Oh my god… I have never seen anything like the Hong Kong skyline. New York City has nothing on this.

Vietnam 1

Vietnam can be summed up by two things: dong jokes and, “Hoooooooly buckets!”

I wasn’t sure what I expected to see in Vietnam, similar to some other countries. You have a picture of these countries in your head, but you never know how accurate (or inaccurate) they really are until you get there. I have learned first hand just how uneducated I am when it comes to the world and different cultures. I don’t know what language is spoken where, what religion is followed where, what country is located where, and I’m not ashamed to say that because I know you as my fellow American citizen probably don’t know either.

I awoke at 5:45 AM to witness the sunrise along the Saigon River. We traveled along the river for several hours to get to Ho Chi Minh Port. It was pretty cool, we are used to the wide open ocean, and the river was definitely different. There were boats collecting clay from the river bottom all around us and all sorts of other construction areas, as well as some homes and random river villages. The sunrise was amazing. It peeked out over the jungle as the morning fog still crouched low among the foliage. It was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that. I have had so many first times on this voyage. My camera fogged up instantly from the intense humidity, even at dawn. Vietnam would be the country I sweat in the most, hands down.

We were greeted in the port by Vietnamese women dressed in traditional “ao dai” clothing and rice hats with a sign that said “Welcome Semester at Sea.” We were also greeted by the many parents waving frantically to their kids on the ship, as Vietnam was the port where the planned parent trip took place. I hoped loosely for an hour or so that my mom would surprise me and I would look off the ship and there she would be in a bright pink shirt, white shorts, sandals, red lipstick and blonde hair blazing. But she wasn’t, which was okay, but I miss my family. ☹

I explored Ho Chi Minh city with Kendra, Win and a couple of other people this day. The big thing to do in Vietnam is to get clothes custom made for you for really cheap, and almost all of us partook. I decided to get professional clothes made, as they are one thing my wardrobe really needs more of. I chose a simple black pants suit and two high-waisted skirts in gray and black, all work appropriate. I picked out the fabrics myself and then they took my measurements. To get all these clothes custom made for me in two days… $120. Pretty sweet huh? In the end, the skirts came out really nice, but the pants suit… not so much. Maybe I can get it tailored at home?

After that we went to the main market. We stopped at Pho 24 to get some food. Pho
(pronounced fuh) is a traditional Vietnamese dish… kind of look soup with meat and noodles. I liked Vietnamese food alright, but it had a lot of sea food in it, and I got sick of eating it three times a day by the end. I did really like the fried rice and spring rolls, though. They had a lot of fried food, which is always delicious.

After the pho, we headed into the depths of the market. It really really reminded me of the market I went to in Guanajuato, MX. It was inside, huge, tons of different items. I bought a lot of stuff. I buy a shirt and a hat and a magnet in every country, but I bought three shirts in this country because they were just so good. I bought one shirt that says “Same same, but different,” a common phrase around these parts. A ton of people have that shirt. I also bought a bro tank that is red with a yellow star on it; the Vietnamese flag. And when I went to Nha Trang I bought my signature cheesy tourist shirt that says Nha Trang in bright colors with a beach setting. I can’t wait to show you guys all of my amazing shirts. I never buy them for more than five bucks, they are way too cheaply made for that, but they have made up a huge part of my wardrobe now.

We did a little more shopping in the pirated video district. This was the best place ever. I bought Pokemon Pinball for my gameboy advanced for three dollars! I’m so excited to play it when I get home haha. My favorite purchase of all, however, were the FULL SERIES of television shows I bought. I bought House, Seinfeld, Arrested Development, and Sex and the City… for THIRTY TWO DOLLARS!!! SCOOOOORE! And they all work! I’m really disappointed now I didn’t buy Family Guy. Why, Jillian, why?? But basically I’m all set for the month of April when I am on the ship endlessly and bored out of my mind.

Next we headed to the War Remnants Museum. This was a very sombering museum and I learned many things I never knew before. I have heard so much about the Vietnam War in my life, and I know so many people that lived during it and even fought in it, and I still know almost nothing about it. Before coming to Vietnam, I watched a documentary all about McNamara’s life and basically his regrets and renunciations of the Vietnam War, and it completely intrigued me, especially a story he told about him sitting down at a table with a former Vietnamese war official years after the war. The two practically came to a fistfight at this huge gala. McNamara held his position that the US was trying to stop the spread of communism, but the Vietnamese official kept saying, “Don’t you understand, Vietnam has been fighting invaders for centuries. We were fighting for our independence, and we weren’t going to let you or anybody else take it from us!” The museum definitely spoke to that tone. There were horrific pictures and horrific stories and horrific quotes of mostly Vietnamese people but many Americans as well. I knew nothing about Agent Orange before stepping foot in Vietnam. It takes one teaspoon of Agent Orange to destroy a city of 8 million, but we used it as an environmental war strategy, in the process completely mutilating a society. Many people’s faces were burned off. I actually saw several survivors of Agent Orange with my own eyes. The chemical also caused severe mutations to thousands and thousands of children born to parents in the affected areas, many of which are cared for in orphanages all over Vietnam even today.

The museum really made me think about war, about our country, and mainly about the fact that I have lived through the Iraq War and 9/11, but never have I REALLY known what it is like to live in war time. And how blessed I am to be able to say that. That, in turn, made me think of the wars I may see in my lifetime, and of the certain wars my children will see in their lifetimes. Over three million Vietnamese people died in what they call the American War, while 59,000 of our own men died. How tragic… and for seemingly nothing.

We headed back to the boat to put our stuff down and get ready to go out to dinner and a night on the town. A really cool service SAS provided in Vietnam was a free shuttle going to and from the main part of town every half hour, every single day we were in port. I wish they had that everywhere! They probably just wanted to look good for the parents…

That night I went out to dinner with Kendra, Taylor, Lia, Rosalee, Chazz, Nate and Bradee. Dinner was good but again on the expensive side. Next we headed to a jazz club, Jazz N Art, where the main AV guy Bob, who is an AMAZING musician, was playing for the night. We all got some drinks and chilled out and watched them play smooooooth jazz. Next we headed to a bar called Apocalypse Now, which had some very inappropriate names for drinks like “Agent Orange” and “B-52.” Offensive? But we had a total blast here. There were a lot of SAS kids as well as locals and we danced for hours, great music, great people. Got home and in bed by 1 in preparation for my 3:45 AM wakeup call.

Woke up on time for once, hopped on the bus to the airport. Flight to Nha Trang, about 50 minutes. Bus ride from airport to hotel, about an hour, I slept this entire ride however and don’t remember a single part of it, which was really weird on the bus ride back to the airport and it was as if I had missed out on a whole hour of my life. Arrived in Nha Trang… and it is beautiful. Another gorgeous beach paradise. Basically everywhere I go it’s another day, another one of the best days of my life. Our hotel was nice, called Qua Haung, which is not even pronounced the way it sounds, which my roommate and I found out when we tried to get a taxi home and they had no idea what we were saying, and only found the hotel when we showed the hotel card. My roommate’s name was Kit, very cute brunette girl, and we got along famously.

