I'm at the Center of the World :)

Yesturday, we were in the center of the world. We passed through the exact center of the Equator and Prime Meridian. It was crazy! We all gathered on the seventh deck and when we were there the Captain sounded the horns and we all cheered. Who can say that they have been to the literal center of the world..I can!!

So, Neptune Day is tomorrow...People are contemplating whether or not to shave their heads or not. I thought about it and realized that I could see myself doing it just getting caught up in the moment, but five minutes later I would be balling my eyes out. I realized that I cannot go through with it, but that's just me.  Amy is contemplating it and I am dying to know if she is going to go through with it! We will find out tomorrow afternoon!! It is going to be one interesting day, to say the least.

I will let you all know what happens!!

Until tomorrow...

Ghana: A Life-Changing Experience

I was only in Ghana for four days and I fell absolutely in love with the country. I am so sad to leave. This country affected me in more ways than I ever thought possible.

We arrived in Ghana, and while our friends went off to see the Castles and Slave Dungeons, Amy and I decided to go to the local market circle and walk around the town a little bit. We got off of the boat and were walking towards the port gate, when we met two young girls, Abigail and Hafsa. They walked with us until we reached the gate, and throughout the walk we were talking and learning about each other’s lives. They were so nice and just wanted to hear about what we were doing on Semester at Sea and our lives in America. We asked them about their lives here in Ghana and they explained that they work from sun up to sun down and have very little time to go out, but when they do they go to the local bars and clubs. We proceeded to ask them how to get to the market circle and they told us that we should take a taxi. We had heard that it is better to take a taxi, but we hadn’t been able to exchange money yet, because we had just gotten off of the boat. Hafsa reached into her pocket and handed us 2 cedi’s (Ghana currency). We told her that we couldn’t take her money, but she insisted and would not take no for an answer. We thanked her and she gave us her emails/phone numbers for us to keep in contact with her. I could not get over the level of kindness here and how warm and welcoming everyone was to us. It was amazing.
The next day I was able to participate in a Habitat for Humanity project. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. While our group was there, we were split into three different groups. There were three different sites to work on, with jobs like leveling the ground to be cemented, or laying bricks to be the framework for the house. I started removing cement blocks/debris from the first sight. After a while of doing that, we needed to start leveling out the surface. The only problem was that there was only about 5-6 tools/shovels for about 20 people to work with. While I didn’t have any tools I moved over to the other sites to see if there was anything to do. I went and helped line up bricks to be mortared/cemented. It was a lot of manual labor but I was getting down and dirty and that was the whole point. We are helping to build a family a house to live in. This is going to be their home and I knew that I wanted to be a part of it as much as possible. I wanted to help make their dreams of having a home a reality and if that involves laying down some bricks, then I will lay down hundreds of bricks.

After a while doing that I was without tools and decided to walk around and see if there was help needed at any of the other sites. I noticed some of the other students playing with the kids that were there. These kids were remarkable. They had the biggest smiles on their faces and were so happy that we were all playing with them and getting to know them. Some of the other students gave them some lollipops or Silly Bands and they thought that was the best thing in the world. We took pictures with them and the joy that they had from seeing the picture that was just taken was incredible. They had never seen photos of themselves before and the look on their faces will stick with me forever.

We taught them how to play Duck Duck Goose and they were having so much fun.  This was by far the best part of the day. Just seeing their faces and how excited they were to interact with us. I knew that Habitat for Humanity was an incredible organization which helped build homes for others, but I never knew the impact that one afternoon could make. While we were leaving and getting on to the bus, the kids were running to see us off. They were running down the road as we were pulling away and waving to us until they couldn’t run any more.

I never thought of how much a single wave to a child could bring out a smile as big as the ones that I have seen here in Ghana this week. Any time I was on a bus or in a taxi, the kids would have a glowing smile when you drove by and waved to them. It made them so happy that you acknowledged and waved to them. A simple gesture can have such a bigger impact than you realize and it made me realize that it truly is the little things in life that matter.

