Kwazulu Natal, South Africa

2/19/09

KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

        I woke up verrrrrrry early this morning with a start. It was 3:30 a.m., and I had a nightmare that I missed my safari. I got out of bed, grabbed my bags and headed out. I wasn’t being overly cautious because of the nightmare; our meeting time was 4 a.m. I was wide awake, because I was SO EXCITED. I was bouncing all around waiting for everyone to meet in the Union. I have been dreaming of going on an African safari my entire life… it was at the top of my “Things To Do Before I Die” to-do list. Its something I never thought I would be fortunate enough to do before I retired, but a combination of factors led to my dreams coming true. This is my big excursion for the voyage. The rest of the time I am planning smaller independent trips, but when our itinerary changed to sailing around Africa I knew I wanted a big excursion in South Africa. I have been excited about South Africa since the itinerary changed mid-December. The day had finally come!!! I couldn’t believe it was finally here. I was like a big buzzing ball of energy, radiating excitement even before the sun was up.

        There were 22 of us on the trip, and we all headed to the airport. We flew to Durban, a city northeast of Cape Town about 2 hours flight away. From Durban, we got on a bus and drove another 2 hours to KwaZulu Natal, an area of South Africa that is still very rural. It is populated by the Zulu People and wild animals. We were booked in the Zululand Tree Lodge, and arrived at around 1 o’clock. We went swimming while lunch was prepared. It was HOT HOT. I was sweating while just sitting on a lawn chair. The pool felt wonderful. Lunch was delicious, all food tastes wonderful compared to the food we get on the ship. The food isn’t terrible, but I am getting incredibly tired of how bland it is. At the lodge we had delicious succulent pineapples and watermelon. We were eating our lunch when suddenly a monkey jumped out of a nearby tree and grabbed a bread roll from my friend’s plate! It was my first taste of what an exotic place KwaZulu Natal is.

        Our rooms were ready after lunch, so my roommate and I grabbed our key and walked to our room. My roommate for the trip is Faith, a girl who goes to University of San Francisco, originally from Connecticut. We have a lot in common and made a pact to hang out in the Bay Area. When I saw our room, I was shocked by how nice it was. I was expecting to rough it on the safari, but instead we had our own little beautiful bungalow. The cabin was raised on stilts, and although only one room, it was definitely the sweetest little bungalow. There were doors to a patio with two chairs that overlooked a forest and a river. It was beautiful. We were allowed about an hour to settle in and rest before going out for an afternoon game drive. I was too excited to nap, so I went back to the pool and watched the monkeys race around the pool umbrellas.

        Around 4:30 we took of for my first SAFARI! It had started to cool down and I could barely contain myself. Zululand has their own small game reserve, about 150 acres. As we took off, we were greeted by a few dozen impalas, which are small deer-like animals. They call them the “McDonalds” of South Africa, because they are ubiquitous and have white markings on their butts in the shape of an M. Another animal we saw was the njalas, which are similar. They are also deer-like, but a little bigger. The males have large, twisted horns. As we continued our game drive, I saw what a beautiful country South Africa is. The landscape was hilly with low, very green brush. A few tall trees stuck out in groves, and the landscape was much greener than I expected. We drove into a grove of trees and found some giraffes!
        Giraffes are my favorite animal, they are so tall and regal. They are absolutely beautiful animals, I love to watch them walk. In the grove of trees, there were three male giraffes. The trees had a yellow powdery coating on them, because they don’t have any bark. It made the yellow in the giraffes stand out even more, and it was breathtaking. I was so excited!! I’ve seen giraffes at the San Francisco Zoo, but there is something so exciting about seeing them in the wild. They are free to roam as opposed to being stifled in a cage. It gives them an ethereal quality, as if I’m catching a glimpse of another world. It’s a wild world, and we are passing through to capture the feeling of these majestic animals.
        After watching the giraffes for awhile, we went in search of rhino. The park at Zululand does not have any elephants, but they have plenty of other animals. We came across some zebras, which have the sweetest faces. They are much smaller than horses, which I was a little surprised by, but they look like the sweetest things. A bunch of zebras is called a dazzle of zebras. In South Africa they call them zeh-brahs, instead of zee-bras. The zebras were pretty common as well.
        As we were driving along, a girl in my vehicle looked left and somehow saw a kudu hiding in the shadow of a tree. Kudus are amazing animals, I loved them. They are huge, about the size of a moose. They are also deer-like with gigantic horns that can reach up to 1 meter in length. The horns are used to make Shofars, the horn blown at the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. It’s amazing that the girl saw the kudu, because they can hold absolutely still and it makes them very hard to see.
        We stopped for snacks at around sunset, and then slowly drove back to the lodge. The animals were everywhere, it was very fun. We didn’t see rhino on this drive, but we saw plenty of other animals. I was ecstatic seeing the giraffes. We returned to the lodge and sated our hunger with a delicious dinner and some South African wine. I had great dinnertime conversation with the people on my trip, none of whom I was friends with before this adventure. I fell asleep around 9 oclock because I was so exhausted, and the next day was sure to bring more adventures!

Stellenbosch, South Africa

2-18-09

Stellenbosch, South Africa

I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA! That’s the short story. The long story goes like this…

We arrived about an hour late because of heavy fog. We had to pass through a narrow channel to enter the harbor at Cape Town. The fog reminded me of San Francisco, and it burned off by late morning. At breakfast, I met up with one of Heather’s friends whom I had only met briefly before. We decided to go wine tasting outside of Cape Town. South Africa is famous for their wines; try them, they are wonderful! South Africa produces 1,000,000,000 liters of wine annually. Most of the wine is produced in the Cape Winelands, where Stellenbosch is located.

We got off the ship as soon as we were cleared by customs, and wandered around the waterfront. The harbor is built up with shops and nice restaurants… it was a nice change from the usual industrial harbors that we dock at. There were street musicians and a ton of shopping. Theresa, Andrew, Dana, Morgan, and I took the noon train to Stellenbosch. It was a slow train, although cheap ($1.20 US) and we arrived at around 1:30. The terrain was mountainous and very green. There were large vineyards near the train with beautiful mountains in the background. We got off the train in Stellenbosch with little idea what to do. About 100 meters down the road was the Bergkelder Winery. We walked in and asked for a wine tasting. We were the only ones there, and had our own bartender who was very nice. It was incredibly cheap, 15 Rand for 7 different wines. 10 Rand = 1 US$ Bergkelder is a big distributor, and had many different brands. Fleur de Lac is the label that we tried. We started with 2 white wines: chardonnay and chenin blanc. We then moved to reds: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and pinotage. Pinotage is a distinctively South African wine. It is not made anywhere else. A professor at the Stellenbosch University crossed a Pinot Noir vine with a Cinsaut vine, and created the Pinotage grape. It produces a very fruity red wine, which I really liked. The Cabernet Sauvignon was my favorite. We finished with a desert wine, and a glass of amarula. Amarula is also a special South African drink, made from the fruit of the amarula plant. The fruits are citrusy, and elephants love them. The drink comes out to something close to Baileys, and is very sweet.