This SAS trip was one of my favorites yet because of the huge amount of flexibility they gave us, and because there were only about 20 of us on the trip. Our tour guide gave us two hours to sleep in the hotel before we met up at 10 AM to begin sightseeing, which was very generous of him indeed. Once we were all a little better rested, we got back on the bus to explore this beautiful beach town. The first thing you notice when looking out at the ocean, other than the intense humidity, is the island across the way with a gondola ride leading to it. The island is very large and has the word “VINPEARL,” or the Pearl of Vietnam, on it in Hollywood-esque letters.

First we stopped by a Buddhist temple. A pristinely white 30-foot-tall Buddha can be seen towering above the pagoda. We went inside the temple where several different representations were on display, and saw a couple of people lighting incense and worshipping. The architecture was amazing, dragons everywhere, bright colors, lotus flowers. We climbed the stairs and stopped by a large stone reclining Buddha, not quite as grand as the one in Bangkok, but still very beautiful.

The children in Vietnam were my favorite. They were so playful and fun and cute all the time. They always seemed to be playing games and frolicking, and I just wanted to join them, and sometimes I did. I watched these little boys fighting in a fountain and another boy carefully taking on and off his shoes and a little girl using a large stick to tell the children what to do. There was also a very special little baby on our trip, Ellie, whose dad is the Vicarious Voyage coordinator and whose mommy is his wife. She is such a sweet little baby, with curly dirty blond hair, and the BIGGEST smile with four cute little front teeth. This baby was unbelievably good, she is only one and a half and I only heard her cry twice the entire time we were in Nha Trang.

We made it to the white Buddha and entered the room at its base, which had bronze moldings sticking out from the walls in 3D telling the stories of Buddha’s life. I forgot to take my shoes off and a little boy quickly reminded me.

Next we went to lunch at a restaurant atop a hill, giving us an amazing view of the bay. All of the restaurants SAS hooks it up with are spectacular, great food and great views and great atmospheres. And on this trip we were often the only ones in the whole place. We were the only ones here and we were served plate after plate of magnificent food. Whole crabs, huge prawns, real calamari, traditionally cooked fish in a clay pot that was DELICIOUS, rice, beef, and pineapple for dessert. Most meals served food quite similar to this, and rather in the same fashion too.

After we had eaten our fill, we stopped at one of the oldest buildings in Nha Trang that has some significance that I cannot recall at this time, but we were able to look around at the old photographs and artistic paintings and drawings of Nha Trang, as well as signed pictures of famous people who had been there, then we made our way down to a gorgeous little rocky beach area. A few young men were fishing while some other women had set up little souvenir shops under tarps tied to the few trees. The boys went right for rock climbing and I joined them a little bit, then just sat and enjoyed the view of the crystal teal water.

Next stop, a Hindu temple that looked like something straight out of Costa Rica or Guatemala, or at least how I would imagine an antique building looking there. I just wish I could post pictures so much. Think something you might have seen in Indiana Jones movies when they are exploring buildings in the jungle. There were about five separate buildings, each with a different god, and each with a representation of the lingam and yoni, images of male and female fertility, respectively. The insides of the rooms were small and stained black from incense smoke. The smell was pungent but nice, and the smoke made the room hazy.

Final stop, the local marketplace. They sold some fun stuff, but nothing much different from anything we have already seen. The fruit here was crazy and exotic and I took a lot of pictures of it, particularly dragonfruit which tastes kind of bleh, but the outside reminds me of a flamenco dancer and on the inside the fruit is white with a ton of little black seeds. Very pretty.

Vietnam 2

Back at the hotel, all the girls popped on their swimsuits and went to grab some food and a 6 dollar massage. The food was delicious, the massage, not so much. Too much pounding, not enough relaxing. Oh well, that’s what I get for 6 dollars.

After that Kit and I were tired and went back to the hotel and used the internet and slept before getting ready for dinner and going out that night.

Dinner that night was at another hotel, where we were again the only ones dining, and a traditional Vietnamese musical show was put on for us. The instruments were crazy and I had never seen them before, on one of them the woman basically plucked strings vertical to the actual instrument itself. Dinner was delicious again, especially the soup which we all loved.

The thing I like about these random trips I’ve signed up for is that I usually don’t know too many people, and I end up meeting new friends. It turned out like that once again, and I ended up hanging out with Kit, Carl, Barney and Kyle the whole time, with a few other people thrown in there too. Funny kids, let me tell you. After dinner we all went out on the town, stopping first at a bar on the beach. The guys were already pretty tipsy from dinner, and we ordered buckets, of course, and they decided to speak in Australian accents for a good twenty minutes. I don’t remember who said it, but someone called out in an Australian accent, “Hooooooly buckets!” And that was it. That phrase would not leave our mouths for the next three days. It cracked me up every single time. I’m still cracking up right now, actually. Barney, our resident narcoleptic, has a problem with falling asleep when he’s drunk, so he would be basically sleeping, we would wake him up, and he would yell, “Hooooooly BUCKETS!” Hilarious. We went to a few other bars, one called Red Apples or Candy Apples that we really liked, lots of foreigners. This was a pretty late night, but it was okay because I was able to sleep in until 8. HA.

The next morning we got up to go on a full day boating excursion. We had a private ferry-ish type boat to our group. We motored around for awhile then stopped at an aquarium built inside of a fake ship. It was super ghetto but also kind of sad, because it is the shabbiest aquarium I have ever seen. There were about five sea turtles and a ton of eels in a tank I personally think is way too small for them. They were in fish tanks that you might see at a fish store or Asian restaurant in the states, except somewhat bigger.

Next we stopped in this little cove to get out and take a dip. I was slow getting in, however, because I was just waking up from a nap. This turned out to be really good because almost everyone that got in was stung by jellyfish. So I stayed put right where I was while everyone got out and started rubbing lime and ice all over their bodies.

Oh by the way, I am going to take this opportunity to talk about dong jokes. The Vietnamese currency is Dong, 17,000 Dong to 1 USD. Well, you can imagine what kind of things our immature college minds came up with me. We made a lot of jokes like, “Man, everybody wants my dong in this country.” But we also slipped dong into many popular songs, like The Dong Song, instead of the Thong Song, and my personal favorite, “Killing Me Softly with his Dong.” Really funny. Admit it, yeah, even you chuckled a little.

So they took us over to another beach area that was more guest-oriented, with chairs, a bathroom, and an ice cream stand, and let us roam free for two hours. There was a really cool little raft thingy with a slide on it about thirty feet out, so we all swam out there and did slide stunts and then laid out on the raft and talked and joked. It was a relaxing couple of hours. I tanned to my content then read The Kite Runner, which I am just a little bit into. Oh and a sidenote, old men in speedos are the best.

