India: Alternate Reality

India was one of those countries that it is hard to think of the words to describe it. There are so many sides to India, that to come up with a single word is virtually impossible.

Upon arriving in India, it was decided that we would spend the first day in Chennai walking around and roaming around the city—well that was the plan. Things changed once we got through the port gate. I was out with Amy, Carly, Ed and Ashleigh, and once we got through the port gate we were immediately bombarded with locals trying to get us to go with them in their rickshaws (auto-rickshaws are basically taxis with no doors, all open, and seem like you are in an oversized go kart with a roof). It was extremely overwhelming and we were forced to take two because you cannot fit more than three people in one. So we found two and got in. We told the drivers to stay together and take us to an ATM. It seemed fine, until about five minutes in when Amy, Ed, and Ashleigh’s rickshaw stopped on the side of the road, and Carly and I’s rickshaw didn’t. Their rickshaw had to stop so that the driver could change his shirt, and our driver told us that they were going to meet us at the bank and refused to stop. We got so annoyed, but the rickshaw was still moving so we couldn’t get out. We got to the ATM, Carly went in and got money, and then we told Steven, our rickshaw driver, that we were going to wait for our friends, since we were told they were going to meet us. We waited a few minutes, and then got a BBM from Ed saying that they were going to the Main City in Chennai. We told our driver to take us there. We got there and our friends were nowhere to be found. Steven kept telling us that our friends were going to be at our next stop, but I think he was referring to other SAS students, because at every stop there were different SAS kids. We just wanted to find the friends that we started out with, and apparently that was not going to happen. We lost contact with Ed and realized that we were not going to catch up with them for the majority of the day, so we just went to the different places that Steven was going to show us. There were points throughout the day that we wanted to just leave Steven pay him and just walk around or find a new driver, but he was always waiting for us, to take us to the next stop. It was convenient, but annoying at the same time. We had to meet up with Ed, Amy and Ashleigh at some point because I had Ed’s passport and Amy had Carly’s, and we need our passports to get into the port gate. So after going to the MANY different shops and sites, we made Steven take us to the port. On the way, he had to stop for gas, and all of a sudden he is asking us for money to pay for the gas. I was like “what, we have to pay for your gas?” He said that yes you pay for gas. I was annoyed, but Carly gave him money and we were on our way. About five minutes later, he stopped the rickshaw and wanted us to pay him, before we even got to the port gate. When we first got in the rickshaw we were told that it was going to be $1 to go to the ATM, which is about 45 Rupees. We ended up being in the rickshaw for about three hours, but all of a sudden he is asking us for 1000 Rupees each, about $22 per person. We said No and that we would give him 1000 total. He was not having it and we were getting so mad. I was beyond mad, especially because we weren’t anywhere where I knew how to get back to the port gate, or I would have just gotten out and walked. We gave him 1500 Rupees total because he already got 200 for gas. He was not happy but he was not getting any more. He drove us to the port gate; we got out and got on the shuttle to go back to the ship. We, luckily, found Ashleigh and Ed waiting for us at the shuttle. You cannot get on the shuttle back to the ship without your passport, so Ed couldn’t get back. Amy went back to the ship because she had to pee, so Carly’s passport was waiting for her with them. We got back to the ship finally and then decided to go see a movie.

We found a movie theater at a massive mall and debated on which movie to see. It was so cool because we could go up to these huge screens and scroll through the movies to pick one. It was all touch screens, very high tech. We ended up watching Despicable Me in 3D, which was actually a good movie. I kind of wanted to see a BollyWood movie, but none of them were playing at the time we were there, so we couldn’t. It was still a good time.

The next morning, Ed and Ashleigh left on their Taj Mahal trip and Amy, Carly and I got ready for our home stay. We were going on an SAS trip that took us to learn about Child Labor in Rural India. It was probably one of the most amazing and eye opening experiences I’ve ever had. We were taken to an open field which we later learned was the school for the kids. The kids welcomed us with flowers being thrown in the air and their smiling faces.

We were there for about an hour playing with the kids and teaching them games such as Duck Duck Goose, Hokey Pokey, and the Chicken Dance. They were most excited when we had our cameras and they could see their pictures that were just taken. They thought it was the best thing in the world when we let them hold our cameras and taught them how to take a picture. The look on their faces and their happiness at that moment is a moment in time I will never forget.