I considered buying wine and shipping it home, because the wine was great and very cheap. The bottles were about 50-75 Rand, and although I don’t know too much about wine, I know it was good wine. However, shipping to the US would have cost about $400 US. Sorry mom! We had a really good time at Bergkelder Winery, though. It really introduced me to wine, because I was able to taste many different kinds with someone who was very knowledgeable. Our bartender would tell us what flavors we were supposed to taste, and I almost got it (kinda?). We took a taxi to Spier, which is one of the most famous wineries in South Africa. It was really built up to cater to visitors, as there is a very nice hotel and restaurant there. It’s where I want to honeymoon!!! It was beautiful. We tasted a few wines, and went to the restaurant. It was a little too early for dinner, so we split a bottle and some appetizers. The restaurant is called Moya, and is spectacular. They built platforms up into the oak trees, and many of the tables were up among the trees. You could look out and see the vineyards and mountains. I loved it. It looked like there was a place for dancing after dark, with a live band. I would love to come back some day.

Unfortunately, we had to take the evening train back. The train ride back was really interesting, because most people were getting off work. I love to people watch, and I was so interested in all the people getting on and off the train. We arrived in Cape Town at around 8:30 and were starving! We had heard of a place called Mama Africa where they served African food, i.e. gemsbok, ostrich, springbok, etc. We went, and it was terribly crowded. The estimated an hour for a table. There were a ton of students from SAS there, which made it fun. There was also a live band, mostly percussion, so we decided to wait. The band had two wooden xylophone-type instruments, a djembe (drum), bongos, a drumset, and occasionally saxophones. They had pretty much all of my favorite instruments. We listened for an hour, and saw that we were no where near the top of the list for food, so Andrew and I decided to go somewhere else for food with Tim, Carrie, and Kristen. We walked just across the street to a restaurant called Cape to Cuba, which had Cuban food. It was really good, and our waiter was very entertaining. We headed home around midnight, because I had to get ready for a safari that left at 4:30am the next morning!! It was incredible, but more on that later…

Dune Sea and Swakopmund

2-16-09

Dune Sea and Swakopmund

        I had no plans for my last day in Namibia, and decided to play it by ear. I woke up when breakfast opened, and waited until I heard some plans that sounded fun. My friend Claudia convinced me to come ATVing with her in the Dune Sea, and boy am I glad she did! We headed for Dune 7 as soon as we were done with breakfast. They have a little stand for adventure sports. They have ATVs, sandboarding (like snowboarding on a sand dune), and zorbing (where you get in a giant plastic ball and they roll you down the dune). We signed up to go ATVing for an hour with two other girls. We got helmets and followed our guide to a row of ATVs. After a brief safety lecture, we headed into the dunes. We started by going to the north of Dune 7 and into the dune sea. It was unlike anything I have ever seen before. The dunes looked like waves traveling for miles across the desert. They were huge too, Dune 7 is the tallest at almost 1000 feet, and others are not far behind. It was awesome. We went up and down and all around the dunes, stopping at peaks to take the look at the views. Then we would accelerate and zoom down the dunes. It was an unbelievable hour.
        We came back to the ship for lunch, where I met up with Andrew. We decided to spend our last few hours in Namibia in Swakopmund, as he hadn’t been there yet. We left the ship, and by the ship there are usually a few taxis. In the countries we have been to, we always have to barter for taxis and tend to get ripped off. It’s a practice I really dislike, however I am getting used to it. The fare to Swakopmund is around 25 Namibian Dollars per person (10 N$ = 1 US$). We asked these taxis to take us to Swakop and they wanted 100 ND each, so we walked outside the port gates. The first taxi driver who came up to us immediately agreed to 25 ND to go to Swakopmund, so we jumped in his cab. We started off, and a few minutes into the ride I noticed we were not using the streets I had taken before. I was a little worried, but figured there was traffic (in Namibia? hah) and that we were going a different way. However, he took us into a township. The townships are where all the poor blacks live. It is a pretty destitute place, where people live in little more than shacks. SAS told us not to hang out there, so I got a little worried. Luckily, Andrew is 6’5” and pretty intimidating… so I never got too scared. The driver raised his hand out the window holding two fingers up and yelling in one of the many Namibian dialects. A few scary thoughts ran through my mind, “I’ve got two tourists” was one of them, but it turns out he wanted two more passengers for the drive to Swakopmund. I’m sure we were never in any real danger (don’t worry Mom and aunties) but the change of scenery was enough to make me alert. It was interesting to see the township though; I can’t believe that hundreds of people (and thousands in South Africa) live in such conditions. The people seemed generally happy, most people were outside because the houses are so small. Children were playing and adults were sitting around talking. After about 15 minutes, when we were just about to pay the driver to just get going, two men hopped in our cab. They were very nice, both spoke English, and they were dressed very nicely because they were going to some sort of conference. It turned out to be a memorable experience, although it reminded me that things are very different around the world.
        We safely arrived in Swakopmund, and wandered around the market. People come from all over to sell their wares, as in Morocco. They sell handmade wooden and stone statues, jewelry, paintings, and masks. They loved all the SAS students coming through, we tend to take over any town we go to. We saw a bunch of friends there. After buying some souvenirs, we got some ice cream and went to the top of the tallest tower in Swakopmund. It was probably 6 stories tall, and towered over all the other buildings. It was awesome, because you could look out over the town and see giant dunes behind it. The dunes rolled into the sea to the west. I kept thinking what a unique place Namibia is, with the German architecture, African people, a desert of dunes, and a nutritious ocean all converging in Swakopmund.
        We caught a taxi back, and this time made certain that we would go straight to the port. I made it on to the ship about 10 minutes before our on-ship time… if you are late you get dock time (where you have to stay on the ship) in the next port. I’m glad I took full advantage of the time I had in Namibia, I loved every minute of it. I cant wait to come back! ; )

Namib Desert, Namibia

2/15/09

Namib Desert, Namibia

My day started early on my second day in Namibia. I was embarking on my first SAS trip called “The Geological Wonders of the Namib Desert” We left at 7 am, which I was excited about because there is no better time to go to the desert than in the morning. The sun had just risen as we drove the 40 km (25 miles) to the Namib. We were in 4x4 Jeep-like vans. The desert was beautiful. It is one of the oldest deserts in the world, thought to have been arid for 55 million years. Namibia only gets a few centimeters of rain each year. Our guide taught us how to find water using plants, and which plants have edible fruit. Hopefully I’ll never need that knowledge though! About 3 hours into our drive, we stopped for a surprise and some snacks. In my Plant Biology class last quarter, we studied Welwitschia, a two-leaved plant that has no other living relatives and only grows in the Namib Desert. They can live up to be 2000 years old, and are considered “living fossils.” I never thought I’d see one, but there were about 10 of them where we stopped for snacks! I thought they were amazing. The oldest one we saw was estimated to be around 750 or 800 years old. I was really excited because I just recently studied them, and was excited that my education is actually pertinent. I was able to have a real experience related to something I never thought I would see.
After examining the Welwitschias, we had snacks. Snacks consisted of juice, some chips, and oysters! Oysters are not native to Namibia, they were imported from South America; but because of the large amount of nutrients in the Namibian ocean, they grow twice as fast here. It only takes 9 months as opposed to 18 months for the oysters to mature. I think I’ve only had oysters once before, and the texture really freaked me out. However, I have a rule on this trip to try any food someone recommends, so I had to try one. I actually liked it! With a little lime juice and Tabasco sauce it was really good. The texture was still a little weird to me, but I didn’t mind as much as I did when I was younger.
We returned to Dune 7 again, its one of the main attractions of southern Namibia. We then returned to the ship. I met up with a bunch of friends and we took taxis to Swakopmund. Unfortunately it was Sunday and most of the stores were closed. We have been in a number of ports on Sundays, and it always amazes me how almost everything shuts down. Life in California would be very different if things were closed on Sundays. A few stores were open though, as were restaurants. We hung out at the beach too, which is always open! The water was warm. The sunset was absolutely beautiful! We headed to a pizza place (apparently Namibia has really good pizza?), and it actually was very good. I called my parents and was really excited to talk to them. I hadn’t talked to them since Spain, since they were in the Caribbean when I was in Morocco. It was really nice to hear their voices!!!

