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!

Istanbul (not Constantinople)

The last few days have been absolutely crazy! I guess I will start from the beginning—prepare for a long post!

We arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday around 7am, and we woke up early to watch the ship pull into port. We watched the sunrise over the Asian part of Turkey and passed by the famous mosques we had learned about—the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia—on the European side.  It was amazing! After our diplomatic briefing, we were told that we all had to carry our passports while in Istanbul. We’ve had 4 people lose their passports already (2 people found theirs and 2 were left behind in Greece and had to meet up with us in Turkey) so I wonder how many people will lose theirs this time. Anyway, off we went on our 6-hour city orientation. We saw all of the major sites in the city and it was very worth it. Our first stop was the Sehzade Mosque, where we enjoyed the architecture and detailed mosaics after we took off our shoes and I covered my head with a shawl. We learned that icons are forbidden in the Islamic religion, so you will never find a person, face, or animal in a mosque. The next stop was the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque because of its blue mosaics inside. It was huge, more than twice the size of the previous mosque. We had some free time to look at the mosaics and then we were off to the Hippodrome, where chariot races used to be held. All that remains are 3 columns: a very tall one made of stones, part of an obelisk stolen from Egypt, and the bronze serpent column stolen from Delphi (which we learned about in Global Studies—it was made by the Greeks from the melted weapons of the defeated Persian army—ha!).  A road is now in place of the former track so there is still a feel of the shape of the Hippodrome. The next stop was the Hagia Sophia, which was first a church, then was converted into a mosque, and is now just a museum. It has the largest dome in Istanbul, and the inside of the building was amazing. We could see how the Muslims covered the Christian icons with their mosaics, some of the icons had been uncovered so we could see the juxtaposition of the two religions in one building. On our way to our next stop, I grabbed an ear of corn from a street vendor, hot and delicious!! The final stop was the Byzantine Cistern, a huge underground vault where water for the city used to be stored. We walked through the pathways and looked at the modern art that is now exhibited there. To give you an idea of the size of the cistern, it contains 336 Corinthian columns! We went back to the ship to shower and eat dinner, then walked around the port area trying to find a place for dessert. We happened upon a string of hookah bars, and everyone was trying to get us to come in and smoke. Ick. We finally pulled away and found a little ice cream stand. Good stuff! Turkish ice cream is really thick, not as creamy as gelato but still very good!

The next day was our overnight trip to Cappadocia, a region in central Turkey. We met in the Union bright and early at 6:15am and received SAS’s version of a continental breakfast, which apparently includes a few pastries and orange juice. I, of course, had planned ahead and brought a baggie of cereal and a granola bar. Go me! We boarded the motorcoach and were off to the airport! It was crazy trying to organize 81 people with their passports and plane tickets, it probably took us an hour to get to our gate. Our flight was slightly delayed, but soon we were taking off. The flight was only about an hour long, but they served us a sandwich and almond bread! I was amazed—for our 2 hour flight to Halifax, we didn’t get anything! Almost as soon as I finished my lunch, we were preparing to land. We landed safely in possibly one of the tiniest commercial airports in the world. It was basically one runway and a small building. And it was in the middle of nowhere. Our tour guide met us there and we were off! We stopped at so many places that I may not remember the names of everything, but here we go! The first stop was the Kaymakli Underground City, where Christians had built houses, churches, schools, and other buildings to live in during times of persecution. It was 8 stories deep and went about 130 feet into the ground, but we were only able to look at the first 4 stories. The passageways were small and we had to crouch down and crawl at some points to get through. The passages would branch off into other passages and open up into rooms, our guide said they were used to confuse enemies. There were also trapdoors and hiding places so the Christians could surprise their attackers. It was amazing to see how they could carve an entire working city out of rock! They even had a winery—important things! The next stop was a panoramic view of Pigeon Valley. Pigeons were apparently very important in Cappadocia as they served as food and fertilizer. Yum. There were pigeon houses carved into the rocks.  After that, we were well overdue for lunch. We stopped in an area with several restaurants and were given an hour to eat. We went to the first restaurant we saw: Steven got some kind of meat dish with tomato and egg, and I got chicken kebab. Quite tasty. Our tour guide took us to many different places, and this was where I started losing track of what was what. Everywhere we went, we saw these large conical rocks made out of volcanic stone with doors and windows carved into them. The volcanic stone is pliable enough that it can be easily carved and people made houses and entire cities out of these rocks. The guide also took us to two “fortresses” where the castles were also built in the same fashion. We got to the hotel completely exhausted, but we had to grab dinner and get ready for a Whirling Dervish ceremony. Dinner at the hotel was pretty good, but dessert was amazing. Everything was buffet, and there were probably 40 choices for dessert. We hopped back on the bus for the Whirling Dervish ceremony, which was held in an old camel caravan resting station. The ceremony was very involved, I was glad we got a pamphlet explaining the different parts or I would have been completely lost. The Dervishes apparently spin approximately 800 times during the entire ceremony and are in a trance the whole time. They spun around so fluidly –I would get dizzy! After the ceremony we were given cinnamon tea, which was delicious. We went back to the hotel, which had rather sucky air conditioning, and instantly fell asleep after an exhausting day.

