Time Warp!!

Throughout this entire voyage we have been sailing along and becoming further and further along in time compared to the United States. At one point we were 16 hours ahead of the east coast. That was until yesturday. We passed the International Dateline and so we ended up repeating a day--November 27th to be exact. It was so strange because now instead of being 16 hours ahead, we are now 8 hours behind.

Essentially we had a chance to repeat a day and have a "second chance" if you will. We were the last ones to see daylight on November 27th. I am so amazed by this haha.

We are on our way to Hawaii and should be there on Friday. I am so excited to be back in the United States, but sad to leave the International Ports behind. I will finally have my phone back, so I wont have to worry about finding internet to be able to use Skype to call home either, which will be nice.

So feel free to call/text me when I am in Hawaii :) I'd love to hear from you all.

 

Love you all and hope to talk to you soon!

 

Love, Kayla <3 xoxo

 

The Beginning of the End :(

We have finally reached our last international port on this journey around the world. It was in this port that I realized just how soon I would be going home and how soon I would be back to reality and I will be forced to wake up from this dream.

So as we arrived in Japan, we were greeted with the most intense immigration we’ve ever had. Once we docked at 8am, immigration officials came on board and set up a temperature detecting machine. We were all called up to the Union to walk by this machine which would record our temperature to make sure that we weren’t running a fever or anything like that—if our temperature was over the normal body temperature, we would not be able to get off of the ship. Japan is super strict about that stuff as they don’t want any foreign diseases/germs coming into their country. So once every person on the ship completed this—which only took about an hour—we then had to pass through immigration with our passports. During pre-port they mentioned that this could take around 3-4 hours for everyone to do this before the ship could be cleared. Once you were past this immigration step you were free to roam about Japan, but you had to make sure that you had anything you would need for the day because you would not be able to get back onto the ship until everyone had done this. Amy and I just planned on roaming around the city for the day so we waited a little bit as there were trips and people in a rush to get off of the ship. We figured instead of standing in a line for 3 hours, we would just wait and relax on board and then get off—waiting is waiting, right?

Anyways, around noon time we were able to go to immigration inside the terminal. There was a long line and after about forty five minutes we were through immigration and wandering around the city. Before we left the terminal we stopped by the hospitality/tourism desk for maps and information on how to get downtown and were told that we needed to take the monorail to get there. We got on the train, went about two stops and then were in the heart of the city of Kobe, Japan.

We wondered around the ENTIRE city walking everywhere. We found this “subway” market which would seem like it was somewhat cheap things, but their idea of cheap is spending $9.00 on a keychain, so needless to say I did very little spending in Japan. We decided to navigate our way back to the ship, without taking the monorail. It wasn’t too far. Only took us about 45 minutes to an hour and it was worth it. We got to literally see the whole city. It was gorgeous because on our walk it was sunset and we found this little amusement park with a little rollercoaster and huge Ferris wheel. We rode on the rollercoaster and then took the Ferris wheel up and saw the entire city at sunset. It was gorgeous and you literally had to take a minute to take it all in.

While we were walking along the harbor back to the ship, we reflected on our trip and how much this has changed us. This may have only been a 100 day voyage, that hasn’t even been completed yet, but we can feel how much we have changed and grown up since we left. It’s crazy!

That night we made it back to the ship and were all set to just hang in and relax for the night, but that all changed when Ed and Ashleigh banged on our door around 11pm. I had no intentions of going out, but somehow I was swayed to go out (I don’t know how, but every time Ed gets it in his head to drag me out for drinks, I somehow get convinced to go) and when we reached our destination, we found out that it was 2000yen(around $25-$30) to get in and then it was all you can drink—just imagine all you can drink with a bunch of SAS’ers went and that’s all I’m going to say about that night. We all made it back to the ship safe and sound.

The next morning, we planned on going to the Kobe Zoo, but everyone who had went to it the previous day had said that it was really small and not really worth the money or travel time, so we tried to figure out what to do for the day. We had walked around the entire city already and saw the sites, so what else was there? While Amy was at breakfast, Shawn (one of the professor’s husband, who’s daughters Amy and I have been babysitting) had mentioned that his wife and him wanted to try to get some shopping done and trying to do that (and maybe find some stocking stuffers) with twin two year olds was a challenge, so we figured that we would help them out and babysit for a little while.  It was a lot of fun. We walked around the entire ship and stopped and played with cars on the pool deck and learned about making handprints with water by the pool. I had a blast.