Swakopmund, Namibia

2-14-09

Walvis Bay/Swakopmund, Namibia

Hello from Namibia!! It is a great country! I am having such a great time. I did my first Semester At Sea trips here, and I loved them. We arrived in Walvis Bay at 8 a.m. and were welcomed by a singing and dancing troupe of girls. It takes awhile to clear all of our passports, so these girls gave us a concert. They were between 6 and 12 or 13 years old, and were mostly orphans. They performed for about an hour on the dock, a combination of singing, drumming, clapping, and dancing. Afterward, they got a tour of our ship, but I was long gone by then. I had a city orientation of Swakopmund. It is a 20 minute drive from Walvis Bay to Swakopmund. There were 3 busses that were doing the city orientation, and somehow my good friend Isaiah and I were the only two students who managed to get on the professor/lifelong learner bus. It was interesting, their adult jokes were kind of strange… but they thought they were funny! Isaiah and I had a really good time though. The road is a two lane stretch that hugs the coastline. Going north, if you look left you see the ocean and beautiful beaches, then looking right you see an ocean of sand. It is amazing to see the dichotomy between an ocean filled with waves of water being infringed upon by waves of desert sand.

The town of Swakopmund is a small town of about 30,000 founded by the Germans in 1892. Namibia was a German colony until the end of WWI, and then came under South African rule. Namibia gained independence from South Africa in 1990, shortly after Nelson Mandela was released from prison and became president. You can still see the German influence on the town, especially in the architecture. The buildings are beautiful. Swakopmund was the port town for the Germans because Walvis Bay was British. When the British relinquished control, the economy of Swakopmund briefly crashed because the port closed; however, it is now a bustling city again. My city orientation began at 10 am, and we went to a number of destinations in Swakopmund learning about the history and culture. Our first stop was the Karakulia Weaving Center, where we saw Namibians making tapestries and rugs. The entire process was done by hand; first spinning and dying wool into colored yarn, then drawing and weaving a design. The designs were very intricate, and often reflected African designs or wild animals. The tapestries are made by hand weaving sections of wool and then tying them off. After a tour of the facilities, we went to a crystal shop. Mining is the main industry in Namibia, from diamonds to copper to uranium. There I saw the world’s largest single quartz crystal – it was about 15 feet wide by 10 feet tall. Huge! We were then granted free time to wander around Swakopmund. After that we went to the harbor, where our guide told us more of the history of Swakopmund. Our tour was mostly over after that, and we returned to the ship by a back road which took us by Dune 7. Dune 7 is the most famous of the dunes, it is over 300 meters tall… which is almost 1000 feet! The “dune sea” is beautiful. There are so many varying shades of orange, brown, and yellow. We stopped at Dune 7 and got out. Isaiah and I climbed the dune, but the sand was soooooo hot. I unfortunately was wearing sandals, and got little blisters on my feet. As you climbed, the dune got steeper; each step I took I would be sent halfway back as the sand would mini-landslide and pile on top of my foot. It was a lot of fun though, and the view was worth it.

After the return trip to the ship, Isaiah and I dusted ourselves off and headed on foot into the town of Walvis Bay (pronounced Val-fish Bay). It was early evening, and there wasn’t much going on in town. It was nice to walk around though. We came back to the ship and got ready to go out to dinner. I met up with friends and we decided to walk to The Raft restaurant, located on the lagoon. It was a beautiful restaurant built on stilts over the water. It was about an hours walk with a group, but its hard to get 12 people to stay on track. It was crowded when we got there, but we found a table big enough to fit all of us. The tables were picnic-style benches. The Raft is famous for having African food, stuff I would never get to try in the United States. I split a meal with Andrew, and we had warthog for appetizer, and two steaks for our main course. The steaks were ostrich and oryx (also known as gemsbok). It was awesome!! The warthog came in a salad, and was delicious. There was a lot of other stuff mixed in, so I’m not exactly sure what just warthog tastes like. The ostrich was delicious; it is a red meat but had a consistency of chicken. It was very tender. The oryx was my favorite though, its one of the best steaks I have had. It tastes pretty much like a steak, but very tender and it was served in a tangy sauce. I shared with all my friends, and in return got bites of crocodile, springbok, and Namibian prawns. Being a former German colony, Namibia is the “country of Jagermeister” and the girls of the table were treated to shots by some local Namibian boys at the next table over. We became friends with them, and had great conversations. They all speak English, which makes it much easier to communicate. It was interesting to hear some of the stereotypes they had of Americans. I was surprised by how racist they were, there is a big difference between the white and black communities in Africa. They are separated by where they live, where they work, and income levels. However, Namibia is still a young country, and I have faith that over time things will become more equal. We had a lot of fun with the Namibians, and too soon it came time to go back to the ship. I love to meet new people in other countries! So far I love everything about Namibia, and I have only been here one day. Instead of quenching my thirst for travel, this trip is making me want to keep traveling forever…

Marrakech, Morocco

2-4-09

Marrakech, Morocco

At John the photographer’s suggestion, Heather, Francisco, and I took the 6:50 a.m. train down to Marrakech. He says Marrakech is his favorite city in the world. Rabat is the capital of Morocco, Casablanca is the “economic capital,” and Marrakech is the “cultural capital.” Marrakech (which is the French spelling, it is Marrakesh in English) is the third largest city in Morocco, but for hundreds of years was the largest city in ancient times. The population now is a little over one million, and Marrakech houses one of the largest open markets in Africa. There is a square called Djemma el Fna in the middle of the old medina (old walled city). Vendors sell their wares: slippers, clothing, belts, teapots, lamps, tandoors, tajiks, art, and many many other things. There were easily 1000 vendors in the whole medina. The main square is filled with orange juice vendors and men selling nuts and dried fruit. Everyone tries to get you to buy their wares, since many of the shops sell the same stuff, and can be rather forceful when trying to get you into their store. It can be a little overwhelming.