We were all starving so they took us to lunch at a place where you couldn’t dock up directly to the restaurant, but had to be taken there by a raft being slowly moved back and forth by two guys on the raft tugging a rope. There were also these crazy basket boats that look exactly like huge baskets. We wanted to go in one really bad, but our guide said no, the rafts were already paid for. Damn. Another delicious meal with a great view and great company. And lots of dong jokes.

The day came to an end, and Kit and I again relaxed for awhile, showering, napping, internetting. Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant this time and was the best one we had. I’m not a huge seafood person and I definitely don’t like shrimp, but I ate everything offered to me like a good traveler should, just to try it at least once, and the clams I had were the best buttery garlicy clams I have ever had, and the shrimp was… tolerable.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to relax for a little by the pool before going out again. We drank our bottles of four dollar vodka then went for another night of barhopping. Kit and I caught a motorbike with a one-eyed guy named Huang who offered us all types of drugs. Pretty common occurrence everywhere we go. No thanks, though. We got back to the hotel and hopped right in the pool, where we stayed till late at night, till finally I crawled into bed.

I slept in until 8:30, then got up to spend a little more time roaming the city and swimming in the ocean until we had to leave at 11. I got a delicious mango smoothie. We all met up and took the bus back to the airport. Our flight was scheduled for 1:15. Unfortunately for us, our flight wouldn’t leave until 6:45 due to “technical difficulties.” So it was a very long day at the airport and it meant an afternoon lost in Ho Chi Minh City, but this stuff happens, and it’s actually the first major delay I have had so far. We made the most of it, or tried to. Lots of card games. We climbed up on top of a huge billboard. We tried to walk through a field to get to the ocean, but security guards came whistling up to us on a motorbike to tell us we couldn’t go over there. Apparently it is a military owned area. Communists. We even went to eat at the airport restaurant, where I had the best Cantonese Fried Rice ever after having a full out fight with the horrendously rude waitresses that paid no attention to us, didn’t care that we didn’t get we ordered, and were basically just big b****es.

We finally board the plane and get back to ship sweet ship. I put all my stuff down, shower, and get ready for yet another night out. Go hard or go home. I met up with Kit, Carl, Natalie, Doug, and Philip and we stopped by the night markets where I bought some really cute earrings. We wanted to go to Buddha Bar, a new bar where we had heard everyone was going. One guy said he knew the way, but I knew by the way he was talking that he didn’t. I warned everyone else about this getting in, but no, no one listens to me. We end up driving around for a half hour before finally telling him to just go back to Apocalypse Now. When we get there, we give him three dollars, angry that he wasted our time like that. He started yelling at us, mainly the boys. We all tried to walk away but he grabbed Philip’s arm demanding more money. Philip finally gave it to him. Taxis can be a tricky business, and they are ALL out to get you.

Back in Apocalypse, another great night, we closed the place down this time, about 2:30. I reunited with my lover Hannah, who I miss everytime I am in a country, and we danced it up. This night was even more crowded than the first night and my toenails were literally bleeding at the end of the night. But it had great music and great dancing. I danced with this Spanish guy named Jose for awhile and we started talking. He didn’t know much English, so we went to the bar and spoke Spanish for about an hour. It was great! Most Spanish people I meet know more English than I know Spanish, but it was the other way around this time and I got a good amount of practice in. Then we said encantado and mucho gusto and I caught a cab home with Kit again. Hit the bed hard to get ready for my 7:45 AM wakeup.

Wake up, stumble to the bus to get ready for my full day excursion to the Cao Dai temple and Cu Chi tunnels. Win and Lexi were on this trip, and I love them, so I was happy.

We drove about two hours and stopped to eat, another delicious meal, the breaded shrimp was the best shrimp yet. There was a little Vietnamese baby rocking in a hammock that I really loved.

The Cao Dai temple was the Disneyland of temples. It is a religion that combines aspects of Catholicism, Buddhism and Hinduism. The colors are something out of Pokemon or Alice in Wonderland. The ceilings were bright blue with silver stars all over them. The columns had brightly decorated dragons. Pictures of Jesus, Buddha, and Hindu gods hanging out were all over the place. We were there for a full service. There were about two hundred people worshipping, all sitting in organized rows. Up top there were musicians and singers playing the music that led the service. All followers were dressed in white. Followers of specific religions were dressed in red, blue, or yellow, one for each religion, I don’t know for sure which off the top of my head. The hundreds of people below bowed at times when dongs were sounded. Again, pictures would really help here.

Next, another hour bus ride to the Cu Chi tunnels. These were the tunnels used by the Vietcong in the Vietnam War to ambush us from all over the place and effectively use guerrilla war tactics. We started our visit by watching a Vietcong propaganda video. It was very interesting to watch, knowing that our country would do the exact same thing in times of war. They called the Americans monsters and spoke many times of the many heroes who were rewarded for killing many Americans. Cu Chi was revered as a peaceful, beautiful treasure of Vietnam that the Americans sought to destroy. We got to explore the area, saw a lot of bomb craters, original tunnel entrances you could never see with the naked eye until our guide pointed them out, air vents dug into termite hills, bunkers that still remain after all these years. One display showed all of the booby traps the Vietcong set up for Americans, pretty barbaric stuff, lots of things where the body would be impaled. One was basically a revolving door, where you would step on it and instantly fall below where sharpened sticks of bamboo waited for you. Nothing I would want to fall into in the forest. I never really knew before that those types of tactics were used and it made me queasy to think about the young men that died in this way.

We had the opportunity to enter a tunnel ourselves, which we all did. The funny thing was, these tunnels had been enlarged 40% from their original size. Unbelievable. These people were so small. Even the larger tunnels were ridiculously small, you were hunched over almost on your knees the entire time. And these people lived there for years! Thousands of them! I cannot even imagine that type of existence.

On the bus ride home our guide told us about his life. He was a really funny and friendly guy and spoke great English. When he was 12 he was forced to quit school along with his sister and was sent to a refugee camp in China by his parents during the war. The camp had terrible conditions and no education. He finally returned to Vietnam where he stayed with his family for two weeks before immediately enrolling back into school, ad he has never satisfied his hunger for education since. He is 33. He says that his greatest wish would be to study in the U.S., but the kind of money we take for granted, even at the cheapest university, he said is like a dream to a Vietnamese person. He also voiced his opinion that the US invaded Vietnam, rather than Russia or China, because Vietnam had so many lucrative exports, namely oil. Interesting. I bet a lot of people think that.

Vietnam has suffered as a country so much, but today the country is growing rapidly. In fact, it is estimated to be one of the only countries that will continue to grow this year, even with the severe economic slump. In 30 years their country’s literacy rate as well as poverty rate has dramatically dropped. It is a beautiful country with very friendly people, and I really enjoyed being there. And, having now just written all this, I really learned a lot.

