Wrapping up an amazing summer

I realize that there’s probably no point to writing this post now, since I’ve been back from SAS for almost a month, but I think this blog needs closure and I also really need a place to write my thoughts. I might return to this blog randomly throughout the semester or I might forget about it completely. All I know is that this journal I’ve been keeping religiously for the last two and a half months is feeling lonely and needs a post. I also know that this is going to be a very random post as there are a million things going through my head right now. But I should probably start off with a recap of the last few days of the trip?

After auction day, we had four days of classes, basically just wrapping up the semester. Then we had the Global Studies final, which I did well on (too bad Global Studies doesn’t transfer!). The next day was a study day for the finals the following day, but since I didn’t have any more finals, there wasn’t much to do. The night of finals day was the Alumni Ball! We got all dressed up for our 5:30 seating, then proceeded to wait in line for 20 minutes while people were seated in the main dining hall. We were greeted with champagne and were taken to our table. Steve, Shaara, and I signed up to sit together, but tables only came in 2, 4, 6, or 8. We were put randomly with another group of 3 at a 6-person table. Once we got to the dining hall, we were surprised to be sitting with the ship’s doctor (Dr. Tanya), her husband (Dr. Dave), and their two sons! Even better, the doctors live and work in Pittsburgh! Dr. Tanya is a doctor for the Steelers and Dr. Dave works in hospital medicine at UPMC. Better YET, Dr. Dave graduated from Pitt with a degree in neuroscience! It’s a small world. While enjoying our decadent dinner of bruschetta, minestrone soup, Caesar salad, and delicious filet mignon, we talked about the Steelers, Pitt, football, and medicine, among many other things. When dinner was over, we stopped to get a picture with the captain of the ship. We then headed over to the Union for our “program” while the other half of the ship ate dinner. The program consisted of a newlyweds game with really weird questions. I understand they were trying to be funny, but asking, “what song would your partner say defines your life” is a bit too much. After the program, we waited in yet another long line to get to the dessert buffet. Yum! Lots of chocolate! =) There was a dance that night up on the pool deck, so we went up to check it out, danced for a while, then decided it was way too hot and muggy and left (and the music they were playing was way too slow to dance to!)

The next day was a packing/reflection day. We went to a lecture in the morning given by some SAS alums who returned for this voyage, and they talked about what to expect when returning home. One of them made a comment that I finally fully realized during my first few days back at Pitt. She said that everything goes so fast on SAS—one day you’re in Greece at the Parthenon and two days later you’re in Istanbul marveling at the Hagia Sophia—that we kind of get desensitized from seeing so many amazing things in such a short time period. Usually trips are rushed in order to see everything, and there’s really no time to sit and think, “what am I really seeing?” Everywhere we went was, “here’s this famous thing, you have 15 minutes to take pictures before you have to be back on the bus.” Wash, rinse, repeat. I realize now that by the time we got to Egypt, I was so accustomed to seeing new wonders that seeing the pyramids was not as exciting as I had expected. When I got to Pitt, I was printing out a picture of me and Steve on a camel in front of the pyramids, and I thought to myself, “I can’t believe I did this this summer. I actually rode a camel with my boyfriend in front of the Great Pyramids of Giza.” Few people can say that, and I feel like I could have appreciated it then much more than I did. All the more reason I have to go back someday and move slower, taking everything in and TRULY appreciating everything I see. Less pictures, more memories.

Anyway, the rest of the day we pretty much spent packing, and if you’ve seen my pictures on Facebook you can probably imagine the devastation of our room. That night we had a humorous “cultural pre-port” on America, in which the art history professor talked to us about Virginia, how to speak Starbucks, how to locate a KFC, and other things that may come in handy in our last port. It was a lot of fun looking at America from a tourist-y perspective!

Our luggage had to be packed and ready to go the next morning, so thankfully that cleared up some room in our tiny cabin. That afternoon was convocation, where we recognized about fifteen students who were graduating off the ship. We also got to watch our voyage video, put together by the ship’s photographer and videographer. The video is absolutely amazing; I think I have watched it about 30 times and I tear up every single time! We then grabbed our passports (last time!), had dinner, and met back in the Union for our logistical pre-port. We had these pre-ports before every port, and they usually consisted of warnings about traffic, taxis, medical issues, stuffed animals with bug eggs inside, and occasionally syphilis (a word which, unlike team, contains two i’s). This one was just for fun and consisted of inside jokes from the entire voyage. The best part was the fashion advisory: leggings are NOT PANTS! HA! After this, we went outside to get some last-minute pictures and to watch the last sunset. It was a rather bittersweet night.

Disembarkation day finally arrived. The two months that we spent on the ship flew by like two weeks and we were preparing to set foot on home turf. I woke up at 5am to get a good spot on deck and to watch the last sunrise, and I was surprised to only find two or three other people out that early. Everything was still pitch black except for the lights that came from the ship, which was always really eerie. We could see the lights of Virginia in the distance and watched the last pilot jump on board to guide us into Norfolk. Steven joined me around 6am, and we watched as the black sky slowly turned blue and then pink as a gorgeous red sun rose. It was probably the second best sunrise of the entire trip, the first being the one as we sailed into Istanbul, and I was glad I dragged myself out of bed to watch it. We went inside to grab a quick breakfast and then perched ourselves at the deck railing to sail into the port. I talked to my sister and my mom on the phone for the first time in months! We were crawling along, but finally we got into port and saw all of the waving, excited parents. The deck was a mess of people talking on their cell phones, trying to locate their families. We had to wait a few more hours before we were docked and could start disembarking, which was supposed to start around 10am. I believe one of the crew members didn’t show up for customs, so they spent time trying to find him. Finally, the first sea (Caribbean) was called off, followed quickly by Steven’s sea. My sea was supposed to be next so I got all of my stuff ready and went out into the hall. It was crazy. The Voice, who was on deck 5, could not see the chaos ensuing on decks 2 and 3 as he was calling seas to disembark. My sea was called, but by that time there were about 4 lines converging onto one staircase, and movement came to a halt. To our dismay, Tom called two more seas before I had moved two feet. The other lines, which contained seas called after ours, were moving faster than ours. I finally made it to the staircase, which is rather hard to stand on when carrying three terra cotta tajines and many other (heavy) souvenirs, to see that some rude people were taking the elevators down and cutting in line. They finally remedied that problem and we moved a bit faster. The deans and LLCs were waiting by the door, and after many hugs and goodbyes, I handed my ID card to security and left the ship I called home. By the time I got off the ship, I was so tired from carrying all of my bags that I literally inched to the terminal where our luggage was. Thankfully most of my bags of souvenirs could be stacked on top of my luggage, so that made transportation much easier. I finally got out of the terminal and greeted my waiting parents! We packed up the car, I said some last minute goodbyes to people, we grabbed lunch at a tavern in Norfolk (spinach salad! Yummy!) and we headed home.