We ended up walking 9.1 miles that day, a girl in our group had a pedometer. I feel like I saw most of the city in one day. It was raining in the morning, but it cleared up by noon or so. We walked through the city center to get from the train station to the old medina, so I got to see a lot of modern Marrakech. We finally made it to the market, and immediately went to the orange juice vendors. They squeezed the oranges right in front of you, and it was some of the most delicious orange juice I have ever had. It was only 3 dirham, which is less than 50 cents! I also bought some peanuts with a candied coating and sesame seeds for snacks on the long sail to Namibia. We shopped around for awhile, looking at everything. I ended up getting tricked into getting henna on my hand, but it turned out to be a great experience. My friend was getting one on her hand, and I was waiting for her. I started talking to an older woman, who was a friend of the woman giving Aubrey henna. I told her multiple times that I didn’t want any, because they tend to charge exorbitant prices after they are done. I started conversing with the woman, and she was very interesting. She fluently spoke 6 languages, even though she had never been to school. She learned everything from tourists. Her name was Amina. She looked ancient, but she told me she was only 52 years old. Healthcare in Morocco is not widely available to those other than the upper class, and life in Morocco is a much rougher existence. She was missing most of her teeth, and had what looked like scars from a skin rash. We had a great conversation, she told me about her life and her daughters and about marriage ceremonies. She somehow, very sneakily, took my hand and started drawing henna. It was an intricate design, and I really liked it. Many other girls I saw just had flowers or their name written in Arabic. Amina drew a geometric design going from my wrist and up my middle finger.

When we were done, we headed up to get lunch… although I was still full from the night before! We had lunch on the third floor patio of a restaurant; we could see everything going on in the square below. It was fun to see other groups of SASers wandering through the square. After lunch, we wandered and explored some more until it was time to head back to the train.

We got a little lost trying to get to the Royal Palace, as we usually do. We figured the best way to get back to the train station was to skirt the cities edges, and then cut in on the main boulevard. While wandering around the cities edges, I looked left and saw a herd of camels! I called out to my friends and we ran across the street. The herders (owners?) of the camels were sitting under a tree around a fire. They did not seem to take notice of us at all. We walked right up to the camels, which were not scared of us at all. Heather was a little scared of them though! They made weird grunting noises, like they were getting ready to spit. We learned later that it is not a bad noise, and camels don’t even spit! It was late afternoon, and was a great culmination to an interesting day in Marrakech.

I had mixed feelings about Marrakech, and Morocco in general. It is certainly an interesting country, but there is a lot to take in. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and would love to return some day. It definitely made me glad to have been born in the United States to wonderful parents! Especially as a woman, I kept noticing differences between the US and Morocco, and how many opportunities are presented to me. It reminded me that I need to take advantage of all these opportunities because I am so much more fortunate than so many people on this planet. I am so lucky!!! I also want to say THANK YOU again to my parents for working hard so that I can be so lucky!

Casablanca, Morocco

2/3/09

Casablanca, Morocco

We finally arrived in Casablanca! We arrived during the night, but were not allowed to disembark until 8 a.m. when our passports had been cleared. After grabbing our passports, I headed out into the city with a few girlfriends and the voyage photographer, John. Our first stop was an ATM to acquire some Dirham. One US dollar will buy 8.66 Dirham. However, prices of things are higher; for example a cup of coffee would be about 12 Dirham. Bartering is the main system of trade in Morocco, we even had to barter taxi prices! I found I am not so great at it; however since it is so common in many of the countries we are going to, I hope I will become much better at it. It was an interesting experience, I am used to seeing set prices and then deciding whether I want to buy it or not. In Morocco, it takes quite awhile to decide on the price. The key lesson I learned here is to offer a price much lower than what you are willing to pay, because the vendors will ask for a price 3 to 4 times higher than what the object is worth. Prices are determined by bartering back and forth. The second lesson I learned is to not be afraid to walk away if I think the price is too high. Even after 15 minutes of bargaining, if the price is too high you should walk away. This is also a good strategy because the vendors do not want to lose a sale, and will often consent to your lower offer.

We wandered around the souks, which are the markets in Morocco. The streets were narrow and winding with shops on either side. The area we were in was also residential, with sections of homes interspersing the souk. In Morocco, the outsides of homes are kept under disrepair to prevent robbery. However, if you look in the doors of some homes as people are walking out, you can see beautiful courtyards or decadent living rooms. Walking with John the photographer was very interesting because he frequently visits Morocco and is familiar with the city and culture. He told us that his favorite city in the world was Marrakech, a city southeast of Casablanca. Casablanca is a very modern city, whereas Marrakech stays truer to ancient Moroccan culture. After hearing that, Heather and I decided to skip the City Orientation of Casablanca, and head down to Marrakech the next day.

Around 5 pm, I met in the Union for my first SAS planned trip. It was Dinner with Moroccan Family. It cost $20, and may be the best $20 I have ever spent! The cost of the ticket was donated to charity, and wealthy Moroccan families cooked us a dinner. In the Union, we were split up into groups; I was in a group with 4 other girls. We were picked up by a man named Jawed and his wife. They had three children, an 18 year old son, a 14 year old daughter, and a 12 year old son. Their youngest son goes to the George Washington Academy, which is an American school. He speaks fluent English, French, and Arabic. The George Washington Academy was founded by Semester at Sea alums, which is how this family found out about the dinner. Jawed is an international businessman, and does very well for himself. We were picked up in a Jaguar! They were proud of how westernized they were, he had all the new Beyonce and Rhianna CDs. However, he was extremely excited when we wanted to listen to traditional Moroccan music. I am always very excited to learn about new cultures, and they seemed to be excited to have dinner with us. It was interesting to see how different they thought we would be. A lot of information they get about American culture comes from television, especially from MTV. I was more than happy to try to break those stereotypes.

As in Spain, Moroccans eat dinner late. We ate around 9:30, which gave us plenty of time to talk and get a tour of the house before dinner. They were very wealthy, and the house was enormous. There was a couch in the living room that could easily sit 40 people. I took a bunch of photos. Earlier in the souks, I had bought a traditional Moroccan Kaftan. Morocco is one of the only countries where a kaftan is the term for a woman’s dress, as opposed to a male’s robe. It is a beautiful light blue full length gown with gold embroidery. I wore it that evening, and it prompted Oma, the wife of Jawed, to show us her kaftans. They were absolutely incredible. While mine was generic, hers were made by a dressmaker to her exact specifications. One of her dresses had silver woven into the fabric, giving it a beautiful sheen. They were all handmade, with exquisite embroidery. I loved it! She then told us about the marriage ceremonies, celebrations that will last for 3 days and require multiple costume changes for the bride. They sound like a lot of fun!

Dinner was a four-course extravaganza. The first dish was Pastilla, something I recommend to everyone. I got the recipe, and I am going to try to make it when I get home. It is a dish of shredded pigeon (or chicken) with almonds, onions, and vegetables wrapped in filo dough (used in baklava), and then baked with cinnamon and sugar on top. It was delicious, it was slightly sweet, but still hearty. The second course was traditional Moroccan spicy meatballs in a tomato sauce with rice. Again, delicious. At this point I was filling up, but I couldn’t wait for the coming courses. The third course was also a traditional Tandoori Chicken dish, with lemons and olives. A tandoor is a clay cooking device that keeps a lot of the moisture in. We also had homemade French fries, which are surprisingly eaten very often in Morocco. They were thickly cut and home fried. To drink we had Coke, which is the main drink in Casablanca. There is a Coca-Cola factory on the outskirts of town that employs many of the city’s inhabitants. Coke is everywhere. For dessert we had fresh fruit. The oranges are perfectly ripe this time of year, and were some of the sweetest I have ever had. They sprinkled cinnamon on orange slices, which I recommend all of you try! It was soooo good, I am going to be substituting that instead of ice cream after dinner when I get home. I thoroughly enjoyed dinner, and especially the conversation. There is no better way to get to know people of a different culture than to sit down and share their traditional food with them. They seemed very excited to host us, they visited America last summer and had a great time. They started in New York, went down to Florida, then to Las Vegas, and to San Diego. I told them they should visit San Francisco, and they invited all of us to come back to Morocco. I might have to take them up on their offer!