The next day was an “In Transit” day, meaning that the ship would be in transit from Kobe, Japan to Yokohama, Japan. Not everyone sailed with the ship and decided to travel by land across Japan. I thought about it, but in my opinion the amount of money that it would cost to travel and lodge for that time just wasn’t worth the money (especially with the amount of money I dropped in Vietnam and China on shopping). I decided that I needed to be somewhat frugal in this port, and was okay with my decision. I spent the day working on school work and trying to catch up on my assignments, since the end of the semester and finals are right around the corner.

We finally reached Yokohama, and fortunately did not have to go through intense immigration, since we were still in Japan. Amy and I got off of the ship, and decided to go to the zoo! We didn’t go in Kobe and I really wanted to see a panda (haha) so I made her come to the zoo with me. I’m glad I did because getting there required some serious navigation skills and she is my very own Columbus!! LOL I don’t know how but no matter where we go she knows where she is and how to navigate her way around—which is very fortunate for me because I get lost walking around the block. For crying out loud it took me about two weeks to navigate my way around the ship.

Anyways, after two trains and an (extremely) expensive taxi ride, we made it to the zoo! The zoo, entitled ZOORASIA, was HUGE!!!! There were about 50 different animals of all different species. I saw lions, tigers, and bears (Oh My!!), and penguins and pandas!! I was so excited J It took us about two hours to get through it. We navigated our way (Amy navigated our way back), but instead of using the taxi, we figured out which bus to take and then made our way back on the trains. The trains in Japan are so clean!! I couldn’t believe how clean they were—America should take a note on that—just a little quick fact!

We wondered around for a little bit, and then made our way back to the ship. We told Kate and Shawn that we would watch the girls again for them. They went out to dinner, and Olivia and Sienna weren’t feeling too well. We watched Toy Story and then put them to bed, which was more difficult than normal because they had bad coughs that were keeping them up. I felt awful!

The next morning, we woke up early and found Wi-Fi inside the terminal where the ship was docked. I was able to call my family which I was so excited about!! It made my day, and the best part was when they were able to set up their Skype and we were able to see each other. I was even able to see my puppy!! I was probably the happiest person on earth for that hour that I was able to talk to and see them. I love and miss them so much!!

After talking with my family, I got ready and was on my way to the Nissan Plant for an FDP (a trip that I have to go on for one of my classes). It was probably the coolest FDP I have gone on. We were taken to the Nissan Oppama Plant, which is one of the largest manufacturers in Japan. We were shown a video of the NPW (Nissan Production Way) and then taken on a guided tour of the plant itself. I got to see the assembly line in action, which was absolutely one of the coolest things I have ever seen. I got to see each stage of the assembly line and basically seeing a car that was being made from start to finish (I didn’t get to see one car from start to finish, because that takes about 16 hours to go through the entire process). We even had to dodge robots that were bringing supplies to different stations along the line.

After being at the Nissan Plant we headed back to the ship. We knew that we would have to go through customs on our way back because we were going to be leaving Japan soon after our return. When we walked through the terminal, we were greeted with a long line where we had to clear immigration, and then stand in line and wait for the security to check our bags before boarding the ship. In total, I was in line for about an hour. It was rather annoying, but necessary.

Japan is a beautiful country, with such a rich culture. I wish I was able to see more of it, but with the amount of time that we were given here and the fact that it is the most expensive port on the itinerary; it just wasn’t possible this time. I think that at some point in my future I will return and see all of the things that I didn’t get to. I loved what I saw and am glad I was able to experience what I have.

I’m not sure why, but there were points of time while we were in Japan, where I was not in a good mood and got really quiet and I am not exactly sure why. I think I was getting to the point where I was realizing that this was our last international point on this voyage and I was sad. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and just knowing that this is the last international port before sailing back to the United States made it a reality to me that we are so close to the end that I wanted to prolong it as much as I could and didn’t know how. But I’m not going to let the realization that it is almost over ruin my experience in Hawaii and even San Diego.

Hawaii, here I come!!

so guys...are we in Chinatown?

Arriving in China was a bit overwhelming. When we learn about China in school we learn that it is the largest country in the world in terms of population with over one billion people. Our first port was Hong Kong, and we were faced with the debate of whether we were actually in China or not. There is much controversy over whether Hong Kong is really part of China or a whole other country, but we view it as the Puerto Rico of China—a territory of China, but separate in its own right.

DEAR MOM AND DAD…I KNOW YOU’RE NOT GOING TO LIKE IT, BUT HERE’S MY FIRST DAY IN HONG KONG!!!  LOVE, KAYLA <3

So we arrive in Hong Kong and getting off of the ship was a challenge in itself. When you are roaming around Hong Kong you don’t need your passport unless you are traveling across land to other provinces or meeting the boat in Shanghai, which I was doing. So we needed to wait for immigration to clear our passports and only then could we get off of the ship.