It was tough to follow Habitat for Humanity, but the next day did not disappoint. I went on a SAS guided tour to Kakum National Park. It is a tropical rainforest in West Africa and is absolutely breathtaking. There are Canopy Walkways that hang over forty meters above the ground and I was able to walk on all seven of them. It was absolutely amazing to walk on a canopy through the trees of the forest and see it from that point of view. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and it was incredible. After the canopy walk and finishing our hike through the forest we were leaving and we were stopped by the music near the entrance. There were men playing drums and women and young girls dancing. Their energy was overwhelming and they were so into the dance and the movements that it was mesmerizing. The tour guides told us that we needed to go to the bus, but we all just stood there and watched them. We couldn’t tear ourselves away.

After leaving Kakum National Park, we drove to Elmina, a small town in Ghana. It is mainly the fishing village of the country. There was fishing boats all over and there were people everywhere. It was a very eye-opening experience sight. It was extremely congested, and I don’t know if that is because there were so many people in the streets and children running around everywhere, but it was very chaotic. I loved seeing it, but it was so much to take in in such a short time frame. It was very overwhelming because right when we got off of the bus to have our tour, the locals were in our faces with trays of bracelets or key-chains for sale. I felt bad because I wanted to buy something, but I didn’t have any money with me at that point. The tour guide told us to try to not be distracted by this, but it was very difficult.  There was one point where the kids will come up to you and put their hands out to you wanting you to give them something. I learned later that when children or anyone for that matter, see people come to Ghana, since it is such a poor country, that they are used to “white” people coming to help them in some way. So when they saw a whole group of “white” people they assume that they are expecting us to give them things, whether it is money or gifts of some sort. We were told not to give them anything, because they end up thinking that it is ok to go up to people and ask for money, to make a living out of that. This way they don’t need to go to school to get an education. They think that it ok to skip school and go down to the market and make money by begging for it or something to that effect. I never thought of it that way until that was mentioned.

On our last day in Ghana, we all went to the market, to see if we could find any last minute things/souvenirs to buy. We got there and after going to the ATM, Ed, Carly, and I were separated from the rest of the group, but we made our way to the market circle. We ended up finding our way into the deep part of the market, where the aisles are so small that you need to go single file and weave in and out of the paths. We met a woman who was telling us our Ghanaian names. My name is Asay (I think I am spelling it correctly and sorry if I am not). Ghanaian names depend on the days that you are born. I am a Saturday-born so my name is Asay. I told her that I wasn’t sure what day of the week I was born on because I couldn’t remember, but she assured me that she knew, so I agreed. We weren’t really able to find things we were looking for, (souvenir items) at the market, so we decided to come back to the port because there was a small market-like place set up at the dock where the boat was. I was able to find a bunch of cool items that I was really excited about. I will show you all when I come home because my descriptions probably won’t do them justice, but I absolutely love them 

All in all, Ghana was an amazing experience, one that I will remember for the rest of my life. If anyone asked me if I would return to Ghana one day, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would come back here in a heartbeat. Even though this country is visibly poor, their people and their spirits make them one of the richest countries I have ever seen.

Next Port: Cape Town, South Africa!!!!

Morocco: A Whole New World

Well I just ended my stay in Morocco, and it is truly indescribable. I don’t think that I can fully put into words how this country has affected me.

We left Spain on September 8^th and the Captain arranged it so that instead of having a day in between ports, we would be able to arrive in Morocco the next day, giving us one more day to explore and experience.

The morning that we arrived in Morocco we were given a Cultural and Logistical Pre-port about the country we were about to step in to. They went over all of the important information, like how to dress—we were told that we need to make sure that we are conservative in our attire, (meaning shoulders and knees covered, and cleavage left to a minimum) or it would be considered disrespectful, and since Morocco is not one of the United States’ biggest fans we want to make sure not to piss them off. Then they told us about all of the media attention that the priest in Florida was getting for his plans to burn hundreds of Qur’ans on September 11^th, and how there was a national alert for any Americans entering Muslim countries. I was extremely nervous to go out walking around, seeing as how I definitely don’t blend in with all of the locals, none of my friends do—we practically scream American. We decided that we were going to go explore anyways, and see what happened. We weren’t going to stay cooped up on the ship because of things that were out of our control. We just have to be aware of our surroundings.

My friends and I had nothing really planned for the day, since it was an extra day so we decided to go to the markets and see what it was like. We walked down the street and it was fine, just little cat calls from the locals, but we were prepared for that. What we were not prepared for was what came next...