My hotel roommate had a hot air balloon ride the next morning and had to wake up at 4am, I woke up with her alarm and then went right back to sleep for 2 more hours. I called my mom from the hotel phone =) and then got ready for breakfast. Not as good as dinner, but it was a lot better than the ship’s breakfast! The group who went for the hot air balloon rides met us at breakfast and then we were off for our second day of sightseeing. In the morning, we visited the open air museums of Goreme Valley and Zelve Valley, more cities carved into rock. In the Zelve Valley, our tour guide led us up a path to a rock with a tunnel inside. None of us had brought flashlights, so everyone was using the flash from their cameras to light the way. It was pretty scary! It was completely pitch black, and we were crawling through a downward-sloping tunnel until it became a set of stone stairs. We made it out alive but rather dusty (I washed my clothes when I got back to the ship and the water in the sink was a nice dark brown—yummy!).  The Goerme Valley was more developed and we explored the different chapels and buildings in the city. After Muslims took over the city, they scratched the eyes out of most of the icons in the chapels, again because icons are forbidden in Islam. Some of the frescoes were still very well preserved and have been there since the 11th century! Our last stop of the morning was to see the “fairy chimneys.” It’s hard to describe these, basically they are very tall cone-shaped rock formations with “caps” on top. Go search them on Google images!! They are made of 2 different kinds of rock from 2 different volcanic eruptions: the “cap” rock on top is much harder than the rock below, and wind has eroded the bottom rock to make it look like the cap is precariously balancing on the cone. Quite cool! We then stopped in the town of Urgup for lunch (I had Turkish pizza which consisted of meat, cheese, and egg, and Steven had a meat shish kebab) followed by some delicious apple tea, and then we were on the road to the airport. We were apparently going to a different airport than the one we arrived to, this one was thankfully much bigger. Our flight was delayed half an hour—boo! We again were fed on the flight, this time there was a chicken sandwich, a weird salad with sour cream and lettuce (?), and banana chocolate mousse. We returned to Istanbul safe and sound. Although Cappadocia was amazing, I was very happy to see the ship, my air-conditioned cabin, and my comfy bed again!

All right, it’s pretty late over here and I have class in the morning, so I will talk about the last 2 days in Istanbul tomorrow! But now (drumroll please) here is the stupidest comment of the entire voyage:

--A girl was talking about her time in Istanbul. She said, “I made it to the Europe side and the Asia side, I wish we were going to Africa!”

Winner winner, chicken dinner.

One person apparently lost their passport, we don’t know yet if they made it back to the ship or not. I believe the two people we left behind in Greece made it back. Fun times!

New post tomorrow!

Hello, faithful blog readers! Sorry I have not updated in 4 days...by the end of the day all I want to do is sleep!! I will write a huge post tomorrow explaining life in Istanbul!

Turkey Day! (Not Thanksgiving...)