The first day in Hong Kong was a free day that I had to roam around and see the city, but I decided to spend my day doing something dangerous and wild!! After waiting about 3 or so hours for our passports a group of us SAS’ers traveled to Macau, a province of Hong Kong that requires a forty five minute ferry ride, and ventured to Macau Tower. This is the location of…the HIGEST BUNGEE JUMP IN THE WORLD!!! Yes that’s right, I went bungee jumping!! My mother is probably freaking out right now while reading this, especially since I never mentioned that this is what I planned on doing.

We get to Macau Tower and take the elevator to the 61^st FLOOR! Now since our passports took so long to get our appointments were all screwed up. There were about 50 or so of us and so it was chaos getting everyone harnessed and hooked up to jump off of the building. Our group was supposed to jump around 2:30pm and I didn’t end up jumping until almost 6pm. It was an all day event, but in the end it was all worth it. Ed went ahead of me and his reaction was making me a little nervous. He was a little freaked out—but it was completely understanding, since the second you look over the edge and see how high up you are, who wouldn’t be having a little freak out session? But after saying a few choice words which I will leave you to guess what they were, he did it and I was so proud of him for doing it. He thought I was going to be the one to be scared and chicken out, but it was a comfort to know that he was a little scared too. A few more people got up and jumped before me and then it was my turn. Once I realized that it was my time, my stomach was doing some flip flops and I was shaking. My harness is on and they are strapping the bungee around my ankles and I was getting scared. A guy comes over to interview me, which will be on a DVD if I want to buy it, and he is distracting me asking me how I’m feeling and where I’m from and things like that. All of a sudden I see the bungee cord being pulled up signaling that they are ready to hook me up and I penguin-hop over to the “plank”. Once I am on the plank I realize there is no turning back. I have all of the SAS’ers there cheering for me telling me that I can do this and that was a comfort. Two of the guys who were telling me what was going to happen (they count you down 5-4-3-2-BUNGEE, you fall and once you start recoiling pull the red strap that is around your feet and that will release your feet and you will be in the sitting up position recoiling which will be more comfortable and not to worry if I can’t pull it because I will just be upside down until I get lowered to the ground) and then they were the ones helping me walk to the plank and holding my harness until I was ready to jump. I hear the two minute count down and I am thinking that I am absolutely crazy but the adrenaline is pumping and I can’t help but be excited at the same time. I am at the highest bungee in the world and about to be flying through the air. They tell me to look to my right for a picture and all of a sudden they are saying are you ready…5-4-3-2…and then I jump off of the plank and I am flying. All of the fear is gone and I feel like I am the only one in the world and couldn’t be happier. I start recoiling and pull the red strap and all of a sudden I am sitting up bouncing up and down and can’t help but scream. I am so excited and happy and all of that waiting was completely worth it. That was one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life and I am so happy that I did it. How many people can say that they jumped off of the highest bungee in the world? Not many, but I am one of them and am so happy about that. I got the DVD and pictures and I know that my parents are probably freaking about this right now that their little girl jumped off of a building, but its okay. I’m happy and I survived and I will show them and anyone who wants to see the video and pictures that want to see it.

Now we only had two days in Hong Kong and one of them was spent jumping off a building, and the other one was spent hailing a cab and heading to the Hong Kong airport to catch a flight to Beijing. I am sad I didn’t get to spend a lot of time in Hong Kong, but I know that someday in the future that is one of the places I want to return to and spend the time to really see it.

I was on my way to Beijing to meet the tour guides of the China Guide who would take us around and take us to the Great Wall of China. We got to Beijing around 6pm, found our tour guides and were taken by bus to the hotel. There were about 250 SAS kids going on this trip, so everywhere we went we saw SAS’ers. Picture this; we needed to have three different flights, three different hotels, and eight different buses to accommodate us. The tour guides even said that they have been doing this for about five years, ten semesters and this is the largest group that they’ve ever had.