We were taken into a “classroom” type setting and the kids got up and sang songs for us. It was so cute.  The leader of the program asked for one SAS student to go to the front of the classroom and explain what we are doing, so that the students could understand what we were doing and why we were there, so one girl got up and explained it perfectly so that the students wouldn’t be confused. We are there to see them while we are in the middle of sailing around the world on a ship. Simple as that.

We had to say bye to the kids and that was hard. I didn’t want to leave. The kids gave us hugs and high-fives and watched us leave. We took the bus back to the place we were going to be staying. I originally thought we would be staying with various families, since it is a home stay, but we were all staying in a house, which was kind of like a guest house. It was four stories with about 6-7 students in each room, with my room as the exception with 12 people. It wasn’t what I expected but it was still an amazing time.

We went to the main house for an authentic vegetarian meal. I had no idea what most of it was, but it was actually good. I finished my plate and was so full. After dinner there were two people from Germany who were doing work with the organization, RIDE INDIA, which is a non-government organization dedicated to empowering poor and disadvantaged residents of rural India to improve the quality of their lives. They work to eliminate child labor, promote social justice for women, provide essential medical and educational services, and cultivates economic opportunity throughout the region. They are an incredible organization to meet and learn about. It was such an eye opening experience to learn about these kids’ lives. It was overwhelming to think about these kids that we just met to be forced into child labor, especially since most of them were only about four years old. This organization works to get them out of it and give them a better life.

We stayed up until about 1:30am talking to the two interns with the organization and learned about the things they were doing with RIDE, and also about their lives in Germany and in general. We woke up at 7:30am the next morning for breakfast and then made our way to our next stop. We were taken to a small Indian village in Kanchipuram where we got to walk around and see how the people in the village live. It was an intense experience to realize that these people essentially live in huts. Some of the homes don’t have any doors, they are cement floors/walls, although some just have dirt floors and the straw roof creates walls. The level of living was startling. I knew that these places existed and even though I have learned about them in school, or seen pictures in books, it was nothing compared to seeing it firsthand.  The children of the village were so excited to see us and would take our hands to lead us through their homes and village. We saw a temple with service going on. Everyone was so captivated by the service and what was going on. This way of life was overwhelming to take in.

After leaving the village, we were taken to a pottery-making site. We were able to see the labor that goes into it. I had always seen pottery being made with tools that were electronic or something to that effect. These tools that he was using were wooden or things you could find on the ground. He had a spinning wheel made out of wood and would spin it while the clay was int eh center and then sculpt it while it was rotating. The pots came out beautifully and I was in awe. We were then taken to a silk-making factory and were able to go to the room in which the silks were made. They are all made by hand and we saw a man making it. It was crazy to see how much work and detail goes into it. They use a machine that weaves the thread, but they have to rotate the pattern through each row on the fabric. I know this sounds confusing, but I don’t know how else to explain it. Each row has to be lined by hand so the patter on the silk comes out correctly. We were able to go to the silk shop and look around to shop. I found many beautiful scarves and it was so hard to choose which ones to buy. I finally chose some of the scarves I wanted to buy, but it was not easy. I wanted them all.

The next day I was able to go to a Missionaries of Charity Children’s Home. It was an SAS trip and there were only about nine to ten of us that went to see the kids and it was such a humbling experience. We were only there for about an hour or so but we got to spend time with the kids and just take it all in. When we got there we learned that the facility was undergoing some minor construction, so about half of the children were across town at school and would be later on that evening, so there were about ten kids and they had put on their best clothes/dresses for us, and were so excited to see us. They had the biggest smiles on their faces. We brought coloring books and balls to throw around and bubbles. When they learned what bubbles were, you would have thought we struck gold. They were in awe and everyone wanted to blow some bubbles. It’s crazy because when you are playing with them and just talking with them, it is sometimes easy to forget all of the things that they don’t have or don’t know about. It seems like they are just regular kids, with minor disabilities that are sometimes invisible. Then when you see how excited they get over blowing bubbles, or taking pictures with cameras it hits you as to how much they are missing and they don’t even know it. They are still the happiest kids and to see their spirits and how joyful they are to see you it completely overwhelming. We were only there for such a short time, but it was a moment in time that will live with me forever.