Greece is now behind us and we will be in Turkey tomorrow! Today is “Turkey Day,” a free day where we don’t have classes but we have lots of optional programs to attend. Apparently there is going to be good food, too! I haven’t written in three days, so here’s what’s been going on:

Three days ago (Friday) we had an SAS trip for Greek cooking lessons.  I was excited for it, but it ended up being kind of lame.  We weren’t taught how to cook at all. Our group of 40-some was split into 5 teams, each at a different table with lots of ingredients. Each team was given a menu and the ingredients in each dish (just the ingredients list, not how much of each). We were given 5-8 minutes to prepare each dish, and one of the chefs walked around with a finished dish for us to try to make. So we basically just threw things together. I definitely don’t know how to cook, but at least I know that when something calls for salt, it means a little bit, not the palmfuls that people were chucking into the salads. Yum. The trip was from 1100 to 1400, so we thought that we would be fed lunch after the lessons, but we were expected to eat what we made. I tried a little spoonful of each dish, but I wasn’t really into eating a meal out of stuff we threw together in 5 minutes. Steven and I signed off the trip at the end and took the metro to Monastiraki, one of the main squares in Athens. We grabbed a very satisfying lunch there: we shared a “cheese pie” (basically fillo dough filled with cheese), and we each got souvlaki (pork on a skewer).  Yum! After lunch it was the search for the sandals. Both Shaara and I read the same girl’s Summer 2009 blog before coming on the trip, and the girl went to this famous sandal shop in Athens where they custom-fit these leather sandals for you. It was actually only a couple blocks away from where we ate lunch! The shop is very “hippie” with lots of paintings and eclectic decorations all over the wall. And leather sandals EVERYWHERE. A guy handed us a “menu” of sandal styles to pick from and I tried a few on before picking one. They adjusted the straps to my feet and I was done! They were fairly cheap too—only 27 euros. Steven got a pair of sandals, too! I need to break them in, but they are already comfortable and they fit perfectly! We hailed a taxi and asked him to stop at the Hard Rock Café before taking us to the port. I literally ran into the store, bought my guitar pin, and ran out in 30 seconds because our driver couldn’t park on the street. Fun times! (if any future SASers happen to be reading this, the sandal shop is at 2 Aghias Theklas Street in Psirri. Or just go up to a local, point to your feet and say “sandals?” and they will tell you where to go).

On Saturday we had a free day, so we had gotten ferry tickets ahead of time to go to Aegina, one of the closest islands to the Greek mainland. The boat we were going on was called “Flying Dolphin” and it was actually a hydrofoil! It went really fast and glided on top of the water. We got to the island in about half an hour and then realized we didn’t really know what to do. The man who was selling us the ferry tickets told us to take a bus to the other side of the island to a place called Aghia Marina, so off we went. The port area was full of shops and people, but the middle of the island seemed to be run down and abandoned. Apparently very few people on the island spoke English, because when we asked which stop to get off, no one could help us. We finally asked a couple “marina?” and they said they were going there too. So we made it successfully. There was a dress shop at the place the bus dropped us off so we decided to shop a little bit. Steven got a pair of swim trunks and I got a couple of dresses. The store owner started talking to me in Greek (everyone thinks that I’m Greek because I have really tan skin now) but thankfully she spoke English. We went to a few other shops before deciding it was time to eat. I had read on WikiTravel about a cheap but delicious restaurant called Pita Tom, so we went there, but they said we wouldn’t be able to get gyros until 1pm (it was noon at the time). So we decided to do dessert first and went across the street to a snack bar to get ice cream with this warm brownie kind of thing. I wanted baklava but the place didn’t have it =(. We then went down to the beach. The sand was absolutely scorching, even through the beach blanket I had. We parked ourselves very close to the water and I ran in. I was expecting the freezing cold water like in Capri and Croatia, but the water was so warm! I could have stayed there forever. I wish we had someone else to sit on the beach watching our stuff because Steven and I had to take turns going in the water. After about an hour on the beach, we went back to Pita Tom for some much-needed food! I ordered a feta cheese “salad” and a gyro, Steven got a stuffed beefsteak. The feta cheese was delicious, just a nice brick of cheese covered in oil and spices. The gyro was even better, with tender meat, tzatziki, and even French fries! Steven’s dish was kind of like a meatloaf thing stuffed with cheese and tomatoes, he said he really liked it but I would take my gyro over his any day! After lunch we went to a little grocery store, I picked up some snacks and a frappe “maker,” basically just a cup with a top to shake the frappe in. The frappe is the “specialty” coffee drink in Greece, and it is basically instant coffee, water, milk, and sugar, served cold and very frothy. So I got the shaker and a can of Nescafe instant coffee and I am ready to make my own frappes! Then we waited about 40 minutes for the bus back to the port. Apparently the bus only comes every hour. Our return ticket to Piraeus wasn’t until 7:15, but we got it changed to 5:30 because we couldn’t find anything else to do. On the ferry we met an older couple from the US who were just in Turkey and were now in Greece, so we told them all about our ship and where we were going. When we got back, we just bummed around on the ship and enjoyed air conditioning and free food.