So here I am in the United States, the last port visit of the trip. The day before disembarkation, I was all packed and ready. I knew I would miss the ship and the people I met, but I was also really ready to get home to see my family, friends, and my dog. I was excited to share my pictures and my treasures since all anyone has been seeing was my words and the pictures on the SAS website. Life on the ship was hectic; we were either preparing to enter a port, in port, leaving port, taking an exam, or writing a paper. How else can you cram in 7 countries and 22 class days in a summer? I thought I was ready for an “extended” port stay and for things to die down a bit before I would be thrust back into the fall semester. Boy, was I mistaken.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I was so happy to come home, sleep in my own bed, spend time with my family, move back to Pitt, and get started on my junior year. But there was still a subconscious part of me that thought I would be getting back on the ship soon to sail on to the next port. There was that part of me until yesterday, when I finished uploading all my Semester at Sea pictures to Facebook. Writing that seems really silly, but there was something about having shared the entire trip, passing it on to whoever wanted or cared to see it, that finalized it for me. It’s over. I just had the most amazing two months of my life and it’s over. I won’t be getting back on the ship (at least not anytime in the near future) and there are other people—strangers—living in my cabin and sleeping in my squeaky bed. I have no one to talk to in the dark at 2am about random stuff when I can’t sleep. No more sunsets or sunrises over open water. I can’t just walk outside whenever I want and look at the vast expanse of ocean that surrounded us. As much as I love Pittsburgh, there’s nothing as calm or beautiful or peaceful here as being surrounded by nothing but water. I want to be traveling or at sea so badly, but I also know that I have a place here. Too bad Pittsburgh isn’t near the ocean =(

Anyway, I realized that I needed to move ahead and focus on Pitt now instead of daydreaming about the summer, so I came up with two “goals” or things to add to my bucket list to keep myself looking forward. The first is that if I ever go on a cruise, I am not going to miss a single sunrise or sunset; they are just too amazing to miss, and each one is so unique. The second is that I will someday return to Semester at Sea, whether it be as a staff member (doctor!), a lifelong learner, or as a partial voyager. I’m pretty sure I belong at sea. (That is, when I don’t belong in Pittsburgh…because I like it here too…)

So that’s it. Thank you to everyone who read my blog! Since I got back, several people told me that they had been following my blog, and here I thought it was only my parents, my sister, Steve’s mom, and a couple of friends. I only got feedback from those people, so I thought they were the only ones reading! So I thank everyone who read, whether you commented or not, (although I really really really liked getting comments!!) and I’m glad you put up with my obscenely long and detailed posts!!!

I also wanted to thank my parents for making this dream trip a reality for me, and my sister for telling me about Semester at Sea in the first place. My family has always been so supportive of everything I do, and there is no way I could have done this without them. Thank you and I love you!!!



I leave you with lyrics to the song “Down River” by The Temper Trap…

Finally we have seen some things
Some awfully nice
Some dreadfully bad…

But we will sing, cast our hopes out to sea
Though our hearts break, through violent winds our ship will sail
And I don’t understand how this world would work
Cause time will tell us nothing
I’ll take a chance on something

Feeling old, feelings this time take you
Down river, down river, down river, down
Walk these stairs, put the pieces back together
Go, don’t stop. Go, don’t stop. Go, don’t stop.
Go, don’t stop now, GO….

<3

Auction Day!

I am done, done, done!!!  I just finished taking my Global Studies final, which went well, and I am done with finals!  My poetry teacher cancelled our final and we didn’t have to take our anthropology final if we were happy with our grade.  So I am just enjoying the ride until disembarkation on Saturday!

Last Wednesday (the 11th) was our auction day.  The silent auction started at 3:30 and the live auction was at 8pm.  There were lots of cool items, and I bid on a couple things but I was soon outbid.  =( There was artwork, food, clothes, jewelry, basically stuff that people picked up throughout the trip.

Then it came time for the live auction in the Union.  It was intense!!  I kept track of all of the items and how much they went for.  We raised SO much money! Here’s the list:

-3 boxes of Girl Scout Cookies - $135
-Dr. Campbell’s personal sweatband - $110
-Tickets for 4 to the Big Apple Circus with a backstage tour from Barry Lubin (Grandma the Clown) - $850
-One day unlimited internet access - $305
-2 bags of free laundry - $30
-4 reserved pool lounge chairs for the last five days of the voyage - $100
-T-shirt with selected special questions of the day - $600
-Sailboat race; compete in a sanctioned event in Lake Champlain, Vermont - $100
-Opportunity to steer the ship for 30 minutes - $475
-Select the dinner menu for one evening - $400
-First person off the ship - $450 (they gave this to 2 people, so we got $900 off of that)
-Map of route signed by Captain Kingston and bridge crew - $525
-Raise the MV Explorer’s US Flag as we enter Norfolk - $400
-Breakfast in bed served by your LLC - $300
-A weekend with Peter Chu in Santa Barbara - $650 (2 groups, so $1300)
-30 minute call home during our 9-day stretch to Virginia - $90
-Be “The Voice” for the day – make the noon and 1730 announcements - $300
-Five night stay for up to 6 people at luxury ski lodge condo in Big White Ski Resort, British Columbia, Canada (Tom’s condo) with a fully stocked fridge - $2600 (3 groups, so $7800)
-Photo session by ship’s photographer - $350
-Visit the Steelers training camp, go on the field during practice and enjoy lunch - $650 (2 groups, so $1300)
-Write one of the questions for the Global Studies final - $150
-The IT guy’s photo vest/safari jacket - $140
-Last student off the ship - $500
-Private guided tour of NYC from a local – eat the best pizza in Brooklyn, see the city by water taxi, grab a picnic at the best grocery store and eat it under the Brooklyn Bridge, and go shopping in Chinatown (all expenses included) - $300 (2 people, so $600)
-Three days and two nights at Terma Rosapepe near Salerno, Italy. Includes total body exfoliation and facial mask. - $800
-Bubble bath in the Executive Dean’s Office - $150 (2 people, so $300)
-Dinner with your favorite faculty member in the Glazer Lounge with a bottle of wine from Spain, Italy, or Croatia - $350 (2 people, so $700)
-Reserved spot on deck for entrance into Norfolk - $175
-Blow the ship’s horn as we enter Norfolk - $300
-Private dinner for two in Executive Dean’s Office - $250 (2 people, so $500)
-You and 12 friends sitting at the Captain’s table during the Alumni Ball - $1000
-“The Voice” records a personal message for your voicemail - $120 (2 people, so $240)
-Pie Dr. Bowler - $400
-3 day/2 nights in Seoul, South Korea with you and up to 5 friends or family members - $1000

With the silent and live auctions, we ended up earning $31,000.  Our goal is $50,000, which will beat the record of any SAS trip ever.  Right now they are just collecting donations and we are at $44,000.  Hopefully we make it!

