April 23, 2008
Today we spent a total of around 15 hours in Honolulu, Hawaii. Basically just a bunker to fill up on gas and food for our ten day trip to Costa Rica. With such limited time I had to choose how I would spend it very wisely...SKYDIVING!!!!
The most unreal high of my life. Yes, I jumped out of a plane over the ocean. I was not really nervous until the plane ride up and up and up. Then I had to be the last to jump. So, I watched four girls go before me and at that point I would have been fine just landing the plane. That wasn't really an option though.
So, my guide Jason (who was harnessed to me) said ready and jumped. The sensation is unexplainable, there are no words to describe it. My stomach didn't jump to my throat at all, it didn't feel like a rollercoaster or anything like that. I fell through clear skies then entered a huge cloud which was cold and wet but so cool feeling. Suddenly the cloud cleared and the beautiful ocean was bright blue below me. A gorgeous view of the island and what has been my home land (ocean) for the past few months. After the one minute free-fall we released the parachute and it was so quite that we could have a full conversation with my friend whose parachute was not far away. Flying in the sky I was talking to my friend-so awesome.
We floated around for a few minutes and took it all in. I didn't wear shoes and I felt so free and happy. I held my video camera and recorded the entire thing. We went in for the landing and when my feet hit the ground I felt amazing. I wish I could describe it better to you all, but my words are doing me no duty.
I had top off the day with a big bang at night, so my friends and I went to Ruth Chris' Steakhouse and had the most amazing filets and desserts ever. I feel extremely sick to my stomach now, but it was definitely worth it. Overall I would say I got my day's worth in Hawaii.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Ship Life
My past nine days on the ship... well besides classes, working out and sleeping nothing really exciting goes on. I have been writing a ton of essays and preparing for finals. This might be my worst semester yet-as far as grades go. My fake family onboard had a special dining dinner one night. It consisted of a five course meal and was absolutely delicious! A great change from the regular ship food. There was a big silent and loud auction to raise money for different charities around the world. People donated things they had bought as well as things like a stay in their mountain cabin for a few days. From the loud auction alone we made more than $20,000.
We celebrated national GLBT (Gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gender) day with a great barbecue and ice cream party on the seventh deck. That night the members of GLBT put on a fashion show of all the fun stuff people bought in different ports.
There is a large Jewish community on board so we put together a big Passover Seder for the first night and the kitchen crew makes us special meals for lunch and dinner. It is so nice of them and the seder was so great! We even had Manischevitz! We said a lot of the prayers and definitely sang tons of the songs.
Everyone's sleeping patterns are so out-of-wack because of the time changes we have gone through. Basically no matter how early or late I go to bed, I always wake up at 4:00 AM and cant go back to sleep until my day is done. Sometimes I can take a nap if I am lucky. I've tried everything from Tylenol PM, Nyquil to hot tea-no luck.
The emotions throughout the ship are very odd. People are ready to get home already, but at the same time they don't want to leave. Going back into our real world seems to scare us all quite a bit. Going home might be the biggest culture shock we have to deal with.
We celebrated national GLBT (Gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans-gender) day with a great barbecue and ice cream party on the seventh deck. That night the members of GLBT put on a fashion show of all the fun stuff people bought in different ports.
There is a large Jewish community on board so we put together a big Passover Seder for the first night and the kitchen crew makes us special meals for lunch and dinner. It is so nice of them and the seder was so great! We even had Manischevitz! We said a lot of the prayers and definitely sang tons of the songs.
Everyone's sleeping patterns are so out-of-wack because of the time changes we have gone through. Basically no matter how early or late I go to bed, I always wake up at 4:00 AM and cant go back to sleep until my day is done. Sometimes I can take a nap if I am lucky. I've tried everything from Tylenol PM, Nyquil to hot tea-no luck.
The emotions throughout the ship are very odd. People are ready to get home already, but at the same time they don't want to leave. Going back into our real world seems to scare us all quite a bit. Going home might be the biggest culture shock we have to deal with.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Japan
If I ever studied abroad again I think Japan would be where I came. I absolutely loved it!