Yesterday was another free day, but we had to be back on the ship by 6pm so we decided not to go into Athens and just stay in Piraeus. Big mistake. Being Sunday, absolutely EVERYTHING was closed. Restaurants, shops, pharmacies, everything. Well, the sex cinema was open, but that wasn’t a destination we wanted (there was a man hosing down the chairs outside when we walked down that street—eww). So we went back to the port terminal, where some shops and a snack bar were open, and we ate lunch there. Pork wrapped in bacon on a stick = delicious!! We went back to the ship to write postcards and then ventured out a little later. I think we saw two restaurants open, everything else was still closed. We wanted to find a grocery store so I could buy some olives, so we asked someone at a snack bar. They said the main market was closed but there was an Asian market a few blocks from there. No olives there (I think the only reason it’s called Asian market is because it’s owned by Asian people, it was just a regular grocery store) but I got a box of “Nestle Fitness” cereal. It’ll be a nice change from tiny boxes of Special K and cornflakes. So our second outing was a bust, and we went back to the ship to bum around until dinner. I’m mad I didn’t get any olives!!!!

Special comments/actions of Greece:
-“I really do like this Greek style of gyros”
-People were trying to send postcards with stamps from Italy and Croatia.

Turkey tomorrow!!!!!!

It's all Greek to me!

So we have officially been on the ship for a month, it definitely feels like longer! We have over a month left and three more ports! Quite exciting. Right now we’re watching Labyrinth on a movie channel (I haven’t seen this movie in FOREVER!) and Steven is amazed at the awesomeness of David Bowie’s hair. I miss this movie!

After Croatia, we had two days at sea, which included my Anthropology midterm. We had about an hour and a half to write several definitions, 7 few-sentence essays, 3 one-paragraph essays, and 4 one-page essays. Definitely didn’t have enough time to finish. =( Oh well. In other news, they curved the Global Studies midterm A LOT and I got a 96% (I got 6 wrong out of 35). Woohoo!

Yesterday was our trip to Athens and the Acropolis. Our trip didn’t leave until 1300, so Shaara, Steven, and I went out into Piraeus and got breakfast. A lot of the restaurants in the immediate vicinity of our ship were closed, but we found a place to get really filling omelets and freshly squeezed orange juice. I don’t think I’ve ever had orange juice that just tasted like, well, just the juice from an orange. Definitely better than the stuff from a box! We left for Athens, which is about 6 miles from Piraeus (Athens is technically not on the water, so we are docked in Piraeus). First there was a short bus tour of Athens, which basically included the guide pointing out things that we could see for a split second between buildings. We got to see the stadium that held the first modern Olympic games in the late 1800s. Pretty cool. We also drove by the Temple of Zeus. Next stop was the Acropolis and Parthenon! By that time it was a nice, comfortable 40 degrees Celsius, which is about 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and no shade in sight! The walk up the hill was very slippery as the path was made out of marble, but we finally made it up to the Parthenon. We could see all of Athens from the top of the hill. Unfortunately not much of the original Parthenon is left as it has been looted and it even exploded once. We were given free time until we had to meet the bus to go back to the ship, but Shaara, Steven, and I had signed off early to go to the New Acropolis Museum. The museum opened just last year and it holds the small amount of artifacts left over from the looting of the Acropolis. A lot of the sculptures and stuff were stolen by the British and are in London. Lame!