So we are taken to our hotel, and it is definitely not a five star hotel…it reminded me of a Motel 6. Just figuring out how to turn the lights on in the room was a task in itself. You needed to insert one of your keys in a slot on the wall, slam the slot in because it’s not fully screwed onto the wall, and then turn the knobs that are on your nightstand just to have the lights on. That was just way too complicated if you ask me. We had the night in Beijing free, so a group of us decided to go out and get some dinner. Let’s just say that was much more difficult than we thought it was going to be. We walked down this pedestrian only street which was full of people just walking around and enjoying the culture. We ventured over there and noticed some little restaurants and decided to give one of those a try. We had probably one of the funniest dinners I think I’ve ever had in my life. No one spoke English and trying to order while just looking at pictures turned into none of us knowing what we were ordering. Our food came and we realized that the majority of it was inedible. Carly ordered these veggies wrapped in tofu kind of dish and you would have thought that it was wrapped in a napkin. Gail ordered this beef thing and she couldn’t get through it either. Our friend Lindsey had ordered some noodle soup that was actually massive and the broth was so garlicky and the flavor was just way too much to handle. Amy ordered beef that looked like it was in some form of teriyaki sauce and it was definitely not. Our new friend Naya and I both ordered chicken that was supposed to be in tomato sauce or something, and out of all of the dishes on our table, it was the only thing that was somewhat edible it was the only thing that resembled American style Chinese food. I wasn’t really a fan of it, but everyone else seemed to like it, until Gail tasted a piece and it crunched in the wrong way and when she spit it out it looked like she had bit into an eyeball. Just the amount of quotes that we said from this dinner was the funniest dinner I have ever sat through.

After dinner, we noticed a long line on the street of street vendors with stands of food. we walked down to see what kinds of food they had and I was probably traumatized by the kinds of foods I was seeing—snake, scorpions, shrimp with eyeballs all on sticks and even though these don’t sound too scary when the vendors can tell you are freaked out and they throw snake on a stick at you it is scary!! But that wasn’t the worst part—we reached the end of the line and someone offered me dog on a stick...I almost cried thinking about eating a dog. Food in China is nothing like what I had imagined, but I am glad I at least tried it.

After a long day of flying and seeing all of the different kinds of wild foods, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep. We had to be checked out and at the bus by 8am. When we woke up we got some breakfast at the hotel and made our way to the buses. We drove to another hotel to meet up with the rest of the groups and then form groups of 30. You would think this would be easy, but when you have over 200 kids trying to create groups with their friends and such, it turns into chaos. It took much longer than it needed to create these groups, but once we got our group we got to a bus and were on our way. I was so happy with the group I was in. I was with Amy and some of our friends Maggie and Marissa. We were with their friends and it turned into a great trip because we all became such good friends.

Our first stop was the Forbidden City and then Tiananmen Square—some of the oldest sites in China. After spending a couple of hours there and listening to the incredible history from our awesome tour guide Serena, we were taken to the Silk Market. This place was awesome!!! This market was six floors and there was so much stuff to look at—jewelry, designer shoes, purses, wallets, jackets, clothes, etc and we get to sharpen our bargaining skills!. We were only given about an hour and a half, which was definitely not enough time there. I was able to get so much stuff and was so excited J

We were taken to a restaurant for dinner, which was authentic Chinese cuisine. It was good for the most part and as part of dinner we were all told that we should change into warmer clothes because after dinner we were going to start walking to the Great Wall. It was already cold, but it was only going to get colder. We got dressed (5 long sleeve shirts, 3 pairs of pants, 6 pairs of socks, 2 winter hats, gloves, sneakers, winter jacket) and I was still cold. We started the walk to the Great Wall and it was intense. It was like the mother of all Stairmasters, but we got to the top and walked along the Great Wall to our tower. Each group would be stationed at one of the towers and along the wall. We set up our sleeping bags and just wondered around. We were provided snacks, water (which was pretty much frozen) and beers. I’ll just let you picture what went on when a bunch of college kids were provided alcohol. It got a little crazy, and after a while there were students who were pretty much trashing the Great Wall and I was getting so annoyed. After a while I decided to just go back to my sleeping bag and try to get some sleep. Sleep never came because trying to sleep while trying to breathe in negative degree weather was next to impossible. I spent the night just waiting for sunrise.

Light eventually came and we woke up to see the sunrise rising over the towers of the Great Wall and it was absolutely beautiful. I had to take a minute to just take it all in. After wrapping up our sleeping bags and bringing them back down to the bottom of the wall, we walked back up and began our morning hike along the Great Wall. It was absolutely amazing. I couldn’t believe that I was actually walking on the Great Wall of China. It is so immense and beautiful and something it was just so surreal that I was actually there. We were walking along taking tons of photographs, and picked up some of the trash that other SAS’ers left behind in their wild night on the wall. At that moment, I was ashamed of my peers and what had happened. We were on the Great Wall of China, and instead of enjoying it in all of its glory, there was drinking and partying going on. There is a time and place, and this wasn’t it. We saw workers coming up with trash bags loading them up after cleaning up the garbage. I felt so bad.

We finished our trek along the Great Wall of China, and made our way back to the buses. When we gathered up our entire group, we were taken to the site of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Stadium. It was so cool to see the sites and know that that was the place where Michael Phelps broke all of those records. We were taken to some other sites around Beijing before being taken to the train station.