Our ship ported around 6 AM, but the Japanese government is so crazy that we had to have our temperatures taken and go through serious immigration and customs so we didn't get to leave the ship until around 12:30. As soon as we got off of the ship we took a few trains and made our way to Kyoto.
We walked through the Nijo-Jo Castle which is very different compared to all of the European castles I saw this past summer. There was barely any furniture, because they sit on the floor all of the time, so basically we just saw all of the different wall paintings in each room. The best part of the castle were the imperial gardens surrounding it. A few acres of land with beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom! It was so peaceful walking through the zen garden of bonsai trees and beautiful flowers.
Afterward we caught a cab to the Philosopher's Walk where we hiked up the mountain a little bit and enjoyed the bright flowers and silence in the cold weather. It reminded me so much of home on a typical spring day, so much that it actually made me the most homesick I have been this entire semester. The walkway was next to a creek which made it even more serene. We walked until it was dark and no one else was around. All of us were in such good moods and couldn't have been happier, and then we found a sushi restaurant!
It was just a small place in the middle of this small-town feeling city. The owner/head chef was extremely nice and had his wife drive us around the city until we found an ATM that would take our American credit cards (note to anyone going to Japan: 7 Eleven is basically the only place to get cash). After a few stops we figured it all out and went back to the restaurant where we had a traditional Japanese sushi dinner: Shoes off, sit on the ground with feet stretched forward, hot tea to start, sake, then sushi rolls! I have never had such amazing sushi in my life. The miso soup was SO good I haven't stopped talking about it for days. I even tried this small fish that he took out of the fish tank and torched in front of me-freshest sushi I'll ever have. The locals that were eating there loved to watch us try everything and see how we reacted. They bought us some sake and taught us how to put on a kimono! I would have to say this was my top meal all semester. We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends and chefs, but we had to find dessert! So, we walked around the quiet town until we stumbled upon a restaurant that had a dessert menu where I got a banana spring roll with ice cream!
It was late and we still had a one hour train ride back to the ship so we said goodbye to the city of Kobe, which we have all fallen in love with.
The next morning we caught a three hour train to Tokyo and went straight to Disneyland!! Yes, my friends and I spent the day at Tokyo's Disneyland Resort riding roller-coasters with a bunch of Japanese people. It was so much fun and really funny! All of the characters were Americans (odd) and the parades were sung in English-the kids didn't seem to mind though. We stayed until dark and then headed to our hotel (15 minutes away) where we were supposed to meet up with our friends Will and Harrison.
An hour and a half and three trains later we were lost and in a cab which cost us $40 to get to the hotel, where we learned that the guys had already left because apparently they were not allowed to sleep in the same room as us (you must be married-who knew). So our plan to split the hotel room was out and the hotel was nowhere near the city and quite honestly a shit-hole. Not worth the $270. We walked out into the night with our backpacks on and no place to go. Our feet were aching and I needed to use the bathroom so I went into the 24-hour McDonald's which had a bidet with a music player, butt-wash sprayer, heated seat, deodorizer and fake-flusher sound. Unreal-I don't know what other buttons they could come up with. Every toilet I used in Japan was like this, quite a change from the squatters in China, Vietnam and India.
A long story short: it started pouring rain, we caught a train to a place more in the city, walked around until 1:30 AM when we found a nice hotel to stay in for a very reasonable price. We were exhausted and discovered I had lost my rail pass (which was very expensive and could be used for all trains in Japan). So what did I do... took a bath of course. No better way to relieve stress.
After a long sleep we woke up and hit the streets of Tokyo-my first stop: Krispie Kreme!!! Japanese people love their donuts. I waited in a 30 minute line in the cold and received one free, warm, glazed donut and proceeded to buy six others. I shared with my friends but it is safe to say I ate the majority and it didn't take me long.