After the museum, we walked down a random street and grabbed dinner. Shaara and I both got gyros—it was quite tasty. Not the same as the gyro we get at Greek fest though, this was a pile of meat, a pile of tzatziki sauce, and little triangles of pita to make our own gyro “nachos.” Steven got lamb with potatoes. There were a lot of touristy shops around the area, so we went window shopping and grabbed some gelato. We then hailed a cab back to the port, which was an experience in itself. I’m pretty sure he was only in a lane for about 30 seconds of the entire trip. Scary!!

So we have access to the port’s free wi-fi, and I tried connecting so I could upload pictures. Everybody and their uncle is Skyping, so Facebook was being super slow. Oh well.

Today we were up bright and early to go to Delphi, where the Temple of Apollo is. Steven is big into Greek mythology and he was really looking forward to this trip! It was a 3-hour drive to Delphi—sleep time! We drove up windy mountain roads (we seem to hit these in every country) until we reached the Delphi Museum at the base of ancient Delphi. The guide showed us around the museum, which contained sculptures and remains from Delphi. Everything in the museum was original, unlike in the New Acropolis Museum where the large majority of things were cast models. Also unlike the NAM, we were allowed to take pictures in the Delphi Museum. So, moral of the story: you can take pictures of real artifacts but you can’t take pictures of fake casts of artifacts. Good deal, Greece.

After the museum, we started the slippery trek up “The Sacred Way” to the Temple of Apollo, stopping along the way to learn about the other buildings that are still standing or were once there. Whoever decided to make steep paths out of marble is not very smart, we were slipping all over the place! I was laughing at the girls wearing sandals.  The view from the Temple of Apollo, which is now only 5 or 6 pillars standing on a base, was amazing. We got to see dioramas of what Delphi looked like at its prime, it would have been amazing to see it before the buildings were destroyed.

Everyone was starving, and it was time for lunch! I can definitely say I had the best meal of the entire trip. We stopped at a restaurant, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Our guide told us that it was a 4-course meal of traditional Greek food. Yay! Out comes the bread and tzatziki sauce. I could have made a meal out of that alone! Then came the appetizers. Everyone got one of each food: stuffed cabbage (stuffed with veal), fried zucchini, fried cheese, and spinach pie. Everything was SO GOOD. Then we had Greek salad (lettuce, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, kalamata olives, and FETA CHEESE). The entrée was “fried meat steak” which is basically a glorified meatloaf, but it tasted really good with tzatziki sauce. It also had a little feta surprise inside. =) That came with some rice and fried potatoes (they like frying things).  We were stuffed, but not too full for dessert! Baklava! Steven highly enjoyed his first tasting of baklava, and I, as always, loved it. I wish I could take some home!

We rolled out of the restaurant to our last stop, the monastery of Hosios Loukas (Holy Luke). Our guide told us all about the architecture of the monastery and how it was influential for future churches. There were gold mosaics all over the ceilings, and she was really detailed in telling us what each mosaic was depicting. Very cool! We also saw the body of Holy Luke himself, a little worse for the wear. As we were leaving the monastery, our guide pointed us to a bowl of Turkish delight and said that we could take a piece. Now, I just heard that we had to try Turkish delight, I didn’t know what it was. It’s apparently like a gummy candy covered in powdered sugar. It didn’t taste too great, but maybe if I get some in Turkey it will taste different. Anyway, we hopped back on the bus and slept all the way back to the ship. Hooray for long bus rides!

Long time since last blog post = lots of stupid questions!

1. “How many more games until the world cup finals?” (This was asked AFTER they broadcasted the WC finals on TV for us and everyone was talking about Spain winning)
2. “Do we have to exchange Spanish euros for Greek euros?”
3. “Isn’t a drone just a copy of a human?” (This requires a story--as we were sailing through Greek islands, apparently a drone flew by us. We were told that they think it was Israeli, just checking us out. They apparently flew fairly close, but not many saw it because we were in Global Studies at the time)
4. This wasn’t an official stupid question/comment, but Shaara just told me what a girl said on her trip: “I just had a Greek version of…..what do they call a gyro here?”

Tomorrow we have Greek cooking lessons (fun!) and then I’m going to try to find this shop that makes sandals. Shaara and I read about this shop from a girl who wrote about it in her blog from last summer, they apparently measure your feet and custom-make the sandals for you right there for only 40-ish euros. So hopefully I’ll go get that done, stop at Hard Rock Café for my guitar pin, and back to the ship. We’re going to try to get to a Greek island for Saturday, then spending Sunday in Piraeus. Busy busy!