Around midnight, we realized we had better get back to the ship. We had talked nonstop from the time they picked us up until they dropped us off. It was a wonderful, wonderful experience and will likely be a trip highlight!

Gibraltar

2/1/09

Gibraltar

After sailing from Spain, we did not go directly to Morocco. We stopped over in Gibraltar to take on more fuel and supplies. I was very excited about this because I did not know we were going to stop in Gibraltar until I got on the ship. The ship did not dock, rather we anchored in the bay and a fuel ship came to load supplies. We arrived around 10 a.m., and fueling is supposed to be a 5 hour process. The seas were very rough, and although it was a mostly clear day, the wind was ripping across the ship. When we were still anchored in the port of Gibraltar at dinner time, I got worried and rumors started swirling around the ship. We were supposed to arrive in Casablanca, Morocco at 8 a.m. the next day, and we knew we had a long way to go. Unfortunately, the rumors turned out to be true. The seas had been too rough for the fuel barge to get close enough to our ship, and the fuel hose could not be inserted into our tank. They gave up in the late afternoon, and we had to bunker overnight until calmer seas in the morning. We all were terribly disappointed, because this gave us one less day in an already short stopover in Morocco. I was disappointed; I wanted to be able to call Kyle on his birthday, but we wouldn’t get to port until it had passed. Although I hear he had a good birthday anyway! 

To make up for the delay, Semester At Sea organized a number of fun activities. We watched the Superbowl live! However, because of the time difference, it didn’t end until 3 a.m. I stayed up to watch the whole thing, since there was no need to wake up early the next day! It was such an exciting ending! The Dean of Students for our ship is a HUGE Steelers fan and has been talking up the game since we departed from the Bahamas. It was a funny game, because for some strange reason we could not get an American or English broadcast of the game. We watched the game with German announcers; there were also no commercials, which tend to be a highlight of the game. Were they funny this year?

Gibraltar was a beautiful place, and it afforded me my first views of AFRICA. I was so excited!! The gap between Europe and Africa is a straight 8 miles wide, so you can easily see both continents. There is a mountain range along the northern coast of Africa, and they looked beautiful across the water. Seeing Africa so near made me even more eager to get there. The European side was also beautiful, and we anchored only about a kilometer from the famous Rock of Gibraltar. It was much much bigger than I expected, whole cities are built at the base of it. There are over 200 Barbary Macaques that live on the top of the mountain, but we were too far away to see any of them. The rock is a striking view; it rises sharply from the sea. It is a monolithic mass, meaning it is only one piece of rock; rising 426 meters (nearly 1400 feet) tall. I wish we hadn’t spent so much time there, (I wanted to get to Morocco!) but it was certainly an interesting place to spend a couple days!

Sevilla, Spain

1/31/09

Morning came too quickly after a late night, and Heather, Max, and I rose in time to try to meet friends near the Catedral. Unfortunately it is hard to meet friends in a foreign city without cell phones, so after waiting in the designated square for awhile we gave up. We did run into other SASers, and had lunch at a little place that Max recommended. Afterwards, we explored the Catedral. The Sevilla has the 3^rd biggest Cathedral in Christendom, after the St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s in Rome and London. Construction began in 1402 and continued into the 16^th century. The interior is gigantic, with the largest nave in Spain. There is an exquisitely decorated, gigantic organ surrounding a choir box in the center of the nave. The tomb of Christopher Columbus is housed in the Catedral, riding on the shoulders of four horsemen. It is probably 20 feet tall. An even more famous monument to Sevillans, and something much taller is the Giralda Tower. At nearly 100 meters tall, it affords beautiful views of the city. Max and I climbed it and spent awhile up there admiring the views. We met Heather after climbing down and stopped for a drink, where we saw many groups of SAS kids passing by. Heather left with a group of our friends who were heading back to Cadiz that night, but I stayed in Sevilla one more night.

Max and I crossed the river and headed back to his apartment for dinner with his roommates. Around 9, my friend Andrew called and said he and my 3 friends Beverly, Patricia, and Alex were on the train halfway to Sevilla. It was a spontaneous decision they made at dinner! We met them downtown for tapas around 11, and then found them a hostel. It started to rain, and we got horribly lost on the way to find a bar… but it was an excellent adventure. We found the bar eventually, and it was crowded! A few Spanish boys tried to flirt with me, which was incredibly fun. I got to practice my conversational Spanish, It actually ended up being a great conversation, and they didn’t care when I butchered conjugations of verbs and forgot words. Shortly after that conversation we left and headed to a club that Max had heard of called Aduana. We were the only Americans in the place. It was AWESOME. There was a fog machine, laser lights, and techno(ish). It was slightly eurotrash, but was way fun because we were actually in Europe. We got there at about 2:30am... and there were about 10 other people there. So we went to the bar and had a few drinks. Slowly people started to filter in, and by 3 it was getting going. By 4am there were maybe 120 people there, which packed the place. A bit before we left, which was at 5, I was in the bathroom and started talking to some Spanish girls. I told them I was going to leave soon, and they asked "Why? We just got here, its really just starting up!!" I explained to them that just about everything in the US closes at 2, and they could not comprehend it. They are just getting ready to go out then. Thank god for siestas!

Again, the morning came too soon, and I caught the 9 am train back to Cadiz. I powered through the rest of the day and explored Cadiz some more. I had left Cadiz on a weekday, and now it was a Saturday afternoon. There were people in all the squares, kids playing soccer, parents and grandparents holding babies, and all sorts of people walking along. The markets are also open on the weekend, so I strolled through the fish market. A lot of the fish in southern Spain comes from Cadiz; there were all types of fish! In the late afternoon I returned sadly to the ship, promising myself that I will soon return to España. It was a wonderful, whirlwind tour of Spain. I got way less sleep than I usually do, because I wanted to spend as many waking moments exploring the cities and culture of Spain. It was so worth it. I had a fantastic time, and I cant wait to return!

