved roads and everyone else was way ahead of us, Kate and definitely started singing Sound of Music songs and taking our sweet time. It was a blast! It was a lot like when we used to ride our bikes through the metroparks, and we had tons of fun! We finally made it to the winery, called Lanzerac, where we had a delicious wine-tasting session. We tasted about 5 different wines- 2 white, a rose, and 2 red. My favorites were the shiraz and the rose. It was really cool and we all had a good time, and then they made us lunch, too! After lunch, we went on a tour of the winery and learned how they make different wines and the history of this particular winery. Then we drove to a second winery, seeing beautiful scenery along the way, and tasted more wine. This time, there were 8 different wines, and these were all blended wines, which were excellent. After 13 half-glasses of wine, we were all feeling pretty good, and we looked around the museum and headed home. It was a great experience, and we loved every minute of it- even when we thought we weren't gonna make it. haha. We also took some amazing pictures of the mountains and wineries.
Today, we were supposed to go cliff jumping, but decided against it because we had so much to do, and we'd be gone from 0600 until 1600, right before on-ship time, so we didn't go. Instead, we got up early, had breakfast, and went with the twins, Pat, and Blair to a cafe called Melissa's where we had the most decadent and delicious hot chocolate ever. They spread nutella around the glass and then poured the hot chocolate into it. It was soooo good!! Then we took a cab to Table Mountain and waited in line for the cable car. After about 45 minutes, we finally got to go up, and it was SO scary! The top of the mountain is about 1,067 meters high (over 3,000 ft), and the cable car goes straight up the side of the mountain. Inside the car, you're standing, and the floor rotates around in a circle, which is a very strange experience. You probably have to do it to understand, but it was very scary. I hate heights, and Victoria and I were both clutching Kate in a death grip as she laughed at us and got the best pictures of the mountain and the town below. When we made it to the top, it was really windy, and by really, I mean so windy that our eyes watered. It was also very, very, very cold. We quickly snapped a few pictures, looked around at the amazing and picturesque for about 15 minutes, and headed back down. On the way down, these two older men were standing next to us and were amazed by the fact that the four of us were twins. They asked if they could take a picture, and asked us all sorts of questions about that and, once they found out while we were there, about SAS. They were from upstate New York, and a few minutes later, a Canadian couple joined in and we had a fun ride down! I love meeting new people! After Table Mountain, we went to the Green Square Market, had lunch, and then took a cab back to the waterfront. We did some last-minute shopping, bought some postcards and stamps, and had one last gelato cone before walking, very somberly, back to the ship. No one wanted to get back on, and it was so sad to walk up the gangway for the last time and leave this amazing city! We know that we will definitely be back some day soon because we fell in love with the people, culture, food...basically everything! We can't wait to show you pictures of our time here!
We are still sitting in port and it's about 2245, which makes it even worse because we can't get off but have to sit and look at it. I'm almost thankful for the delay, though, because I am not looking forward to the rough seas ahead. Or the homework. Back to the real world. haha. I hope you all enjoyed hearing about wonderful, beautiful, amazing Cape Town and that everything is going well for you back in the states!! Hopefully it's starting to warm up a little! We miss and love you all! We'll keep you updated on the journey to Mauritius.
Talk to you soon!!
xoxo
Kate and Sarah
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Safari in Namibia
Hey Everyone!!!
We are currently sailing in the Atlantic on our way to South Africa! We're scheduled to pull into Cape Town at 0800 tomorrow and we're beyond excited for it! Our safari was amazing in Namibia and we pulled out of Walvis Bay (pronounced Valfish Bay) at around 2030 last night.
We got into Walvis Bay around 0800 on Saturday (Happy Valentine's Day!!! I hope it was fun!) And when we pulled in we were greeted by a small girl's choir from Namibia! They were absolutely adorable and we got video and tons of pictures. When the ship was cleared, we got off and got straight on the buses to travel up north to Etosha. They told us it was only about 4-5 hours and it ended up taking 8, so that was fun. Not really...we just ate a lot of junk food, slept, and listened to music. We saw a lot of desert and giant dunes and as we got further and further from Walvis Bay, we saw mountains and it became green with forests. We finally got to our campsite inside Etosha National Park in the pouring rain and set up our tents, had dinner and went to sleep. It reminded us of camping with our Dad and Kathy at Kelly's island and falling asleep to the sound of rain on our tents. Kate slept in a tent with a really nice girl named Kara, from CU Boulder, and I shared a tent with a girl from Miami- Alyssa.
We woke up at 0600 the next morning and ate breakfast and got on the bus to go on the safari! We drove around the park for 12 hours--only stopping to eat lunch and go to the bathroom--and saw so many amazing animals! We saw Giraffes (Kate was actually the first one to spot it!) and we saw tons of Springbok and Jackals. Then throughout the day we began to see Wildebeast, Dik-Dik, Red Hartebeast, and we even saw a Warthog. Then towards the end of our safari, as we started losing hope to see any of the other "Big 5", we saw Zebras!! They were beautiful and different than what we thought they would look like. And after that we saw more Giraffes and we spotted a lion under a tree! The most exciting thing, though, was that we were the only bus out of 9 to see Cheetahs!! Our guide told us that he'd only ever seen 4 and we saw 3 right next to our bus! They crossed the road right in front of us! It was extremely exciting and the day turned out to be incredible!
After the safari, we got back to our campsite around 1800 and walked to the watering hole to see if we could see animals there. We didn't end up seeing anything except giant beetles, and we were so hot (it was almost 90 degrees), so we walked to the tower. There was a tall round tower made out of stone that looked like a castle tower that was right inside the entrance to our campsite. There was a really long spiral staircase that wound up inside the tower (it reminded me of Perry's Monument) and at the top it's just an open circle so you can turn all the way around and see a 360 degree view of Etosha! It was gorgeous! We walked up to the top to watch the sunset, and it was the most amazing sunset I have ever seen! We got tons of pictures! We went back to our camp to have dinner and then we went back to the tower to stargaze. I know it will be one of my favorite memories of Semester at Sea and I'll remember it forever. We saw the Milky Way and so many stars!! And there was a storm in the distance so we got to see a really good lightning show. We all got a glass of Namibian beer (it was pretty good...and 500 ml for about $1 US) and went to sleep. We got up at 0500 to get ready, eat breakfast, and take down our tents and clean up the campsite. Sarah and I loved it so much--the whole camping experience. There were definitely girls there who would have liked to be anywhere else but camping, but we had tons of fun! And the food was really good! We had lamb, sausage, spaghetti w/ meat sauce, eggs, and acorn squash among other things throughout our trip. Our guides really took care of us and they were very knowledgeable about the animals and the area. Not to mention they cooked us food and generally put up with the 14 of us in the bus. haha
The next morning, we got up at 0500 and then took down camp and ate breakfast. We headed out for our 8 hour return drive to Walvis Bay at about 0630. It was cool, but we took the exact same road as we did on the way there, so there wasn't much to see and we were all exhausted. We tried to play car games, but there were really no signs or cars around, so it was hard. haha. But we played word games and sang songs and read books. We even learned how to count to 10 in almost every language (people on semester at sea are really smart!!) We stopped in a little German town called "Swakopmund" and got to eat and shop. The exchange rate there was $1 : N$10, so we each got 2 pairs of earrings and a bracelet for about 12 U.S. dollars! It was really cool. We got back to the port and had to get right on the ship, but we were happy to finally take showers and change clothes (we didn't take showers and wore the same clothes all 3 days! Yummy).
We had dinner with our "bus family" and went out on deck to watch the ship pull away from the port. Then Sarah and I played with Ellie (our 18-month old neighbor) and Kevin and Amy (her parents) said that it was huge because she never goes off with other people and she let us take her upstairs and run around the deck with her. We did "1-2-3-swing" with her, and we probably shouldn't have showed her that because she wanted us to do it all night! We would swing her, and then she wouldn't walk more than 2 steps before she would stop. put both of her hands in the air and say "Adain! Adain!". It was really cute, though, and when we all went back to our rooms so she could go to bed, she gave us hugs!! And Kevin's jaw dropped and he said she's never done that with 'strangers' before! It was absolutely adorable and we were so happy! It made us miss Laura and Julia, though. :)
We went back upstairs and played a really fun word game with the twins and Pat that they taught us (we'll teach it to everyone when we get home...it's pretty awesome) for about 2 1/2 hours and then went to sleep. Definitely slept for 9 hours....it was amazing. We don't have any classes today, but it's "South Africa Day" and we have Global Studies, our Cultural pre-port, a lifeboat drill, and then our Logistical pre-port! And it's taco day!! haha...everyone on the ship is very excited to see something other than pasta and potatoes in the dining hall. Other than that, we're just hanging out, doing some laundry, playing with Ellie, and NOT doing anything productive. It's a great day.
We got so many amazing pictures and we'll try to send some out in South Africa. Tomorrow, after climbing Table Mountain, we're going to try to go to Robben Island with the twins and another friend that we met on the safari (her name's Laura!) and then go out to dinner with Laura and one of her friends that's studying abroad in South Africa. Then on Thursday we're going to wander around Cape Town and get into trouble, and Friday we're going on an SAS day trip called "Cycling in the Winelands" where we'll rent mountain bikes and ride many miles through the winelands and have a picnic and a wine tasting! On Saturday, we're going to have some free time to shop and look around Cape Town and hang out, and we'll probably go out at night (we heard the night life is incredible there). Then on Sunday, we're going cliff-diving ("kloofing") which is basically lots of hiking and jumping off of high cliffs into water! It's going to be so amazing and we're both extremely excited! We're staying on the ship every night to save money, which is going to be so comfortable after Morocco and Namibia. We'll definitely keep you updated about everything.