I’ve been on the ship two days now, getting a lot of rest and sleeping as much as possible. I’m a little sick, sore throat, very sore lymph nodes, kind of achy, but I figure mind over matter, this is NO time to be sick… because I get to China tomorrow! We dock in Hong Kong, but unfortunately my trip leaves immediately for Beijing. I’ll just have to come back to Hong Kong. I CAN’T BELIEVE I WILL BE IN CHINA TOMORROW!!! MY NINTH COUNTRY!!! WHAT IS GOING ON!!! I know China will be an intense learning experience. Also, it is going to SNOW in Beijing! Isn’t that exciting? I hope I will be on the Great Wall while it’s snowing. I definitely didn’t bring any snow clothes, but oh well, I’ll deal with that later.

I am already so looking forward to Japan where I will celebrate my birthday and travel independently all over the place with Han Han Han, Kendra, Adrienne, and hopefully Caroline, Alicia, and Lexi.

See you in six days!

      

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNINNNNNNNNNNNNNG VIETNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First half of Thailand

“Mai pen rai” – “It doesn’t matter.”
My new motto in life.

Thailand was the best port experience I have had so far. Nothing can quite measure up to the level of craziness, absurdity, wonder, joy, fun and pure goodness I experienced in this country. I had one of the best adventures of my life because I was willing to take a leap and make a crazy decision, but in the end it was the best decision I have made on Semester at Sea so far.

The first day I hop right on a bus to head to the Bangkok airport. Our port, Laem Chabang, is an hour and a half outside of Bangkok. Large ships have to dock there because the inner port is too shallow for them. We stopped halfway at a rest stop with all sorts of crazy food, orange eggs, dried out whole squid, just crazy looking stuff. We’re in Asia now!

Bangkok airport is a spaceship. It is huge and so futuristic. It reminded me of Epcot/Spacecamp, which I remembered my Dad and I went to when I was younger haha. We were in this airport for like four hours before our flight, sucks but we really had no choice, so I bought a couple of books, one on the huge sex industry in Thailand and Asia in general and another about a guy who was put into a Bangkok prison for twelve years for smuggling drugs. I’m a few chapters through the sex slaves book and it is very interesting and informative indeed. It also gave me a good background for what I was to see and experience on the streets of Thailand.

The flight was fine, I took my first double decker plane ever.

We arrive in Phuket (pronounced Poo-ket) a little over an hour later. We checked into our hotel, the Duangjitt, which was gorgeous as always, SAS always hooks it up. I was rooming with Marlee again, we often do as they usually set us up alphabetically. And Lexi was on this trip which was awesome because I haven’t been able to hang out much with her in port yet.

Smith, Lexi, Lynsey, Claudia and I all met up to go eat. We had our first taste of real Thai food at this sketchy restaurant, but the meal was cheap and delicious. I am in LOVE with Thai food, I am going to eat it all the time when I get home, “pad thai” is a little piece of heaven and everyone should experience it at least once. After eating we stopped back to the hotel for a little while to get ready to go out. I got cute and we hopped on a tuk-tuk (three wheeled car, tricked out with speakers lights and videos playing if you are lucky), which will apparently be everywhere we go from now on, and are my new favorite form of transportation, over to the main bar area.

This night, this city, this bar district, the Thai people in this area were surreal.

The sex industry in Thailand is prolific. It is everywhere and completely unavoidable. You will see it on any street. Phuket is a huge tourist destination and is naturally a huge area for the sale of sex. Prostitutes line the street everywhere you look. There are massage parlors that are not really massage parlors. I learned a new word, “ladyboy.” There are men dressed as women everywhere, very openly, and we were never sure who was pre-op or post-op. Every five feet someone else is beckoning you to come to a ping-pong show. You honestly don’t even want to know what that is.

All of this was hard for me to see, especially as a young woman, especially knowing that the large majority of these women are forced into the profession by many different things. Some out of desperate poverty, just to feed their families, some are raped then seen as worthless by their families and society, some are offered jobs in the city then are unknowingly sold into a brothel by friends and family members. And these women are not Thai women. 95% of them are shipped in from other, poorer countries. Mainly Burma. And this goes on all over the world, but it is an epidemic across Asia, including India. Mom, thanks for not selling me into prostitution, because a lot of parents do.

What was even more heartbreaking was watching many of my fellow classmates walk into these shows and pay money in these establishments, and even hearing of one or two partaking in more than just a show. Disgusting, disturbing, heartbreaking. I would never step foot in one of those places to see women be completely exploited in this way, even by other women.

I would see the sale of sex all over Thailand, but it was the worst in Phuket.

Anyways… onto the rest of the night. Other than that Phuket was a great place, filled with tourists from all over the world. The bar district is HUGE and a total blast, kind of what I might expect a New Orleans bar street to look like. The shopping is phenomenal as well. We started out the night at a hookah bar, as Smith and I love to do, then headed from there down the main bar walkway. We stopped all over the place at a bunch of different bars, trying to find the best deals. Thailand was more expensive than I expected, the most expensive place I have visited since Spain probably. But that is because I have been turned into a chintzy Scrooge on this voyage and have gotten used to my dollar stretching a long long way in most places. 35 Thai baht = 1 US dollar, but most things, including drinks and food, were only a little cheaper than they would be in the US. Partly because of all of the going out and traveling I did, I spent more in Thailand than I have in any other port.

All of the bars had very pretty women working in them, most of which I expect work on the side as prostitutes as well, but they were all very nice. Every bar had these little games to play, like brain teasers, connect four, separate this metal piece from that one. Weird. I got invited to go pole dancing at one bar so I brought Smith up with me and he climbed up the pole and wrote our names on the ceiling to be immortalized forever, “Pookie and Pookie-bunz.” Hahahahahah.

After our bar stint we all went skinnydipping in the ocean. I skinnydipped three night in a row in Thailand. I am skinnydipping around the world hahaha.

After that, who knows what time it was, definitely late, and we all went to bed to prepare ourselves for our 6:30 wake up time and next day of adventure.

Woke up in a stupor and threw my stuff together for a day of boating adventure. This day was basically a day of houseboating, and everyone knows how much I like that, so it was pretty much the best day ever. We drove an hour, hopped on the houseboat, about thirty of us to a boat. We putted through this amazing Thai bay, miles wide, gorgeous random tropical hills jutting out of the water here and there. We paired up on inflatable canoes and a trained canoe paddler paddled us around. Me and Dan’s guy was named Mik. He was a pretty quiet guy, but the rest of the crew was crazy fun. They were pushing us and each other in the water all the time, running around and joking with us, they made all of us these really cool roses out of straws and reeds.

So went exploring caves on canoes. The first cave was called Bat Cave. It had a lot of bats in it. And Batman was there. The caves got extremely low, so low that Dan and I had to lay down completely flat while Mik deflated our canoe a little to be able to fit us through a very small opening. My nose scraped the rock above, until suddenly we were outside again in a jungle lagoon. Monkeys were perched on the trees, they didn’t mind us at all. We were only able to stay in there for literally two minutes because Mik said if we didn’t leave now we wouldn’t leave because the tide was coming up. So we laid down again and repeated the process, this time with the water an inch or two even higher. I can’t wait to show you video of this so you can see for yourself how really crazy this was.