We got on the train and found our sleeper car. Each group had a car and there were four people to a room. Each room had two sets of bunk beds. I was in a room with Amy, and our friends Naya and Andre. It was a lot of fun. We relaxed and played card games for a while before falling asleep. Sleep wasn’t the easiest with a bunch of SAS’ers celebrating their 21^st birthdays. There were at least two of them and you can only imagine how that went—about 150 SAS’ers on an overnight train to Shanghai celebrating 21^st birthdays—chaos!!

We arrived in Shanghai around 7:15am, got off of the train and were greeted by China Guide’s tour guides which would take us to the ship. The ship was docking at 8am, so we had some time before we arrived and before the ship was cleared. We convinced our guide and bus driver to go to McDonald’s for breakfast.

We made our way back to the ship, and had to wait in a LONGGG line before getting back on the ship. Each person needed to have their passport looked at before getting on the ship and all of our bags searched, as always, but when each person is returning from three days traveling, we all had multiple bags, so waiting for our bags to be searched took a long time. We eventually made it back on the ship, but were then informed that since we did not travel with the ship between Hong Kong and Shanghai we needed to turn in our passports for immigration to clear them. We were told it would take about an hour. About four hours later, we were able to get off of the ship again. I went out with a small group of people who were in our group on the Great Wall. It was a lot of fun! We went shopping at this market and were able to get a bunch of stuff—like I needed to do more shopping. Oh well, things were just so cheap and I was having so much fun bargaining that I couldn’t resist.

The next morning was our last day in Shanghai. I had an FDP to go to for my sociology class. I was able to go to the Urban Planning Museum and then meet with a company who is working to find alternate energy sources. They are a company which focuses on environmental issues around the world. It was very interesting to listen to what they had to say.

We got back earlier than expected, and as I was getting my passport checked, Ed and Ashleigh were walking down the gangway. We went out for the day and found another market. As if I hadn’t done enough shopping in Asia, we did some more. We made it back to the ship around 5:30pm, with thirty minutes to spare without getting dock time (we have on-ship time in which we all have to be back on the ship, with our passports turned in and if we are even a second late we get dock time which is penalty in the next port. For every 15 minutes you are late, you are penalized with three hours that you have to wait to get off of the ship in the next port).

Looking back on my time in China, I absolutely loved every minute of it. I got to jump off of a building and fly through the air feeling as though I was on top of the world, and I got to sleep on the Great Wall of China, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was the experience of a lifetime and no matter how cold I was and miserable at the time, it was probably one of the best experiences of my life. I am so grateful for the opportunities that I have had on this voyage and feel like one of the luckiest people in the world. This has been the journey of a lifetime and it has affected me in ways that I cannot even describe.

Up Next: Japan!!

 

Hey everyone,

 

Sorry it has taken so long for my blog on China to be posted. I have had a lot of school work to catch up on and so the blog has had to take a back seat. I will hopefully have it up tonight. Thanks for being patient.

 

I can't believe I will be home in three weeks. It's crazy how fast time is going by right now.

 

I love you all and can't wait to see you in a few weeks :)

 

Love,

Kayla <3

 

 

Rough Days at Sea...

Sorry it has taken so long to update my blog. There has been a lot going on while on board that has captured my full attention.

I'm not sure how many of you have heard, but this past week we lost one of our shipmates. One of my fellow students passed away while on board and it has been a rough couple of days. We had a memorial service and celebrated his life, which was a beautiful service. We took flowers, said prayers and tossed them into the ocean. I knew that it was going to be an emotional day, and it definitely was.

Students are trying to heal and deal with everything that has happened in their own way and we are all trying to help each other.

Rest easy Andre. You are always in our hearts <3

Vietnam...a Shopaholics Paradise :)

I have a question… Why do people jet off to NYC, Paris and Milan to go shopping? They should definitely just come to Vietnam. I have never seen shopping like I have while here. It is a shopaholics paradise. I got so much for my money and am so happy with everything I bought. I found a beautiful North Face winter jacket which is a zip out (the fleece inside zips out to have a nice fleece sweatshirt and a spring jacket) which would cost at least $200 at home for only $30. I was so excitedJ. Everyone at home, you will be getting all of your Christmas presents from Vietnam. Hope you don't mind haha.