Miss you all and love you!!!!!! Hope everything is going well in good old U.S.A.!
K&S
We are currently sailing in the Atlantic on our way to South Africa! We're scheduled to pull into Cape Town at 0800 tomorrow and we're beyond excited for it! Our safari was amazing in Namibia and we pulled out of Walvis Bay (pronounced Valfish Bay) at around 2030 last night.
We got into Walvis Bay around 0800 on Saturday (Happy Valentine's Day!!! I hope it was fun!) And when we pulled in we were greeted by a small girl's choir from Namibia! They were absolutely adorable and we got video and tons of pictures. When the ship was cleared, we got off and got straight on the buses to travel up north to Etosha. They told us it was only about 4-5 hours and it ended up taking 8, so that was fun. Not really...we just ate a lot of junk food, slept, and listened to music. We saw a lot of desert and giant dunes and as we got further and further from Walvis Bay, we saw mountains and it became green with forests. We finally got to our campsite inside Etosha National Park in the pouring rain and set up our tents, had dinner and went to sleep. It reminded us of camping with our Dad and Kathy at Kelly's island and falling asleep to the sound of rain on our tents. Kate slept in a tent with a really nice girl named Kara, from CU Boulder, and I shared a tent with a girl from Miami- Alyssa.
We woke up at 0600 the next morning and ate breakfast and got on the bus to go on the safari! We drove around the park for 12 hours--only stopping to eat lunch and go to the bathroom--and saw so many amazing animals! We saw Giraffes (Kate was actually the first one to spot it!) and we saw tons of Springbok and Jackals. Then throughout the day we began to see Wildebeast, Dik-Dik, Red Hartebeast, and we even saw a Warthog. Then towards the end of our safari, as we started losing hope to see any of the other "Big 5", we saw Zebras!! They were beautiful and different than what we thought they would look like. And after that we saw more Giraffes and we spotted a lion under a tree! The most exciting thing, though, was that we were the only bus out of 9 to see Cheetahs!! Our guide told us that he'd only ever seen 4 and we saw 3 right next to our bus! They crossed the road right in front of us! It was extremely exciting and the day turned out to be incredible!
After the safari, we got back to our campsite around 1800 and walked to the watering hole to see if we could see animals there. We didn't end up seeing anything except giant beetles, and we were so hot (it was almost 90 degrees), so we walked to the tower. There was a tall round tower made out of stone that looked like a castle tower that was right inside the entrance to our campsite. There was a really long spiral staircase that wound up inside the tower (it reminded me of Perry's Monument) and at the top it's just an open circle so you can turn all the way around and see a 360 degree view of Etosha! It was gorgeous! We walked up to the top to watch the sunset, and it was the most amazing sunset I have ever seen! We got tons of pictures! We went back to our camp to have dinner and then we went back to the tower to stargaze. I know it will be one of my favorite memories of Semester at Sea and I'll remember it forever. We saw the Milky Way and so many stars!! And there was a storm in the distance so we got to see a really good lightning show. We all got a glass of Namibian beer (it was pretty good...and 500 ml for about $1 US) and went to sleep. We got up at 0500 to get ready, eat breakfast, and take down our tents and clean up the campsite. Sarah and I loved it so much--the whole camping experience. There were definitely girls there who would have liked to be anywhere else but camping, but we had tons of fun! And the food was really good! We had lamb, sausage, spaghetti w/ meat sauce, eggs, and acorn squash among other things throughout our trip. Our guides really took care of us and they were very knowledgeable about the animals and the area. Not to mention they cooked us food and generally put up with the 14 of us in the bus. haha
The next morning, we got up at 0500 and then took down camp and ate breakfast. We headed out for our 8 hour return drive to Walvis Bay at about 0630. It was cool, but we took the exact same road as we did on the way there, so there wasn't much to see and we were all exhausted. We tried to play car games, but there were really no signs or cars around, so it was hard. haha. But we played word games and sang songs and read books. We even learned how to count to 10 in almost every language (people on semester at sea are really smart!!) We stopped in a little German town called "Swakopmund" and got to eat and shop. The exchange rate there was $1 : N$10, so we each got 2 pairs of earrings and a bracelet for about 12 U.S. dollars! It was really cool. We got back to the port and had to get right on the ship, but we were happy to finally take showers and change clothes (we didn't take showers and wore the same clothes all 3 days! Yummy).
We had dinner with our "bus family" and went out on deck to watch the ship pull away from the port. Then Sarah and I played with Ellie (our 18-month old neighbor) and Kevin and Amy (her parents) said that it was huge because she never goes off with other people and she let us take her upstairs and run around the deck with her. We did "1-2-3-swing" with her, and we probably shouldn't have showed her that because she wanted us to do it all night! We would swing her, and then she wouldn't walk more than 2 steps before she would stop. put both of her hands in the air and say "Adain! Adain!". It was really cute, though, and when we all went back to our rooms so she could go to bed, she gave us hugs!! And Kevin's jaw dropped and he said she's never done that with 'strangers' before! It was absolutely adorable and we were so happy! It made us miss Laura and Julia, though. :)
We went back upstairs and played a really fun word game with the twins and Pat that they taught us (we'll teach it to everyone when we get home...it's pretty awesome) for about 2 1/2 hours and then went to sleep. Definitely slept for 9 hours....it was amazing. We don't have any classes today, but it's "South Africa Day" and we have Global Studies, our Cultural pre-port, a lifeboat drill, and then our Logistical pre-port! And it's taco day!! haha...everyone on the ship is very excited to see something other than pasta and potatoes in the dining hall. Other than that, we're just hanging out, doing some laundry, playing with Ellie, and NOT doing anything productive. It's a great day.
We got so many amazing pictures and we'll try to send some out in South Africa. Tomorrow, after climbing Table Mountain, we're going to try to go to Robben Island with the twins and another friend that we met on the safari (her name's Laura!) and then go out to dinner with Laura and one of her friends that's studying abroad in South Africa. Then on Thursday we're going to wander around Cape Town and get into trouble, and Friday we're going on an SAS day trip called "Cycling in the Winelands" where we'll rent mountain bikes and ride many miles through the winelands and have a picnic and a wine tasting! On Saturday, we're going to have some free time to shop and look around Cape Town and hang out, and we'll probably go out at night (we heard the night life is incredible there). Then on Sunday, we're going cliff-diving ("kloofing") which is basically lots of hiking and jumping off of high cliffs into water! It's going to be so amazing and we're both extremely excited! We're staying on the ship every night to save money, which is going to be so comfortable after Morocco and Namibia. We'll definitely keep you updated about everything.
Miss you all and love you!!!!!! Hope everything is going well in good old U.S.A.!
K&S
Friday, February 13, 2009
Namibia
We just pulled into Walvis Bay, Namibia!!! It's about 8 am here. It looks wonderful and we're super excited to get off the ship after 8 days at sea. Dad- it smells exactly like Kelly's Island! Thought you'd appreciate that :-)
We have a diplomatic briefing and then a children's choir is coming to the dock to sing to us!! They're going to sing traditional African music for us and dance, and then, when the ship is cleared, they're going to come onto the ship for a tour! Isn't that awesome?? Once our sea is called, we have to get our passports and disembark as fast as we can because our safari leaves as soon as everyone is on the busses. It's a 4 1/2 hour drive to Etosha National Park, and they want to get there so we can get set up and do a game-drive tonight!!! We'll be there both nights and come back on the last day (Monday). It's kinda sad that we won't be able to look around Walvis Bay or Swakopmund, but we get to go on a safari so it's okay!!!
Yesterday, everyone made Valentine's for other people and they got delivered to our doors. It was so cute...we got them from R2 & D2, Chris, Rachel, the twins and Pat, Christopher, Joan, Jose, and Amy. I also got one from my boss, Beth, along with a bag of jelly beans. Needless to say, it was a great day. Plus, it was the last day of classes for 10 days so we're all sooo excited!
Quick side note: Our sea signed up for the Sea Olympics yesterday....what events everyone's gonna do and stuff. I signed up to be the hula-hoop competitor from our team, I'm in tug-of-war (my huge muscles will get to help!), and I'm also on the synchronized swimming "team". haha. Should be really fun. Kate signed up for an Olympic Relay and flip-cup. Our sea (Bering Sea) is definitely going to win! Our color is purple and we're voting on a mascot soon! And Kate and I are helping to come up with the cheers that our team is gonna yell at every possible opportunity that day! Sea Olympics are the day after we leave Mauritius, so we still have time to prepare, but we're all REALLy excited about it.....and we're gonna win, of course, sooo yeah.
Anyway, we have to finish packing all our stuff and head up to the briefing. Sorry it's so short. We'll write more when we get back from the Safari. YAY for Namibia!! We miss you and love you all!
-Kate and Sarah
P.S.- HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
We have a diplomatic briefing and then a children's choir is coming to the dock to sing to us!! They're going to sing traditional African music for us and dance, and then, when the ship is cleared, they're going to come onto the ship for a tour! Isn't that awesome?? Once our sea is called, we have to get our passports and disembark as fast as we can because our safari leaves as soon as everyone is on the busses. It's a 4 1/2 hour drive to Etosha National Park, and they want to get there so we can get set up and do a game-drive tonight!!! We'll be there both nights and come back on the last day (Monday). It's kinda sad that we won't be able to look around Walvis Bay or Swakopmund, but we get to go on a safari so it's okay!!!