Snorkeling fun!

Those four days in Croatia went by way too fast! I was very sad to leave, but in a couple of days we will be in Greece! We have lots of fun trips planned: SAS trip to the acropolis, SAS trip to Delphi, a Greek cooking class, and then going to a Greek island for a day. Exciting!

So yesterday we went on the coveted snorkeling trip! We were lucky that we both got that trip, as a lot of people wanted it! We got off the ship and couldn’t see a bus for our trip, but someone pointed past the buses and a little boat was waiting to take us to the snorkeling place! We sped away from the ship and around a little peninsula to a place called Abyss diving center.  We got our fins and snorkels (which I’m sure weren’t sanitized but whatever) and off we went to a nearby island. I know snorkeling isn’t hard, but they didn’t give any instruction, basically told us just to jump off the side of the boat and snorkel. Well I sucked at it. Every time I tried to breathe through the snorkel underwater, my brain told me “you should not be breathing right now!!” and I froze up. I think I also had a rather crappy snorkel because it kept letting in water and I was tired of blowing air out of it. I gave up on the snorkel and just swam around with my mask, exploring the rocks and swimming with fish. There weren’t too many fish, but I was able to get really close to some of them. The rocks were covered with sea anemones and sea urchins. The water was FRIGID and extremely salty, but it was a lot of fun! After about 45 minutes at the island, we were boated back to the diving center and we had about 2 hours of free time to snorkel off the beach or pay some extra money and go parasailing or tubing or something. We got a couple of fruit smoothies at the bar and then went swimming around the beach. The water was cold, but I went right in. Steven was being a sissy and inching into the water. Silly! There were actually a lot more fish around the beach than at the island, and we just enjoyed swimming around and exploring. It was finally time to leave, and the boat dropped us off right underneath the MV Explorer, definitely a cool experience!

After eating lunch on the ship and washing out all the salty water, we caught the bus to the old city, where there are a ton of shops and restaurants. We had been warned that the marble cobblestones were slippery, and they definitely were! For some reason I was wearing old navy flip flops. Not a good idea. Anyway, our first stop was an ice cream shop that Steven had gone to when he did his tour of the city walls. We got 2 HUGE scoops of ice cream for 20 kuna, which is about 4 dollars. Probably the cheapest ice cream we’ve gotten this whole trip. Croatia seems fairly cheap! We then wandered around the streets, stopping in stores. I was on the lookout for a magnet and a good t-shirt, but everything I was finding was really touristy and poor quality. I found a hand-painted magnet in a food store, where I also picked up some olive oil which I was told was “the best olive oil in Croatia.” I got to try some of it on bread and it was quite tasty! I was told it can go on everything, even vanilla ice cream. I think we’ll skip that one and just stick to bread. =) After shopping around some more, we stopped at Taj Mahal, a restaurant our tour guide had suggested to us. Despite its name, it served traditional Croatian food. We got a sampler platter of lots of different kinds of meats: chicken kebabs, meat patties, sausages. Meat city! It was quite tasty, but we were so full! We walked around some more, but places were starting to close down and once you’ve seen one touristy souvenir shop, you’ve seen them all. We headed back to the ship, tired from an extremely long day.