The first day while in Vietnam, I was able to go to a school for the deaf and interact with the children and take them to the local zoo. It was somewhat overwhelming because when we got to the zoo the children were so excited and were running wild, like little children do (probably ages 4-8). When we were on the bus we were paired with a child for the day. We sat with them on the bus and then we would be responsible for them for the trip to the zoo. Of course I was the one with the most hyperactive child in the entire trip. So when we got off of the bus we had snack boxes for them with juice boxes, chips, apples, oreos, etc. and of course my child wanted the juice box and oreos. Like he wasn't hyper enough, he wanted the items with the most sugar to give him more energy. Needless to say the trip was a little stressful because I had to chase him around while staying with the entire group. He would run ahead and it's not like I could really shout to him to stay with me or to stop what he was doing because he was almost 100% deaf, although he did have a hearing aid, but his primary language was Vietnamese. It was a long day but overall I had a great time because I got to have the experience and see how these kids were being educated and living. It was very eye-opening.

That night Amy had to go to a coffee house music show for a class paper. I decided to go because the description sounded really interesting. We got there and the show was actually really good. We got to see live music being performed in Vietnamese. I had no idea what they were saying but the performers were really good and fun to watch.

The next morning we were off to the markets. I was so excited about shopping in Vietnam because everyone I talked to who went shopping the day before got so much cool stuff for very cheap. We spent the next three days shopping I got so much stuff for so little money so it was worth it. It was awesome!!

On this voyage, the faculty brought along their families so there are a lot of little kids running around. The kids on this voyage are awesome! So the second night we were in Vietnam, Amy and I babysat twin two-year old girls named Olivia and Sienna. They are the daughters of one of the professors on board. We had been playing with them occasionally while on the ship and let their parents know that we would love to babysit them if they ever wanted a night off. So they took us up on our offer. We taught them how to paint with our watercolors and they made handprints with the paints. They were so excited and having a great time. Trying to make sure that twin two year olds don't get paint on the table and to keep it on the huge piece of paper that we had is no easy task. We had to scrub the watercolors off of the table, but it came off so it was okay. We took them to our room to get Finding Nemo, because that was the one movie they didn't have but of course the one that they wanted to watch. They loved our room and didn't want to leave. Olivia and Sienna saw our mini Dodo Bird stuffed animals that we got in Mauritius and became hooked. We told them it was okay if they brought them with us to watch the movie. We got the girls cleaned up from the paint and made our way to their parent's room to watch the movie. We got the girls to the room and put in the movie and tried to get them to settle down. We got them in their PJs and lay down to watch the movie. Eventually they settled down and about half way through the movie it was bedtime. Their room was right across the hall from their parents with a monitor in the parent's room to hear them. We read them stories and said goodnight and they went to bed. Their parents came back a couple hours later. We just watched movies and stuff until then. It was a lot of fun babysitting the twins. They are so funny and keep you entertained. Some of our friends don't understand why we would volunteer for that, but honestly I had fun and would do it again in a heartbeat.

We spent the majority of the next couple of days shopping and seeing the city. It was a lot of fun, especially when it would start down pouring and we would get stuck in it. I was soaked from head to toe—that was a lot of fun.

In the morning, we got off of the ship and made our way to the ATM to get some more money out. We ended up running into Mike, the videographer on board, and his wife Dawn, and their twin daughters Rachel and Riley. They were there getting lunch in the hotel in which the ATM was, along with another family that is on board, Lucille and her kids Miles, Lyla, and Ellis. We were just hanging out talking in the lobby and the next thing I know Rachel is on my back and Riley is in my arms after begging to be picked up. It was kind of funny actually. We ended up walking with them down the block and ended up saying we would attend the Water Puppet Show with them. The kids were having a blast walking with us to the museum where the puppet show was and the parents loved it too because they had a break while we were holding the kids hands walking down the street. We made our way to the museum to look around a little bit, which was actually really cool. There was a statue of Ho Chi Minh and various artifacts to look at. The puppet show started and was actually one of the weirdest productions I have ever seen. There were fire breathing dragons, which scared Riley so she was clinging onto me for that segment, and various other things going on in the puppet show which were interesting. I don't know how else to describe it, other than being a very weird, interesting cultural experience.

On our last night in Vietnam, Amy, Carly and I made our way to the airport to pick up Ed. He was coming back from the United States and we wanted to surprise him. We got there a little early because we knew that flights in Vietnam could be unpredictable, and we were unsure about his flight info. We knew that his flight came in at 10:30pm—but so did about ten other flights. Good thing there was only one international arrival terminal. Around 10:45pm he came out of the gate and was excited that we came to get him. It was good to have him back. The ship wasn't the same without him. We grabbed a taxi and made our way back to the ship.

The next morning, Amy, Ed and I went on an SAS trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels—the tunnels used in the "American War" when bombs were being thrown around. They are TINY tunnels that you literally need to crawl on your hands and knees to make it through. We were able to crawl through three tunnels to know what it was like during that time. The crazy thing was that these tunnels were virtually doubled in size than what they were during the war, because they made it into an historical tourism site. So those tunnels that I crawled through were actually smaller just a few decades ago. Word of advice: If you have even a twinge of claustrophobia, I would not recommend crawling through these tunnels. I'm not claustrophobic but while in the tunnels, I was starting to feel it.