We got to the market/souks and were looking around having a good time and seeing all that was offered. Amy and I had put our water bottles and some little things in my backpack and were taking turns wearing it. (We couldn’t hold our water bottles because since it was the ending of Ramadan it was considered rude since the Muslims were still fasting for that day).  I had just passed the backpack to Amy and she put it on her back. A few minutes later the backpack is being pulled by a lady in the market. She is pulling it off of Amy’s shoulders like she is about to take it. I start to try to back her off and it is turning into complete chaos. Amy is freaked out and so is everyone else. The lady eventually backs off and then a man claiming to be her husband comes up behind to try to calm the situation. He said he was from New York so he knows how speak English. He claims that his wife was trying to show her to wear the backpack on her front instead of on her back so it wouldn’t be as easy to get pick-pocketed. That was what he claimed…it is just a matter of whether or not it was the truth. I guess we will never know.

We were a little shaken up about that little incident so we went back to the boat, ate some dinner, and decided that it would probably be better for the next day to maybe try to get on a tour so that we would be in a group, especially since the boys were all leaving us to go on a camel trek sponsored by Semester at Sea. We got up the next morning and were able to get on the guided tour around the city which was interesting and very informative…it just got to be very tiring because we were sitting on a bus for about four hours in the heat.

The next morning was a stressful one to say the least. Amy, Carly, Mackenzie, and I woke up early and got off of the boat to make our way to Marrakesh—where we would be taking part in an independent camel trek. We were able to get a taxi and got all the way to the train station and realized that we didn’t have our passports. (SAS told us that if we are leaving the port city or going over night somewhere we would need our passports). So we needed to take another taxi back to the ship to get our passports and then return to the station to make the train. We were able to do so…it just cost a lot in taxi fare, and to top it all off we were never asked for our passports while there. We took the train ride to Marrakesh and found a taxi to take us to our hostel. We were dropped off and needed to find our way through alley ways to get to the correct location. This young kid came up and offered directions, and ended up leading us to the hostel. We thought it would be nice to give him a little tip, so we gave him 5 dirham, which isn’t a lot, but we didn’t have a lot of money on us and we thought we were being nice…he didn’t see it that way. He was like “this isn’t enough—20dirham.” We were able to scram together to get 20 dirham but were taken aback by this. This is definitely something we weren’t used to at all.

The hostel was okay...nothing special. The owners were extremely nice, which made up for the not so nice bathrooms. True statement about Morocco: You should be prepared to carry around a roll of toilet paper with you at all times, because more often than not there will not be any in the bathrooms.

We spent the day walking around Marrakesh and found the markets, where we got some cute Moroccan pants and practiced our bargaining skills—my mom should be so proud.

Well it finally happened—I experienced my first batch of homesickness. I broke down for the first time this whole voyage. I was able to call and talk to my mom, who helped, and Amy also helped me through it—I definitely have the best friend in the whole world. I finally realized that it is ok for me to be a little homesick…I have such a close knit family—we talk to each other almost every day and it is not a bad thing for me to miss them. But I also made a realization—I am 21 years old and I left my home, my family, my friends, my job and am getting to travel around the world and see what people only dream of seeing in their lifetime. I am one of the luckiest girls in the world and am forever grateful for this opportunity, and yes it is definitely ok to miss everything that I have at home, but I will not let it interfere with everything that I have going on right now. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I have to experience every minute of it.

So, the next morning we woke up bright and early to go to our camel trek. We got in the van and went on our way. It was told to us that it would be about a six hour van ride. After all of the stops (breakfast, lunch, and little stops along the way to get out and stretch or see some important landmark) it ended up being about eleven hours. We were all exhausted and hot, but then we got out of the van and there our camels were. They were all lying down and ready for us to get on. I found my camel and the nomads that were there to be our leaders helped me get up. Once we all got up on our camels, we were on our way. It was about an hour to an hour and a half to two hours until we reached our destination in the Sahara desert. The ride there was spent taking pictures of all of us on them, admiring the scenery around us...and of course naming our camels—I had Chesney (for some reason while riding, I just got this country feel, and it just fit), Amy had Toby, and Carly had Scar. We loved our camels, but what I loved more was once we got to our destination. We are in the Sahara desert, watching the sunset. It was amazing. The nomads brought us to the tents, and served us a three course meal involving soup with bread, Tangine, which is amazing! and melon for dessert. Everything tasted great—and that’s saying a lot because I am the world’s pickiest eater, ask anyone! Once dinner was complete, we brought our sleeping mats outside and lay under the stars. The nomads brought out their instruments to play some music for us…I was exhausted from the long day that we had and ended up falling asleep to the music. I woke up multiple times throughout the night and at one point the sky was lit up with stars…and then I saw a shooting star. I had never seen anything like that in my whole life and I will never forget it. It was magical.

