Flying through the clouds

 

Getting Ready to Jump

 

Aloha!

Honolulu, Hawaii

 

I have officially decided that Hawaii is not a part of the United States. It should really just be its own country. It was so beautiful! I felt so frustrated that we could only stay for 2 days, but I know that I will go back to Hawaii for sure, so I didn’t try to cram in a bunch of things in two days, I just kind of took it easy.

 

It was the strangest thing being back in the “U.S”. Things were similar yet still really different. The first thing that I took note of the first day was that there were actually cars on the street that I recognized the make and model. They were normal cars that I would see everyday at home, but it was still very strange to see them after 3 and a half months. And, people were driving on the right side of the road, but at first, I’m not going to lie, I was confused by this and it felt like to me that it was now the wrong side of the road. I have been so used to driving on the left side, looking right when stepping off the sidewalk, that even that small thing took getting used to again. ANDDDD I could use my cell phone again which was once again so strange. I forgot people’s numbers and my texting skills were lacking. These last three months, I haven’t thought about my cell phone once, and it’s been nice kind of being out of contact, but it was nice just having it to even keep in touch with people here on Semester at Sea, and see where they were on the island and what not.

 

Day 1

 

So the first day we were awoken at 6 am to Luke (our Assistant Executive Dean), who is the “voice” of the ship and makes the daily announcements. While he played "Back in America" over the loud speaker, he announced that we'd be going through customs in a few minutes.  It was an early wake up call, so I’m sure that he thought the music would get us going. But to honest, I was just excited to be Hawaii that I was awake as soon as the loud speaker came on. So they called us by sea to go up to the faculty/staff lounge to “go through customs” which only consisted of us just going and getting our passports, showing them to a customs official and then giving them back. So it only took a few minutes.

 

Then after the quick customs routine, I walked down to the Piano Lounge to sit and use my phone for a little bit. I kid you not, there were 10 people that I saw on my walk to the Piano Lounge also using their cell phones. I must have sat there for about 30 minutes on my phone and I can tell you that only 5 people walked by who were not on their cell phones. Everybody was happy to have a little normalcy and to be back in the U.S. for a few days.

 

They cleared the ship around 9 am, and I was to go skydiving at 10 am, so around 930 I headed off the ship and went to wait for the shuttle to the skydiving place. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! It was sunny and about 85 degrees with a nice breeze. Right outside the port were shops and stores and ice cream places and just some normal places that we hadn’t seen in months. The skydive shuttle van came around 945 and we all piled in. We asked Sunny (the shuttle driver) how many people we can fit in, and he said, as many as you can get in. So 21 of us piled into a van for about a 45 minute drive to the skydive place, but we were all so excited we didn’t mind being crammed. I mean we’ve all lived on the same ship for the last 3 months, I don’t think it was anything new for us.

 

After a gorgeous drive to the skydive place, we finally arrived. We pulled up and there was the landing strip and the field where people landed. People were literally falling out of the sky and landing as we pulled up. I was super excited. We all walked into the office to sign our lives away. They had our consent waivers and liability papers all ready for us and the last line read, “Please note that you can become seriously injured during skydiving and you may die”. Okay, good to know. I still didn’t care, I was going! Then we all walked outside to wait for them to call our names and suit us up to go. People were beginning to go and everyone was so hyped up. About two groups of people went and then they kind of stopped calling names. We were all getting a little frustrated and really wanted to go up. But they informed us that the winds had started blowing in from the Southwest, which is the worst kind of winds for skydiving because you can hit pockets of wind tunnels. So they announced that they would be putting skydiving on hold, but didn’t tell us for how long. We must have waited about 2 hours and then they decided that the winds weren’t going to let up so they wrote down all our names and we were to come back tomorrow at 6 am.