Next we went to Oyster Cave. There were a lot of oysters there. We repeated the scary laying down process again and were in another breathtakingly gorgeous Jurassic Park-esque lagoon.

We explored this lagoon and another area for awhile then hopped back on the ship for lunch, which was AMAZING. Have you ever had fried pineapple? I have, and it is delicious. After lunch we all jumped off the top of the houseboat a few hundred times, swam around, then the boat took us over to a little beach area, where we lounged and watched the crew play a sort of hackey sack game except with this hollow wicker ball.

Bus ride back, showered and slept for a little waiting for Lexi to get back. Little did I know this would be the night that would alter the rest of my Thailand experience. In a good way. In a GREAT way.

Lexi and I got ready and set out for our next night of debauchery. I love Lexi. I have so so much fun with her and it is crazy how chance brought us together again. In case my readers forgot, Lexi went to USD, rushed sorority with me, was my BFF in AXO, then transferred to U of Oregon halfway through sophomore year. And now we are on SAS together and loving it!

So her and I basically tore up the bar district together. We went all over the place, talking, eating, drinking, discussing. I think we hit up eight separate bars, at least. We danced like crazy in all of them and had a blast. Finally we ended up at this bar called Seduction.

The minute I walked in I spotted this amazingly cute guy. We locked eyes and I saw him make some sort of motion toward me. So I smiled at him, walked back, and asked him to dance. He said yes. And the rest of history. We decided to elope.






KIDDING MOM CALM DOWN.

But yeah I spent the rest of the night dancing with him and hanging out with him and his AMAZING friends. His name is Stas, he was born in Serbia or Slovakia or Slovania or something like that, and he lived in San Francisco for ten years or so. He is twenty-four, finished a two-year stint in the army, went to school for two years, has a semester off and is applying to schools, and is now in Thailand training to be a Muay Thai fighter. And so are the rest of his friends, who are also from all over the world. The one from Bulgaria and the one from Romania, who we called Bulgaria and Romania, were straight up models. But my favorite person was Andrew from Laguna Beach. This guy was fantastic, charismatic, hilarious, friendly, just a great guy in general, and we are best friends and plan on hanging out when we are both back in America. But yeah, muay thai is traditional Thai fighting, and all of these guys from all over the world are at this camp for at least a few months, and a few girls too. And I happened to stumble into their midst.

I spent hours with them, laughing dancing and talking. I asked Stas what that motion towards me had been when he first saw me in the club. He said he and his friends play “point and shoot,” which is basically point out the gorgeous girls you see, and he shot at me. The feelings was mutual.

Finally it was getting to be light out and they had to get home because they had an early ferry to catch over to Phi Phi Island (pronounced Pee-pee). Google it. One of the most beautiful places in the world. Stas invited me to meet them there in the morning and spend the day with them. At first I was like, no way can I do that, I’m supposed to do stuff with the SAS group tomorrow, I know no one will go with me because no one else knows them, I can’t do all of that traveling by myself, blab la bla. And then I was like… YES. YES I will go. This is my chance to have one of those crazy experiences that everyone always talks about. HERE IT IS! I’M GOING FOR IT!!!

The main thing that pushed me into this decision was the fact that if I stayed in Phuket with my SAS trip, I would be taking a three hour bus ride there and back, and only doing activities for two hours. The activities would be fun, elephant riding and jungle trekking, but the six hour bus ride was like another entire day being stripped away form me. Also, I knew I would have a blast hanging out with these guys.

I slept for about forty five minutes then woke up to get a taxi to the ferry. I was nervous about my decision, going back and forth about it. But what if they aren’t there when I get there? Well then I’ll just meet other people and hang out with them. Okay, stop thinking about it, just do it!

I hopped on a motorbike taxi and basically slept on his back for the forty minute ride. He woke me up when we stopped at the ATM, then he helped me buy my ferry ticket. The ferry didn’t take off at 7:30 am, it took off at 8:30 am. First roadblock. I was supposed to meet the guys at Reggae Bar at 9 am. Okay, oh well, I’m taking this ferry. I slept the entire hour and a half ride as I am surrounded by Chinese and Japanese tourists.

Oh another phenomenon of Thailand! Couples match. Everywhere. Matching tee-shirts, shoelaces, shoes, jackets, shirts with cute cartoons on them. It was insane. I was like, yeah maybe I would do that as a joke, but these people are more than serious.

Anyways, I wanted to make note of the Swedish woman I met sitting next to me who had the most gorgeous green eyes I have ever seen. Almost forest green, almost solid. Beautiful.

2nd half of Thailand

We arrive at the island and I am sort of refreshed, now running on maybe two and a half hours of sleep. I am awakened, however, by the beauty of this place. I am way late on meeting the guys, but I make my way over to the bar anyways. It is, of course, empty, and they are, of course, not there. Okay. Well I knew this might happen, time to make a day of it all on my own.

I walk around for about an hour, get a smoothie, explore the island which takes like ten minutes to walk all the way around. I’m getting bored being alone already. All of a sudden I see three SAS kids. I walk up to them, tell them I’m alone, and ask if I can hang out with them. They were really nice and said of course, and I ended up spending the rest of the day with them. Penn, Jake and Adrian. We all actually really clicked and ended up having a great day. By the end of the night we were drunkenly telling each other how happy we were that we found each other.

First we went and got Thai massages on the beach for an hour. Amazing. Six bucks. Then we hang out and lounge in the ocean for awhile, which is perfect and like stepping into the most comfortable bath ever. Next we eat delicious pad thai and fried rice. I always got pad thai and fried rice, and it was always too much food, but I always kept getting because I always wanted both.

Next we got a four hour private tour of the island by boat for 1500 baht, or about 45 dollars. We went all over the place to a bunch of different islands. We went snorkeling and saw the most amazing tropical fish. Tons of parrotfish. Love them, my favorite fish. We climbed into caves and explored oases in the center of islands. We climbed up a very precarious ladder and jumped off a 60 foot cliff. It was really fun, but I landed a little funny and my knee has been hurting ever since. Hope it feels better soon… anyways we had a great day, we all bonded, they are great people. Ate some spring rolls and had some drinks before headed back to main Phi Phi.

We were walking around when we turned the corner and… THERE WAS STAS!!! And his friends! Stas ran up to be and gave me a big cheek on the kiss and told me he was hoping he would see me. We made plans for all of us to meet up later that night and g out for a raving St. Patty’s Day. All of the bars were prepping for the big night and had all sorts of free drink deals set up, which we did indeed indulge in.

We went back to Penn and Jake and Adrian’s hostel, K House, which they had graciously allowed me to crash in, and put down our stuff before going on a hike to the top of the mountain’s island. The view was magnificent and there were about thirty other people up there. I sat in awe and listened to the fifteen different languages around me, all at once.