Yesterday, everyone made Valentine's for other people and they got delivered to our doors. It was so cute...we got them from R2 & D2, Chris, Rachel, the twins and Pat, Christopher, Joan, Jose, and Amy. I also got one from my boss, Beth, along with a bag of jelly beans. Needless to say, it was a great day. Plus, it was the last day of classes for 10 days so we're all sooo excited!
Quick side note: Our sea signed up for the Sea Olympics yesterday....what events everyone's gonna do and stuff. I signed up to be the hula-hoop competitor from our team, I'm in tug-of-war (my huge muscles will get to help!), and I'm also on the synchronized swimming "team". haha. Should be really fun. Kate signed up for an Olympic Relay and flip-cup. Our sea (Bering Sea) is definitely going to win! Our color is purple and we're voting on a mascot soon! And Kate and I are helping to come up with the cheers that our team is gonna yell at every possible opportunity that day! Sea Olympics are the day after we leave Mauritius, so we still have time to prepare, but we're all REALLy excited about it.....and we're gonna win, of course, sooo yeah.
Anyway, we have to finish packing all our stuff and head up to the briefing. Sorry it's so short. We'll write more when we get back from the Safari. YAY for Namibia!! We miss you and love you all!
-Kate and Sarah
P.S.- HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
PICTURES!!!
Having dinner with Sarah, Blair, and Mike overlooking the Medina in Marrakech, Morocco
Two of our new friends, Marisa and Janine, at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain
This is our room (pre-decorating)....4054!!
This is everyone gathered on the back deck as we pulled away from Nassau on Embarkation Day
This is our beautiful ship, The MV Explorer!
Monday, February 9, 2009
Neptune Day
So....how many people out there can say they've crossed the equator on a giant ship with 700 other college students? We can! Today was Neptune Day, which is a celebration that takes place when a ship crosses the equator. It's sort of like an initiation process- anyone who's never done it before is called a "pollywog" and everyone who has is called a "shellback". The point is to have a ceremony so we can all be officially inducted into King Neptune's Royal Court!!
It all started this morning at about 7:15. We are getting ready and hear these drums and bells coming from down the hall. When we look outside, we see a ton of the crew wearing toga-like outfits with face-paint and headdresses marching down the hall yelling and banging on the doors (and pots and pans). I got it on video tape, so if you can't quite imagine it, I'll show you when we get back! After a good breakfast with Stephanie, Victoria (our wonderful new twin friends....it's like we gravitate toward each other, I don't know, but we get along great and have been spending a lot fo time with them!!), Pat, and Rachel, we went up on deck 7 to where all the festivities were going to take place. Every single person was out there, crowded around the pool and wearing bathing suits. Luke (the Asst Dean and "The Voice") started the ritual and while he spoke, almost all the faculty, staff, and their children who had crossed before came out wearing the most ridiculous costumes! And the best part was that Captain Jeremy (King Neptune) came out, painted entirely green and wearing a grass skirt, a huge headdress, and an obnoxious blue ring.
We had to say an oath and swear to King Neptune that we were worthy enough to cross into his territory. Then, the ritual began. We stood by the pool, had fish guts dumped on us, walked over to kiss a fish, and then jumped in the pool. And when we were finished, we were knighted as shellbacks. It was hilarious and I'm so glad we did it! After you completed the ritual, you had the option to shave your head...a tradition that dates back to merchant ships....and guess what! We did it!
No, just kdding....did I scare you though? haha. There's no way we would look good bald! There were a lot of girls (students, faculty, and lifelong learners) who shaved their heads, and some of them don't look all that bad. Quite a few boys did, as well, and now we have a lot of bald people walking around the ship. It's an interesting sight to see!
After all the ceremonies were over, we took showers to clean up, and went to eat lunch. It was actually good today and I'm still full. It was no Taco Day, but the food was decent and we got to just sit and hang out. Then the best part of the day....doing nothing. We laid out on deck 7 (with everyone else and their mom) and tanned/listened to music/napped. It was awesome! Don't worry, Mom, we wore our sunscreen (thanks Aunt Maureen!) No one had classes today, so everyone's in a good mood, just hangin out playing board games, tanning, or napping. But, you know, doing nothing can be very exhausting, so after watching an episode of Friends...with our friends...we took a nap, and then I had to go to work. Tonight is going to be much of the same. We might watch Hotel Rwanda with some people, and possibly splurge on some frozen yogurt from the pool bar! Hey, it is vacation after all. haha. Bottom line- we are enjoying our time in the sun and relaxing. I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow!
Miss you all and Love youuuuu!
K & S
P.S.- Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Julia, Happy Birthday to you! I can't believe you're 5 today...you're such a big girl! Have a wonderful day, and let us know if you get that Unicorn you were asking for! We love you!
It all started this morning at about 7:15. We are getting ready and hear these drums and bells coming from down the hall. When we look outside, we see a ton of the crew wearing toga-like outfits with face-paint and headdresses marching down the hall yelling and banging on the doors (and pots and pans). I got it on video tape, so if you can't quite imagine it, I'll show you when we get back! After a good breakfast with Stephanie, Victoria (our wonderful new twin friends....it's like we gravitate toward each other, I don't know, but we get along great and have been spending a lot fo time with them!!), Pat, and Rachel, we went up on deck 7 to where all the festivities were going to take place. Every single person was out there, crowded around the pool and wearing bathing suits. Luke (the Asst Dean and "The Voice") started the ritual and while he spoke, almost all the faculty, staff, and their children who had crossed before came out wearing the most ridiculous costumes! And the best part was that Captain Jeremy (King Neptune) came out, painted entirely green and wearing a grass skirt, a huge headdress, and an obnoxious blue ring.
We had to say an oath and swear to King Neptune that we were worthy enough to cross into his territory. Then, the ritual began. We stood by the pool, had fish guts dumped on us, walked over to kiss a fish, and then jumped in the pool. And when we were finished, we were knighted as shellbacks. It was hilarious and I'm so glad we did it! After you completed the ritual, you had the option to shave your head...a tradition that dates back to merchant ships....and guess what! We did it!
No, just kdding....did I scare you though? haha. There's no way we would look good bald! There were a lot of girls (students, faculty, and lifelong learners) who shaved their heads, and some of them don't look all that bad. Quite a few boys did, as well, and now we have a lot of bald people walking around the ship. It's an interesting sight to see!
After all the ceremonies were over, we took showers to clean up, and went to eat lunch. It was actually good today and I'm still full. It was no Taco Day, but the food was decent and we got to just sit and hang out. Then the best part of the day....doing nothing. We laid out on deck 7 (with everyone else and their mom) and tanned/listened to music/napped. It was awesome! Don't worry, Mom, we wore our sunscreen (thanks Aunt Maureen!) No one had classes today, so everyone's in a good mood, just hangin out playing board games, tanning, or napping. But, you know, doing nothing can be very exhausting, so after watching an episode of Friends...with our friends...we took a nap, and then I had to go to work. Tonight is going to be much of the same. We might watch Hotel Rwanda with some people, and possibly splurge on some frozen yogurt from the pool bar! Hey, it is vacation after all. haha. Bottom line- we are enjoying our time in the sun and relaxing. I can't wait to do it all over again tomorrow!
Miss you all and Love youuuuu!
K & S
P.S.- Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Julia, Happy Birthday to you! I can't believe you're 5 today...you're such a big girl! Have a wonderful day, and let us know if you get that Unicorn you were asking for! We love you!
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Morocco!
Hey everyone!
This whole e-mailing to our blog thing has not been working lately, and we have both used up our internet minutes already, so I'm trying to work on it. We actually wrote this the night we got back on the ship, but it wouldn't post. We actually are keeping up on our blog, I promise!!
I want to start out by saying Morocco probably isn't going to be our favorite country, but it was definitely an experience we are grateful we had. It was so emotionally draining and overwhelming, but a fabulous time, nonetheless!
In the last entry, we told you about how we didn't get to Morocco until Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning, we met up with Mike, Blair, and Sarah W. to head to the train station. We walked with a few other people to the exit of the port, and this should've been an indication of how the rest of the trip was going to go. It was muddy and smelly, and people were everywhere...shouting things at us in Arabic and almost running us down with their cars/mopeds. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed right from the beginning. We found a cab that we could all "fit" in (I say this because it only had 5 seats and we had 7 people) and bartered with the driver to take us to the train station. He wanted us to pay him a ridiculous amount and kept trying to get us in his cab. When he finally said a price we could handle, we all squished in and got to the train station in one piece. The train was supposed to leave at 10:50, and at 10:55, we were running down the platform with our 2nd-class tickets and hopped on (A League of their Own, mom?? haha). This, again, was a very interesting experience. There were no seats left, so we ended up standing for almost the entire 3-hour trip to Marrakech, looking out the window. Morocco is definitely a city of contrasts. One minute we'd see a tent city built up along the tracks and the next we'd see huge towns, with every building painted white, and mosques and palaces on the horizon. There never failed to be at least one cow or sheep wandering in the fields, and I got some good pictures of children chasing each other or waving at us as we zoomed by.