 

The shuttle took us back to the ship and I decided to just walk around the shops for a little to see what they had. The weather was so beautiful I couldn’t resist just taking a little stroll. It’s nice having some time to yourself after being cooped up in a ship for 9 days with 750 students. I decided to walk further down and see what was near, someone told me there was a mall near, and I decided to take a cab there. I needed a dress for the Ambassador’s Ball, so I figured I could find something there. When I got to the mall, it was honestly overwhelming. I saw stores that I hadn’t seen in 3 months; they had Old Navy, Gap, Forever 21, and American Eagle. I just wanted to buy everything and anything, just because it was there. I went into Forever 21 and spent enough money in there that I decided I probably shouldn’t go anywhere else. The mall was really beautiful. It was an outdoor mall, so you could feel the breeze and everything. It was really relaxing. After about an hour or so at the mall, I took a cab back to the ship and started getting ready for my friend Dylan’s barbeque later that night. He lives in Hawaii so his parents and friends were throwing him a welcome back luau.

 

At around 5 or so, Anders and I headed to Dylan’s house in Waikiki. We drove past all sorts of cool things. The beach was beautiful and you could see everybody surfing. The drive was about 20 minutes or so, and when we got there, I was just so amazed by the houses. They were gorgeous, they didn’t look extravagant, but they were all the most amazing beach houses. It made me want to live there really bad. So we walked into his backyard and he had a beautiful pool and you could see the beach. And then he had a patio with a grill and a bar set up. It was really beautiful. We all grabbed some food and met his friends from University of Hawaii and then they brought out the Ukulele players and the hula dancer. They were really entertaining and beautiful to watch. And the food is so different than the food we eat at home, but still so amazing. Hawaii really is its own culture and environment. Nothing is rushed; you do everything when and as you please.

 

A little later more people from Semester at Sea started showing up and we all sat around the table, some went swimming, others played beer pong and everyone was having a great time. It was a lot of fun. We all had some drinks and some great food. Around 12 or so, we decided to go back to the ship because I had to be up in the morning to skydive.

 

Day 2

 

Well we got back later than expected and I decided to sleep in and catch the shuttle for the 10 am skydivers. So I woke up around 830 to catch some breakfast and then I headed out for the shuttle. There were a lot less people waiting than the day before so I figured that most the people went in the early morning and was happier that I decided to go at 10 so I wouldn’t have to wait around as long. There were about 8 of us that went, and we got there in about 45 minutes. It was a lot less crowded than the day before also and we all got signed in and waited to go. The group before me went, but since I was getting pictures and a video, they told me that I should just go with the next group. I didn’t really too much about whom I went with, as long as I went. So the first group went and then came back down about 20 minutes later. Then when I thought that all hope was lost, they called my name and I started getting suited up. I knew that I was really going to do this.

 

My tandem jumper’s name was Peter and he was from Germany and was a really nice man. I asked him how many jumps he’d done and he told me he’s jumped over 5,000 times, so I trusted him. We chit chatted a little while he suited me up. Then he told me the general procedures. When we jumped out of the plane, make sure to arch my back, breath through my nose and not my mouth, and some general landing procedures. After that, we were headed out to the plane. I was so ready to go, not nervous yet, just excited. We hop into the plane and we are off. We lift off and there was no turning back. You could see the view of the whole island, the water, the beaches, all the land, it was beautiful. I was mesmerized. Then we got to a certain point and Peter strapped himself to me and we were just waiting to get high enough. Then the buzzer buzzed, they opened the door and said, alright let’s go. And my heart just exploded. I was so excited but couldn’t believe that I was actually doing it. The first guy and his girl just rolled out of the plane, and then it was Peter and me. I screamed and just went for it. And that was it; we were flying through the air, free falling for 60 seconds. I literally couldn’t breath, I remembered him saying to breathe through my nose, but I couldn’t breathe fast enough, my adrenaline was crazy! Then the camera guy came up next to us and Peter kept telling me to lift my head up, but there was just so much going on. Our skin was like jell-o with the wind so fast, we were just falling through the sky, and I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Then before I knew it, the parachute was out and we were floating through the clouds. It was one of the most exhilarating and scary feelings of my life. We just floated down and I could see everything. I really can’t explain it in words. We got closer to the ground and Peter told me how were going to land. So as we’re rapidly approaching the ground, I lifted my legs and well, it wasn’t as graceful as I would have liked, but a landing is a landing, regardless of its gracefulness. And I just couldn’t believe that we just did it. But I was ready to go again. My hair was all over the place and my knees got a little skinned from the landing, but I would do it again in a heartbeat. It was one of the best times of my life.