The following morning Amy and I took part in a service project in which we went to a Disabled Children’s Home. There were about fourteen-fifteen of us. We got there and it turned out to be a hospital and it is also where the children lived as well, and where they got their schooling. There were many small buildings on the grounds and we were given a tour of each one. We were able to get a sense of how these children live day to day. We were told that for the morning we would be helping to clean up the various rooms/windows and such on the grounds. I’m not going to sugar coat anything when I say that it looked as though it had never been cleaned before. There were dust bunnies that had grandchildren on these windows and bars. There were many points in time in which I needed to step outside to be able to breathe. It was so upsetting that this is where these kids are living/being taken care of.

This facility is the largest of its kind and is home to mentally and physically disabled children. The government was helping fund them but it was very minimal so their access to funds to better their facility is almost non-existent. Their priority is helping the children.

After cleaning we were able to go see how the children were given lunch and help serve them. This was probably the hardest part of the day because we saw what they were given for lunch (white rice with milk, some form of brown rice that one of the volunteer interns didn’t even know what was in it, some form of vegetables which not all of them received, and something sweet (which was some brown liquid)) and how they ate it (all with their hands and some of them even needed help feeding themselves. It was heartbreaking. I almost had to leave the room because I was going to cry.

 

After serving the children lunch, we were taken to the nurse’s dining hall where we would have lunch. We were given a sheet of paper, which looked like a banana leaf. This would be what we would eat off of. They began serving us some rice, some form of potatoes with vegetables mixed in, peppers, and bread wraps that were kind of like tortillas. In the Indian culture, you finish what is on your plate, which turned out to be very difficult. Oh and you cannot use your left hand for anything—and when you are eating with your hands (no silverware) and trying to break apart the bread it was extremely different and difficult. I had to literally sit on my left hand so I wouldn’t use it. I kept going to try to use it and had to stop myself.  About half way through I was already full. I had no idea how I was going to finish it. Everyone was making progress, but every time I looked down it seemed like I had more food on my leaf. I was able to finish most of it, but at that point people were starting to crinkle their leaves and so I pushed my food to the center and crinkled it up. I didn’t want to be rude, but there was no way I was able to finish it, and no one else could finish it because they were just happy to finish their portions. I felt horrible about it and meant no disrespect for their culture.

After lunch we were able to finally interact with the kids. They were amazing. We separated into two classrooms and got to play with them and use the chalkboards to draw or play with the balls we had bought. We played catch and rolled the balls. These kids are amazing and I was so happy to interact with them. After playing with them for a couple of hours, it was time for us to leave. I was sad to leave the facility, but we learned that a dozen of the children and a few adult chaperones were able to come back to the ship and we could give them a tour. It was awesome. They loved the bus ride. A little boy, who has down syndrome, sat next to me and thought my camera was the best thing. I let him sit by the window and take pictures. He had the biggest smile on his face for the whole ride. We made it back to the ship, and after a brief encounter with the immigration officials who were having trouble finding the information on the manifest saying that they were allowed and cleared to board the ship, we were able to show them around the ship. They loved it, almost as much as we did. It was time for them to leave and it was sad to see them go.

We went to dinner and had to digest what we just saw and experienced. It was such an overwhelming day and to see what we saw was intense. It was a lot to take in, but I’m glad I was able to experience it. It really makes you think of all that we have and all that we take for granted. I know that I am guilty of it, but it is the little things that we have that we don’t realize how lucky and fortunate we are. We have clean running water, which is so hard to find while in India, at least the part I was in. We always had to make sure we filled a water bottle before we left the ship, or the trip leaders would make sure that the bus had bottles of water for us or we were going to stop for water that would be okay to drink. It is the little things like this that truly make you think of how these people live and what they have here. Also, street cleaning is a major thing as well. Everywhere we went in India was so dirty. I have been back on the ship for about three days and I finally was able to get the dirt off of my feet. I mean no disrespect to the country at all, that is just my observations. When you step off of the ship, you can see the difference in culture immediately. The people are so nice and amazing and the culture is fascinating. I am so glad I got to experience the difference in culture and meet the amazing people and children. No, I never made it to see the Taj Mahal, but I got to see a different side of India, and for that I am grateful.