Sevilla, Spain

1-30-09

Sevilla, Spain

I awoke very early to catch the 8am train to Sevilla with a few friends. It is a two hour train ride, so we got into Sevilla around 10am. We took a taxi to downtown, and had some breakfast by the big Cathedral. Breakfast in Spain is usually light, maybe a croissant and coffee. They have delicious prociutto, ham is a staple of the Spanish diet. The coffee in Spain is also amazing, I usually don’t drink coffee but I loved it here. After breakfast, I went with my three friends to find their hostel. It took awhile, the streets in Sevilla are winding and often poorly marked. It was a fun adventure though, I love to just walk along and observe what is going on around me. I think walking around and seeing, smelling, and listening to the things around me is the best way to really get a feel for the culture. Eventually we found the hostel and put their bags down. With perfect timing, Max called! He got out of class at 1, and his campus was very near the hostel we were at. It was a quick 5 minute walk to meet him, and then he gave us a mini-tour of Sevilla. We stopped for tapas con amigos at a small outdoor café near the Cathedral. We ate tuna and quiche. A SAS tour had just finished at the Cathedral, so I found a few more friends to hang out with for a bit before they had to get back to the bus. We went to the Plaza de Espana, a beautiful building. It was built in the 1920s for an international faire. There was a moat crossed by four bridges, symbolizing United States, Chile, Portugal, and Peru having bridges with Spain. The tiling on the building was incredibly intricate. There was a large fountain in the middle, I loved the geometric patterns of the square. I loved all of the architecture in Spain. Sevilla is a very beautiful city. It is famous for its orange trees, which were fruiting and fully ripe while we were there. There are 18,000 orange trees scattered across Sevilla. The oranges are sour (we tried one), and are not eaten. They are sent to England to make marmalade. The thousands of trees line the streets, and make for great photos.

After lunch, we wandered around some more. We found Heather, who had just finished a SAS tour. It was getting to be mid-afternoon, so Max, Heather, and the three boys I was with earlier, Steve, Hussein, and Keith, walked across the river to Max’s apartment. We played a few card games and rested. Most everything closes between the hours of 4 and 6 in Sevilla, for siesta. Shops open up again in the evening when people start coming out again. So around 6, we reemerged and went shopping! My nice shoes somehow got ruined in transit from San Francisco. There is a dress code to go to discotecas (clubs). I bought two cheap pairs of shoes, both cute. Unfortunately, the pair I wore that night turned out to be terribly uncomfortable boots. The other pair, cute red heels are wonderful though!

We tried to get more tapas around 7; we couldn’t get enough of them! However, no restaurants are open until 8. We sat in a bar and had a Cruzcampo, which is pretty much the only beer in Spain. A soccer game was on, Sevilla vs. Valencia. It was a very exciting game, Sevilla scored in the last few minutes to win the game!! The energy in the bar was contagious, I may have to become a soccer fan. A few of my friends actually went to the game, they said it was wild! The crowd went wild! It led to quite a party atmosphere in Sevilla that night. They have great discotecas in Sevilla. The first night there we went to this club Buddha, which was craaaaazy. The first floor was a hookah lounge and bar, the second floor was, as I can best describe it, a floor for people who wanted to hear music but talk instead of dance, and the third floor was a hot, loud, sweaty dance floor. It was the most jam packed club I have ever been in! It was fun too, because in Spain they all dance in a circle, instead of grinding all over each other. Buddha probably had like 500 people in it. It was a lot of fun, because a lot of SASers were there too, I ran in to so many people I knew. It was a great "hey we are finally in Spain!" party. It was a great introduction to Sevilla!

Cadiz, Spain

1-29-09

Cadiz, Spain

Hola amigos! Estoy en Espana! It is our first port and I am having an amazing time. It took a long time to cross the Atlantic. We left Monday evening, and arrived 8 days later on Wednesday morning. I had a great time on the crossing, but I was definitely ready to see land again. After 8 days I had a great pair of sea legs; so great that I actually felt like I was swaying when I was standing on solid ground yesterday. All of the people who were seasick the first few days felt better by the third or fourth day. Most people are incredibly nice, we had a fun time. The atmosphere was always charged with the excitement created by 720 students about to circumnavigate the globe. I have made a ton of friends!

We arrived in Cadiz at 8am yesterday. It was still dark when we got there, Spain arbitrarily changed their time zone to be in the same zone as the rest of Western Europe, so the sun doesn’t rise until 8:30. That works for the Spanish lifestyle; most businesses don’t open until 9 am, and Spaniards don’t eat dinner until after 10pm. A group of 16 of my friends and I departed at about 9. We set off without a general plan or direction, but the town of Cadiz is only about 5 square miles. The city was built first in 1100 B.C., and since has been an integral part of Spanish defenses. There are many bastillions on the waters edge protecting the city. The city is surrounded on 3 sides by water, so it was very hard to get lost. It was difficult, however, to keep a group that large together, so around 11 we split into smaller groups. I stuck with my friends Tim, Jonathan, and Isaiah. We walked through the Cadiz gardens and stopped to have some tapas. Tapas (pronounced with short a sounds, tah-pah) are like appetizers and are served all day. The food in Spain is DELICIOUS! The biggest thing to do in Spain is tapas con amigos. Friends will get together for an hour or two and drink wine, eat tapas, laugh and talk in the cafes. I practiced my conversational Spanish with waiters all day. The first round of tapas I had were like a brisket in a tomato sauce, and were delicious. In Spain, lunch isn’t served until 3 or 4, so the tapas held us over until then. We emerged from the heart of the city and walked along the beach to a fort built on an island about 200 meters from shore. I loved the architecture. From the fort we could see the rest of Cadiz, and we noticed a large cathedral in the middle of the city. We headed off in that general direction, wandering through the old stone streets that meandered through the city. Suddenly, a large plaza opened in front of us. It was the Plaza de Catedral, with, you guessed it, the large Cathedral rising in front of us.

After seeing some other SAS students in the plaza, we paid 6€ for admission to a museum on the history and ruins of Cadiz and a trip to the top of the Catedral. The view was spectacular. To the south was the ocean, the west was the fort we had just come from, to the north was the tops of all the buildings in Cadiz, and to the east was the rest of the Catedral and more buildings. We spent maybe 30 minutes up there. I took a ton of photos. We then went to the ruins, which were really interesting because of all the different conquers of Cadiz. There were indigenous people, who were conquered by the Romans, and then the Spanish, to the Moors, and finally back to the Spanish. By this time, after all the walking, we were hungry for tapas again. We sat in the plaza right in front of the Catedral at an outdoor restaurant. The 12 of us ordered a few pictures of sangria and more tapas. Sangria is a mix of wine, sometimes a hard alcohol like gin or brandy, and a lot of fruit. It is delicious! With the pleasing sangria, I also had the best shrimp and garlic dish that I have EVER had. They were delicious, they were served very hot in boiling olive oil. I actually went back on the last day in Cadiz to eat some more.

After more exploring, which was the theme of the day, we headed back to the ship for a quick siesta. Around 9 that night, a few of us went back out. The IT guy for our ship, named Bob (or Sparky), is an excellent musician. His goal is to play with bands in every country he goes to. He set up a jam session with some local jazz artists, who turned out to be excellent musicians. Before the show, we got more tapas and sangria. They were, again, delicious. At the show, which was more of a lounge and bar, I had my fist glass of sherry. Sherry is supposed to be the best in Spain. I’ve never had sherry before! I headed back to the ship pretty early that night, because I wanted to be up early for the 8am train to Sevilla!

P.S. I actually did start this blog post in Cadiz, but I’ve gotten a lot busier than I expected. We now have a week at sea between Morocco and Namibia, so I can write out and post what I’ve got in my journals soon!