 

After I got unsuited and fixed my hair, Peter gave me a signed certificate that read “First Skydive Jump”. Then they brought me my pictures and video. I got a hotdog from the hotdog stand and we all waited for the shuttle bus to come and take us back to the ship. About 30 minutes later, the bus came and I got back to the ship around 230 or so. I was still beaming from the fact that I had finally skydived, something I’ve always wanted to do. I went back to the ship for a few minutes to watch the video and to drop off some of my stuff. The video is amazing and I can’t wait to show everybody when I get back home.

 

I got back off the ship and decided to sit at the little café’s right next to ship where they had gelato and ice cream. I used the internet for a little bit and put up some pictures on Facebook from skydiving. After I used my computer for a little bit, I decided to go and get some ice cream because it was another beautiful day out and ice cream felt like the perfect thing.

 

Then I walked through the promenade of stores. I ran into a few friends and we stopped and chatted for a little while. Then I went into some of the souvenir stores and picked up a few things. I sat by the water for a little bit and took some pictures, and mostly just took some time for me and to reflect on things. I got back on the ship around 5, before the mad rush started and got some dinner.

 

Overall, I spent most of my time relaxing and not doing too much. Finals are coming up and the stretch from Japan to Hawaii was filled with a lot of schoolwork. So I decided that Hawaii would be the perfect place to unwind and just relax on my own for a while.

 

We have another 7 days until we arrive in Guatemala, but I have two finals in that stretch, so I’m looking forward to just getting them out of the way. Then we have 3 days in Guatemala and I have two more finals after Guatemala, and we have our Ambassador’s Ball, and I’m sure a few other things they have planned. Then it is back to the good old U.S. in Ft. Lauderdale. So many mixed emotions right now as it’s all coming to an end and only two weeks left. I can hardly believe it. I look forward to getting home and seeing everybody though. Take care!

Long stretch

Not too many things to say, but it's been a little while since I've written so I just thought that I'd give a little update. We've been at sea for almost a week now and the life on the ship can get a little mundane at long periods of time. Easter was pretty normal, they didn't really do too much, both days were filled with the same things as any other day, including classes. We didn't have class two days ago because they were taking pictures all day. They took college pictures; each college got their own picture. And they took the group photo, which was at 8 am, so probably only 2/3 of the students showed up, but oh well, I doubt we would have all fit if everyone did show up. Then Jaclyn and I had our Towson picture later in the afternoon, and we represented Towson, just the two of us.

The weather was pretty cold when we departed Yokohama. It was really rainy, windy and the waves were really choppy the first two days. So the ship in return was really rocky. It was a rough few days because everybody was exhausted from Japan already, and then we were losing hours for time change, and to top it all off, most of us were seasick. Not in the sense that we were throwing up, but another symptom of seasickness is being tired, all the time. So it was hard getting back into routine the first couple of days. Also, this stretch has been filled with tests and papers, which doesn't always help.

 

But on a lighter note, yesterday was beautiful out, and the weather has gotten a lot warmer. Yesterday was 70 degrees and today is about 75 degrees. People have moved back up to the top deck to lay out and hang out between classes again so it's always nice to just relax outside. We arrive in Hawaii in a couple of days on Sunday, but we are only there for 2 days and one night. I am extremely excited to just be there though. It's like a little taste of the U.S. but still a completely different culture. The first day I'm going skydiving and then the next day I'm not too sure what I will be doing. Probably just laying out on the beach like everybody else, work on my tan that I lost in China and Japan.