Singapore is next, and it is Halloween. I cannot wait to see how this turns out.

Until next time…

I love you all and miss you so much <3

Love always,
Kayla <3 xoxo

And the Winner is...

So Sea Olympics were in full swing. We had the sign-up sheets filled out for events, routines completed for synchronized swimming and lip synching, and all of our yellow gear collected. All that was left was for opening ceremonies to commence and for the games to get underway.

Finally the morning came and opening ceremonies were crazy!! All of the seas were decked out in their respectful colors and decorated from head to toe. It reminded me of blue and white day in high school…my favorite day of the year. We were all chanting our cheers and getting excited. Archbishop Desmond Tutu had the honors of getting the games underway…”Let the games begin!!”

I immediately went to the 7^th deck by the pool to see the synchronized swimming event. It was awesome to see all of the different routines and ideas by all of the other seas—some better than others, some more funny than anything, but all in all one of the best events to watch. The Yellow Sea went with the all-guys routine. It was hilarious. They used a mix of songs ranging from Milkshake to RESPECT to Bye Bye Bye. It was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen…especially since they were all in little yellow shorts. Watching that made my day! Unfortunately we didn’t place, which I think we should have, but it was still a strong effort.

I went around for most of the day taking pictures/videos and cheering on my team. We placed third in the Tug of War competition, which is still good, but the best part was the face that we were able to beat the Caribbean Sea (black), which had been winning all day, and had all of the big-muscled jocks on their team. That made Amy’s day. For the rest of the day, when we wouldn’t win events, she would go around saying how we beat the black team in tug of war. It was actually hilarious!

My other favorite event was the Lip Synching event. Each sea was to put together a performance while lip synching to a song/mix of songs of their choice. Some of the seas put together amazing routines. My favorite was the Aegean Sea’s routine. They were phenomenal. They had a routine with about six different songs ranging from Single Ladies to Thriller to I Like Big Butts, with a little Justin Bieber thrown in. It was the best routine of the night and they deserved to win first place. The Yellow Sea put together a mash up of Britney Spears songs which was awesome, but wasn’t enough to place in that event either.

The Caribbean Sea won the Olympics, with their prizes being to be the first ones off of the ship in San Diego, and they also get to have a dance party in the staff/faculty lounge. The Yellow Sea came in at a solid fifth place. Not too bad. Out of ten seas, we came in the top five haha. Once it was apparent that we were not going to win, all of the competitiveness didn’t matter and we just let loose and had fun with it. I think it was better that way. Of course I would have loved to win, but it was still so much fun to just see all the events and see the spirit that people expressed. All in all, the day was a lot of fun and I’m sad it’s over. Congratulations Caribbean Sea!

Beaches, Waterfalls...Paradise

I don’t even know how to describe Mauritius—beautiful, tropical paradise, party central…it’s all of the above. Mauritius is a gorgeous island off the coast of Africa, near Madagascar. It is endless beaches, five star hotels, clubs, cascading waterfalls, a perfect place to bring six hundred college students. I’ll let your imagination wonder about all of the stories that have come from this port in which we were there for less than forty eight hours.

We arrived in Mauritius around 8am on Thursday morning and immediately got off of the ship once cleared by immigration. We walked around a little bit, found a couple of taxis to take us to Tamaran Falls, the site of incredible waterfalls. We were told the hike wouldn’t be too bad, so Amy, Carly, and I figured it would just be a bunch of walking to it. We wore flip flops…not the best idea we’ve ever had. We got there and we literally had to climb and descend rocks and gravel. It was intense, but so worth it. When we arrived, the scene was out of a movie...picturesque scenery of waterfalls and open nature. It was breath taking. We were told that we could climb up the cliffs and jump off of them into the pool of water. It was so much fun to just be there with everyone.

After hanging out and swimming for a little bit, Amy and I joined Ashleigh, our friend from the River Rafting trip for some lunch at this cute outdoor restaurant. We got pizzas and chicken and seafood plates, with as much spice on it as possible. It was so good!!

After that, we took the water taxis (the little boats that took us from the ship to the waterfront) back to the ship.