Five more days until I’m heading home!

Morocco!

I just realized my last blog post was exactly a week ago.  I feel like I haven’t stopped doing things since then! We had 4 days in Morocco, then the first day of sailing was the day of the shipboard auctions! I also had to write two papers that day that were due yesterday, but I am finally done with papers and I just have to worry about my Global Studies and Anthropology finals.  My poetry teacher just told us today that we won’t have a final, I’m good with that!  I can’t believe we only have 8 more days on the ship.  The summer has flown by and I will soon be home.  I’m excited to go home but I’m really going to miss this ship!!! I have a lot to cover since the last post, so this one is going to be about our time in Morocco and tomorrow I’ll write about the auction.  There are also a TON of special questions, so I’ll split them up.

-----Saturday, August 7-----

Today we docked in Casablanca!  The port area is pretty sketchy, and we were told it was a 20-25 minute walk to get from our ship to the port exit.  The area right outside the ship had stacks and stacks of boxcars, and everything was really dirty.  We had a city orientation at 1330, so we just relaxed on the ship and enjoyed the air conditioning until then.  Our first stop on the tour was the Mohamed V Square, which was basically a big square around a non-functional fountain with about 200 pigeons swarming around.  Little kids were running around with balloons, and people were trying to sell everyone henna tattoos.  Craziness!  Our next stop was the Royal Palace, where the king will be staying during the entire month of Ramadan.  We only got to see the outside of it, but even the outside was covered in mosaics.  We then stopped at the Cathedral Notre Dame du Lourdes and admired the gorgeous stained glass—the glass covers the entire lengths of both walls!  The next stop was the Hassan II mosque, the 3rd largest mosque in the world with the largest minaret in the world.  It was amazing, but it would have been better if it hadn’t been so overcast that day.  The mosque is built over the Atlantic Ocean and the floor is made out of glass so that people can actually pray over the water.  Our trip didn’t include entrance to the mosque, so we just observed the outside.  Our last stop was a shop in the old town, where I bought a hand-painted spice/sauce holder/server thing.  Yeah, I can’t really describe it, but it’s cool!  After the trip, we went back to the ship to escape the heat.  Shaara and I enjoyed a wonderful Mary Kate and Ashley movie that was playing on the TV (Holiday in the Sun for those Olson fans) while Steven left the room (ha!).  We enjoyed laughing at the horrible acting and one-liners.  Some of the gems: “He’s what time it is!” and “What’s up?” “…Not my temperature!”  Then Steven rejoined us, we went to dinner, we played Phase 10, and we called it a night.

-----Sunday, August 8-----

We woke up bright and early today for our daytrip to Marrakech.  There was actually a mix-up with the trips—we were supposed to go to Rabat (Morocco’s capital) today and Marrakech tomorrow, but the travel agents that SAS was working with changed the Marrakech trip to today.  So we got refunded for the Rabat trip and we were off on our 3-hour drive south to Marrakech.  On the way, we stopped at a gas station since our bus didn’t have a bathroom.  Steven and I decided that it was a perfect time for a Magnum bar (that time being 9am of course).  The Magnum bar is the most delicious ice cream bar I have ever eaten, and I really hope that I can find them somewhere in the US.  Imagine: caramel ice cream coated with a layer of chocolate, then a layer of caramel sauce, all coated in a thick second layer of chocolate. YUM.  Anyway, onto Marrakech.  Our first stop was the Majorelle Gardens, where we saw lots of cacti and a pond with lilies and tons of turtles and frogs.  The bus then dropped us off in the old city and we were walking from there.  We walked to the Bahia palace, which was home to the Grand Vizier (high official).  People here are crazy with their scooters and bikes, they scoot into the tiniest spaces and there is really no sidewalk to speak of, so the walk was interesting.  We even saw a man riding a scooter with one hand, and in the other arm he was holding a baby. Seriously??? Anyway, we went to the palace and saw all of the amazing mosaic ceilings.  We compared the rooms of the regular wives to the room of the “favorite” wife, which were huge compared to the rooms of the concubines.  The vizier’s room wasn’t too shabby either. =)  We then walked another 15 minutes through narrow streets with scooters whizzing by until we got to the Dar Si Said Palace, which is now a museum.  We had 20 minutes to look through the museum, which contained about 5 rooms with a few things in each one.  The exhibits included weapons (some daggers), jewelry (necklaces), and kitchen stuff (pots).  Everyone was basically done with the museum after 5 minutes, so we headed off to lunch.  The restaurant we ate at was squeezed in between souks in the main square in Marrakech, but it was pretty large inside!  The first course was interesting: a pile of diced cucumbers, a pile of diced carrots, a pile of cooked spinach with some kind of sauce or spice, and a pile of cooked eggplant.  Now, we had been warned since Turkey not to eat vegetables or fruits that we do not peel ourselves, so everyone kind of stared at the cucumbers and carrots, not knowing what to do.  We’ve also been taking Pepto-Bismol before every meal (the doctor suggested for everyone to do that since Turkey) so we figured we were safe.  The piles of spinach and eggplant looked interesting but tasted really good on bread!  The main course came out, and I wish I could have just kept eating that.  It was a HUGE bowl of couscous with cooked vegetables, beef, and cooked dates.  Everything was SO good, I had several spoonfuls =).  Dessert was…..weird.  It was carrot shreds in orange juice with cinnamon sprinkled on top.  I tried it because I said I would try everything, but it was just too weird for me.  I felt bad because no one in our group ate it, and so much food was wasted.  I would have been happy eating couscous all day!  After lunch we had a couple hours of free time to shop in the big square.  There were snake charmers and people with monkeys, and one guy even came up and put a snake around Steven’s neck!  We bought lots of cool things, I’m just not sure how everything is getting home!  The 3-hour bus ride home was miserable as the air conditioning kept shutting off.  Not fun!  We just bummed around on the ship when we got back, thoroughly enjoying A/C!

-----Monday, August 9-----

We didn’t have any trips planned for today and we didn’t feel like making our way to Rabat on our own, so we just decided to check out the souks that were a few blocks from the port.  So I said on the first day that it is a long walk from the ship to the port entrance, probably about 1.5 miles.  There is a free shuttle that apparently runs from 9am to 9pm, but we never saw it once.  So we walked, and I was disgustingly dripping with sweat by the time we made it to the gate.  The souks were interesting, everything was really cheap (money-wise, not quality-wise) and no one was interested in bartering.  We got some good trinkets!!  We trekked back to the ship for dinner and called it a night.  All these trips are catching up with me, all I want to do is sleep!