We woke up the next morning and were greeted with the sunrise. We grabbed our blankets and walked up to a sand dune, sat down and just watched the sunrise. I had never seen anything like it. There are really no words to describe it.

Then we began our journey home. It was supposed to be about six hours. It turned into about fifteen!! This was, however including the ride from Marrakesh to Casablanca. We talked the drivers to our camel trek to drive us back to Casablanca, instead of to Marrakesh where we would need to take the train to Casablanca. The train is miserable, so we asked nicely and they were able to arrange it with their boss to get two vans to take us back. It was supposed to be a two and a half hour ride, but turned into a five hour ride. Our driver was in a 100kph zone and decided that he was going to go 60kph. There were snails passing us on the highway. I’m not complaining, but when you have already been in a van all day, and you are stuck in a van longer than expected, it makes you a little cranky. The only thing that made the ride worth it was the camels and sleeping under the stars.

We got back to the ship and it was like Christmas morning. We were all running to the ship…and I mean running. It was kind of hilarious.

All in all, Morocco was a completely different country than what I was expecting, but it affected me in ways I cannot even describe. Seeing the ways that the country is run, how the family interacts with one another, and just the poverty on the streets (or what seems like poverty) is such an eye opening sight that you can’t help but be affected by it.

 

Spain=Amazing!

I just got back onto the ship from Spain! It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had. I had a blast.

 

My friends and I got off of the boat on Saturday and went straight to the train station. We took a two hour train ride to Seville. It has to be one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. Once we got off of the train we needed to find our hostel...we were only about a 15 minute walk, but somehow managed to go in the complete opposite directions, turning it into over a 3 hour walk..with our heavy backpacks with all of our clothes and stuff for the three days we would be there..and with it being about 100 degrees (and no I am not exaggerating). It was miserable, but hey I was in Spain so there was no complaining. We finally got to our hostel and it was nothing like what I was expecting. It was actually nice haha. We had to get two rooms with there being seven of us. By the last night we were all bunking in the same room.. two to a bed. There was a German woman staying in one of the rooms that we had and she snored extremely loud and decided that the heat needed to be on. We were like WTF?!? haha so everyone staying in that room ended up coming to stay in our room. We had the a/c on high and was like a meat locker but was sooo nice ;)

 

I don’t think I have ever walked so much in my entire life. We walked everywhere...and I mean everywhere. Each day we got up and walked around Seville. It is one of the nicest cities I have ever been to with rich culture and amazing people. I could not believe how nice the locals were. When we were on our long walks, which usually turned into us getting lost, one lady got out her map and literally drew a route for us and gave it to us. She was so nice. Even the people who didn’t speak any English were so patient and understanding when it came to the extreme language barrier.

 

We did, however learn the hard way that not all places took Credit Cards and there weren’t many places to exchange American dollars for euros. At one point we were all borrowing money from each other because we needed euros to pay for things, but it all worked out in the long run. So word of advice if you ever travel to Spain, is exchange your money before you go , because it is the biggest pain in the butt to try to do it mid-trip.

 

I did get to see a real Spanish Bull-Fight which was exciting. It was veryyyy intense to say the least. I got there and didn’t really know what to expect. I knew that the matador killed the bull, but I just wasn’t really mentally prepared for it. I actually starting to tear up at one point. I’m glad I went and got to experience the Spanish culture in this sense, but I think one bull fight in this lifetime is plenty for me.   