After the exhausting train ride, we got off the train and started walking. We didn't really know where we were going, but we knew we needed food asap! So we find this little cafe and stopped to have pizza and "coca cola light". It was interesting. The cheese was like nothing we've ever tasted and had a bitter aftertaste. But we devoured it and head out again to find our hostel. We had to take taxis there, and they made us split up- Mike, Blair, and myself in one...Sarah W and Kate in the other. When we got there, we found out that our cab driver ripped us off and made us pay 20 durham and the other cab only had to pay 10. Lesson learned I guess. Now starts the overwhelming part....we were dropped off in the medina, or middle, of Marrakech. Our hostel was supposedly located in the Place Jem al F'na, where the souks market is. So we walked into the giant square where the market was and saw a million things at once. People selling fruit, women offering henna, little children begging or selling pastries, men with either monkeys or snakes who tried to put them on you and then make you pay for it, and cars and mopeds driving like they owned the place. And the smells- I wish you could've been there- it was a mixture of spices, people, smoke, food, horses, and rain, and it just sucked you in and made you want to find out where each and every smell was coming from. We wandered around and made it to the souks which is a different experience altogether...let me try to explain. The souks is a giant market where people have booths and they sell things. It's literally a giant maze where they sell anything from shirts and handmade bags to rugs, food, spices, and decorations. I literally think you could go in there and get everything you would ever need. And you can't walk through there without the men harrassing you. They REALLY want you to come to their little shop and buy something so they'll say anything to you. Some funny examples were, "Beautiful eyes.....so much beautiful like butterflies", "Fish & Chips, fish & chips" (this reminded us of Kristina..I guess they thought we were British?), "Come here- I am what you are looking for", and "Obama!".
So, anyway, we finally found our hostel after walking down two creepy alleyways, and put our stuff down. The hostel was nice. The four girls stayed in one room and Mike went upstairs to stay with the other boys. Each room had about 5 foam "beds" lined up next to each other and a closet along one wall. The bathroom (which included a nice squatter toilet) was right outside. We walked in our room and found a girl from Australia who was traveling by herself. She was really nice and gave us some helpful hints about staying in Marrakech. After chatting for a while and putting our stuff in the closets, we headed out. We wanted to check out the market so we walked around for a while thinking we could see it and then get lunch. Wrong. We got so lost we were in the market for 2 1/2 hours! And we hadn't planned to buy anything, so we had no money, and every time you asked someone for directions, they'd insist on leading you there and then make you pay for it. It was a bit overwhelming. We finally found our way out (yay) and got a light lunch. The afternoon was much of the same...walking around the square and trying to barter for different things. And guess who we ran into!! Our friend Rachel! She was on a SAS trip and she decided to leave it and come with us, which was so much fun. When dusk came, the square completely changed. There were about 15 different food tents set up that had all kinds of different food, and they cooked it right in front of you. There were drum circles forming, people storytelling in Arabic, street boxing, and dancing. It was fantastic, and we decided to have dinner on a terrace overlooking the spectacle. Dinner was amazing. For 125 durham (about $20) we got a 3-course meal that included couscous, mint tea, vegetables, bread, and dessert (oranges with cinnamon). We even drank Moroccan Pepsi. haha. It was delicious and we got to watch the sun go down over the noise and smells of the Medina.
Sleeping at the hostel was definitely an experience (no shower, and we had to brush our teeth using a water bottle), but I'm glad we did it. There was a speaker right outside the window that went off at 4:30 am calling everyone to prayer (this happens 5 times a day), so we were all pretty much awake, just laying there, until about 8:30 when we decided to go to breakfast. This, too, was amazing! It was raining and cold, so when we got to this restaurant and saw other SASers looking happy and warm, we went right in. The waiter brought us hot chocolate, coffee, orange juice, and crepes which were so yummy! And all for 30 durham! We were full and happy by the time we decided to venture once again into the market. This time, though, we came prepared to buy a few things. We ended up buying a shirt each, a couple scarves, and two toy camels. We bartered for the shirts and got them down from 900 durham to about 250. We were very proud of ourselves. Everyone else bought a little something, and then Blair, Kate, and I went on a bus tour of the city while Mike, Rachel, and Sarah W walked around a bit more. I'm so glad we took the tour because the rest of Marrakech was so different from the Medina we had stayed in. Downtown there were fancy hotels, a mall, a 3-story McDonalds, and several mansions. In another part we toured, the only houses we could see were made of cardboard, and right next to these houses were more markets...fruit, clothing, jewelry. We were grateful to have gotten a view of the rest of the city because now we have a completely different view of Marrakech than we did the previous day. After the tour, we hung out and had dinner again, and then took a cab to the train station to head home...only this time we got 1st class tickets and had a compartment to ourselves. We all slept the entire time and ended up getting back to the ship at 1 am. We were so happy to see our ship because it's become as much of a home to us as any we've lived in, and the showers, beds, and free food were so inviting!
The next day, Blair came with us, and we walked around Casablanca trying to find the post office. This was probably the most annoying experience of my life. Everything's fine and dandy until you actually need to get stuff done, and then all the obstacles like not knowing the language or where the heck you're going really get in the way! We were trying to buy stamps and send a package, and the lady just could not understand us. I tried using the little French I know, but she just couldn't understand. When we asked for an envelope, she pointed outside and said "corner" in French. We were confused, but when we looked outside, there was a man selling envelopes on the street. How sketchy is that?! So we bought one from him for 10 durham and took it back inside to send our package. After being there for over an hour,we sent everything, and finally went to find food. After another hour of getting lost, we ate a pizza at a cafe, and bought 100 durham worth of chocolate before heading back to the ship. We got on with 1/2 hr to spare before on-ship time, and surprisingly, no one got dock time! This is the 2nd port that this has happened, so we must be a really on-time ship community!
I want to end with a couple stories that neither Kate nor I will ever forget. Everyone knows that Kate loves children. A lot. Well, when we were walking through the marketplace on the first day, a little girl with no shoes or jacket, who looked no older than Julia, came up to her, grabbed onto her jeans, smiled, and held out her hand asking for money. Kate looked like she was going to cry. She didn't have any money on her so she just had to walk away. It was so sad. I'm sure this won't be the last time we'll see children like this...I just had no idea it would be this soon into the journey. The next story is about two very different men I encountered while in Marrakech. The first man I ran into (literally) was in the souks. It was so crowded that you always run into something or other, and when I bumped into this man I looked up to say sorry and I looked at his face. He had no eyes. Just eye sockets. I was within inches of his face and it took me completely off guard. He was begging, walking around with a cane and no shoes or even pants. You just don't expect to see that, and I will never be able to get that image out of my head. The other man I remember was a lot happier. He was our cab driver to the train station and we was awesome! He was a little old man, must've been 80 or so, who only knew a very small amount of English. Every time we would stop he'd say ONE! And he'd wait, expecting us to echo him. Then he'd say TWO. We'd say it back, and then THREEEEE....GO! And he'd hit the gas. He was so proud of himself that he could communicate with us and we had a lot of fun on the way there. He also danced a lot (without holding onto the wheel....haha)
All in all, I'd say Morocco definitely impacted us, and a lot of people. I guess when you have no expectations, or any real knowledge of the country, it tends to surprise you. And that's what Morocco did. I am so grateful that we got to go there because I learned more in three days about the people, culture, religion, and language than I ever would have in a book. This is exactly what semester at sea is all about, and I'm falling more and more in love with this program every day. I never want it to end! We get to Namibia a week from today, and we cross the equator on Monday, so we don't have classes! We'll post again to tell you all about it and our ever-growing social lives on the ship (oh yeah...and classes and homework blah blah blah) We miss you and love you all! Till next time.....
K & S
This whole e-mailing to our blog thing has not been working lately, and we have both used up our internet minutes already, so I'm trying to work on it. We actually wrote this the night we got back on the ship, but it wouldn't post. We actually are keeping up on our blog, I promise!!
I want to start out by saying Morocco probably isn't going to be our favorite country, but it was definitely an experience we are grateful we had. It was so emotionally draining and overwhelming, but a fabulous time, nonetheless!
In the last entry, we told you about how we didn't get to Morocco until Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning, we met up with Mike, Blair, and Sarah W. to head to the train station. We walked with a few other people to the exit of the port, and this should've been an indication of how the rest of the trip was going to go. It was muddy and smelly, and people were everywhere...shouting things at us in Arabic and almost running us down with their cars/mopeds. Needless to say, we were overwhelmed right from the beginning. We found a cab that we could all "fit" in (I say this because it only had 5 seats and we had 7 people) and bartered with the driver to take us to the train station. He wanted us to pay him a ridiculous amount and kept trying to get us in his cab. When he finally said a price we could handle, we all squished in and got to the train station in one piece. The train was supposed to leave at 10:50, and at 10:55, we were running down the platform with our 2nd-class tickets and hopped on (A League of their Own, mom?? haha). This, again, was a very interesting experience. There were no seats left, so we ended up standing for almost the entire 3-hour trip to Marrakech, looking out the window. Morocco is definitely a city of contrasts. One minute we'd see a tent city built up along the tracks and the next we'd see huge towns, with every building painted white, and mosques and palaces on the horizon. There never failed to be at least one cow or sheep wandering in the fields, and I got some good pictures of children chasing each other or waving at us as we zoomed by.