We spent the day shopping around Tokyo (I got some goodies for my family :)) The city is HUGE... literally you could spend an entire week just covering the different sections of the one city. It is so clean and everyone is so nice, it makes you wonder why places like NYC cant be like that. We shopped till we dropped into our train seats for our 3 hour ride back to the ship. It's amazing how the sight of the ship is so comforting and we see it as our home.
My last day I spent in Kobe. In the morning I walked for a while through a park in the beautiful and warm sunshine. Then I window shopped some more and watched a Japanese parade go through the train station, which seems to be a center point in life in Japan. I had one last delicious sushi dinner, some Hagandaaz Ice Cream and got back on the ship.
One of my friends lost her passport so we had to pack her things and leave her in Japan where she is hoping to get a new passport expedited to her and meet us in Hawaii. Another kid also lost his passport so he had to stay behind as well. However he is a minor and his mom is a teacher on the ship so she stayed with him. It seems to be the trend that at every port everyone gets really drunk before getting back on the ship to leave-unfortunately there was a girl who (rumor has it) is diabetic and had never drank before. She had a little too much and had to be rushed to the hospital from the ship. They packed her bags for her and left her there. Needless to say, it was a very hectic last night in Japan.
Now I am back on the ship and sailing my way to Hawaii. It will take us 9 very long days to get there (we cross the international dateline so we are going to have two April 15's). The end of my journey is in sight and I am not sure I am ready for it to come. I still have a few more stops though, so I will enjoy those and then look to the end.
FUN FACTS:
-Japan has a 99% literacy rate
-100 Yen = $1 US
-Population: 127+ million
-3rd largest economy
-Longest life expectancy in the world
Our ship ported around 6 AM, but the Japanese government is so crazy that we had to have our temperatures taken and go through serious immigration and customs so we didn't get to leave the ship until around 12:30. As soon as we got off of the ship we took a few trains and made our way to Kyoto.
We walked through the Nijo-Jo Castle which is very different compared to all of the European castles I saw this past summer. There was barely any furniture, because they sit on the floor all of the time, so basically we just saw all of the different wall paintings in each room. The best part of the castle were the imperial gardens surrounding it. A few acres of land with beautiful cherry blossoms in full bloom! It was so peaceful walking through the zen garden of bonsai trees and beautiful flowers.
Afterward we caught a cab to the Philosopher's Walk where we hiked up the mountain a little bit and enjoyed the bright flowers and silence in the cold weather. It reminded me so much of home on a typical spring day, so much that it actually made me the most homesick I have been this entire semester. The walkway was next to a creek which made it even more serene. We walked until it was dark and no one else was around. All of us were in such good moods and couldn't have been happier, and then we found a sushi restaurant!
It was just a small place in the middle of this small-town feeling city. The owner/head chef was extremely nice and had his wife drive us around the city until we found an ATM that would take our American credit cards (note to anyone going to Japan: 7 Eleven is basically the only place to get cash). After a few stops we figured it all out and went back to the restaurant where we had a traditional Japanese sushi dinner: Shoes off, sit on the ground with feet stretched forward, hot tea to start, sake, then sushi rolls! I have never had such amazing sushi in my life. The miso soup was SO good I haven't stopped talking about it for days. I even tried this small fish that he took out of the fish tank and torched in front of me-freshest sushi I'll ever have. The locals that were eating there loved to watch us try everything and see how we reacted. They bought us some sake and taught us how to put on a kimono! I would have to say this was my top meal all semester. We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends and chefs, but we had to find dessert! So, we walked around the quiet town until we stumbled upon a restaurant that had a dessert menu where I got a banana spring roll with ice cream!
It was late and we still had a one hour train ride back to the ship so we said goodbye to the city of Kobe, which we have all fallen in love with.
The next morning we caught a three hour train to Tokyo and went straight to Disneyland!! Yes, my friends and I spent the day at Tokyo's Disneyland Resort riding roller-coasters with a bunch of Japanese people. It was so much fun and really funny! All of the characters were Americans (odd) and the parades were sung in English-the kids didn't seem to mind though. We stayed until dark and then headed to our hotel (15 minutes away) where we were supposed to meet up with our friends Will and Harrison.