Today we thought we wanted to go back to the diving center to go tubing or something (riding in an inner tube being dragged by a boat).  There was another SAS snorkeling trip leaving this morning, so we walked down to see if they could tell us how we could get to the place. They apparently had a bunch of openings, so we just bought a ticket for the trip and did the same thing again! We went out again to the island and explored a different area, this time finding a lot more fish. One of Steven’s flippers broke so he had to climb up on some pointy rocks to fix it. Ouch! I swam in an entire school of fish, so close that I could just reach out and touch them. Very cool! I also saw those tiny little shiny fish that change directions really fast to confuse their predators—they are in Finding Nemo and they make shapes while talking to Dory and Marlin (hopefully people know what I’m talking about). They definitely look like they are flashing! After 45 minutes of exhausting swimming, we went back to the dive center. We looked into parasailing but we didn’t have enough cash. We decided on an “aquahog” which is a mix between a tube and a banana raft and seats 2 people. We donned our lifejackets and got into the boat to head out. Getting on the raft was a trip. Steven got on first so he could be in the back, and he fell into the water. While he was getting out, I tried to get on, and I too fell in the water. It was not an easy feat! Finally we both got on and we were off! I was holding on for dear life, but it wasn’t too hard and was a lot of fun! All of a sudden, about halfway through our time, the boat driver started going really fast. I started freaking out. I was being pelted by water from the wake and I was so tired from 2 days of snorkeling that it was getting really hard to hold on. Then he started making sharp turns, and I couldn’t hold on anymore and flew off. Now I know what a skipping stone feels like! Apparently when I flew off, I took Steven with me, so we both ended up in the water waiting for the boat driver to get us. I guess his going fast and doing tight turns was the “grand finale” because we started heading back to the beach with Steven on the raft and my choosing to sit safely on the boat. I am not one for extreme water sports. Definitely not doing that again! Steven, of course, had a blast. =P After that we still had about 1.5 hours of free time, so I swam around with the fish while Steven napped on the “beach.” I am beat!

Again we went back to the ship for food and such, then headed out to the grocery store to spend the last of our kuna. Yay for cheap sodas!

Stupid question, Croatia version:
On a tour of the city walls, the tour guide said, “this is where the prince was beheaded.” A girl asks, “Did he die?”

Tonight’s the last night we have to set our clocks ahead! Woohoo!!

Croatia!

Soooo yesterday I had my first and most likely last shot. It was pretty nasty. But more on that a little later.

Croatia is so gorgeous!! When we had our logistical pre-port meeting 2 nights ago, they surprised us by saying we were going to be docking that night instead of in the morning. We still couldn’t get off the ship but we went up to the decks to see the city. The area around the port is the new town and the houses are built into hillsides. The majority of the houses are white with red roofs, which is really pretty when put against the blue water. The water here is even prettier than it was in Capri! I just want to jump off the side of the pier and go swimming! I’m soooo excited to go snorkeling tomorrow!

Yesterday I had my FDP to the Osojnik village for a folk show, and Steven went to a tour of the walls of the old city. We drove across a bridge that spans the harbor and we were able to get off and take pictures of the water and the town. I have never seen water bluer than this! We then drove to a little abandoned town and walked through, our bus picked us up on the other side (I really didn’t see the point of this, our guide didn’t tell us anything about what we were seeing…). Finally we started making our way up a mountainside and into the little mountain village of Osojnik. We went into a small church that had been completely destroyed by fire in the Yugoslavian conflict about 20 years ago. They rebuilt the church using some of the stones that survived the destruction.  Most of the buildings in that area of town were completely destroyed and have since been rebuilt. While we were walking around the area, a breeze blew through and it just smelled like flowers! There is no industry in Dubrovnik, so there is no pollution, the sky is clear and everything is just clean! It reminds me of Switzerland. =)

So we got to the house where we were going to eat and watch the folk show, passing by some cute donkeys on the way, and the second we got there, we were greeted by shots of their local drink, a plum-flavored brandy. Our tour guide said it was a form of welcome, and, following my try-anything-once mentality, I tried it. Only after I drank it did she say that it was about 80 proof. She said it’s basically Croatia’s moonshine. It was extremely strong, like drinking pure alcohol. Not pleasant at all! =P I washed that down with some delicious candied figs and orange peels.  While some people stayed back for more brandy (some people had 5 or 6 shots…yikes!) I went into the little courtyard where the patriarch of the family was starting to play a kind of fiddle and women were dancing around him. SAS people started dancing too, I’m sure the brandy helped! After that, we went down to another little courtyard covered by a lattice with grapevines. The women brought out plates of bacon, cheese, and bread, as well as their homemade wine made from the grapes above us.  We put the bacon on a stick and cooked it over a flame, then put it with the cheese on the bread. A bacon s’more! Yummy! I had a taste of the wine and it was pretty good, not strong, very sweet. After people had time to enjoy the wine, we went inside to a cellar-like room for the main meal. It was dimly lit and we sat at long benches. Out came more wine! (I stuck with water, the people around me were getting a bit out of hand).  Following salad, platters of (what we think was) pork and potatoes came out.  The people reminded me of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding: we asked what kind of meat it was and they said, “It’s meat! Just meat!” Yep, helpful! It was tasty nonetheless. The dessert was little pinwheels of cake with chocolate frosting, those were quite good too. After dinner, we went upstairs for more dancing and singing.  I just enjoyed watching. =) It was a fun trip!