-----Tuesday, August 10-----

Today is our last day on land until the USA!  We wanted to go back to the Hassan II Mosque so that we could look inside, but we slept in so we didn’t leave the ship until 10:30 or so.  We took a cab to the mosque, spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get in the mosque, then a security guard told us it wasn’t open for visitors until 2pm.  Great.  We walked a few blocks until we found a restaurant for lunch.  Steven ordered a chicken and French fries tagine, and I got a meat tagine.  We waited about 45 minutes for our food, but it was delicious!!!  I had bought a tagine in Marrakech and I am glad the food that comes from it is good!  Tagine is the name for both the stew/meat and the dish thing that it’s cooked in.  Yum!  It wasn’t even 1pm when we finished our lunch, and it was really hot (around 45 degrees C) so we decided to get a cab back to the port and spend the rest of our dirhams in the souks.  We successfully spent every last dirham!  Getting all this stuff home is going to be interesting…



LOTS OF SPECIAL QUESTIONS / COMMENTS!

After leaving Morocco, a student said, “Do we have an interport student on the ship?”

(Conversation taking place in smoking area, deck 5)
Student 1: “Where are you going?”
Student 2: “Upstairs to get some sun.”
Student 1: “But it's really cloudy.”
Student 2: “I think it will be sunnier up there.”

Student 1: “I weighed myself in kilometers today” (pronounced kill-AHH-meh-ters)
Student 2: “I think that's a measure of distance.”
Student 1: “Oh, I meant kilometers then.” (pronounced kill-oh-MEE-ters)

Student 1: “What school do you go to?”
Student 2: “West Virginia University.”
Student 1: “Oh, I've never been to Virginia.”
Student 2: “Well have you been to West Virginia?”
Student 1:  “Wait, West Virginia is a state?”

Tomorrow’s post will be about the shipboard auction! It was a lot of fun and we raised SOOO much money!

Gibraltar today, Morocco tomorrow!

I’m finally done with all the work I had to do before Morocco! This week was crazy.  Today we are bunkering in Gibraltar to refuel and we will be in Casablanca tomorrow!

Yeah so I’m not sure why I’m getting spam comments on my blog, so I changed the settings a little bit and I think you have to enter in a word now before you can post a comment. If it doesn’t work, email me and let me know so I can change it back.

I got 100% on my global studies midterm!!! Today we turned in our 6-page paper for GS, I’m sure the teachers will enjoy grading 736 papers!  I’ve done so much work these past 4 days for my poetry class and global studies that I’m really far behind on anthropology reading.  The weird thing is that these classes are a breeze compared to my classes at Pitt, but I feel like I have so much more work to do because I’m not used to writing papers for each class and having 40-50 pages to read for each class.  I’m used to chemistry labs and studying biology!! And of course no one feels like doing work when we are experiencing all of these countries. =) I have 2 papers due right after Morocco, so we’ll see how that goes….

Last night was the crew talent show, and it was amazing.  I was really sad that our steward, Jess, didn’t perform, but he seems really shy.  A lot of the crew did solos, and they were all really good singers! The entire galley (kitchen) crew did a dance and they had custom-made jerseys that said “All-Star Galley.”  The last “act” was the entire housekeeping crew (including Jess!!!) singing “We Are the World.”  The crew comes from so many different countries around the world, many actually come from some of the countries we visited on the trip!  It was great to see a different side of the crew, usually we just see them in their uniforms and briefly chat with them throughout the day, but we never know that they are amazing singers or dancers or guitar-players.  I definitely enjoyed this talent show more than the student one!

Tonight we turn our clocks back an hour so we get an extra hour of sleep!! Woohoo!!! I can’t believe we only have one more port before we go home.  The trip across the Atlantic seemed to take forever, but it feels like just yesterday we were in Italy and Croatia.  I’m definitely going to miss the ship but I’m kind of ready to go home to see my family and my puppy!!!

Long time, no blog!

It’s been a long time since my last blog, but I feel like I’ve been doing things non-stop since we got back from Egypt!! I’ll talk a little about the orphanage visit we did on the last day in Egypt (July 31).  The day after that was the much-anticipated Sea Olympics, which I will also describe in full.  =) Then began the work. I had two 5-page papers due on Monday, yesterday was completely devoted to studying, and today we had our second Global Studies midterm. I thought it was pretty easy, and I only know of one question that I got wrong! Too bad that class doesn’t count for anything back at Pitt.  Anyway, here’s a backtrack to July 31….

Shaara, Steven, and I had a service visit to an orphanage in Alexandria on the last day we were in Egypt.  It didn’t start until the afternoon, so we all got some much-needed sleep, went to lunch, and went shopping in the little souks right outside the port terminal so we could spend the last of our pounds.  Got some good deals!  We boarded the bus for our service visit, which was an FDP for Teachers at Sea (a group of recently-graduated teachers who are taking education classes on the ship) but there were extra spots so we had gotten tickets.  I guess I was just expecting an institutionalized orphanage, but our guide explained something completely different.  The orphanage is “run” by an elderly, wealthy couple and they take care of 34 kids.  There is no adoption in Egypt so all orphans either go to orphanages or are taken care of by family members.  Also, many orphans in Egypt are illegitimate children because if the mother keeps a child out of wedlock, she loses her home, her job, and everyone shuns her.  The couple runs the orphanage as a big family—all of the kids are brothers and sisters and they call the couple mom and dad.  They each have their own room in their 7-story apartment building, they all go to private school, and they eat the best food they can possibly buy.  They range from 1 year old to 13, but most of the kids were between 5 and 8.  Anyway, we get to the building and walk up a couple of flights to the first floor, where the “father” was waiting to greet each of us.  We then walked to the back of the floor to a large room where all of the kids were ready and waiting for us.  There were 35 of us, 34 of them, and many helpers….there were almost 80 people in the room and there was no air conditioning.  All of us were sweating up a storm but the kids were used to it and had a lot of energy!!  We had brought a bag of little toys like frisbees, balls, stickers, markers, paper, and bubbles, so we broke out the toys and started playing.  Most of the boys started playing immediately, the girls were more reserved and just stared at us like “what are you people doing here?”  Steven played catch with a little boy while I showed another boy the clay that I had (he was more interested in another girl’s bubbles).  It was hard because there were more of us than there were children of playing age, and people just kind of surrounded the kids.  One boy came up to me with a notebook and a pen and started drawing, so we drew flowers and then he started writing the English alphabet (A, B, C, D, F…and he forgot the rest).  I then broke out my Toy Story stickers and he had fun throwing them around the area.  He was apparently the “naughty kid,” I witnessed him hitting another kid when he tried to take a marker.  Just like brothers!  After about an hour and a half, the kids started to unravel and a few started crying, so we walked up 2 floors to the TV room and the father spoke to us about how he appreciated our coming and a little bit about the orphanage.  He started with 10 kids and it grew from there, sometimes they hear a knock on the door and a 1-hour-old baby is on the doorstep.  We were really amazed how much this man provided for these kids, and he said that in the Islamic religion, taking care of an orphan is a sure way to paradise, so he and his wife are ensuring their trip to paradise.  Which sounded a little selfish when he said it, but they are providing the best care to these kids, better than any other orphanage they would have gone to!