An hour and a half and three trains later we were lost and in a cab which cost us $40 to get to the hotel, where we learned that the guys had already left because apparently they were not allowed to sleep in the same room as us (you must be married-who knew). So our plan to split the hotel room was out and the hotel was nowhere near the city and quite honestly a shit-hole. Not worth the $270. We walked out into the night with our backpacks on and no place to go. Our feet were aching and I needed to use the bathroom so I went into the 24-hour McDonald's which had a bidet with a music player, butt-wash sprayer, heated seat, deodorizer and fake-flusher sound. Unreal-I don't know what other buttons they could come up with. Every toilet I used in Japan was like this, quite a change from the squatters in China, Vietnam and India.
A long story short: it started pouring rain, we caught a train to a place more in the city, walked around until 1:30 AM when we found a nice hotel to stay in for a very reasonable price. We were exhausted and discovered I had lost my rail pass (which was very expensive and could be used for all trains in Japan). So what did I do... took a bath of course. No better way to relieve stress.
After a long sleep we woke up and hit the streets of Tokyo-my first stop: Krispie Kreme!!! Japanese people love their donuts. I waited in a 30 minute line in the cold and received one free, warm, glazed donut and proceeded to buy six others. I shared with my friends but it is safe to say I ate the majority and it didn't take me long.
We spent the day shopping around Tokyo (I got some goodies for my family :)) The city is HUGE... literally you could spend an entire week just covering the different sections of the one city. It is so clean and everyone is so nice, it makes you wonder why places like NYC cant be like that. We shopped till we dropped into our train seats for our 3 hour ride back to the ship. It's amazing how the sight of the ship is so comforting and we see it as our home.
My last day I spent in Kobe. In the morning I walked for a while through a park in the beautiful and warm sunshine. Then I window shopped some more and watched a Japanese parade go through the train station, which seems to be a center point in life in Japan. I had one last delicious sushi dinner, some Hagandaaz Ice Cream and got back on the ship.
One of my friends lost her passport so we had to pack her things and leave her in Japan where she is hoping to get a new passport expedited to her and meet us in Hawaii. Another kid also lost his passport so he had to stay behind as well. However he is a minor and his mom is a teacher on the ship so she stayed with him. It seems to be the trend that at every port everyone gets really drunk before getting back on the ship to leave-unfortunately there was a girl who (rumor has it) is diabetic and had never drank before. She had a little too much and had to be rushed to the hospital from the ship. They packed her bags for her and left her there. Needless to say, it was a very hectic last night in Japan.
Now I am back on the ship and sailing my way to Hawaii. It will take us 9 very long days to get there (we cross the international dateline so we are going to have two April 15's). The end of my journey is in sight and I am not sure I am ready for it to come. I still have a few more stops though, so I will enjoy those and then look to the end.
FUN FACTS:
-Japan has a 99% literacy rate
-100 Yen = $1 US
-Population: 127+ million
-3rd largest economy
-Longest life expectancy in the world
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Hong Kong/China!
We arrived in Hong Kong and were here for about 2 hours (enough time to get to the airport and wait for our flight to Beijing). From what I saw of the city it looked huge and like the technology capital of the world with all of its huge buildings for Samsung, Epson, Phillips, etc..
I got to spend a lot more time in Beijing. The air was much clearer than we were expecting, but that is because they have shut down all of the factories until after the olympics to clear the air. We got to see a bunch of the olympic buildings/arenas and they were pretty cool looking. It will be awesome to watch on television and be able to say I saw them in person! Wait 'till you see the cool designs of them all.
The city was so clean, which is not at all what I was expecting. When you think Beijing (or China with all of its people and huge cities) you picture more of an NYC setting. It wasn't like that at all. It was very clean and there were no homeless people or beggars. A very nice change.