The next morning we got up and took the bus to Grand Baie, a gorgeous stretch of beach and crystal clear waters. We ended up making some friends with other SAS students, Jules, Chris and Sam. We spent the day with them and hung out at the beach for a couple of hours and then got some lunch at SPURS!!! I never thought I would see that place again!! It was so good. I absolutely love that place. After lunch we found a little market to get some last minute souvenirs and such. The markets can be very overwhelming. Everyone says that they are much less intimidating here, but the locals still get in your face when you are looking at little things to buy. If you decide you don’t want it, or it is too expensive and just want to walk away they try to follow you. You literally have to tell them that you do not want it and leave the market. It can be intense.

We headed back to the ship with plenty of time to spare so we wouldn’t have to worry about getting any dock time.  We have a set time to be back on the ship and it is 6pm. If you are even one second late you will have dock time. After dinner, around 5:30pm, my friends and I decided to go to Deck 5 and watch all of the people who are racing the clock to get on the ship on time. There was a long line because bags need to be checked and such. It is common sense to not wait until after 5:30 to try to get back on the ship. There is going to be a long line. People were still running to get in line at 5:55pm. It was one of the funniest things I have seen. There were students who were still drunk walking up the gangway. Pure comedy!!

All in all Mauritius was a lot of fun and definitely a place I would return to. We were there for only two days, but it was still a lot of fun and for some people, maybe too much fun. Mauritius tends not to like when SAS arrives, because it is treated much like Spring Break times ten. We are there for such a short period of time that, as history has discovered, we tend to go a little crazy. There are hotels and places that will not even allow SAS students to come there. I do not doubt that the hotel in which most SAS people stayed will rethink it for next year. I won’t go into detail but I’m sure that you can imagine it for yourselves.

I’m not going to lie. I had a couple of drinks and enjoyed my time in Mauritius, but I want to remember this trip. And if I am getting so drunk in every port, that won’t happen. I don’t really understand it. I am all for having a good time, but I don’t need to be so drunk to do so. The captain of this ship is not happy either. He pretty much called this voyage a “booze cruise.” That is horrible…no that is embarrassing. Hopefully things change in the upcoming ports.

We have about three more days of sailing, one of which is the Sea Olympics…GO YELLOW SEA!! I will blog about that in a couple of days, hopefully with news that Yellow Sea kicked some butt!!!

Oh and I am no longer an orphan on this voyage. For a long time I thought I was going to stay little orphan Annie looking for Daddy Warbucks to come rescue me, but I have finally found a family. There is a program called Extended Families, in which Life Long Learners, faculty and students become families.  Almost everyone on this ship is in a family. I have officially been adopted—I received the adoption papers today!! I am so excited. One of the Life Long Learners in my art class adopted me. I am so excited J I have my first family dinner tonight where I will meet my siblings, one of which is Amy. So now we are officially sisters ;)

Up Next: INDIA!!!  and my first Home stay!! I am so excited J

Until next time,

Love always, Kayla <3

T.I.A This is Africa!!!

When you are in Cape Town you don’t feel as though you are in Africa. It feels as though we are back in the United States. It is so much more modernized than I had ever expected.

My friends and I planned on hiking Table Mountain once we got there (my friend Marcus loves hiking and has been talking about hiking since we got on the ship so we agreed to go with him) so once we got off the ship we grabbed a taxi and were on our way. We got to the base of the mountain and began our hike. I hadn’t been feeling very well that morning for some reason and once we began the trek I began to feel sick again, so I decided to take the Cable Way up to the top of the mountain. Amy didn’t want me to be alone so she came with me. I felt bad because I knew that she wanted to hike but she was being a good friend and came with me to the top. I was upset with myself that I didn’t make the hike, but I knew that I wouldn’t have enjoyed it and got the whole experience. We made our way to the top and were stunned with the view. It was breath-taking. Looking out, you get a panoramic view of all of Cape Town and the surrounding oceans. On one side you are looking out at the city and all of the attractions, and on the other side you are seeing the Cape of Good Hope/Cape Point (where the Atlantic/Indian Oceans meet. At the top of the mountain, we were literally on the tip of Africa. It was incredible.