After the exhausting train ride, we got off the train and started walking. We didn't really know where we were going, but we knew we needed food asap! So we find this little cafe and stopped to have pizza and "coca cola light". It was interesting. The cheese was like nothing we've ever tasted and had a bitter aftertaste. But we devoured it and head out again to find our hostel. We had to take taxis there, and they made us split up- Mike, Blair, and myself in one...Sarah W and Kate in the other. When we got there, we found out that our cab driver ripped us off and made us pay 20 durham and the other cab only had to pay 10. Lesson learned I guess. Now starts the overwhelming part....we were dropped off in the medina, or middle, of Marrakech. Our hostel was supposedly located in the Place Jem al F'na, where the souks market is. So we walked into the giant square where the market was and saw a million things at once. People selling fruit, women offering henna, little children begging or selling pastries, men with either monkeys or snakes who tried to put them on you and then make you pay for it, and cars and mopeds driving like they owned the place. And the smells- I wish you could've been there- it was a mixture of spices, people, smoke, food, horses, and rain, and it just sucked you in and made you want to find out where each and every smell was coming from. We wandered around and made it to the souks which is a different experience altogether...let me try to explain. The souks is a giant market where people have booths and they sell things. It's literally a giant maze where they sell anything from shirts and handmade bags to rugs, food, spices, and decorations. I literally think you could go in there and get everything you would ever need. And you can't walk through there without the men harrassing you. They REALLY want you to come to their little shop and buy something so they'll say anything to you. Some funny examples were, "Beautiful eyes.....so much beautiful like butterflies", "Fish & Chips, fish & chips" (this reminded us of Kristina..I guess they thought we were British?), "Come here- I am what you are looking for", and "Obama!".
So, anyway, we finally found our hostel after walking down two creepy alleyways, and put our stuff down. The hostel was nice. The four girls stayed in one room and Mike went upstairs to stay with the other boys. Each room had about 5 foam "beds" lined up next to each other and a closet along one wall. The bathroom (which included a nice squatter toilet) was right outside. We walked in our room and found a girl from Australia who was traveling by herself. She was really nice and gave us some helpful hints about staying in Marrakech. After chatting for a while and putting our stuff in the closets, we headed out. We wanted to check out the market so we walked around for a while thinking we could see it and then get lunch. Wrong. We got so lost we were in the market for 2 1/2 hours! And we hadn't planned to buy anything, so we had no money, and every time you asked someone for directions, they'd insist on leading you there and then make you pay for it. It was a bit overwhelming. We finally found our way out (yay) and got a light lunch. The afternoon was much of the same...walking around the square and trying to barter for different things. And guess who we ran into!! Our friend Rachel! She was on a SAS trip and she decided to leave it and come with us, which was so much fun. When dusk came, the square completely changed. There were about 15 different food tents set up that had all kinds of different food, and they cooked it right in front of you. There were drum circles forming, people storytelling in Arabic, street boxing, and dancing. It was fantastic, and we decided to have dinner on a terrace overlooking the spectacle. Dinner was amazing. For 125 durham (about $20) we got a 3-course meal that included couscous, mint tea, vegetables, bread, and dessert (oranges with cinnamon). We even drank Moroccan Pepsi. haha. It was delicious and we got to watch the sun go down over the noise and smells of the Medina.
Sleeping at the hostel was definitely an experience (no shower, and we had to brush our teeth using a water bottle), but I'm glad we did it. There was a speaker right outside the window that went off at 4:30 am calling everyone to prayer (this happens 5 times a day), so we were all pretty much awake, just laying there, until about 8:30 when we decided to go to breakfast. This, too, was amazing! It was raining and cold, so when we got to this restaurant and saw other SASers looking happy and warm, we went right in. The waiter brought us hot chocolate, coffee, orange juice, and crepes which were so yummy! And all for 30 durham! We were full and happy by the time we decided to venture once again into the market. This time, though, we came prepared to buy a few things. We ended up buying a shirt each, a couple scarves, and two toy camels. We bartered for the shirts and got them down from 900 durham to about 250. We were very proud of ourselves. Everyone else bought a little something, and then Blair, Kate, and I went on a bus tour of the city while Mike, Rachel, and Sarah W walked around a bit more. I'm so glad we took the tour because the rest of Marrakech was so different from the Medina we had stayed in. Downtown there were fancy hotels, a mall, a 3-story McDonalds, and several mansions. In another part we toured, the only houses we could see were made of cardboard, and right next to these houses were more markets...fruit, clothing, jewelry. We were grateful to have gotten a view of the rest of the city because now we have a completely different view of Marrakech than we did the previous day. After the tour, we hung out and had dinner again, and then took a cab to the train station to head home...only this time we got 1st class tickets and had a compartment to ourselves. We all slept the entire time and ended up getting back to the ship at 1 am. We were so happy to see our ship because it's become as much of a home to us as any we've lived in, and the showers, beds, and free food were so inviting!
The next day, Blair came with us, and we walked around Casablanca trying to find the post office. This was probably the most annoying experience of my life. Everything's fine and dandy until you actually need to get stuff done, and then all the obstacles like not knowing the language or where the heck you're going really get in the way! We were trying to buy stamps and send a package, and the lady just could not understand us. I tried using the little French I know, but she just couldn't understand. When we asked for an envelope, she pointed outside and said "corner" in French. We were confused, but when we looked outside, there was a man selling envelopes on the street. How sketchy is that?! So we bought one from him for 10 durham and took it back inside to send our package. After being there for over an hour,we sent everything, and finally went to find food. After another hour of getting lost, we ate a pizza at a cafe, and bought 100 durham worth of chocolate before heading back to the ship. We got on with 1/2 hr to spare before on-ship time, and surprisingly, no one got dock time! This is the 2nd port that this has happened, so we must be a really on-time ship community!
I want to end with a couple stories that neither Kate nor I will ever forget. Everyone knows that Kate loves children. A lot. Well, when we were walking through the marketplace on the first day, a little girl with no shoes or jacket, who looked no older than Julia, came up to her, grabbed onto her jeans, smiled, and held out her hand asking for money. Kate looked like she was going to cry. She didn't have any money on her so she just had to walk away. It was so sad. I'm sure this won't be the last time we'll see children like this...I just had no idea it would be this soon into the journey. The next story is about two very different men I encountered while in Marrakech. The first man I ran into (literally) was in the souks. It was so crowded that you always run into something or other, and when I bumped into this man I looked up to say sorry and I looked at his face. He had no eyes. Just eye sockets. I was within inches of his face and it took me completely off guard. He was begging, walking around with a cane and no shoes or even pants. You just don't expect to see that, and I will never be able to get that image out of my head. The other man I remember was a lot happier. He was our cab driver to the train station and we was awesome! He was a little old man, must've been 80 or so, who only knew a very small amount of English. Every time we would stop he'd say ONE! And he'd wait, expecting us to echo him. Then he'd say TWO. We'd say it back, and then THREEEEE....GO! And he'd hit the gas. He was so proud of himself that he could communicate with us and we had a lot of fun on the way there. He also danced a lot (without holding onto the wheel....haha)
All in all, I'd say Morocco definitely impacted us, and a lot of people. I guess when you have no expectations, or any real knowledge of the country, it tends to surprise you. And that's what Morocco did. I am so grateful that we got to go there because I learned more in three days about the people, culture, religion, and language than I ever would have in a book. This is exactly what semester at sea is all about, and I'm falling more and more in love with this program every day. I never want it to end! We get to Namibia a week from today, and we cross the equator on Monday, so we don't have classes! We'll post again to tell you all about it and our ever-growing social lives on the ship (oh yeah...and classes and homework blah blah blah) We miss you and love you all! Till next time.....
K & S
Monday, February 2, 2009
Change of Plans/Morocco/Big Waves
Hey everyone!
So right now we're supposed to be out enjoying Morocco and good food and LAND. However, we are still stuck on the ship. Yesterday, there was some rough weather, so when we stopped at the Rock of Gibraltar to refuel, we actually didn't end up getting fuel at all and had to wait till this morning to do it. We found out last night at pre-port that we in fact were not getting to Casablanca at 8 am but were going to be lucky to get there by late tonight. Today was probably the worst day we've had on the ship so far, weather-wise. We didn't have classes, work, or anything, since today was supposed to be a port day, so we slept in. But when we got up we realized the ship was rocking so much and we were officially sea sick. We both took meclizine which knocked us out until 5 pm. Yep, we did absolutely nothing today! It felt good, but we missed breakfast and lunch, and kinda felt crappy all day.
Anyway, onto the happy parts of today! We found out our extended families today!! Extended family is where you sign up to be put into a "family" of a few other students and either a professor or lifelong learner's family. I (Sarah) am in Dr. G and Annie's (R2 & D2 haha) family which is so great because I love them and they are such nice people! Kate got into the Eaton family and has the CUTEST little brother, Christopher. We both had dinner with our families which was really good, although we both still felt kinda out of it. After dinner, we went to a safety seminar where Joe (the conduct officer on the ship) talked about how to be safe while in port. Then we went to Open Mic Night, which was awesome!! Two people wrote a song to the tune of "No Air" called "No Land", which had phrases like, "How do you expect me...to live all the time at sea...with the food so bad and no sleep..." It was hilarious! And Rachel got up and played guitar and sang a song she wrote. It was amazing!! She has such a great voice and the song was sooo good!
The waves were pretty rough all day today, but right after dinner, as soon as Kate and I started feeling normal again, Captain Jeremy got on the PA and told everyone to tie things down because it was about to get really rocky. He said there were estimated to be waves as high as 20 feet! And he was right. We were in our room and things were flying everywhere! The drawers were opening, sending things spewing out of them, everything fell off the desk and table, and not a thing was left upright in the bathroom. It was a little scary because we'd be trying to hold the closet doors closed but a wave would come and send us flying to the other side of the room with all our stuff. Looking out the window, you'd see the water one second, and the next, nothing but sky! We decided to go up and see what everyone else was doing, and we brought our cameras. In Tymitz Square, a bunch of kids were sitting in the middle so that when a wave came, they'd slide clear across the room and back again. I got it on video. It was fun for about 15 minutes! After it calmed down, we went upstairs to the bookstore and everything was on the floor, some stuff was broken, and in the classrooms, all the desks and chairs were knocked over. Apparently a bunch of dishes were broken in both of the dining rooms! Crazy experience and I definitely can't wait to get on land tomorrow!