 

The next day we took the train to Cordoba. It is a great city with some amazing architecture and landmarks to see. We walked to the Mezquita mosque, which is full of history and the detail in the carving is incredible to see. Once we were done walking around the city, we took the train back to Seville and stayed in the hostel for one more night and then got up the next morning to make it back to Cadiz for our last full day.

 

I wish we were able to spend more time in Cadiz, but from what I saw it is a city with a beautiful Cathedral and many little town squares and amazing culture. On our last night in Spain, we went out to celebrate Mackenzie’s 18^th birthday!! It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend our last night.

 

All in all, Spain was amazing and I would go back in a heartbeat :)

Spain Tomorrow!!

We finally made it. We are docking in Spain tomorrow morning and I am so excited :) My friends and I made plans to go to Seville for a few days and tour the city and then come back to Cadiz the day before we need to be back on the boat..dont want to risk any dock time for being late.  Everyone has said that Cadiz is small enough where you can take one day and see everything that is important to see. I just don't want to miss anything. We also are getting ready to celebrate miss Mackenzie's 18th birthday. She has been counting down the days and it is almost here. Her birthday falls on the day that we depart for Morocco, so we are taking her out on the 7th and at midnight it will be her birthday so we are going to celebrate then.

 

Today is our last day of classes for 10 days..we don't have class until we get back from Morocco and I, for one, am so excited. I like my classes and all. It's just so much reading and note taking that it will be nice to have a break for a while (even though we have only had classes for 6 days haha but that's beside the point ;) As I said in my last post, days seem to run togther while we are on this ship. We live according to A and B days. Today is B3. So if in any of my emails/posts I refer to a day as A3, B4 and you are confused I am sorry. I have no concept of Monday, Tuesday, etc anymore. My A day is my favorite day. I only have one class and it isnt until 1335 (1:35pm)..I'm getting so good at using military time haha.

So my schedule is:

A Day

1335 (1:35pm) Intro to Drawing (it is turning out to be a really fun and interesting class)

B Day

800 (8:00am)- Contemporary Social Issues (it is interesting but there is so much reading for it that it has become a tedious class)

920 (9:20am)- Global Studies (I usually spend this time not to fall asleep)

1455 (2:55pm)- Making Business Work (I am liking this class a lot)

 

Last night my business teacher had us watch a movie called "Abandon Ship"..not the kind of movie you want to watch as you are sailing in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean with no land in sight. I might as well have watched Titanic. It was decent but I wouldn't watch it again.

 

Last night we moved the clocks ahead one more hour and it was the last time until after we leave Cape Town, I think/I hope haha. It is defintitely catching up to me. I had an 8am class this morning and could barely wake up. Everyone seems so tired. It's like we are going to class at 3am (which we would be if we were still on Boston time). I've heard that once we get over to Asia and all of those countries like India, Vietnam, etc we will have to set the clocks ahead 2-4 hours...I hope that its not true because that would suck, especially getting up for classes the next day..but we'll just have to wait and see.

 

SPAIN TOMORROW!!!!!

 

 

 

3 Days til Spain!!!

Things are still going good on the MV Explorer. Although I have no concept of days anymore-I live according to A and B days. And they all seem to run together. It seems like I have been on this ship for about 3 weeks and I have only been here for 5 days-not that I'm complaining at all. I feel like once we start getting into ports, it will start to go faster because we wont want to leave the different countries.
We got to see our first sight of land this morning-Santa Maria island in the Azores :) It was so exciting because I haven't seen land in about days-since we left Halifax.
We spent the afternoon outside doing homework. It wasn't too sunny but it was still nice out. Oh and I finally got to see the dolphins!!! I have been waiting to see dolphins and whales since I got on this boat and yesturday around 3pm there about 20 of them (and I'm not even exaggerating)! They were swimming around and jumping out of the water. It was awesome.
The food is definitely getting old. The six of us seem to be living off of rolls, bananas, and water. It looks like on this voyage I will be a vegetarian (the meat is questionable). Crackers and peanut butter will become my new best friend.
Mackenzie and I have become work out buddies. We have been working out every night and hopefully we can keep it up. It's been a lot of fun having someone to work out with. If I don't really want to go she's right there to say we're going and thats that. hahaha
Sorry if this is kind of a boring post..i'm sure they will get better once we start getting to the countries.
SPAIN IN 3 DAYSSS!! <3