After returning to the ship and getting cleaned up, we took Ed around to all of the shops so he could get what he wanted, since this was the only time he would be able to get shopping done. We got some lunch, which I have no idea what it was. It was spring rolls, which I have no idea what is in the middle of them, and I think I prefer to keep it that way, and Pho which is some kind of noodles and chicken. It was okay, but not the greatest. Everyone was raving about the Pho saying that we needed to try it, and honestly I wasn't that impressed with it. Maybe it's just me, and the fact that using chopsticks to eat it was just way too difficult.

I loved Vietnam and would return in a heartbeat. I wish I made it to the Mekong Delta to see the little villages along the way. Maybe next time, but all in all my experiences in Vietnam were awesome and have nothing to complain about. I loved it. Next up is China and I get to go to the Great Wall and could not be more excited about that. Until next time…

Singapore is a FINE City :)

Singapore is one of the most amazing places I have ever been to! I am so sad that we had such little time there. The moment the ship was cleared by immigration, Amy and I grabbed our passports and made our way off the gangway. The port was a little different than any other port that we have been to. We had to leave the gangway, go up a set of stairs into a building that was similar to an airport terminal, and then proceed to a security checkpoint with x-ray scanners for bags and passport checks. It was more tedious than anything, and if you were part of a big trip, you could expect to have to wait in line to go through the security process.

Once out of the security area, we walked out of the building and across the parking lot to another building and went to the cable cars. We took a cable car to Sentosa, an “island” that takes about five minutes to get to. The cable car was so cool. We rode right above the ship and got to see the aerial view of it. We got to see the amazing scenery and architecture in Singapore. There are building that curve, and no I am not exaggerating. They really curve. I don’t know how, but they do. I don’t know why I am so fascinated by them but I am.

We took the cable cars to Sentosa and made our way to the Underwater World Aquarium. When we bought the tickets we were able to buy a combo with the Underwater World, Dolphin Lagoon and Butterfly Park.  The Underwater World was awesome! I’ve realized that I am kind of obsessed with aquariums. I absolutely love them. At this one you can actually touch the fish. It was so cool. At one tank there is a well and you can put your hand in and the goldfish swim up to your hand. Some of them were scared and didn’t but when you just barely touch the top of the water they swim to the surface because they think it is particles of food or something. One of them kissed my finger. It was so weird. There is also a tank where you can touch the stingrays and starfish and you can also feed the sharks. I loved this aquarium.

At 11am, we made our way to the Dolphin Lagoon where we could go to the “Meet the Dolphins” show. It was about ten to fifteen minutes of meeting the dolphins and seeing their “tricks”. They know how to balance basketballs, shoot soccer balls, use hula hoops, wave hello and jump out of the water in unison. I felt like a little kid again, but that’s okay. I loved it.

On one of the signs, we found the MegaZip Adventure Park. At this park, you are able to ParaJump (jump off of a fifty foot platform and freefall while harnessed in), ClimbMax (complete a rope obstacle course while harnessed in above the ground), RockClimb, and ZipLine. Amy did the ParaJump, CimbMax, and Zipline, while I did just the ParaJump and Zipline. The ParaJump was a lot of fun, but I had a minor freak out session. When you are on the ground, it doesn’t seem like it is that high, but when you get to that platform and you are looking down it is extremely high. I was shaking, and after about two minutes of hesitating, the guy counted me down and I jumped. It wasn’t that scary, but it was a lot of fun!! The ZipLine was probably my favorite. I videotaped the whole thing. We were strapped in and on the count of three, let go and we zip lined above the tree tops towards the other side which was along the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. The entire time we were waiting to go, I was saying “watch me get stuck right before we reach the end” because Amy had mentioned that the zip line she did in Haiti she got stuck over the water and they had to come out to get her. Of course, it happened to me. I got stuck about ten feet in front of where I needed to end above the beach and water. They had a rope attached to a zip line that they threw out to me (after about six tries) and I was rescued. It was a beautiful scene and I wasn’t complaining that I was stuck out there, but after a minute or two just hanging out the harness started to hurt a little bit, so I was happy I was rescued when I was.

After I was rescued from the ZipLine, we found this cute little ice cream shop called New Zealand Natural Ice Cream. We stopped in and got some ice cream. They had the craziest names for their ice cream. I had a scoop of “Spotty Dog” which was a mix of chocolate and vanilla with an assortment of chocolate chips mixed in. It was so good!!