We're leaving tomorrow morning to take a train to Marrakesh and hopefully get a hostel with Mike, Blair, and Sarah W. Rachel's gonna meet us there with Alex, too, on Wednesday! It should be fun, even though we have one less day. SAS told us in the beginning that flexibility was key, and with the itinerary change a month before sailing and now this, I think it's safe to say that this group is doing pretty well! We'll talk to everyone this weekend when we get back! Have a great rest of the week!
-Kate and Sarah
P.s.- I just want to give a "Hoot" to all my Chi O sisters!!! I love you all and miss you SOOOO much, you don't even know! My little has been keeping me updated on everything and I wish I could be there to spend time with all of you! I hope you're all having a great quarter and I can't wait to see you when I get back!
So right now we're supposed to be out enjoying Morocco and good food and LAND. However, we are still stuck on the ship. Yesterday, there was some rough weather, so when we stopped at the Rock of Gibraltar to refuel, we actually didn't end up getting fuel at all and had to wait till this morning to do it. We found out last night at pre-port that we in fact were not getting to Casablanca at 8 am but were going to be lucky to get there by late tonight. Today was probably the worst day we've had on the ship so far, weather-wise. We didn't have classes, work, or anything, since today was supposed to be a port day, so we slept in. But when we got up we realized the ship was rocking so much and we were officially sea sick. We both took meclizine which knocked us out until 5 pm. Yep, we did absolutely nothing today! It felt good, but we missed breakfast and lunch, and kinda felt crappy all day.
Anyway, onto the happy parts of today! We found out our extended families today!! Extended family is where you sign up to be put into a "family" of a few other students and either a professor or lifelong learner's family. I (Sarah) am in Dr. G and Annie's (R2 & D2 haha) family which is so great because I love them and they are such nice people! Kate got into the Eaton family and has the CUTEST little brother, Christopher. We both had dinner with our families which was really good, although we both still felt kinda out of it. After dinner, we went to a safety seminar where Joe (the conduct officer on the ship) talked about how to be safe while in port. Then we went to Open Mic Night, which was awesome!! Two people wrote a song to the tune of "No Air" called "No Land", which had phrases like, "How do you expect me...to live all the time at sea...with the food so bad and no sleep..." It was hilarious! And Rachel got up and played guitar and sang a song she wrote. It was amazing!! She has such a great voice and the song was sooo good!
The waves were pretty rough all day today, but right after dinner, as soon as Kate and I started feeling normal again, Captain Jeremy got on the PA and told everyone to tie things down because it was about to get really rocky. He said there were estimated to be waves as high as 20 feet! And he was right. We were in our room and things were flying everywhere! The drawers were opening, sending things spewing out of them, everything fell off the desk and table, and not a thing was left upright in the bathroom. It was a little scary because we'd be trying to hold the closet doors closed but a wave would come and send us flying to the other side of the room with all our stuff. Looking out the window, you'd see the water one second, and the next, nothing but sky! We decided to go up and see what everyone else was doing, and we brought our cameras. In Tymitz Square, a bunch of kids were sitting in the middle so that when a wave came, they'd slide clear across the room and back again. I got it on video. It was fun for about 15 minutes! After it calmed down, we went upstairs to the bookstore and everything was on the floor, some stuff was broken, and in the classrooms, all the desks and chairs were knocked over. Apparently a bunch of dishes were broken in both of the dining rooms! Crazy experience and I definitely can't wait to get on land tomorrow!
We're leaving tomorrow morning to take a train to Marrakesh and hopefully get a hostel with Mike, Blair, and Sarah W. Rachel's gonna meet us there with Alex, too, on Wednesday! It should be fun, even though we have one less day. SAS told us in the beginning that flexibility was key, and with the itinerary change a month before sailing and now this, I think it's safe to say that this group is doing pretty well! We'll talk to everyone this weekend when we get back! Have a great rest of the week!
-Kate and Sarah
P.s.- I just want to give a "Hoot" to all my Chi O sisters!!! I love you all and miss you SOOOO much, you don't even know! My little has been keeping me updated on everything and I wish I could be there to spend time with all of you! I hope you're all having a great quarter and I can't wait to see you when I get back!
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Sevila, Cordoba, & Granada!!
**Warning! This is extremely long! Only read if you have free time or are avoiding homework/work** ☺
Hola amigas y familia! We have officially left our first port of call. Spain was beyond amazing and we are going to do our best to describe it to you, although there really are no words to describe everything we experienced.
Of course our first city was Cadiz, which you all read about in our last post. The next morning, our second day in port, we woke up extra early and met in the Union at 7:30 am to leave for our trip. About 5 minutes after we got on the bus we both fell asleep. Thanks, Mom, by the way, for those travel pillows you bought us in the Atlanta airport! They are SO comfortable, and perfect for traveling. It was only about a 2 hour drive to Sevilla, and we arrived at 0945 at the Plaza de España. It was a gigantic plaza with a fountain in the middle and a palace-like building that surrounded it…you had to actually turn all the way around in a circle to see the whole thing. It was magnificent. The architecture and the grandeur of the whole thing was amazing. We all took way too many pictures and video there, and we even saw cats! (Which are everywhere in Spain, and there will probably be an album at the end of the trip just on the cats we’ve encountered) haha. After we were done, we got back on the bus and drove into the city of Sevilla about 5 minutes away. We walked down the main road to the Catedral de Sevilla—the 3rd largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s (I think that’s what our guide said—correct me if I’m wrong) in London. It was gorgeous inside. And magnificently huge! The intricacy of the architecture and the size of it were mind-boggling. We got to see the tomb of Christopher Columbus, which was really cool. Our guide also showed us a giant painting of San Fernando and told us a story about when a thief broke into the cathedral and cut out the bottom corner of the painting, which had San Fernando kneeling in it. The corner of it isn’t small—it’s about 4 square feet—so that must have been a hard thing to do. But he took the stolen corner and sent hundreds of authorities on a 6-month search around the world for it. They finally found it in New York City in an antique shop, and took it to Madrid where it was restored into the original painting. We could still see the line where that section of the painting was cut out. It was very interesting. The most gorgeous part of the cathedral was the stained glass and woodwork. They were beautiful! We eventually left the cathedral and walked over to the Royal Palace, or Alcazar, which is where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they visit Sevilla. It was built during the 13th century and, like a lot of the old palaces we saw, was built under a time of Islamic rule, so there was a lot of decoration and architecture inspired by Islam, including Arabic writings in the designs on the walls. There were ornate decorations everywhere—with ceramic tiles, and plaster and woodwork. The gardens were the best part, though, and we took a lot of pictures there. We left the palace and walked to the old Jewish Quarter, Santa Cruz, where the guide told us about Spain’s “black history” when they tried to exile all of the Jews. It was very interesting. The Quarter was adorable! It was exactly how we always pictured little European towns to look like, with compact colorful buildings really close together and small alleys running between them. And all of the buildings had flower pots on the windows and balconies and there were little cafes and restaurants. We finally got to eat lunch after what seemed like an eternity, and it exceeded our expectations. They really took care of us. It was a relief to all of us to be eating “real food” instead of ship food. We ate food that we never thought we would eat, like asparagus and Tortilla de España (an egg and potato concoction) and an almond cake for dessert…and it was all delicious! We had some free time after lunch, so we went on another adventure to find El Corte Ingles and jackets with Lisa (Sarah’s boss in the library). Sevilla has a commercial section apart from the old section and it’s really nice. There’s one main road with tons of shops and a rail system, which is similar to that of San Francisco, but looks more like a monorail from Disney World. We didn’t end up finding any jackets, but we did find a magnet that has Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada on it! So it saved us from spending too much money on magnets and buying one from every city! We also found a newspaper stand and decided that we’re going to get a local newspaper from every country. We’re really excited about that! We got back on the bus with everyone and set off for Cordoba. The scenery was so beautiful! It was all green and mountainous and we passed some small villages. We got some video of it (however good that’s going to turn out, we don’t know) so maybe you all can see what we saw.