We headed back to shower and get ready before going out. I, however, had no clothing, and so set out to buy a dress. On my way, I got caught in a torrential downpour/flood/tsunami/hurricane/typhoon. It was nuts. The streets were a foot deep with water within five minutes. I was drenched to the bone, so I needed a dress more than ever, but unfortunately, now I was wet and no one would let me try anything on and looked at me anxiously when I walked in and started getting their floors wet. Eventually I got fed up and grabbed a simple black dress, bought it for 300 baht, and hoped it would look okay without a bra since I didn’t have one because I hadn’t known I would be spending the night until about two in the afternoon.

When I walked into the hostel room everyone cracked up. I had been walking in the rain and puddles for an hour now, and I was totally soaked, and I had gotten lost. I was a pretty funny sight. I showered and put on the dress, which magically fit me perfectly. Sometimes life just works out…

We headed out and met up with Stas and the guys, who were all dressed up for St. Patty’s day. They were crew Mother Russia, none of them had shirts on, they had green paint all over them and green string. Basically broin’ out big time. But I didn’t even care because these guys were so hilarious and awesome and entertaining I would hang out with them anytime. We ate another delicious meal then headed to our first bar, The Irish Pub.

The rest of this night was a blend of shots and buckets. Buckets are kind of what they sound like, drinks in a bucket. I was coerced into a couple of tequila shots, even though I hate the stuff. We hit up a few bars but the last one we were at was my favorite. I think it was called Tiger Bar, but I’m not sure. Anyways, the dance floor was great, the music was perfect, I distinctly remember all of us screaming YMCA and Penn and I pole dancing and Penn falling on his face hahaha. I danced with Stas and all of his friends and Penn and I was loving life. Andrew is pretty much the best dancer in the world, maybe the best person in the world, he took me out on the dance floor and was tossing and flipping me everywhere, it was fantastic. Jake had finally had a little too much, so Adrian took him home, and Penn and I stayed out for a couple more hours after I said my sweet goodbyes to Stas. I told him he will forever be a part of my Thailand memories, and he said we should definitely hang out when he gets back to the US in April. Awesome. Same with Andrew, I will DEFINITELY be calling him up when I get home, I mean he lives in Laguna, we have to hang out.

Back in the hostel, we crashed out hard before having to wake up at 8 to catch our ferry at nine. The three of them slept the entire ferry ride, but for some reason I wasn’t too tired and I sat with my feet dangling over the edge of the boat, watching the islands and water and boats go by. I couldn’t even believe it was already my fourth day in this island paradise or that my little adventure had turned out so amazingly perfect, better than I could have ever expected. I listened to good music and thought good thoughts and I was totally loving life.

Once back at the dock, they took off to catch a noon flight, and I hopped in a minibus to get back to the SAS buses that were leaving my hotel at 11:45 am. Thank God I have good friends… Lexi gathered all of my stuff from the room for me and took it to the bus. Minibus was a bad option for me for this trip… he stopped at two hotels before mine before I yelled at him that I was supposed to be at my bus in two minutes and would he please drop me off now. There was also a huge traffic jam. I almost got out and caught a motorcycle but I was patient. I got to the buses at 11:47 am… they left five minutes later. Wow.

Back to the airport, flight back to Bangkok. Transfer to the hotel, Hotel Tawana. Gorgeous, once again. Took a much needed shower, changed, went out to dinner at a Mexican place with Lexi, Taylor, Rosalee, Caitlin, and Lynsey. This dinner was my splurge dinner… it cost us over 20 dollars each. Kind of ridiculous, but we didn’t know they tacked on an extra 20% for tax and tip, but the food was amazing anyways.

Back to hotel, change into sexy dress and sexy heels, meet up with Lexi and we head out for another night in the big city. This night was pretty blah, especially compared to my last adventures. Everywhere we went ended up kind of being a dud, especially since we didn’t head out till 12. The whole city closed down around 1 or 1:30, which I guess isn’t too surprising for a Tuesday night but I thought because it was Bangkok it would be crazy all night. Oh well, I got a full five hours of sleep this night and that sure was a nice change. We went to a bar called Vertigo that was on the 59th floor of a swanky hotel. The charges were way too much to buy anything, but the view was definitely worth the dollar taxi ride over there. We went to one sketchy place our concierge had told us to go, but we were the only white people there listening to a terrible Thai band cover American songs, and we quickly left. Later our concierge told us our taxi driver had taken us to the wrong place, which I believe because taxi drivers have done that to us all over the world.

Oh and that night we saw two baby elephants walking on the streets, chained by ropes. You could buy food to feed them. It made me so sad.

The next morning, up at 7 am again to go do a little Bangkok sightseeing. We went to the Royal Palace, which was amazingly beautiful, then Lexi and I headed over to the Golden Reclining Buddha. Both places were gorgeous but I can’t really write about them, you’ll just have to wait for pictures. The reclining Buddha was HUGE though, 5 and a half tons of pure gold, with the soles of his feet pure mother of pearl.

We headed back to the hotel, checked out, plopped our stuff in the lobby, went and got a final Thai meal, then headed to a massage parlor for one last massage. They had us put on little clothes outfits and I got my first real Thai massage. They were stretching me and bending me all over the place, and I was SOOO sore from the day of physical activity I had had before and my hurt knee, so at times I was in severe pain, but I knew it would make me feel better the next day, which it did.

Hop on the buses at 2, hitch a two hour ride back to the ship… and my five days of bliss in Thailand came to an end all too soon. It is amazing how time flies.

In conclusion, I loved Thailand, what a beautiful place, I felt completely comfortable there, the people were amazing, some things were sad, some things were AMAZING, and it really taught me to trust in myself. I went for it on this trip, and you know what, I want to go for it in life, always. I want to say yes, I want to take that leap, I want to make the right decision that might be a scary decision, but will in the end be worth it. And I am blessed that my life has taken so many surprising turns and directions, but they always lead me to where I was meant to be all along. I am truly blessed. I had a love tryst in Thailand! What more could you want?

I apologize for not finishing my India blog, it might remain a little bit of a lost blog for now, I only have one more day on the ship before I get to Vietnam! CRAZY! Tonight is the crew talent show that we are expecting will be thoroughly hilarious. Tomorrow I really need to get some schoolwork in, I just haven’t really done enough of that in general.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!! MAI PEN RAI!

Thailand. One of the best experiences I have had in my entire life.

Hands down my favorite port. No question.

I had the adventure of a lifetime.

I’m so behind on my blog. It is just taxing to write, it was a huge port and I want to do it justice but I have been really busy the last five days. I have really enjoyed myself on this stretch of the trip. It’s actually been really fun on the ship! Greg and I performed at karaoke night… we had practiced to do “I’m Real” by J Lo and Ja Rule, so we showed up in our ghetto duds, me with my LA earrings in of course, he with his SAS boxers hanging out and his Jewish star bling, and the song wasn’t a duet. So we improvised and did “I Will Survive” and it was a huge hit and we are on ship celebrities. Seriously. A girl came up to me the other day and asked me to MC the end of the semester auction because “you’re, like, really popular.” Awesome.