The next morning, Amy and I had a River Rafting trip planned. We got on the bus and after about an hour we pulled over to this truck stop…it’s not as sketchy as it sounds. We found out that there was something wrong with the bus and it was overheating or something like that. We needed to wait for another bus to show up. We were told that it would only be about 20-30 minutes, but we soon realized that T.I.A (this is Africa) and 20-30 minutes really means about an hour or so. That was the common theme throughout South Africa. When someone says “soon” or “right now”, it really means you are going to wait about 20 minutes to an hour. Anyways, the new bus arrived and we were on our way.

We stopped at a winery where we learned about the production of wine and then we got to taste some. I’m not really a wine drinker, but some of this wine was delicious. We tried about eight different kinds of wines and I’m not gonna lie, I was a little buzzed after that. We tried all of this wine in the matter of about 30 minutes—we were going so fast that most of us were buzzed by the end. They brought out the price list and all of these wines were going for about 19-21Rands, which translates to about $3 a bottle. It was so cheap, but so good. Some of us bought bottles to have at the camp site and around the camp fire.

After the wine tasting, we made our way to our campsite. It was so much nicer than I was expecting.  We get there and there are these cabin-like set ups which were a cross between a cabin and a tent. They were wooden frame, but had a screen door. There were sets of bunk beds with mattresses and sleeping bags. We all grabbed a cabin tent (about 4-6 people in a tent) and then all sat around the camp fire. Our tour guides made us this amazing dinner, cooked over an open flame. It was chicken, lamb, vegetables, rice, and bread. It was amazing!! I’ve actually been getting better about being a picky eater. I’ve been trying mostly everything, even though some of the stuff I don’t know what it is. My family should be so proud J !!

I loved our trip because even though the maximum number of people that were allowed to go on this trip was 40, there were only 14 of us and it was so nice. It was so relaxed and not chaotic at all. We all became such good friends and got to know each other. And our tour guides were 21-23 years old so they were hanging out with us and we were all having a good time.  It just made it so much better.

In the morning, we got up and there was breakfast cooking. They were making us sausage, bacon, eggs, and toast all over the flame. It was one of the best breakfasts I ever had, and I don’t really even eat breakfast.

We all ready and made our way to the van and drove about 10-15 minutes to the river. Each raft held two people so we paired up and began paddling down the river. Within about 10 minutes we were all soaked, because we all decided that it would be a good idea to splash everyone with our paddles. It was so much fun and absolutely hilarious at the same time.

When I first signed up for this trip, I thought it was like a White Water Rafting trip, but this river was probably the calmed river there is. It was a Class 1 river, with only small rapids along the way. It was fine because along the way we would just decide to jump out of the raft and go swimming. It was probably one of the best trips I have gone on so far. It was just so laid back that you didn’t feel stressed out about seeing everything and taking a lot of pictures. You could just relax and have fun with everyone. It was awesome!!

Amy and I made our way to Robben Island the next morning. This is the island in which Nelson Mandela was held in prison for 27 years. We took a ferry to the island and then were taken on a tour of the island and prison grounds. It was a lot of information all at once. That was the only thing I didn’t like. I was expecting to just take the ferry and then we would be able to just roam around and see what we wanted to see. I didn’t know until the night before that it was a guided tour. It wasn’t bad, just a lot of information to retain all at once. I did get to see Mandela’s actual cell which was awesome and I got a shirt with 466/64 on it which I love. 466 is the cell number where he was held and 64 is the year in which he was sent to prison. I wanted to see some penguins, but I only saw them while they were in the water. But I bought a stuffed animal penguin which I sleep with every night. I’m such a child at heart...and I don’t even care. Haha

After Robben Island, we made our way back to the ship. We wanted to grab our computers to find some internet to talk to our family and friends back home. We were able to find some internet, even though the connection was not the best. I was able to call some of you back home and even though I didn’t reach everyone it was nice to just leave messages and let all of you know how much I love and miss you.

Amy and I went out to dinner at this steakhouse called Spurs. It was soooo good!!! We got there and it was just so warm and inviting. Then we opened the menus and when I first looked I freaked because one of the items was a rack of ribs for 89.95 and I almost had a heart attack but then I remembered that I needed to convert it from Rand to Dollars. So that was only about $9-10. I felt better after that. We got this cheesy garlic bread which was probably the best garlic bread I’ve ever had. The meals were so good as well and we treated ourselves to a brownie sundae. We were able to get drinks, the appetizer, meals (steaks) and dessert for only $33. It was so good and so inexpensive. We ended up going there for dinner the next night…and breakfast the following morning. Don’t laugh at us. It was well worth it.