 

Tonight is the talent show and I think they have about 18-20 acts, so it'll serve for a little entertainment for us and it's about time. I think we're all starting to get a little stir crazy. Jaclyn is performing a dance. We have a little less than three weeks left in the voyage and I think that all of us are having mixed emotions. It's been an exhausting last 3 months, but exhausting for all of the right reasons. I wouldn't change a single second of everything that we have done, all the sleep that I have lost, all the times that I've gotten lost, all of it. But another part of me is definitely ready to come home and try and make sense of all of this and to see everybody again. At parts it has flown by, but thinking back to Spain, it seems like years ago.

 

Well, just thought I'd give a little update. I heard that the weather is really nice at home today and I hope it continues for you all!

Living in the Future

Seems like we arrived so long ago yet it feels like just yesterday. I didn’t really have anything planned for the time that I was in Japan so I just kind of winged it, and I got to see and experience everything that I wanted to. We arrived in Japan on Monday, April 6th and departed today, Friday. We went to Kobe for two days and then Yokohama for two days. Just like China, you had the option to stay off the ship for the day in between or you could stay on the ship. I opted for staying on the ship this time just because I was so exhausted from China and kind of felt like I was getting a cold.  

 

So the first day I had signed up for a tea ceremony for one of my classes. We arrived in Kobe around 8 or 9 am. But customs and immigration in Japan is CRAZY! The night before we arrived in port, we all had to get an immigration card. Then the next morning at around 8 am, they called everybody up by their sea and we had to turn in our immigration forms and walk in front of a heat sensor so it could read our body temperature. Then the ship wasn’t technically cleared until everybody (all 800 and some of us) went through immigration and customs. This took about an hour for me to get through everything and finally got off the ship. It was about 1230 by the time everything was said and done and my trip left at 1245, so I went straight from customs to the bus.  

 

Tea ceremonies are a very huge thing in Japan. People have them for all sorts of occasions, formal, non formal, friends, family, and I was really excited to see what it was all about. The tea ceremony was in Kyoto, which was about a two hour drive from Kobe. And in Kyoto, it was cherry blossom season, so we got to see all the beautiful cherry blossom on the drive; they were everywhere. I couldn’t get over the fact that Japan was very similar to the United States, from the weather to the cherry blossoms, even to the people. Once we finally arrived in Kyoto, they took us to a temple where the tea ceremony would be. It all looked so beautiful and I couldn’t get over how peaceful it all seemed.  

 

We walked around the temple for about an hour or so and saw all of the different rooms and meditation rooms and everything. Then we went into a larger room where the tea ceremony would be taking place. The room was a good size and had small mats for us to sit on. Up front in the room was the large kettle, I’m guessing with tea and then a bunch of tools for the tea ceremony. We began by greeting our host by bowing to her and saying “Arrigato” which means thank you in Japanese. Then we began the ceremony. We were given a little snack, which kind of tasted like Fig Newtons and we bowed once again to show our appreciation. Then came the tea which was a little more intricate on how we drank it. They came by and put a bowl next to each one of us and we bowed to each other in thanks. Then you had to pick the tea bowl up with your right hand and hold your left hand underneath. You then bowed again in thanks and rotated the bowl clockwise two times and then you were allowed to drink it. You were supposed to slurp on the last sip also because that meant that the tea was good and you were satisfied. So we all drank our tea and slurped. I was surprised by how different the tea tasted. It was really bitter, I didn’t really enjoy it, but I was glad that I tried it.  

 

After the tea ceremony we sat and talked with one of the priests for a little while and then we headed back to the ship in Kobe. It was about another 2 hour drive back to the ship, and we stopped at a rest stop for a few minutes for people to use the bathroom and get a snack. Two things. Japan is like living in the future. Their toilets have heated seated, music to play while you are using them, and a nice flushing sound, one where you actually have the flushing sound with no flushing or you get the flushing sound with flushing. But I was only in there for a few seconds so I didn’t master the toilet. Second thing. Japan has the most insane vending machines. You can get everything and anything in a vending machine. They have coffee, beer, wine, soda, food, and everything looks so different than in the U.S. It’s all packaged so efficiently.  