Crossing the Atlantic

1/24

Hello everyone! SEMESTER AT SEA IS AWESOME. That is basically going to be the theme of this post. The past few days have felt like a cross between a summer camp and a cruise. We get all the luxuries of a cruise (they make your beds and clean your plates for you) with the fun activities of a summer camp. We had swing dancing lessons and a talent show last night. The classes are so interesting too! I switched up my schedule a little bit. I dropped Religion and Politics of Islam for Biomedical Ethics, and I am thrilled I made the switch. Islam seemed interesting and pertinent to the world today; however, after only one class Biomedical Ethics may already be my favorite class. The teacher is Leslie Harmon, who is a dean of a law school. She is extremely articulate, and I think she will teach the class really well. It is technically a philosophy class, but because of her background in law we are going to read and interpret many cases. For example, we will be discussing euthanasia, the effect of the one child policy in China, and medical consent, while also learning about philosophers. The rest of my classes are going well, I have never taken Economics or Psychology, so I cant wait to learn disciplines of study that will be completely foreign to me. This is a voyage filled with new adventures!

There are between 20 and 30 students in each class, excluding Global Studies which is held in the Union (capacity about 400) and then broadcast on screens in all of the satellite classrooms. I have made a ton of friends! In classes, the dining rooms, and hallways it feels like its freshman year all over again. My roommate, Heather, and I are getting along so well. I think she is so cool; just last night we left our group of friends because we were so tired and wanted to go to bed, and then ended up staying up an extra hour just talking and giggling in our room. I get out of class at noon and A days, and 1:30 on B days, and the rest of the day I spend hanging out with friends. Currently I am sitting on the back deck studying with friends and watching the Atlantic pass us by. In the afternoon there are probably 200 students laying out and studying….

Speaking of studying (or not)… I took a dip in the pool and didn’t get a chance to return to my blog-post. However, its now evening, and I can continue! The extracurricular activities they have planned for us are spectacular. Last night we had an Open Mic, which was amazing! Twenty or so of my peers performed, doing everything from playing original songs on the guitar, to singing and playing piano, rapping, or dancing. It was really fun. After that, all the students disperse themselves throughout the common areas. I played dominoes last night; I also enjoy playing catchphrase, card games, and apples to apples. We have them all! There was also a Pub Night on the back of the 7^th deck. We are allowed 2 drinks with dinner, and 4 afterward; so while no one got wasted, responsible drinking is a good social lubricant. Although we hardly need it, I feel I have been in one interesting conversation or another since I got here. Today was also full of activities! The first meeting of the SCUBA club was today, and I am going to be the president. Hopefully we will arrange dive trips in each of the countries. Many of the people in it are going to dive with Great White sharks in South Africa. I am going on a wildlife safari in the Kwazulu Natal Game Reserve, so I will miss that trip. Hopefully I will be able to schedule dive trips for myself in Mauritius and Viet Nam (maybe even Thailand?). After the meeting, I ran over to the Union, where we had Salsa lessons. Hopefully I will be able to put those to good use in Spain. The Salsa lessons will continue for the next few days, so I may actually be decent when I attempt to dance in Sevilla!

I am also signing up for a few more activities. Many of the professors have families, so I signed up to help out at the preschool. There are 5 children between 18 months and 5. One of the boys, aged about 3 and all dressed up as a sailor, sang a song at the Open Mic last night. It was adorable! There is also a program called Vicarious Voyage. My partner Whitney, who goes to SF State, and I will be “adopting” a second grade classroom in Pittsburg, CA (in the Bay Area). We send them postcards from all the countries we travel to, and send three packets to the classrooms. They then base their curriculum on these countries, and use the materials we send to them to learn about the cultures! We are planning on emphasizing on the food and clothing of each country, so we will include things like menus, photos, and whatever else we find interesting.

Seriously, I have been so busy, and I am having a great time! Although I cant say it enough, I want to publicly thank my parents for this trip of a lifetime. THANK YOU SO MUCH! It is so great. Anyway, I’m being encouraged to come join a game of Catchphrase, so I gotta go.

P.S. I have been taking a ton of pictures, there was an amazing sunset tonight! Ill upload them soon!

First Days Aboard the Explorer

1/19/09

Today is my first day aboard the MV Explorer! Everything is SO awesome. My boarding time was 8:20. However, when I got there, the line was around the corner. They said there was a problem with the baggage screener. It took about 2 hours to get on board and through the registration process. I signed up for one more field excursion in India. When I got to my room, my roommate was already there. Her name is Heather Dunn, and she is from Escondido, CA. Escondido is in North County San Diego. I went out to lunch with her, her two younger brothers, and her parents at Hard Rock Café in downtown Nassau. Her parents own a pool construction company. She is very tall and loves sports, especially volleyball, which she plays at the club level at USD. There is now another huge Chargers fan in my life… looks like its going to have to become my #2 team.

I updated my blog at an internet café in Nassau. On ship time was 2:30, I got back around 2. We then had a lifeboat drill. After that, we were allowed to socialize until departure at 5. As we started to pull off, I felt a rush of emotions. It is such a crazy feeling to know you are about to embark on the most amazing journey of your life. “I am going to circumnavigate the globe!” kept running through my head. Imagine that. Watching the water separate us was the catalyst I needed to make this dream trip real. As the inches of water between the boat and the dock became feet, and then yards, and then tens of yards I realized there’s no turning back now. We all gathered on the back of decks 5, 6, and 7 to watch the departure. Nearly all 720 of us were on the back of the decks, watching parents wave from the dock. It was a good time to socialize and meet new friends. As Nassau edged toward the horizon, the sun was setting, and we were all sitting on the back decks. Two of my new friends, Jordan and Jack, brought guitars and serenaded us as we sailed away….

1/20/09

Today was the first sea day aboard the MV Explorer. We are getting closer to the middle of the Atlantic, leaving the shore farther and farther away. We had orientation all day. At 9am we met in the Union for a full day of all the orientations. The rocking of the ship made it terribly hard to stay awake. The teachers were introduced, and there were presentations on safety, Global Studies, the library, the field program, and internet. I set up my internet and now have email! It is free for us to use, so send me emails!

My email is cecummins@semesteratsea.net

It was a pretty uneventful day in terms of classes, although there was a lot of information to grasp. However, the most exciting moment of the day was watching the INAGURATION! It took the entire bandwidth of the ships internet to broadcast it. Most people gathered in the Union to watch, there was a very charged atmosphere. I had a great time. It will be interesting to return to the United States after Obama’s honeymoon period. We shall have to see what changes!

After the last meeting, there was a small celebration with cake and champagne. After that, Catchphrase was the name of the game. Heather and I played a very lively game with about 10 other students. I love that game! We lost an hour crossing time zones, and will lose an hour each night until we reach Spain.