I went to the Aquarium the next morning, which was awesome!! I love aquariums. I got to see my penguins which I have wanted to see the entire time we were in South Africa. They were so cute. I wanted to take one home, or at least be able to touch them or something, but that was definitely not allowed. I saw them being fed which was cool. Oh and Amy and I were walking through the different exhibits, and in one of the tanks there were lobsters and I’m not going to lie, I got chills and almost screamed. Thank you Daddy so much for that. I am still terrified of live lobsters. And for all of you who don’t know why I would be scared of them, that is another story for another day. I’m sure my dad is laughing his butt off right now.

On our last night in South Africa, we all went to Mitchell’s, the local bar by the waterfront. It was just a fun night to celebrate being South Africa. It was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone on our last night.

The last day, I went on an FDP, which is a trip that is for a class. I have to write a paper about the experience and all that I learned. The trip was to two wineries to learn about the production and marketing of the wine. Yes, another winery. There was more wine tasting and a lot of information to remember. It was one of the best field trips ever though. I got school credit for going to a winery and drinking wine all day. It doesn’t get much better than that.

I absolutely loved South Africa and was sad to leave. I would love to go back there someday. There was so much more that I wanted to do, but just didn’t have time.

Up next is Mauritius and I couldn’t be more excited…

I'm an Emerald Shellback!!

So we celebrated Neptune Day, a day that celebrates passing over the Equator, a few days ago and boy was it a celebration!!

At 7:30am in the morning, the crew was responsible for waking all of us up, and this was done by them dressing up in tribal Viking-like gear, and banging symbols and banging on all of the doors. It was hilarious and very entertaining, to say the least.

We went up to the fifth deck, got some breakfast, and proceeded up to the seventh deck, where all of the festivities would take place. We get up there and everything is set up, from the chairs where the King and Queen (Dean David and Sue, Executive Dean) and of course, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and his wife, Mrs. Tutu. There is music playing and everyone is having a great time.

All of the faculty and crew, who have passed the Equator before are all dressed up and it just gets everyone pumped.

The beginning of the festivities involved two crew members taking green slime (fish guts as people were calling them) and students standing in the pool, having the slime dumped on them and then jumping in the pool. Once out of the pool you kissed a fish, kissed the king and queens rings, and were “knighted”. I, along with all of my friends, took part in this portion of the celebration. It was actually a lot of fun, even after getting out of the pool with slime all over you and smelling horribly. Who cares? We all smelt after that.

This is also the celebration in which people shave their heads. I knew that a lot of people did this, but I was surprised at just how many girls went through with it. There were girls who had been growing out their hair for so long that decided to shave it all off. For guys it is not as big of a deal, although for some guys it is, but I feel like a girl getting up there and shaving all of her hair off is a bigger deal.

I knew that Amy had been talking about Neptune Day since before we even applied, but I didn’t know just how into this she actually was. She mentioned a few days ago that she was thinking about shaving her hair and I was a little surprised, but deep down I knew that she would be the one out of all of us that would do it and be okay with it. I knew that, personally, I would get caught up in the moment and shave off my hair but five minutes later be balling my eyes out over what I had just done. I knew that and was okay with it. But Amy knew that this was what she wanted, and she went for it. She got up there and had her head shaven. She no longer has hair and it actually looks good!! In that moment I realized just how strong of a person she really is. She is my best friend and I am so proud of her for making this decision about what she wanted, because there were a lot of opinions coming her way in the days leading up, but she took them in and made her own decision about what she wanted to do, not anyone else. I hope that by the end of the voyage that I am able to be that strong and just do what I want when I want to and be ok with it. Every one that got up there and shaved their heads is so strong and should be proud of themselves!! Archbishop Desmond Tutu even got up there and shaved his head! It was so cute. He got up there and participated in the events with everyone else. There was such a sense of unity on the ship. It was great!!

I am now an Emerald Shellback. Emerald Shellbacks are those who have crossed the Equator. No more being a pollywog for me J

South Africa in 2 days <3

Until next time..