 

When we got back to the ship, Anders and I decided that we were going to go out in Osaka which was about a 30 minute subway ride. So we ate dinner on the ship and then grabbed our stuff to head out. We left the ship around 9 pm and got to the train station at about 915. The trains were pretty self explanatory and it was just like taking the subway at home, minus the fact that everything was in Japanese. So we got on the train to Osaka and it was about 20 minutes. And so we got off the train and had absolutely no idea where to go. We were supposed to meet a lot of people at this club called Pure, and we thought we could just ask around, but either 1. they didn’t speak English or 2. they had no idea what Pure was. So we must have walked around Osaka for about 2 hours and gotten like 4 different maps, and we came to our last hotel to ask the guy, and thank goodness! He knew where it was. So we got in a cab and he told the driver where we wanted to go and we finally got there. The subway in Japan, much like the Metro at home, closes at like 11 or 12 and re-opens at 5 am. So since the club was open until 5 am, most everybody stayed there until the train station re-opened.  

 

At about 430, we took a cab back to the subway station. We finally got back to Kobe at around 530 or 6ish and then we took a cab back to the ship and got there around 630. We slept for a little bit and then went out to explore Kobe for a few hours before they ship left for Yokohama.   We had one day in between Kobe and Yokohama. It was a nice relaxing day, no classes and not really much else to do. They played the Bourne series in the Union and did a few other things, but nothing too special. I think everybody just caught up on sleep and schoolwork. I have a bunch of papers and tests coming up, so I used the day to sleep AND catch up on schoolwork. It was nice and relaxing.  

 

Then the next day we arrived in Yokohama at around 830 and Anders and I cleared the ship at about 9 and headed into Tokyo. We stopped at the information desk to find out how exactly we should get to Tokyo. Thank goodness we stopped there otherwise I would have been lost! It was like 4 different train transfers to get where we needed to be. But we made it to Tokyo at about 10ish and we decided to just walk around. We stopped at the information desk again and asked about good shopping and food. He pointed us in the right direction and we were off. We stopped at the apple store because I needed new headphones, but the headphones were 3400 Yen, which is equivalent to $34. No thank you. But I did decide to use their free internet on the Macs and pretended to be interested in purchasing one. After about 10 minutes of mooching off the internet, we headed to a mall to maybe do some shopping. Well, we got to the mall and they had beautiful clothes and everything, but the cheapest things I saw were like $150 for a shirt. So after pretending for about 10 minutes that I was interested in these clothes, we continued to walk around. We found a nice little restaurant that had some interesting Japanese food, but I wanted to try it. I got fried squid and some other rice bowl thing. They were both good in their own way.  

 

After lunch, Anders wanted to go to a market, so we asked around and found a market in Ueno. So we took another train to Ueno and got Starbuck’s when we got there. Then we headed into market. They had a lot of cool stuff, but not so cool prices. Things were even more expensive there than they would have been in the U.S. Needless to say, I didn’t buy anything. We looked around for a little while longer, Anders was really interested, and finally decided to just go back to Yokohama. There was a baseball game at 6 and we were going to see if we could get tickets.  

 

After about a 45 minute train ride back to Yokohama, we found the stadium and got in line for tickets. They were only $18 for tickets so we got our ticket and then decided to grab something to eat and a drink at a local café. As we were sitting outside this café, my friends Grant and Mike walked by and they decided to join us. So we were all sitting, drinking, having a good time. And this cute little Japanese man walked up to us and asked us if he could join us. We were more than delighted to talk to him. He told us about his life and the things and places that he had been. Then he asked us to guess his age. I guessed about 60ish, as did everyone else. This little man was 75 years old! I was amazed! He was so lively and really wanted to take us around Yokohama and show us all the fun spots. So around 6 o clock, Anders and I decided to go and check out the game for a little and meet back up with them.  