1/21/09

Classes commenced today. Global Studies is required for all students, and is every day from 9:20 to 10:35. Macroeconomics, Religion and Politics and Islam, and Introduction to Psychology are the three other classes. Sea days are either A or B, alternating every day at sea. That means we have class from now until we get to Spain. After a few weeks, I will probably not even know what day of the week it is, just that it is either A or B day. Global Studies and Macroeconomics were the classes I had today, from 9:20 until noon. The rest of the day is free time! I took care of some housekeeping (buying books, doing email, setting up printing), and then spent the rest of the day laying in the sun and socializing. I just finished the activities faire, and the Dark Knight will be showing at 9. I am having the greatest time of my life already. I can hardly believe its really happening! I had high expectations, but my experience has already exceeded them and we haven’t even reached Spain. I cant wait to visit Max in Sevilla! Pictures will come when I get to Spain, the internet is too slow and costly to upload photos now. I will be in Spain next Wednesday.

Bahamas

1/17/09

Good evening from the Bahamas! I have officially begun the first leg of my journey. I woke at 3 a.m. this morning (man, it seems like a long time ago…) in order to get a 4 a.m. ride to the airport from my father. Thanks for the ride Dad! Although it was a very early morning, I was so excited that my dad and I had a very lively car ride down. Saying goodbye was tough, although my tears were spent the night before saying goodbye to mom. My flight left on time and arrived safely in Atlanta, Georgia. I had an hour layover and then my flight departed for the Bahamas. The late afternoon sun was beautiful on the island of New Providence. There were even 9 (or more) students from Semester at Sea on my flight! There were 6 of us sitting near each other, which was a great way to get to know a few people before the ship departs.

1/18/09

(Since I have had no internet, I am putting both of these posts together)

I am writing this from the Wyndam Grand Resort on Cable Beach. It’s a beautiful hotel on the North side of New Providence Island. Nassau is the biggest city and capital of the Bahamas, and is located on New Providence Island. Cable Beach is named so because this is the location where the very first trans-Atlantic telephone cable emerged. The cable was run underwater from England across the ocean floor until it resurfaced in the Bahamas. Most of the hotels are on Cable Beach, except for the Atlantis, which I will write about later. I have an ocean-front room overlooking the pool, the lagoon, and the ocean. Last night my plane arrived around sunset so by the time I arrived at the hotel it was late dusk. I saw the beautiful view this morning! I arose at 7:30 to make the most of my only full day on the Bahamas. The bus to Nassau runs every 3-5 minutes, so I hopped on one and was let off right in front of the famous “Straw Market” in downtown. There were probably 50 or so vendors hawking t-shirts, “Chanel/Coach/Louie Vutton etc” purses, photo frames, shotglasses, and any other wares tourists will buy.

Walking through and out of the Straw Market I found the promenade that lines the Nassau harbor. There I had my first glimpse of the MV Explorer! It was docket alongside three Carnival Cruise ships, and was dwarfed by all three. The 7 story MV Explorer will be home for the next 112 days. I am SO excited! Seeing the ship made me so excited that I ran up to it and checked out the port. They wouldn’t let me on today, but my boarding time is 8:20 tomorrow, a mere 12 hours from now!!

After checking out the MV Explorer, I boarded a ferry to Paradise Island, the home of the Atlantis Hotel. What a grand hotel! I have been to some very deluxe places, but Atlantis takes the cake. It had the glitz, grandeur, and size of the Las Vegas mega-hotels with the swimming, weather, and views of the Bahamas. The only place that I have been that is comparable is the Hilton Hotel in Kona, Hawaii. Luckily for me, my blue watch is nearly the same color as the wristbands given to the guests of the Atlantis. I managed to sneak in, and spent a few hours exploring and swimming. However, I went out to the beach, and was denied access to the hotel on the way back in. I was ready to leave, so I caught the ferry and then the bus back to my hotel.

Ravenous after a busy morning, I returned to the hotel around 2. Lunch consisted of conch fritters and a margarita on the beach while listening to Bob Marley. It was wonderful. I spent a few hours reading on the beach and swimming in the ocean. Sunset was beautiful, and now I am about to grab a bite to eat. Before I know it, I will be on the Explorer!

1/19/09

Update: I boarded the ship this morning, it is AMAZING!! I will send out photos later. My roommate is Heather Dunn from Escondido, CA. She is really nice, I know we will get along well. I have to board the ship soon, so I have to go... but I will update later!

Packing!

Hi all,

It is Thursday night, and I am finishing up the final preparations for my journey. I have packed up all my clothes, books, and toiletries; now my dad and I are sitting downstairs preparing to pack my computer, two cameras, and a video camera. I have to be sure that I will be able to record my trip! I will be posting my photos to:

www.caraecummins.shutterfly.com

Bob and Kath Piro hosted a Bon Voyage party for me in Petaluma earlier this week. We had a wonderful dinner and then played Wii. The first album I have uploaded are pictures from that night. On Wednesday night, I had my own Bon Voyage party in Davis. It was wonderful! Thank you to all of my friends from Davis and Berkeley who came up and made my last night in Davis very special. I am going to miss you all! See you at the Whole Earth Festival!

Tomorrow, being my last full dad in the United States, is filled with goodbyes. Kyle is driving down to Marin tomorrow to so we can have lunch and say goodbye. Then Michael will drive up from Santa Cruz in the early afternoon to say goodbye to his big sister! A family dinner will follow, and then it will be time for me to go to bed. Dad is driving me to the airport at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning! My excitement for this trip nearly overpowers all my other emotions, but I know it will hard not to be homesick for the people I love.

This will be my last post until I arrive in the Bahamas, where I will quickly upload photos of the warm Carribean. (Jealous, South Dakota? I heard it was a balmy 4 degrees today!) I cant wait to begin the first leg of my global circumnavigation!

Love,
Cara

First Post

Hi everyone!

As you all know, I am about to head off to Semester at Sea. Internet is limited, and hopefully I am going to be very busy exploring new countries so I wont be able to send out and respond to many emails. I am going to use this blog as both a diary of my trip and a tool to keep in touch with everyone. I will post photos on another website, but I havent figured that out yet. I'm planning to take thousands of photos! (otherwise my dad might disown me) I leave in 10 days. I'm so EXCITED! On January 17th I will be traveling to the Bahamas to begin my trip. My voyage is from January 19th to May 6th. I am traveling to 11 countries:

• Nassau, Bahamas
• Cadiz, Spain
• Casablanca, Morocco
• Walvis Bay, Namibia
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Port Louis, Mauritius
• Chennai, India
• Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand
• Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
• Hong Kong / Shanghai, China
• Kobe / Yokohama, Japan
• Honolulu, Hawaii
• Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
  (Antigua, Guatemala City)
• Transiting of Panama Canal
• Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The ship I am traveling on is the MS Explorer. It is 590 feet long and 84 feet wide. I will be staying in an Outside double cabin. I dont meet my roommate until the day of embarkation. At 6 a.m. Saturday morning I fly out from San Francisco to Nassau, Bahamas. I will be staying at the Wyndam Nassau Grand Resort on Cable Beach for two nights before embarkation Monday morning. The ship sails at 5 p.m., which should mean a beautiful sunset as we head out into the Atlantic.

It takes 9 days to cross the Atlantic, during which I will be attending orientations and my classes. I am taking Global Studies, Geography of the Oceans, Macroeconomics, and Religion and Politics in Islam. All of the details for my Semester at Sea is at the website:

www.semesteratsea.org

You can see my voyage in the Voyages tab, I will be on the Spring 2009 voyage under Upcoming Voyages.