Our first Chinese dinner was a specialty of Peking Duck. I think I tried every part of a duck possible, and it all tasted the same/not very great. Of course there was tons of rice and sweet and sour fish, etc- ugh i ate so much Chinese food I will be happy if I don't have any more for another year at least.
The next day we went to the Great Wall of China! If I never climbed another stair in my life I would still have climbed as many as any average human. It was a lot of stairs, but I loved the clear air and the smell of the trees. And getting to the top was a great feeling (especially because not even half of our group made it all the way up)! The day was sunny and windy-absolutely perfect weather. I still cannot really believe that I hiked the Great Wall (CRAZY!)!
I got to go to an Acrobatics Show one night. It was basically unreal-a lady literally sat on her own head, while holding up four chandelier things. It kinda freaked me out to be honest. Then a little girl came out and did like 50 flips in a row, followed by some men who were just as flexible and strong on top of that. Asians are crazy!
I saw many things in both Beijing and Xian over the past few days. The Summer Palace is a huge park with a lake that you can take boat rides on. We walked around and enjoyed many pagodas and temples. Tiananmen Square is where Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party is buried. It is as big as 9 soccer fields. Thousands of asians visit everyday to see his tomb because they love him so much. There was a Forbidden City which had awesome looking pagodas and buildings, but they were all under construction so we didn't get to go in any of them. We also went to the Temple of Heaven where people pray for good harvest and health. It was beautifully painted and had amazing architectural structure.
Another very large and exciting part of our trip was visiting the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum. A long story short: there was an emperor who wanted to be buried with warriors to protect his soul/ghost so he had his warriors make thousands of stone-scultpures of themselves and their horses and armor to be buried with him. It took them 4 decades to finish it all and buried the emperor. Soon after he died, another emperor took over and ordered his army to go and destroy the tomb. Hundreds of years later a man was building a well and scooped up random pieces of the sculptures (discovering the tomb) and now it is all being excavated. We saw tons of the warriors that have been restored and the sites that are still being dug up.
There are so many people in China, and I know everyone has heard that before, but experiencing it just isn't the same as hearing about it. They have no sense of personal space at all, because they have always grown up and had so many people around them all of the time. It got to be very irritating to be around so many Asians in museums, streets, restaurants, markets-everywhere. They push and shove and cut you off like you are not even there. This was probably my least favorite thing about China as a whole.
Basically, I did a lot in China. I had a calligraphy lesson one day, visited lots of museums and shopped of course. I went to traditional Tang Dynasty Dinner Show with dancing and singing, music and great outfits! I spent my last day in Shanghai where it rained all day; I enjoyed walking around in the cool weather though. The city seems fun and the waterfront is really cool looking with neon lights at night and huge buildings. I had one really bad day that I seriously sprained my ankle (which is swollen and black and blue) and chipped my tooth (two different incidents though). I was also accused of stealing an ice cream cone from a restaurant by a bunch of little Chinese ladies who chased me down, and got stuck at an airport for 5 hours because the pilots went on strike! Oh the joys of traveling.
One month from today and I will be back in the U.S.. I really can't imagine it and don't really want to. Japan is our last big stop, then a few small ones in between there and Miami. I realize my phone calls, postcards and emails have basically seized, however the last month is going to drag on so they will be coming back into play very soon. Hope all is well and don't worry I will eat plenty of sushi for everyone!
Peace and blessings!
FUN FACTS:
-Population: 1.3 billion
-Literacy rate 90.9%
-Language: Mandarin with hundreds of different dialects
-China second best economy (next to US) in 2007
-100 cities in China (each average over 1 million people)
-1 child policy is very much in force
-6,000 people a day die in car accidents
-Government officials drive around in black Audis
-Currency: 7.015 Yuan = $1 US
I got to spend a lot more time in Beijing. The air was much clearer than we were expecting, but that is because they have shut down all of the factories until after the olympics to clear the air. We got to see a bunch of the olympic buildings/arenas and they were pretty cool looking. It will be awesome to watch on television and be able to say I saw them in person! Wait 'till you see the cool designs of them all.