The next day, we didn’t have classes so we could have a full day to enjoy the Sea Olympics!! The cabins on the ship are split into “seas,” and each sea is a team competing against each other in the Olympics. My sea is the Mediterranean (Steven is Aegean) and our color is orange (his is black)!  The opening ceremonies started at 11:00, and they consisted of a few speeches by important people and then our chant competition.  Kevin, our LLC (like an RA), came up with a chant for us.  My favorite line was “we’re oranger than your fake-n-bake!” (it means fake tan for those of you not in the know).  There were some pretty good cheers!  Everyone went to grab lunch before the first events started at 1:00.  There were a ton of events at each time slot, so I couldn’t go to everything.  I watched Extreme Musical Chairs, the extreme part was that in the championship round, everyone was blindfolded and teachers moved the chairs around. Crazy! We didn’t place in that, though.  The events I missed were flip cup (a type of stupid drinking game), Pull-ups, and Ice Cube Scramble (picking up ice cubes with chopsticks).  In the next set of events, I was competing in Global Studies Jeopardy. We got absolutely dominated by the Aegean Sea, and they actually ended up beating the teacher’s sea! (The teacher’s sea was called the Diploma Sea).  While we were failing at jeopardy, our team went on to win at Tug-o-war! I also missed the “Donut on a String” event, which was supposed to be eating a donut off a string without using your hands, but I guess they couldn’t get a donut and had to use a bagel.  That must have sucked. We didn’t place in that either.  We did get first place in mashed potato sculpting though! Each team had to make a sculpture using 3 pounds of mashed potatoes. Yummy!  I watched synchronized swimming, which was hilarious.  Our team of 6 guys, led by Kevin, won 2nd place for their rendition of Beyonce’s Single Ladies.  It was hilarious! And it’s all on tape!  While this was going on, we got 2nd place in the (female) pie eating contest.  There were 3 events in the last time slot: Mystery Challenge, Shave the Airhead, and Limbo.  I went to watch Steven compete in Limbo, and he won the championship!! He was an instant celebrity because he beat out all these tiny, bendy girls.  I have that all on video too, it’s crazy!  After limbo, we went to watch the end of Shave the Airhead, in which you have to lather up balloons and shave them with a razor with out popping them. My team came in 1st!  Mystery challenge was just wrapping up so we went to watch that.  The teams for mystery challenge included 7 girls and 1 guy, and the goal was to dress up the guy in the girls’ clothes.  We came in 2nd for that!  After all of the events, we had a barbeque with the same food as July 4th, so that was tasty.  At 7:30 we had the final event, the lip sync competition.  I got all of the acts on tape, they were all amazing!! Our team didn’t place unfortunately, but I think we should have!  They did a mix of Halo/Walking on Sunshine (the Glee version) with Hey Mickey.  Then they announced the final scores.  We came in 3rd (yay!!), Steven’s sea came in 2nd, and the Caribbean sea came in 1st.  The team that came in first gets to get off the ship first in Norfolk (now who would want to do that?) and they get a reception with the faculty and staff in the faculty lounge.  We just heard that Steven’s sea gets off second and my sea gets off third, so hopefully I’ll be off the ship before lunchtime!

Yesterday (Tuesday) was the faculty and student talent show, basically a bunch of really good singers and funny skits.  Tomorrow is the crew talent show! And I get to write another paper. Woo!

Due to popular demand, stupid questions and comments are back! There are three!

SAS Student: “Where are you from?”
Local person: “I’m from Egypt.”
SAS Student: “How far is that from here?”

Parent of SAS Student: “I need someone that speaks the language.”
Local person: “I speak Arabic.”
Parent: “No I need someone who speaks Egyptian”

“What flavor are Fig Newtons?”

“Are there cows in Egypt? I’ve seen a lot of cattle, but I haven’t seen any cows”

Cairo/Luxor

Hello all! I returned yesterday from a 4-day trip to Cairo and Luxor, and there is definitely a lot to tell!  Egypt is completely different from all of the other ports we’ve been to.  I’d have to say that what we saw (pyramids, Sphinx, museums, temples, etc.) was by far my favorite of the entire trip, but by the end, I couldn’t stand the people. More on that later. Here is my day-by-day!