We played Egyptian ratscrew one night but we added a fun twist in… you have to slap your forehead before slapping the pile. Highly enjoyable. Noteworthy. Caroline had a bump on her head the next day.

Every night there is a jam session in the piano lounge and tonight I went up and sang with them because I have wanted to for the longest time, and now I think I will make that a regular habit.

Last night was Halloween-themed pub night. It was probably the craziest and most enjoyable night I have had on the ship so far, definitely the most fun pub night. Smith and I dressed up as touristy newlyweds from Kansas, touring the world with our baby after a shotgun wedding. La familia Scarborough. He has this hilarious shirt with a baby in a carrier on it, so he wore that, sunscreen on his nose, high shorts, a fanny pack, and combed his hair down. I wore a button down shirt, a cardigan over my shoulders, very high shorts, high socks, keds, and a money purse. We looked hilarious, we were a huge hit. They actually had music set up for us last night at pub night for the first time, so we danced the night away and got pleasantly tipsy. My tolerance level sure has gone down. But that’s a good thing!
Tomorrow… THAILAND!!! I am on the best trip, exotic beaches, beautiful temples, canoeing, lounging, delicious food, and then partying in Bangkok. I fully expect this to be one of my favorite ports. We’ll see…

So my India blog is taking a rather long time to write so I thought I would just write a little about ship life.

Last night I was up till about 5 am just kind of wired, doing homework, watching the Bollywood movie on TV. The whole time I could see lightning go on outside. So I finally went up to go check it out. It was raining lightly and the lightning was intense, lighting up the entire sky every few seconds. The storm stretched around me in a 360, but was so far away you couldn't hear any thunder. And I was the only one awake, the only one there to witness it. It was very beautiful, definitely a unique way to view a storm.

Three more days till Thailand now!!! I was most excited for South Africa as a country, but I am most excited for the actual trip I'm doing in Thailand to Bangkok and Phuket. Can't wait to tell you all about it.

Tomorrow night is karaoke night and Greg and I have another pretty exciting performance planned. We can't wait till the next open mic night to unveil our new song.

March is going to fly on by...

March 4
       Fourth day of school in a row today. After today I have eight days of school left in March. We visit four countries this month and are never on the ship. March is going to fly on by. I am almost halfway done with SAS. Craziness.
       The night before last Hannah and I went out to the top deck to see the stars. It was so warm and pitch black out. It started to rain, so we sat down in it and let it pour on us for about five minutes. The rain was warm and felt so refreshing, but when it started whipping our faces we went inside. Then we had to walk back to our cabins soaking wet and everyone was wondering what had happened to us. I love rain. It has healing powers.
       The next night Hannah and Kendra and I were eating dinner, when all of a sudden a ton of dolphin started swimming by! They were jumping all over the place, waving to us. This was my first dolphin sighting, and it was a great one. They were everywhere. After that we sat and enjoyed the most beautiful sunset I have seen yet on this voyage. The ocean was like glass, kids were waterskiing behind the ship, and there was a haze on the ocean. The sunset stretched its rays all the way to the stern of our boat, and as it set burned a fiery red.
       A couple of peaceful, beautiful, warm days.

India tomorrow.

Mauritius…island paradise, Christmas vacation spot choice of celebrities, home to exotic fishies. And SAS’s own personal island for a day.

We wake up at 6:50 AM trying to successfully see a sunrise come up over land for the first time. This time we are successful, and it is a beautiful sight to be held. The island of Mauritius stretched out before us, small enough to see both the beginning and end of it horizontally from our spot on the boat. The mountains are lushly covered in green, and the sun slowly creeped out from behind one of the peaks. The sky changed from purple to gold and then finally pink, and then it was time to eat.

After the eats I went downstairs and packed up my stuff for the day. Caroline, Hannah and I all had tickets for a trip exquisitely titled “Ile de Deux Cocos,”which we took the liberty to always pronounce in strong French accents whenever anyone asked us what we were going to be up to. I put on my most French bikini, zebra stripes haha, and a cute cover up. My mom called me that morning and my dad got on the phone and asked what I would be up to that day. “Booze cruise,”I told him. “Can’t you do something cultural?”he asked. And that’s when I had to tell him, no, Mauritius is an island paradise, vacation spot to many, and all of the culture I will be experiencing for the 11 hours I am here will be found in the ocean and tanning on the sand. Mauritius was added onto the schedule as a sort of break for us between South Africa and India, and we took full advantage of it.

The weather was amazingly hot and humid, just the way I like it. The ocean felt amazing, cool enough to be refreshing but easy to jump into.

After our diplomatic briefing we hopped into little buses to take us over to Ile de Deux Cocos. The island is only forty miles around so it baffled Hannah and I why it took an hour to reach our destination. The bus ride was pretty funny because pretty much everyone was sleeping on our bus, even though the tour guide was talking, including me for about half of it. Caroline’s shoulder is pretty comfy. The really hilarious part though was when the other bus pulled up next to us and seeing every single passenger inside completely passed out. Hahahahaha I am laughing thinking about it.

So we finally get there, and the minute we step out of those buses, we are in paradise. The water is my favorite color, light blue and sparkling turquoise and crystal clear. The water was shallow for about a half mile out to see due to the coral reefs surrounding the island that still flourish in the area despite huge sugar cane production and consequently pollution. We all hop into water taxis that are already waiting for us. They are glass bottom boats so we get to check out the sweet coral and fishies below us on our slow trip over to the island that is like 250 feet away.

And then we were there…Ile de Deux Cocos. Basically SAS rented this island for us for the day. Insane. There were a bunch of chairs set up along the beach, some in the shade, shaded areas with huge white couches to lounge on, a covered lunch area and a bunch of tables, a couple of bars, really nice bathrooms, a bunch of birdbaths with exotic birds drinking out of them, a little store selling homemade rum and magnets and other souvenirs, and a table full of snorkeling gear. Wow. We didn’t even know what to do first. I don’t think anyone expected a private island for the day.

We decided to go snorkeling first. We hopped in the water taxis that were also at our disposal all day along with about six other people and went snorkeling for a half hour. This was pretty funny as well because it was Caroline’s first time snorkeling and Hannah’s second time, and her first time she was terrified of fish touching her so she wasn’t sure how she would react this time. Hahaha. But when Hannah was finally able to figure out how to put on her goggles and Caroline had stopped complaining about hers fogging up, we really enjoyed ourselves. The ocean felt amazing, the coral was really cool, the fish were radiantly colored and visibility was perfect. I saw a bunch of parrotfish, which are my favorite fish. Google them. They are sweet.

Snorkeling ended all too soon and we headed back to the island, which by the way we could have swam to from where we were, I’m not sure why we had to take a boat. Probably because the coral was everywhere and the water was really shallow. A lot of people got scraped up or even actually cut pretty bad, especially when drinking started.