The city was so clean, which is not at all what I was expecting. When you think Beijing (or China with all of its people and huge cities) you picture more of an NYC setting. It wasn't like that at all. It was very clean and there were no homeless people or beggars. A very nice change.
Our first Chinese dinner was a specialty of Peking Duck. I think I tried every part of a duck possible, and it all tasted the same/not very great. Of course there was tons of rice and sweet and sour fish, etc- ugh i ate so much Chinese food I will be happy if I don't have any more for another year at least.
The next day we went to the Great Wall of China! If I never climbed another stair in my life I would still have climbed as many as any average human. It was a lot of stairs, but I loved the clear air and the smell of the trees. And getting to the top was a great feeling (especially because not even half of our group made it all the way up)! The day was sunny and windy-absolutely perfect weather. I still cannot really believe that I hiked the Great Wall (CRAZY!)!
I got to go to an Acrobatics Show one night. It was basically unreal-a lady literally sat on her own head, while holding up four chandelier things. It kinda freaked me out to be honest. Then a little girl came out and did like 50 flips in a row, followed by some men who were just as flexible and strong on top of that. Asians are crazy!
I saw many things in both Beijing and Xian over the past few days. The Summer Palace is a huge park with a lake that you can take boat rides on. We walked around and enjoyed many pagodas and temples. Tiananmen Square is where Mao Zedong, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party is buried. It is as big as 9 soccer fields. Thousands of asians visit everyday to see his tomb because they love him so much. There was a Forbidden City which had awesome looking pagodas and buildings, but they were all under construction so we didn't get to go in any of them. We also went to the Temple of Heaven where people pray for good harvest and health. It was beautifully painted and had amazing architectural structure.
Another very large and exciting part of our trip was visiting the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum. A long story short: there was an emperor who wanted to be buried with warriors to protect his soul/ghost so he had his warriors make thousands of stone-scultpures of themselves and their horses and armor to be buried with him. It took them 4 decades to finish it all and buried the emperor. Soon after he died, another emperor took over and ordered his army to go and destroy the tomb. Hundreds of years later a man was building a well and scooped up random pieces of the sculptures (discovering the tomb) and now it is all being excavated. We saw tons of the warriors that have been restored and the sites that are still being dug up.
There are so many people in China, and I know everyone has heard that before, but experiencing it just isn't the same as hearing about it. They have no sense of personal space at all, because they have always grown up and had so many people around them all of the time. It got to be very irritating to be around so many Asians in museums, streets, restaurants, markets-everywhere. They push and shove and cut you off like you are not even there. This was probably my least favorite thing about China as a whole.
Basically, I did a lot in China. I had a calligraphy lesson one day, visited lots of museums and shopped of course. I went to traditional Tang Dynasty Dinner Show with dancing and singing, music and great outfits! I spent my last day in Shanghai where it rained all day; I enjoyed walking around in the cool weather though. The city seems fun and the waterfront is really cool looking with neon lights at night and huge buildings. I had one really bad day that I seriously sprained my ankle (which is swollen and black and blue) and chipped my tooth (two different incidents though). I was also accused of stealing an ice cream cone from a restaurant by a bunch of little Chinese ladies who chased me down, and got stuck at an airport for 5 hours because the pilots went on strike! Oh the joys of traveling.
One month from today and I will be back in the U.S.. I really can't imagine it and don't really want to. Japan is our last big stop, then a few small ones in between there and Miami. I realize my phone calls, postcards and emails have basically seized, however the last month is going to drag on so they will be coming back into play very soon. Hope all is well and don't worry I will eat plenty of sushi for everyone!
Peace and blessings!
FUN FACTS:
-Population: 1.3 billion
-Literacy rate 90.9%
-Language: Mandarin with hundreds of different dialects
-China second best economy (next to US) in 2007
-100 cities in China (each average over 1 million people)
-1 child policy is very much in force
-6,000 people a day die in car accidents
-Government officials drive around in black Audis
-Currency: 7.015 Yuan = $1 US
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