-----Tuesday, July 27-----

We are in Egypt! I had planned to wake up to watch us pull into Alexandria, but my snooze button just kept calling and I slept in (ha) until 0730.  We quickly grabbed breakfast and finished packing for our 4-day trip to Cairo and Luxor. Our trip was meeting in the Union at 0930, and it was so hectic!! There were around 120 people on our trip alone, and many people had parents going on the trip.  It was fun seeing parents reunite with their kids, and one girl’s brother even surprised her when he showed up!  That made me even more excited for seeing my family again in a few weeks.  Not that I want to leave the ship, of course!  We went out to our buses, which were cramped but very well air-conditioned. The bus ride to Cairo was 3 hours long, which was ample time for a nap! We got to Cairo a little after 1300 and ate a buffet lunch at a 5-star hotel that overlooks the pyramids! We were still fairly far away from them but it was so cool to get off the bus and see them!  A little band greeted us as we walked in, and we went to the dining room for a wide variety of food. No one really knows what traditional Egyptian food is, but the food we ate was fairly common—“oriental” rice, roast chicken, beef in “brown sauce,” and penne pasta.  After lunch and dessert, we got back on the bus and headed to Memphis, which was the first capital of Egypt.  On the way, our tour guide pointed out a village saying “this is where the middle class people live,” and we were amazed.  What they refer to as middle class, we would probably refer to as slums.  Pretty much everywhere we drove was so dirty and there were piles of trash everywhere.  It was amazing just to see the vast difference in the qualities of life between Egypt and the previous countries we’ve visited.  Once we reached Memphis, we saw a huge statue of Ramses II that was found lying on its back and has stayed that way every since.  The statue is HUGE and very well preserved considering it is several thousand years old.  We then proceeded to the alabaster sphinx of King Amenhopis II, a small preview for the large sphinx at the Giza pyramids.  After exploring the area, we proceeded to Sakkara, a cemetery complex.  We saw a 5000-year step pyramid belonging to King Zoser, and we explored a few tombs.  I am getting better at managing small tunnels! If I thought people selling stuff in Turkey was bad, people here were even worse.  They follow you and keep following you, even when you turn around and say NO loudly, they still follow! My goodness, people!  There are “security” people everywhere who are just wearing long gowns and turbans, they didn’t have any badges except for a paper nametag that said “security.”  They all ask for “baksheesh,” which is a tip.  The man at the door to one of the tombs wanted a tip for, well, I guess standing at the door.  He actually grabbed my arm and asked for baksheesh but I pulled away and he moved on to asking the next person. Pushy people!!! We then headed off to our very nice 5-star hotel.  SAS does well!  There were two different buildings in the hotel, and of course Steven and I were in different ones. My room was amazing and had the absolute comfiest pillows EVER.  I felt like I was lying on a cloud.  We had a half hour “siesta” before we had to meet to go to the Khan El Khalili bazaar.  Our tour guide gave us many warnings, like not to stray from the main street and not to buy anything expensive (like jewelry) because it was most likely a knockoff and overpriced.  This bazaar was nothing like the one in Istanbul!  It wasn’t even a tenth of the size and the streets were full of trash and food.  Ick!  We walked for a while, not really finding much variety.  Steven found a stone statue of Anubis, and I got a pyramid and a votive made out of a really pretty stone.  They were 45 Egyptian pounds each (~$8) but I haggled him down to 60 pounds for both.  I am redeeming myself from the lamp incident!  I had also been eyeing some colorful cloth bags with embroidered elephants or camels on them.  I got one with elephants on it for 45 pounds down from 60.  The guy wouldn’t go any lower because he claimed it was hand-embroidered (which I highly doubt because every bag looked the same).  Steven wanted a set of canopic jars, so we went to a store with hundreds of statues.  He is now a pro at bartering, and he got the shopkeeper to accept a price much lower than he wanted.  I believe he was asking 320 pounds for a set of 4 small jars, and Steven got him down to 150!  We left the bazaar for a buffet dinner at the hotel at 10pm.  4am wakeup call tomorrow!

-----Wednesday, July 28-----

After only getting about 4 hours of sleep, we were off to watch the sunrise at the pyramids!  Apparently they closed off the area so only our SAS group was there.  We sat on a wall and watched as the dark sky became lighter and lighter.  It was very foggy so we couldn’t see the sun, but it was still amazing.  We had box breakfasts from the hotel which included 3 rolls, a croissant, an apple, and a hard-boiled egg.  We had been told to avoid fruit and I didn’t trust the egg, so my breakfast was bread.  We walked down to the pyramids, and some people bribed the guards so that they could climb on one of them (after we were told not to since someone on an SAS trip many years ago climbed up, fell, and died. But whatever makes them happy I guess).  We then headed back up to the buses because camels were waiting for us!!  Steven and I got on the same camel and the driver took my camera to take pictures.  We were told to lean back, and the camel started to get up.  It was pretty scary!  His back legs stood all the way up while his front legs were still kneeling, so we REALLY had to lean back to keep from sliding off the front!  It was a bumpy ride, but it was a lot of fun in the end.   The driver took pictures of us with the pyramids in the background.  At the end of the ride, the camel kneeled but didn’t want to sit, so the driver whipped the poor thing =(.  He of course asked for baksheesh and we gave him a dollar because he took pictures (we weren’t required to tip because we had already paid for the ride).  My behind was pretty sore after that ride!!  We again boarded the buses for a close-up look at the pyramids.  We walked around the Great Pyramid, the only remaining wonder of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and Steven climbed up a few stairs (legally).  The next stop was the Sphinx, where we sat for a while with my “uncle” Greg and my sea’s graduate assistant, Sarah, admiring the view of the Sphinx with the pyramids.  Next we were off to the National Archaeological Museum, where we saw a collection of the treasures found in King Tut’s tomb.  Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures, but Steven bought a CD with pictures of all the artifacts.  We bought an extra ticket to go into the mummy exhibit, where we saw mummies of many pharaohs!  The mummy of Rameses II even still had hair!  Since we hadn’t eaten since 4am, we were starving, but we still had one more stop before lunch.  We drove to the Citadel of Saladin to visit the alabaster mosque of Mohamed Ali (no, not the boxer—he’s the founder of modern Egypt).  From the citadel, we had a panoramic view of Cairo.  FINALLY we went to lunch (it was around 2pm already), which was on a boat cruise down the Nile.  We ate a buffet lunch with pretty much the same exact food that we’ve been having at every meal, and we were entertained by folk music, a bellydancer (a very out-of-shape bellydancer), and a guy with a big skirt who spun around really fast and did tricks with his skirt.  We cruised for a while down the Nile, but we were in a fairly Westernized/touristy area.  There are buildings on the water with restaurants like TGI Fridays and Chili’s.  It was still a fun trip, and we were thankful to have food for the first time in almost 10 hours!  We then headed back to the ship for another siesta (it’s extremely hot in the afternoons so we get to spend them in the air-conditioned hotel).  I took a 2-hour nap (yay!!!) and then we headed out for the Sound and Light show at the pyramids.  I had heard that the show is extremely touristy and lame, but we really had nothing else to do so we went.  I swear that SAS bought out the show.  Our trip was there along with the Cairo Overnight and the Cairo Extended trips.  Probably half the ship was there.  Anyway, the show started with the pyramids being lit up.  I have to admit that the lighted pyramids against the night sky was really striking, but we could really do without the sound.  The Sphinx narrated the show, there was dramatic music, it was all very over the top.  Example: The Sphinx says “The world fears time, but time fears…….THE PYRAMIDS” *dramatic music with the pyramids lighting up*. Yeah.  After the show, we went back to the hotel for dinner, again at 10pm, and went to sleep because we had a 3am wakeup call for the next day!