We made our way to the Butterfly Park. There were so many butterflies flying around! It was amazing! We saw the many different species of butterflies and displays of the life cycle as well. Then we entered a room and there were beetles and insects. I tend to be a ‘girly girl’ when it comes to those things so that was not my favorite part of the day, but I survived. Amy walked by a display case and yelled for me not to come over there. I wondered why, but then realized that there was a huge snake in the case. I was thankful that she warned me because I am terrified of snakes. Overall, I liked the butterfly park, but the aquarium topped it by a mile in my book!!

After a long day wondering around and being adventurous, we headed back to the ship. We were able to relax for about an hour and then we headed out for our Night Safari. The Night Safari was an SAS trip which took us through the Singapore Zoo. It was really cool because we were able to have an authentic Singaporean meal, buffet style, and then went on a tram style car decked out in animal prints through the zoo, at night, to see all of the different animals in their zoo habitats. What made it even cooler was that it was Halloween, and Halloween is a big deal in Singapore so they made it a Haunted Night Safari. There were different people along the way that jumped out to scare us. Some of them were really scary and Amy and Carly were screaming, and so was I J

The next morning, Amy and I got up, fairly early, and decided to go look for some free Wi-Fi at an internet café. We walked around, and to our dismay were unsuccessful. We walked around the local mall, which was massive, looking around for souvenir stores, and stumbled upon an internet boutique. It was a room with about thirty computers. We learned we would need to pay four Singapore dollars to use the internet for one hour. We decided it was worth it. The computers had Skype on it so we were even happier. I was able to call home and talk to my mom, dad and brother. I was probably the happiest person when they answered the phone. I talked to them for about half an hour. It was my dad’s birthday, okay well it was his birthday the following day but we would be sailing to Vietnam so I wouldn’t be able to call him, so I called a day early, which was actually two days early back home (we are 12 hours ahead). After talking with my family I was in such a good mood. I miss them so much, but I know I will see them soon (6 weeks!)

We spent the rest of the day shopping and got little souvenirs. Singapore is extremely expensive so I wanted to save some money and not get too many things. We were able to find some deals, but not too many. We made it to Chinatown where there was an outdoor market which was like a flea market setting. I was a little nervous because I was expecting Chinatown like back home or for it to be dirty or something like that, but it was not like that at all. It was so clean and laid back. I didn’t feel bad if I decided not to buy anything. It was so nice and not overwhelming at all…except when Amy and I had our first little screaming match. We had a miscommunication and while I was looking at something Amy apparently told me that she was going to walk to another little store and I didn’t hear her.  I turned around and she was gone. I started to freak out and get annoyed because she disappeared. I walked up and down the street looking for her and all that were there were Singaporean/Asian people and I did not see one American. I was getting mad at this point. I found some SAS kids and was asking them if they saw her. After about five to ten minutes I was all set and decided to go stand on some stairs above the street where you could see everything, figuring that it is easier to find a target when it isn’t moving. Apparently Amy had the same idea because she was heading for the stairs as I was. We started yelling at each other (well not really yelling, just talking rather loudly for us at least) because we were just scared and annoyed that we lost each other. It was actually funny and we were laughing about it after wards. All that matters is that we found each other and made it back to the ship safe and sound.

All in all, Singapore is an amazing country. I would love to return and would actually consider living there, if it wasn’t so expensive, and when I say expensive I mean expensive. Picture this, I have a Nissan Altima and on average, my car would cost around $20,000, give or take. We met a family waiting outside the terminal, and started talking to them. We asked them if all of the rumors were true about cost of living, etc and they were quick to assure us that they were. They divulged to us that they have a Nissan that cost them about $80,000 and their monthly rent is $8300/month. It is crazy!!! But I soon learned that their wages/salaries are slightly higher than ours.

Singapore is also a FINE city. I knew that laws in Singapore were much stricter than in any other country I had ever been to. But some of these laws were kind of funny. Amy actually found a T-Shirt which listed a bunch of the fines that you would receive in Singapore. Some of them were:

·         No Smoking (Fine: $500)    

·         No Flushing (Fine: $500) (if you are caught not flushing the toilet in a public place)

·         No Bird Feeding (Fine: $500)

·         No Dumping/No Littering (Fine: $500)

·         No Urinating in a Lift (Fine: $500) (don’t pee in an elevator)

·         No Flower Picking (Fine: $500)

·         No Spitting (Fine: $500)

·         No Chewing Gum (Fine: $500) (I learned that you can chew gum but you can’t spit it out in public)

I was laughing at some of them because they are so random.

I loved Singapore and was sad we only had two days there. I will definitely go back there someday.

Vietnam is up next and I couldn’t be more excited J Shopping here I come!!!