We got to Cordoba around 1800 and checked into our hotel. An interesting fact about hotels in Spain—the lights in the room are controlled by you! It took Sarah and I about 15 minutes to figure this out as we walked around in the dark. Right inside the door to our room there was a small thing that looked like a light switch, but we couldn’t press it. We flipped the light switches on and off throughout the room, but nothing happened. Finally someone told us that you have to stick your room key into the thing near the door. Once we did that, all of the light switches worked! It was very weird, but kind of unique. It’s a good idea, though, because when you leave, you have to take your card with you, so the lights won’t stay on unnecessarily. We turned on the TV in our room and it was so weird to flip through the channels and not understand anything! There was a German MTV, Spanish news channels, and even Italian & French channels. There was BBC, thankfully, so we got to catch up on some world news, which was interesting because we felt so out of the loop. Haha. We got bored after about ½ an hour, so we went on another search for jackets and decided to explore the city while we searched. We walked for a while and actually found El Corte Ingles! Everything there was too expensive, though, so we ended up going somewhere else and getting sweaters for 15 Euro. It was so cold in Spain and we were not as prepared as we thought we were, so we were happy to find them. Cordoba was a lot more urban than Sevilla, but it was still very nice. While we were walking around, we got to see Cordoba’s “centro cuidad”, or city center. There was a huge promenade that is basically a very wide street that is closed off to cars only in the middle and not on the side. And there are what looked like almost sidewalks on each side. So Sarah and I kept walking down the side next to the stores and cafes and cars kept driving down them and honking at us until we finally figured it out! Haha. You almost have to cross the “street” to get into the shops. We went back to the hotel for dinner, which turned out to be slightly disappointing after our amazing lunch! They had a lot of pasta and potatoes (it reminded us very much of ship food) and we had to pay for water! But it was food nonetheless. After dinner, we sat and talked with two girls at our table, Marisa and Janine from Allegheny College. It was so much fun! Janine is amazed with the fact that we are twins and they kept asking us to guess numbers and read each other’s minds and it was hilarious! They are just like us and it seems like we’ve known them forever, and we laughed so hard we were crying. We played cards after dinner (Presidents—it wasn’t the same without you Dad & Kathy!) with some of the faculty and life-long learners (LLL’s). Marisa, Janine, Sarah, and I all decided that we are a family, with Dr. G as our Dad, his wife Anne as our Mom, and an LLL Belisa as our other Mom. And the LLL Joan, of course, fits in there somewhere. We call Dr. G “D2” (Dad 2)--Marisa started calling him that and now it has stuck. We call his wife Anne “R2” (Get it? R2 and D2?!) She came up with that one on her own. And we call Belisa “M2” (for Mom 2), and we just call Joan “Joan”. Haha. So we sat down at a couch and took a “family portrait”. We were all trying to look serious and regal. Haha. Then we went to take a second picture and Dr. G said a “That’s what she said” joke right as the picture was taken and it was priceless! All of our jaws dropped and we were laughing so hard. It was SO funny because Dr. G is like our Grandpa. We all eventually said goodnight went to our rooms, and Sarah & I watched “Raising Helen” in Spanish and went to sleep. We had to be up very early the next day to explore Cordoba with our guide. We went to a magnificent cathedral with beautiful architecture. It had arches throughout the inside that were striped with alternating stone and brick. It also had amazing gardens. The grounds were massive and there were fountains and pools and hedges and trees that were perfectly cut like a maze. Then we saw Cordoba’s Jewish Quarter, and it was just as charming as Sevilla’s. There was a statue of a man in the middle that was dark and dirty everywhere except his shoes—his shoes were shiny and gold. He wasn’t made that way, the rest of him used to look like his shoes do now, but after years and years of wear, he has turned dark. And the reason his shoes are still shiny is because it is said that if you touch his shoes, you will gain wisdom. So of course we touched them! After that, we got back on the buses and drove back to the hotel for lunch. But after a disappointing dinner and breakfast at that hotel, we decided to go out to lunch with Marisa, Janine, and Lisa. We showed them where El Corte Ingles was s that Marisa and Janine could buy a watch and a jacket, too. Then we found a little diner across the street and we all ordered Tortilla España on a baguette. A “bocadilla”, or sandwich. It was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten! We all were satisfied and happy as we walked back to the hotel. On our way back, we came across a small street market where they were selling scarves. Sarah and I each bought 2 scarves for 1 Euro each! And they’re beautiful! We each bought one of them in purple, because purple is our sea’s color (the Bering Sea) and we’ll need it when we get to the Sea Olympics. We headed back to meet the buses and left for Granada. It was only about a 2 hour drive, and we slept for about a ½ hour and watched the scenery. Driving into Granada was awesome because it’s in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our hotel was nestled up on the side of a mountain, and it was right across the street from the Alhambra! It was a little scary driving up the ridiculously small and winding streets in a big bus, but we eventually made it and checked into our rooms. Since we were pretty isolated from the town and nightlife, and it was raining, we decided to just stay in and relax. We had dinner (much better than the hotel in Cordoba), talked with Lisa, Joan, Marisa, and Janine, and went back to our room. We started to play cards, and then got distracted watching world news on CNBC and a talk show about Obama and the conflict in the Middle East. It was really cool because the speakers were from Germany and Spain and it was interesting to hear their point of view about America and the new administration.
We woke up early the next morning and walked across the street to the Alhambra. It was so grand and beautiful! We thought it used to be a palace, but in fact, it used to be a small city. It is the equivalent of 26 acres! It had a palace inside for the King and his wives, and then it had a public bath, and the area for the servants and commoners. It also had amazing gardens that stretched out all over the city. It was raining most of the time, and it even snowed at one point! But we were prepared with our mini umbrellas (Thanks, Mom!). After we were done looking around there, we walked back to the hotel and had lunch, before boarding the buses for the last time for our trip back to Cadiz and the MV Explorer. It was about a 4 hour drive, so most of us slept for the first hour. At that point, the driver stopped at a rest area that had a diner inside and little stores. Sarah and I found some Spanish Kit-Kats (of course!) that were 10 times better than those in America. We got back on the bus and everyone went back to sleep but Sarah and I were too awake, so we ended up taking pictures and having a photo shoot with Afras. (In case anyone doesn’t know who Afras is, he’s a stuffed ostrich that Anna gave us to take pictures of throughout our trip at monuments and such.) It was so funny and we were laughing so hard! As we were sitting there, we heard a familiar song start playing on the radio. It was “That Thing You Do”!!! It was so random and funny that that particular song was playing on the radio in the middle of Spain. We were definitely very happy, but it made us miss home just a little bit. About a half an hour after that song played, “Bad Day” came on and we immediately thought of Jenna! It was our theme song when we traveled to NYC in ’06 and it was, again, so random that it was playing on Spanish radio.
We got back to the ship almost ½ an hour late, but it was okay because we were on an SAS trip, so there was no dock time. We put our stuff in our room, ate dinner, and went up on deck with our cameras to capture the last of Spain. We took pictures and video, and stood there with Rachel and Mike as we pulled away. It was reminiscent of Embarkation Day—bittersweet, but we are all excited for Morocco and the rest of our journey.
This morning we had our cultural pre-port during global studies and learned what we need to know for traveling. A few of the things we learned were that we have to dress conservatively and we can’t look people in the eye. It’ll be interesting to go from Spain to Morocco and get to compare the two.
Last night, we hit a storm and we had the roughest waves we’ve had so far. They even tied stuff down in the library and campus store, just in case. It was crazy! But we did get to watch “The Patriot” in our cabin so that was cool.
Right now, we’re idling outside of Gibraltar to re-fuel, and we’ve been here for about 12 hours now. It’s pretty cool to look outside our window and see the Rock of Gibraltar and land. We have our logistical pre-port tonight, and then tomorrow we are scheduled to get to Casablanca at 0800! We’ll write more tomorrow night about our adventures, as we’re sleeping on the ship, and then we’re leaving for Marrakesh on Tuesday morning with some new friends. It should be exciting!
Talk to you all soon! We hope everything is going well and you are staying warm!
Love you!
-Kate and Sarah-
Hola amigas y familia! We have officially left our first port of call. Spain was beyond amazing and we are going to do our best to describe it to you, although there really are no words to describe everything we experienced.
Of course our first city was Cadiz, which you all read about in our last post. The next morning, our second day in port, we woke up extra early and met in the Union at 7:30 am to leave for our trip. About 5 minutes after we got on the bus we both fell asleep. Thanks, Mom, by the way, for those travel pillows you bought us in the Atlanta airport! They are SO comfortable, and perfect for traveling. It was only about a 2 hour drive to Sevilla, and we arrived at 0945 at the Plaza de España. It was a gigantic plaza with a fountain in the middle and a palace-like building that surrounded it…you had to actually turn all the way around in a circle to see the whole thing. It was magnificent. The architecture and the grandeur of the whole thing was amazing. We all took way too many pictures and video there, and we even saw cats! (Which are everywhere in Spain, and there will probably be an album at the end of the trip just on the cats we’ve encountered) haha. After we were done, we got back on the bus and drove into the city of Sevilla about 5 minutes away. We walked down the main road to the Catedral de Sevilla—the 3rd largest cathedral in the world after St. Peter’s in Rome and St. Paul’s (I think that’s what our guide said—correct me if I’m wrong) in London. It was gorgeous inside. And magnificently huge! The intricacy of the architecture and the size of it were mind-boggling. We got to see the tomb of Christopher Columbus, which was really cool. Our guide also showed us a giant painting of San Fernando and told us a story about when a thief broke into the cathedral and cut out the bottom corner of the painting, which had San Fernando kneeling in it. The corner of it isn’t small—it’s about 4 square feet—so that must have been a hard thing to do. But he took the stolen corner and sent hundreds of authorities on a 6-month search around the world for it. They finally found it in New York City in an antique shop, and took it to Madrid where it was restored into the original painting. We could still see the line where that section of the painting was cut out. It was very interesting. The most gorgeous part of the cathedral was the stained glass and woodwork. They were beautiful! We eventually left the cathedral and walked over to the Royal Palace, or Alcazar, which is where the King and Queen of Spain stay when they visit Sevilla. It was built during the 13th century and, like a lot of the old palaces we saw, was built under a time of Islamic rule, so there was a lot of decoration and architecture inspired by Islam, including Arabic writings in the designs on the walls. There were ornate decorations everywhere—with ceramic tiles, and plaster and woodwork. The gardens were the best part, though, and we took a lot of pictures there. We left the palace and walked to the old Jewish Quarter, Santa Cruz, where the guide told us about Spain’s “black history” when they tried to exile all of the Jews. It was very interesting. The Quarter was adorable! It was exactly how we always pictured little European towns to look like, with compact colorful buildings really close together and small alleys running between them. And all of the buildings had flower pots on the windows and balconies and there were little cafes and restaurants. We finally got to eat lunch after what seemed like an eternity, and it exceeded our expectations. They really took care of us. It was a relief to all of us to be eating “real food” instead of ship food. We ate food that we never thought we would eat, like asparagus and Tortilla de España (an egg and potato concoction) and an almond cake for dessert…and it was all delicious! We had some free time after lunch, so we went on another adventure to find El Corte Ingles and jackets with Lisa (Sarah’s boss in the library). Sevilla has a commercial section apart from the old section and it’s really nice. There’s one main road with tons of shops and a rail system, which is similar to that of San Francisco, but looks more like a monorail from Disney World. We didn’t end up finding any jackets, but we did find a magnet that has Sevilla, Cordoba, and Granada on it! So it saved us from spending too much money on magnets and buying one from every city! We also found a newspaper stand and decided that we’re going to get a local newspaper from every country. We’re really excited about that! We got back on the bus with everyone and set off for Cordoba. The scenery was so beautiful! It was all green and mountainous and we passed some small villages. We got some video of it (however good that’s going to turn out, we don’t know) so maybe you all can see what we saw.