So back on the island we suntanned and went swimming until it was time for lunch, which was delicious as pretty much all meals have been on every SAS trip I have been on. There were huge prawns, scrumptious pink tuna, lamb, chicken, shrimp kabobs, marlin, and a bunch of appetizers. The tuna was the best tuna I have ever had. Hannah could not stop talking about it. She still talks about it. It was pretty fabulous. This is also when the alcohol started being served. Our server, Ravi, hooked it up. We loved him and Hannah tipped him 20 American dollars, which that reminds me I need to pay her back. We had lots of vodka and rum mixed with pineapple juice and orange juice and mango juice and wine and then a round of shots. I gave my shot away because I had had quite enough in the extreme heat. We made some new girlfriends and gossiped about everyone on the ship. It was a really really great lunch. There is a lot of gossip going on about a certain 16 year old that may or may not be the daughter of someone important on our ship…so we all talked boys and nightlife and shared our experiences on the ship and our many nicknames that Hannah and I have for the people we often chat about. Our favorite is this guy we call the ghost. He goes to USD but he told everyone that he wasn’t going on SAS even though he was, and he is here, so every time he passes we make a ghost howling sound. It is pretty hilarious and really never gets old.


Anyways, I digress.

So after lunch Hannah was on a secret mission and I was her wing woman and it went pretty well, if I do say so myself. And I am a great wing woman, if I do say so myself. Maybe the best ever. Hannah and Braxton and I went swimming and the current was really strong and I was the only one able to swim out and it was a pretty funny ten minutes watching them try to walk out on the coral. And all too soon the day had ended and all 80 of us or so climbed back into water taxis and back to our buses, where again we slept. Such simple lives we lead.

Once back on the ship we unfortunately didn’t have time to go back out to get T-shirts/postcards like we wanted to, so I now have a second country where I got no T-shirt and no postcards. Huge bummer. But it made me feel a lot better that it was BBQ night!!! We treasure these nights. The chicken was delicious, and tipsy dinners are always good. I would say 80% of the student body came back on the boat pretty hammered, which was perfect because that night was the opening ceremony for Sea Olympics!!!

Sea Olympics are an epic competition among the entire SAS boat, teachers and Life Long Learners and kids included. First prize is pretty huge: you are the first area to get off the boat when we arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The stakes are high.

We are all divided into different seas. My sea, or my hall, is the Mediterranean Sea and our color is royal blue. Basically Sea Olympics is a whole day of competitions like dodgeball, volleyball, workout relay (how many situps, pushups, and chinups you can do and how long you can wallsit), mashed potato sculpting, team relays (orange pass, fireman’s drill, wheelbarrow), sudoku, Texas Hold Em, spelling bee, Twister, limbo, human knot, paper boat float, and finally, the grand finale, synchronized swimming. Anyone that knows me knows that I pretty much live for this stuff, and I had a great time.

Our team’s chosen mascot was the smurf, and we painted Eric’s entire body blue. Our flag consisted of a smurf blowing wind towards boats all titled with the different sea’s names. Our chant, that included some stomping and clapping and yelling, was, “Hey you! The ocean isn’t red green yellow white, I can keep this up all night, pink black purple BOO, I’m sorry but the ocean’s BLUE!”We all dressed up in all blue, painted our faces and our bods, and headed to the Union.

My team got front row seats which was pretty sweet. Everyone was cheering like crazy, every team was wearing their colors, everyone had their own made up mascots. I personally liked Gangreen for the green Aegean sea and yellow fever for the Yellow Sea. Their slogan was “No hope, no cure.”Pretty good. There were also ninjas, pirates, the red bull, and the pink panther.

They opened up the ceremony with some tribal drumming. Then we had mascot, flag, and chant judging. My team did pretty mediocre in the chant. Actually, as it would turn out, we did pretty mediocre in pretty much everything.

Then I watched “Slumdog Millionaire”which was good but nothing like what I expected.

The next day we awoke for a day full of festivities and no class. I again donned my blue gear and went to my first event, volleyball. It was pretty fierce, not really we all pretty much sucked, but it was a fun game and we lost when we went into three games. Next I went to the relay, where I participated in the orange pass and fireman’s relay. I think we got the bronze medal in that event.

After that I went to go practice with my team for synchronized swimming! I was sooo excited about this, I knew people were going to be hilarious and I was absolutely right. We practiced for awhile, then I went to go check out the workout relay which was pretty intense. Sexy Dean Les McCabe beat out all the kids in pull ups. He is a beast. And a nine year old girl beat everyone in the wall sit.

Finally it was time for synchro. Everyone’s routines were absolutely hilarious. Ours was probably middle range when it came to goodness and funniness, but I had a great time doing it. I can’t wait to show you guys the video. We used a few different songs, started out with Pass That Dutch, then I Want it That Way, then Single Ladies, then Umbrella where we all had umbrellas in the pool, then we finished up with I’m Blue. It was so fun. The whole day was a blast. Just like summer camp. Pretty much every day on this ship is just like summer camp, and I don’t mind that at all because I am getting old and my days of summer campish fun are numbered.

At closing ceremonies, everyone again gathered behind their mascots. Several more medals were given out, and then the top three teams were announced. It was actually a three way tie for third which is crazy, but the Adriatic Sea took it over all. Damn pink panthers. But they were a very unified team and they did have the best synchro for sure so I didn’t mind too much. We got third to last. So…yeah.

After closing ceremonies I grabbed Balderdash and invited Hannah’s crush to play with us. Wingwoman of the century. Six of us played for the next hour and a half and we only got a quarter way through the game, we were all that bad and slow. But it was a good time, and we finally adjourned when we were just too sick of it. Our favorite weird word of the night was “pahoehoe.”Apparently it is a Hawaiian word meaning hardened lava. But we liked to use it in sentences like, “Oh, that girl is such a pahoehoe”or “Mmm break me off some of that pahoehoe.”I’m pretty sure pahoehoe will now be a permanent part of our voyage.

After that I wrote a paper that I’ve been putting off, surprise surprise, but it only had to be two pages long so NBD.

Today was a pretty chill day, the weather outside is still blazing. I went to class then ate lunch which was yummy then took a little nap and awoke to it pouring outside. It only lasted for a few minutes, but it was nice. After dinner, which was also good, it was a good food day, Hannnah and I went and looked at the beautiful sunset and the stars forming in the sky. Then we watched a movie called “Earth”about 1947 when Britain handed over India to independence and divided the country, India and Pakistan. It was crazy and we left the Union feeling confused and uncomfortable. It was a terrible ending and everyone died.

So now we are trying to shake that off. We went up to pub night and the theme tonight is “Things that start with C.”That entertained us for about ten minutes. Cow, crossdresser, Captain Underwear, cowgirl, coffee, condom dispenser. Creative?

I thought I would finish up my blog and we are about to pull out some sort of game and play. The people around me are really enjoying the music I’m playing, mostly childhood relics.

India in three more days.

Hope you all are well. I miss and love you.