 

The stadium was really similar to the stadiums at home, and I was a little disappointed it wasn’t more futuristic-like. We got to our seats, at least I think they were our seats, and we cheered on the team for a little bit. Then after about an hour, we decided to go and meet back up with Mike, Grant, and Yoko (that was really his name, well at least what he told us to call him). Anyways, we met up with them and Yoko really wanted to take us to a karaoke bar. Which was awesome because I hadn’t karaoked yet in Japan. So we went to this place called Big Echo. It was so much fun. We got our own room and sang for about 2 hours and we sang some good songs. I’m becoming really good at karaoke now. So after our singing charades, we headed back downstairs to say goodbye to Yoko because he had to get home to his wife (so cute).  

 

After we said goodbye, we saw a McDonald’s across the street, and we decided to go and grab something to eat. It was crazy! There were people in McDonald’s with nice suits and everything and they were sleeping in the booths. We ate our McDonald’s and then headed to a local bar. It was a really cute local bar decorated with Hawaiian things (strange) and it had the Manchester game on, so everybody was happy. We had a few more drinks and then sat and talked for a little while and ending up seeing a few more friends from Semester at Sea. We headed back to ship a little later and there were literally 30 people, including myself, freaking out, trying to get back on the ship. The entrance was hidden and not the same as earlier in the day so we were all pretty confused. It took us about a half an hour to get inside and when we finally did I was so exhausted that I fell right asleep.  

 

Wow is all I can say in response to the last month. We covered four different countries in Asia in one month. We had 6 actual days of classes and the rest of the days were travel days. My body is 100% exhausted but for good reasons. We have 9 days until we get to Hawaii, and I am very excited to have some relaxation time. Except for the fact that finals are rapidly approaching and I have 4 papers and a test in these 9 days, but I guess sometimes I do forget that we are here for school. Less than one month left too! Man, just Hawaii and Guatemala and then back to the good old U.S.

Tomorrow is Easter, well the first Easter. We get two Easters on the ship due to the International Date Line. So being that we are 14 hours ahead of you all right now, we essentially gain all of those hours back and in return get an extra day, that just so happens to be Easter. So it's like I'm living the same day, two days in a row. De Ja Vu anyone? I hope that everybody is doing well at home and has a happy Easter! See you all sooner than we know!

The Jolly Green Giant

So there are two things about China that stick out in my mind the most. The first is the weather. It was so cold in China. Hong Kong was nice; the first day it was about 75 degrees. Then the next day I went to Beijing and when we landed in the airport, they informed us that it was 42 degrees Fahrenheit out. I honestly didn’t know what to do, I forgot what 42 feels like. The cold weather definitely took me by surprise, especially in April when I’m used to being in at least the 60s at home. And the second thing that stood out to me, in correlation to my blog title, was how tiny Chinese people are. I literally stood taller than some of the men there. I felt like a giant, and then I had my green winter jacket on, I just felt like I was the jolly green American giant in China.

 

We were in China for a total of 6 days. Our ship docked in Hong Kong for two days, and then sailed to Shanghai where it docked for another two days. But if you wanted to stay off the ship and then meet the ship in Shanghai on the last day, you could also do that. I decided that option and traveled to Beijing for four days.

 

Day 1

This was our first day in Hong Kong, and we arrived at about 8 in the morning. Me and Jaclyn woke up a little later and then decided to go out. The port that we were docked at was attached right to a shopping mall so we looked around there for anything interesting. We didn’t find too much so we decided to take the ferry to the other side of the city and get some lunch and explore. The ferry was filled with people and me and Jaclyn had a hard time figuring out how to get our ticket. We asked a few people where we could get change and a couple other things, and they either looked at us like we were crazy, or one man just bluntly replied, “I don’t know”. Okay, thanks for your help. But we figured it out, some nice man helped us and we got on the ferry and made it to the other side.