We got to Cordoba around 1800 and checked into our hotel. An interesting fact about hotels in Spain—the lights in the room are controlled by you! It took Sarah and I about 15 minutes to figure this out as we walked around in the dark. Right inside the door to our room there was a small thing that looked like a light switch, but we couldn’t press it. We flipped the light switches on and off throughout the room, but nothing happened. Finally someone told us that you have to stick your room key into the thing near the door. Once we did that, all of the light switches worked! It was very weird, but kind of unique. It’s a good idea, though, because when you leave, you have to take your card with you, so the lights won’t stay on unnecessarily. We turned on the TV in our room and it was so weird to flip through the channels and not understand anything! There was a German MTV, Spanish news channels, and even Italian & French channels. There was BBC, thankfully, so we got to catch up on some world news, which was interesting because we felt so out of the loop. Haha. We got bored after about ½ an hour, so we went on another search for jackets and decided to explore the city while we searched. We walked for a while and actually found El Corte Ingles! Everything there was too expensive, though, so we ended up going somewhere else and getting sweaters for 15 Euro. It was so cold in Spain and we were not as prepared as we thought we were, so we were happy to find them. Cordoba was a lot more urban than Sevilla, but it was still very nice. While we were walking around, we got to see Cordoba’s “centro cuidad”, or city center. There was a huge promenade that is basically a very wide street that is closed off to cars only in the middle and not on the side. And there are what looked like almost sidewalks on each side. So Sarah and I kept walking down the side next to the stores and cafes and cars kept driving down them and honking at us until we finally figured it out! Haha. You almost have to cross the “street” to get into the shops. We went back to the hotel for dinner, which turned out to be slightly disappointing after our amazing lunch! They had a lot of pasta and potatoes (it reminded us very much of ship food) and we had to pay for water! But it was food nonetheless. After dinner, we sat and talked with two girls at our table, Marisa and Janine from Allegheny College. It was so much fun! Janine is amazed with the fact that we are twins and they kept asking us to guess numbers and read each other’s minds and it was hilarious! They are just like us and it seems like we’ve known them forever, and we laughed so hard we were crying. We played cards after dinner (Presidents—it wasn’t the same without you Dad & Kathy!) with some of the faculty and life-long learners (LLL’s). Marisa, Janine, Sarah, and I all decided that we are a family, with Dr. G as our Dad, his wife Anne as our Mom, and an LLL Belisa as our other Mom. And the LLL Joan, of course, fits in there somewhere. We call Dr. G “D2” (Dad 2)--Marisa started calling him that and now it has stuck. We call his wife Anne “R2” (Get it? R2 and D2?!) She came up with that one on her own. And we call Belisa “M2” (for Mom 2), and we just call Joan “Joan”. Haha. So we sat down at a couch and took a “family portrait”. We were all trying to look serious and regal. Haha. Then we went to take a second picture and Dr. G said a “That’s what she said” joke right as the picture was taken and it was priceless! All of our jaws dropped and we were laughing so hard. It was SO funny because Dr. G is like our Grandpa. We all eventually said goodnight went to our rooms, and Sarah & I watched “Raising Helen” in Spanish and went to sleep. We had to be up very early the next day to explore Cordoba with our guide. We went to a magnificent cathedral with beautiful architecture. It had arches throughout the inside that were striped with alternating stone and brick. It also had amazing gardens. The grounds were massive and there were fountains and pools and hedges and trees that were perfectly cut like a maze. Then we saw Cordoba’s Jewish Quarter, and it was just as charming as Sevilla’s. There was a statue of a man in the middle that was dark and dirty everywhere except his shoes—his shoes were shiny and gold. He wasn’t made that way, the rest of him used to look like his shoes do now, but after years and years of wear, he has turned dark. And the reason his shoes are still shiny is because it is said that if you touch his shoes, you will gain wisdom. So of course we touched them! After that, we got back on the buses and drove back to the hotel for lunch. But after a disappointing dinner and breakfast at that hotel, we decided to go out to lunch with Marisa, Janine, and Lisa. We showed them where El Corte Ingles was s that Marisa and Janine could buy a watch and a jacket, too. Then we found a little diner across the street and we all ordered Tortilla España on a baguette. A “bocadilla”, or sandwich. It was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever eaten! We all were satisfied and happy as we walked back to the hotel. On our way back, we came across a small street market where they were selling scarves. Sarah and I each bought 2 scarves for 1 Euro each! And they’re beautiful! We each bought one of them in purple, because purple is our sea’s color (the Bering Sea) and we’ll need it when we get to the Sea Olympics. We headed back to meet the buses and left for Granada. It was only about a 2 hour drive, and we slept for about a ½ hour and watched the scenery. Driving into Granada was awesome because it’s in the middle of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our hotel was nestled up on the side of a mountain, and it was right across the street from the Alhambra! It was a little scary driving up the ridiculously small and winding streets in a big bus, but we eventually made it and checked into our rooms. Since we were pretty isolated from the town and nightlife, and it was raining, we decided to just stay in and relax. We had dinner (much better than the hotel in Cordoba), talked with Lisa, Joan, Marisa, and Janine, and went back to our room. We started to play cards, and then got distracted watching world news on CNBC and a talk show about Obama and the conflict in the Middle East. It was really cool because the speakers were from Germany and Spain and it was interesting to hear their point of view about America and the new administration.
We woke up early the next morning and walked across the street to the Alhambra. It was so grand and beautiful! We thought it used to be a palace, but in fact, it used to be a small city. It is the equivalent of 26 acres! It had a palace inside for the King and his wives, and then it had a public bath, and the area for the servants and commoners. It also had amazing gardens that stretched out all over the city. It was raining most of the time, and it even snowed at one point! But we were prepared with our mini umbrellas (Thanks, Mom!). After we were done looking around there, we walked back to the hotel and had lunch, before boarding the buses for the last time for our trip back to Cadiz and the MV Explorer. It was about a 4 hour drive, so most of us slept for the first hour. At that point, the driver stopped at a rest area that had a diner inside and little stores. Sarah and I found some Spanish Kit-Kats (of course!) that were 10 times better than those in America. We got back on the bus and everyone went back to sleep but Sarah and I were too awake, so we ended up taking pictures and having a photo shoot with Afras. (In case anyone doesn’t know who Afras is, he’s a stuffed ostrich that Anna gave us to take pictures of throughout our trip at monuments and such.) It was so funny and we were laughing so hard! As we were sitting there, we heard a familiar song start playing on the radio. It was “That Thing You Do”!!! It was so random and funny that that particular song was playing on the radio in the middle of Spain. We were definitely very happy, but it made us miss home just a little bit. About a half an hour after that song played, “Bad Day” came on and we immediately thought of Jenna! It was our theme song when we traveled to NYC in ’06 and it was, again, so random that it was playing on Spanish radio.
We got back to the ship almost ½ an hour late, but it was okay because we were on an SAS trip, so there was no dock time. We put our stuff in our room, ate dinner, and went up on deck with our cameras to capture the last of Spain. We took pictures and video, and stood there with Rachel and Mike as we pulled away. It was reminiscent of Embarkation Day—bittersweet, but we are all excited for Morocco and the rest of our journey.
This morning we had our cultural pre-port during global studies and learned what we need to know for traveling. A few of the things we learned were that we have to dress conservatively and we can’t look people in the eye. It’ll be interesting to go from Spain to Morocco and get to compare the two.
Last night, we hit a storm and we had the roughest waves we’ve had so far. They even tied stuff down in the library and campus store, just in case. It was crazy! But we did get to watch “The Patriot” in our cabin so that was cool.
Right now, we’re idling outside of Gibraltar to re-fuel, and we’ve been here for about 12 hours now. It’s pretty cool to look outside our window and see the Rock of Gibraltar and land. We have our logistical pre-port tonight, and then tomorrow we are scheduled to get to Casablanca at 0800! We’ll write more tomorrow night about our adventures, as we’re sleeping on the ship, and then we’re leaving for Marrakesh on Tuesday morning with some new friends. It should be exciting!
Talk to you all soon! We hope everything is going well and you are staying warm!
Love you!
-Kate and Sarah-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