When I got back to the ship, we grabbed dinner and then headed to the supermarket that is right outside the ship. We stocked up on drinks: a can of fanta or coke here is 4.99 Kuna, which is about 88 cents! We were paying 3-4 euro per can in Barcelona and Italy, and soda on the ship costs $2! Yay for savings! I also got a little bag of “crazy sours” Skittles to see if they were the same as our sour Skittles, and they are nothing alike! These taste like sweet tarts and aren’t really sour =(

So today was our trip to Trsteno, Ston, and Korcula. This was actually our alternate choice trip since we didn’t get the service visit to the orphanage.  In the end, I kinda wish we hadn’t picked an alternate. We were at the bus bright and early at 0700! First we went to Trsteno (slept on the way there), got off the bus, and walked to the botanical garden.  At the entrance was a HUGE 500-year-old tree. That was cool. We walked along a path and our guide showed us a fountain from the 17th century.  That was it. Back on the bus and off to Ston. Again, slept. We get to Ston, where we walked to a field of salt mines, basically just pools of salt water that they let evaporate to get sea salt. We spent approximately 5 minutes there, then got back on the bus. Back I went to sleep for the hour bus ride to the place where we would catch the ferry to the island of Korcula.  Korcula is gorgeous!  We first went to the Museum of Icons, which is really just a room with icons. Adjoined to that was St. Mark’s Cathedral. A woman told us all about the architecture and artwork there, and our tour guide translated for us. Our final stop was the Municipal Museum, where there were a lot of artifacts of the town and area. Lots of coins. Understandably, everything was in Croatian, so we didn’t really know what we were looking at. Lunch was included in our trip, so we went to the restaurant next (we were all starving!) The first course was a piece of lettuce with a cold seafood salad consisting of mussels, clams, and squid. I did try it and ended up eating only the lettuce—all the seafood tasted really fishy—not good! I think only one person in our entire group actually ate the salad, I felt bad about all the food going to waste. The entrée was grilled fish with potatoes and green beans. Of course, Steven doesn’t eat seafood so he was mad that he wasn’t going to eat anything. Also, there were a couple vegetarians and one person allergic to seafood in our group! The main server was being pretty rude, one of the vegetarians asked if they had anything without meat and they said “that’s fish, not meat! You can eat that!” and they said they wouldn’t switch their meals for anything else. I flagged down our tour guide and told him that Steven doesn’t eat seafood, so thankfully he went to tell a server and Steven got a nice piece of pork thrown in front of him. I wish I had pork instead of my fish! There were still bones in the fish, and even though I picked them out, every mouthful still had 3 or 4 bones. Not a pleasant dining experience. I felt bad for the girl allergic to seafood, I don’t think she ate anything. The dessert was the saving grace of the meal, it was a custard-like cake thing that’s hard to describe but tasted really good. After lunch, we had an hour of free time. Steve and I checked out some jewelry shops and wandered around, then we went back to our meeting point early and put our feet in the water while we waited for the ferry. We got the ferry back to our bus and immediately got on for the 2.5 hour ride back to the ship. More sleep time! We finally got back around 6pm, feeling like we spent the majority of the day sleeping on a bus (that’s because we did). Every SAS trip before this one had been amazing, I guess there had to be one dud. Our tour guide was so nice and knowledgeable, I just wish we were seeing more interesting things or we stayed more than 20 minutes in one place. Oh well.

Tomorrow we are snorkeling near the island of Kolocep! I’ve heard from other trips (there have been snorkeling trips every day) that it was amazing so I’m sure we’ll have fun! I wish my camera were waterproof, though! After that, we’ll be exploring the old city for the rest of the day, possibly hitting up a beach or something. Exciting!