-----Thursday, July 29-----

After another night of little sleep, we were up and packed by 3:30am and on the bus to go to the airport.  We again got the same box breakfasts, yum!  We were missing 2 girls from our bus, and our bus leader went to call them thinking that they overslept.  He woke them up and apparently the wakeup call was too early for them because they said they were signing off the trip (and thereby throwing away about $600).  Whatever, the rest of us were off to Luxor!  The benefit of getting to the airport at 5:30am is that no one is there!  The flight took about an hour (no food this time), and once we landed we were off to the Valley of the Kings.  Our ticket got us into three royal tombs: Ramses I, Ramses VI, and Ramses IX (apparently it was a popular name).  The tombs were so well preserved that most of the hieroglyphics and drawings still had their original color.  Steven and I paid extra to go into the tomb of King Tut, which was worth it except for the “security” person there.  We were the only two people besides this security guy, and he started talking to us.  As soon as he started, I knew we would have to pay him baksheesh.  He pointed out all of the artwork on the walls and gave us his flashlight so we could get a better look at Tut’s sarcophagus.  At the other end of the tomb was his mummy, which was extremely tiny considering he died when he was around our age.  The guy pointed out his buck teeth.  After we were taught everything about the tomb, we were preparing to leave when the guy asked us if we were married.  He was amazed when I said we weren’t, since Muslim couples don’t date in public.  He immediately grabbed my arm and clutched it to his stomach (ew) and proceeded to tell Steven that he needed to marry me because I was pretty or something.  He alternated between grabbing my arm, touching Steven’s beard, and touching my face, the entire time we were inching toward the door and trying to leave.  He then told Steven that we need to come back in a year and we had better be married and have a kid.  Riiiiiiiiight.  We were making it obvious that we were trying to leave, and he finally let us go, but not before asking for baksheesh.  I gave him 5 pounds (less than a dollar) and we bolted out of there.  I pretty much bathed in hand sanitizer when we got out.  It’s amazing and a little scary how we learn in America that it is bad if a stranger touches you, but here it is so common.  It’s not threatening or anything, I wasn’t afraid of the guy (I probably would have been if I didn’t have Steven with me) but it was just uncomfortable since I grew up knowing that it’s weird for a stranger to physically touch you.  So after we bolted out of there, we checked out the shops that were near the bus.  It was like the bazaar in that everyone was trying to get our attention, but they were REALLY persistent and just kept following us.  I seriously told one guy about 15 times that I didn’t want to buy his book of Luxor.  I did, however, spy an adorable wooden camel that I wanted.  Thinking it didn’t cost more than $10, I asked the man how much.  He said 160 Egyptian pounds, which is about $29.  Heck no!  I said all I had was 50 pounds (~$9).  He said “no, 85!”  Again, I said all I had was 50 pounds.  He kept going lower: 75, 70, 65.  Then I said my bus was leaving and I had to go, so he finally gave it to me for 50.  I trotted off happily with my purchase (and my remaining 200 pounds).  We then headed to the temple of the only female pharaoh, Queen Hatshepshut.  Three different “security” people tried to get baksheesh from us (I was starting to get really annoyed with them).  One guy jumped in a picture I was taking of Steven and then demanded a tip.  We lied and said we left our money on the bus.  Another guy offered to show us a place behind a rope we weren’t supposed to cross, and we just walked away.  The last guy started pointing things out to us like the guy in the tomb did, but we learned our lesson and just ignored him.  It was already extremely hot (our tour guide said we were lucky as it was only 110 degrees, and the day before got up to 130 degrees!!!!), but we only had one more stop.  Just outside of the valley with the temple were two huge statues called the Colossi of Memnon.  They are pretty weathered and you can only make out the shape of a person, but they were definitely colossal!  We returned to the hotel for another buffet lunch with the same food and then we had a 5-hour siesta away from the blazing heat.  Some people went to the pool, which overlooks the Nile, but I chose instead to nap in the air-conditioned room.  We got back on the bus and went to Luxor Temple, where our guide gave us a very detailed tour of the major statues and pictures on the wall.  We headed back to the hotel for an (early) dinner and got some much-needed sleep.

-----Friday, July 30-----

Our wakeup call came at 6am this morning, so we got ample sleep.  We got a real breakfast this time, and I got a scrumptious omelet that was made right in front of me.  Our big group was divided in thirds for the flights back to Cairo.  Steven was on the 10:25 flight and I was on the 2:15 flight, so we had different itineraries.  Everyone went in the morning to Karnak Temple, which Steven was very excited to go to.  I’m not really up on my Egyptian history or mythology, but I definitely appreciated the amazing statues, obelisks, and carvings on the walls.  We all went to the airport and said adios to the 10:05 and 10:25 flights.  They were flying back to Cairo, eating lunch there, then driving the 3 hours back to Alexandria (yes, Alexandria has an airport but I guess SAS bought roundtrip tickets to save money).  My group went back to the hotel to pack and rest before lunch was served.  At 12:45 we were off to the airport again for our flight.  I had to open my bag at security because I stupidly forgot to take my nail clippers out of my makeup bag before the trip, but the security guy just looked at them and gave them back to me.  Other people were traveling with huge bottles of liquid and razors, so they had to throw them out (common sense, people?).  We finally all made it through security and we were off to Cairo.  The plane was extremely small and a little bumpy, but I made it out alive =).  Once in Cairo, we hopped on the bus for our 3-hour ride from hell.  The first two hours were fine, but our driver began to get really impatient.  He laid on the horn and tailgated cars, and it seemed like we were driving really fast (the kid in front of me said we were only going 55-60 but it seemed like so much faster).  We even drove another bus off the road!!! Once we got into the city of Alexandria, it became a lot worse.  We had been told to be extremely careful in crossing streets because oncoming traffic doesn’t stop.  Traffic here is HORRENDOUS.  There are no lane lines, and if there are, people don’t obey them.  It’s a free for all.  I took video of us driving through the city, and I think we almost hit 5 cars and came close to hitting several people.  At one point we were stopped in traffic, no one could move, and our driver was laying on the horn.  Crazy!  The scariest part was when we had the ship in sight and everyone was so relieved, our driver drove right out into 4 lanes of traffic and we were inches from a collision.  It’s all on video!  As soon as we got to the ship, we all bolted off of that bus and ran to the ship.  The whole trip was amazing, but I was definitely happy to be home. I missed my room!!!

If you've got a date in Constantinople...

She'll be waiting in Istanbul!

The past couple days have been pretty crazy as it’s been 11 days since our last class day. I had a poetry exam today, which ended up being extremely easy as it was open book. We also had a tentative due date today for a poetry paper, so I was trying to get that done, but he pushed the final due date to after Egypt. Right now I’m taking a break from packing to write this post because I won’t be writing for 4 days! Steven and I are doing the Cairo/Luxor overnight trip, which involves 2 days/2 nights in Cairo and 2 days/1 night in Luxor. On our last day (Saturday) we have a visit to an orphanage in Alexandria. It should be a good time, although I’m a little sad that we have no time to explore Alexandria. Anyway, about our last 2 days in Turkey…..