 

When we got off the ferry we walked around and I was surprised how empty the city seemed. I mean, don’t get me wrong, there were still a lot of people, but I guess in my mind, I had expected it to be like jam-packed and people bumping all into each other, but it wasn’t like that at all. We walked through the streets and it reminded me a little of New York City. We were getting pretty hungry so we stumbled upon a nice little Chinese restaurant and decided to eat there. They brought us the menu and I ordered Sesame balls with mashed up egg yolk, and then we decided to share shrimp flour rolls. Well, let me just say, when they say mashed up egg yolk, they mean raw runny egg yolk. And the “flour” rolls, meant slimy rolls with shrimp that are impossible to pick up with your chopsticks. Don’t get me wrong, I tried everything once, and the sesame balls were really good, I just didn’t want to eat the raw egg, well because from my experiences, raw egg is supposed to make you sick. And I’m bad enough as it is with chopsticks, so the slimy flour rolls were just too hard to eat.

 

After lunch, we did a little shopping at H&M and browsed in some local boutiques. We wandered through another mall for a little and everything was completely out of my price range. We did stumble upon a little café and decided to get a snack there. We got a sandwich and a drink. Then we headed back on the ferry to go to the ship and use some free internet. In the middle of the mall, they had free internet so we used the internet for a little while, uploaded some photos and then decided it was dinner time. And lo and behold, what did we see, but a California Pizza Kitchen! And after our lunch disaster, we decided to just stick with something easy and quick. I ordered the Reuben pizza which was more than delicious and Jaclyn, Anders and I ordered a few drinks and then headed back to the ship to get ready for the night.

 

We went to a street called Lan Kwai Fong at night. During Hong Kong and that time, there was a competition called Rugby 7’s which is like the World Cup of Rugby and everybody was pretty much just raging in the streets. The streets were crowded with hundreds and hundreds of people, from all around the world. The bars were all just a crowded and a lot of people were dressed up too. I think they were part of a rugby team. We went into one of the emptier bars to try and get a drink and we stumbled upon 20 people all wearing the same polo shirt and we got to talking with them and figured out that they were the Australian rugby team. They bought us a few drinks and then we went into another little bar that had some good music playing. It was a really really good live band that sang so many good songs. That’s another thing I’ve realized, is that in the bars and live music places, the people always sing American songs. It’s strange, but a little taste of home at the same time. We stayed there for a little while and then talked to the band afterwards for a little and then headed back to the ship.

 

Day 2

My flight for Beijing left at 530 in the morning, so I had to be up pretty early. We got to the airport and the security was about the same as the security in the U.S. so it took a little while to get through everything. Our flight was a three hour flight as well, but I was pretty tired as it was so I slept most of the time. We finally got to Beijing and like I said, they announced that it was 42 degrees. I had a sweatshirt on but honestly couldn’t remember what 42 degrees felt like. We transferred to the bus outside the airplane and exited our terminal. The Beijing airport was unlike anything that I have ever seen. It was absolutely the biggest airport I have ever been in my life. It took us about 40 minutes just to walk to one end to the other. We finally got to the end and we had to take another bus to the parking lot where our bus was waiting for us.

 

After waiting for our entire group to catch up, we took our bus into the city of Beijing and toured the Summer Palace. After touring it for about an hour, we drove to our hotel and had about an hour of down time to unpack and get settled into our hotel room. Then we met in the lobby to head off to dinner.

 

For dinner we had Peking duck and several other kinds of Chinese food. It was definitely better than the first experience of Chinese food I had. The Peking duck was definitely the highlight of the meal. They brought out the whole duck cooked and cut it up right in front of us. It tasted really similar to pork or chicken and was very good.

 

After dinner we went back to the hotel, and I watched a movie with my room mate and then finally just went to sleep so I could get rest for the great wall the next day.