We didn’t have any trips planned for the last 2 days, so we decided to spend a few hours in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.  We got there around 9am and stayed until well past 2pm. And we probably didn’t even see half of it.  The bazaar has 61 streets and over 4000 shops, but we were told a lot of the shops sell the same exact things. There were lamp shops selling the same kinds of lamps, jewelry shops selling the same kinds of jewelry, and leather shops up the kazoo. I really wanted a lamp, so we went into a store to look around.  The price they give you is too much and you’re supposed to barter it down to a reasonable price. We were given a lot of tips beforehand, like to shop around to find the best price and everything. We get to this first shop and I see a lamp I really like. It’s a hanging metal lamp with a glass bowl covered in a multi-colored glass mosaic, I figure it probably costs around $40-$50.  I asked the salesman how much, and he said 120 lira, which is about $78.  I said thank you and that I was going to go look around and he goes, “No no no I will not let you leave! How much do you think it is worth?” Despite my protests he would not let me go, and I offered 80 lira, which is about $50. He took it, and I walked off happily with my lamp but still a little disappointed that I gave in too easily.  Steven also wanted a lamp, so we stopped at another store nearby.  I wish I had just walked out of that other store and shopped around!!!!!!! Steven got an even bigger lamp for 40 lira ($25).  I was really mad at myself for overpaying for my lamp!! I guess it was a learning experience, and I definitely got better at bargaining after that.  We wandered around, looking at different stores.  I usually hate shopping while at home, but I have really enjoyed shopping on this trip.  While I loved looking at the variety of new things in the bazaar, the salesmen really started to get on my nerves.  Let’s just say I like my personal space, and these people get in your face and try to sell you carpets and leather jackets and cashmere and everything you can think of. As soon as you tell one that you don’t need a carpet, another one swoops in. I know it’s their culture and they are trying to sell their goods, I just wanted my bubble!  They said funny things to us like, “come in so I can help you spend your money!” or “how can I take your money from you?” Clever, huh?  I knew of some things I wanted to get, like scarves, tea, teacups, and possibly a blanket, so we shopped around.  I got a set of six teacups and saucers, blue with etched flowers, for 20 lira.  Turkish teacups look more like shotglasses than our idea of teacups.  I also got an obscene amount of tea (I tried apple tea and pomegranate tea and absolutely loved both, so I guess I’m developing a liking for tea?) for really cheap.  We found one shop with boxes of tea for 5 lira each.  The owner said “for you, 3 lira.”  I ended up getting 4 for 10 lira! I was getting better!  A lot of shops were selling ceramic plates and bowls, and I saw a really pretty turquoise pattern that I loved. I picked out 4 bowls of the same color but with slightly different patterns, all handpainted, and asked how much they were.  They were 12 lira each, but I ended up getting 4 for 35 lira.  Woot!  I got other little things, like a scarf, a t-shirt, a magnet, but my biggest purchase was a throw for a future couch in a future apartment.  We stopped at the first shop we saw, where I saw a pretty maroon and beige patterned throw.  This kid was trying to sell it to me, saying it was 120 lira, but I kept saying I wanted to look around. I could tell it wasn’t really high quality. An adult came out of the shop and started talking to us, and I was only able to get it down to 90 lira.  I asked him for his card and said that I would probably be back, I just wanted to look at other styles (and not be in the same predicament as the lamp).  We wandered around a bit more until a guy pulled us into his shop.  He showed us to a room across the street where we sat down on a bench and he brought out different throws for us to look at. I wasn’t too thrilled about any of them and they were really expensive, around 400-500 lira. I said my highest price was probably 150 lira, so he brought out a stack of silk and cashmere throws.  I fell in love with a red and beige one with a simple flower design.  The salesman said he usually sells it for 220 lira, but since I was (allegedly) his first customer of the day, he said he would give it to me for 130 in cash.  I still wanted to keep looking around to see if I found one I liked more or for cheaper, but he said that offer wouldn’t stand if I left and came back.  I was still really unsure, I was between paying around $80 for a silk/cashmere throw I really liked or looking around and possibly finding a better price. I also didn’t have 130 lira on me in cash. His last offer was 130 lira with credit card, which they try to avoid as they have to pay a 5% commission. I was happy with that and walked away with my new purchase. It was a fun but long 5 hours of shopping!  Oh, I forgot to talk about lunch! We found a little area with cafes and we each got a panini, thinking we would be getting a hot sandwich. Apparently in Turkey, panini means a French bread pizza type thing. It was delicious! Mine had ham, mushrooms, and cheese while Steven’s had sausage. 

So after our long day at the bazaar, we went back to the ship with our new treasures to relax.  We then walked a few blocks to the Galata Bridge, which has a bunch of restaurants underneath it.  I thought we were done with the people-in-my-face thing for the day, but every single restaurant had a waiter outside getting in your way and trying to get you to eat at the restaurant. We passed on 2 restaurants, wanting to see what was ahead, but we ended up eating at the 3rd restaurant because the waiter practically pushed us into our seats. We got a 10% discount on our dinner though! I got meat shish, which was deliciously tender meat on a stick served with rice, and Steven got some kind of meat stew that was served boiling hot in an iron pan. Both were very tasty! Shaara had told us that there was a place to get ice cream on the bridge, but we walked the entire thing and didn’t find it. Bummer! We called it a day and walked back to the ship.

For our final day in Istanbul, Steven said he wanted to go to the Topkapi Palace Museums. We had been told in Global Studies that the museum holds the jewels and weapons that belonged to the sultans of the Ottoman empire, and that these jewels made the crown jewels look like rocks.  I was bummed that I couldn’t take pictures of anything, but we saw jewelry, thrones, and weapons completely encrusted with gold, diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. We even saw an 86-carat diamond—it was HUGE! (and had a rope around its case so you couldn’t even get remotely near the thing).  After a few hours in the museum (half the places were closed for some reason) we took the tram back to the ship, ate lunch, and wrote postcards. We tried our luck at the free wi-fi at the Starbucks outside of the port, but there were about 40 SASers there and the internet was too slow. Lame. I’ll have a lot of pictures to upload when I get home!

The stupid questions and comments just keep getting better and better. Today I have two official (spoken by The Voice) and two that I overheard.

1. “Why do I need a Turkish visa if I already have a credit card?” (We needed to buy a Turkish visa if we were planning on leaving Istanbul)
2.  Girl 1: “I wish we had chunky peanut butter on the ship”
Girl 2: “But then the people who are allergic to nuts can’t eat it”

3. “That big statue in Egypt with the body of the lion and the face of a human, what is that called?”
4. “Can we go to Mecca?”

So that’s it. My next post won’t be until Friday at the earliest. Adios!