 

Day 3

 

This day we woke up at about 730 am and got breakfast and headed to the great wall. It was about an hour and a half drive to the great wall. We got there finally at about 10 am and it was pretty cold. There were shops set up all along the way to the Great Wall and people were grabbing my arm and asking me to buy their things, and I felt like I was back in India. It got a little frustrating, but I just kept telling myself that in no time I would be climbing the great wall and didn’t let myself get upset. Let me just tell you. The hike up the great wall was killer. It was all steps and it was like the ultimate stair master. But it was worth every single second of agony. The view was breathtaking. You could see the mountains, the trees, the wall, and just feel the cool air. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. It took us about an hour or so to climb to the top. And once we made it to the top, the best thing happened, it started to snow. It was such a sight, because I honestly hadn’t seen snow since November, so it was a nice change in the weather. We continued up a little more and then decided to eat our lunches there. It was the most amazing view, and although it was really cold, the snow was so beautiful, I didn’t even care.

 

After eating our lunches and admiring the scenery for a little while longer, we continued down to take the cable car back down to the bottom. I would have climbed down, but honestly, my legs were tired and it was still snowing. So we took the cable car to the bottom and I wandered around for a little by myself, just to take it all in for myself. I wandered into a nice little coffee shop and got a cup of coffee also. I bought a few souvenirs and then we all met back on the bus.

 

On our drive back to the bus, Michael, our tour guide, informed us that we were going to take a quick stop at the Olympic stadium to take pictures. After about an hour drive, we finally arrived. I was so taken back by the fact that we were actually standing where the Olympics had taken place, not even a year ago. There were hotels all around that you could tell were brand new because they were probably built for the Olympics. It was just an amazing feeling. I walked over to where the actual stadium was and where the opening Olympics took place. And then I saw the swimming building. It was a once in a lifetime experience, and I couldn’t help but imagine how many people there were in that one area several months back.

 

Our tour guide, Michael, told us that if we were interested in a Kung Fu show that night, that he could get us tickets, so I decided to go, because a Kung Fu show just sounded awesome. So we had about an hour and a half to grab lunch before the show. So we ended up going to this fast food kind of Chinese place called Mr. Lee. The food was still really authentic though. I got a beef soup really similar to the Vietnamese Pho soup we had. It was really good. They also gave us some type of salty custard thing with garlic and onions, and it tasted very strange, but good at the same time.

 

After dinner, I headed back to the hotel to drop off my things and meet up with the bus for the Kung Fu show. When we got there, people were already lined up to get inside. The outside of the theater was all lit up with red and colorful lights. I was really excited. We got inside of the theater and took our seats just as the show was beginning. The show began and the things they did were just absolutely ridiculous, and they made it look so easy! They did flips all across the stage, back head springs (like a back hand spring, but instead of using their hands, they used their heads), and amazing leaps. It was more of a musical/play type thing that an actual King Fu demonstration. But there was a lot of Kung Fu incorporated into the show. They did things like breaking cement bricks with their heads and balancing themselves on sharp objects, it was really cool. I don’t know how much of it was actually real, but I pretended it was, and really enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

After the show, we headed back to the hotel and I went up to my room to get ready to go out for the night. I went to my friend Ryan and Ryan’s room and me, Ryan, Ryan and my friend Mike played some beer pong and hung out with people before we decided to go out. Around 11 or so, we took a taxi to one of the local clubs. On our way, the boys spotted a Hooter’s, so of course, they wanted to stop and “Get hot wings”, I was hungry and didn’t really care, so we made a pit stop. We got a few drinks and some wings and I even bought a shirt, and then we headed back out to the club. We went to the club, but the drinks were really expensive and we were tired as it was, so we only stayed for a little over an hour and then headed back to the hotel for the night.

 

Day 4

Now, this day was pretty interesting. We woke up at 8, and got breakfast and then headed out to the Tiananmen Square. It was really cool and had a lot of interesting buildings. Then we headed for like a 5 minute walk to the Forbidden City. I felt like such a tourist when we got to the Forbidden City because they gave us headphones and a tape to walk around with, like our own personal tour guide. But I’m not going to lie, the lady had a very soothing voice and she gave a lot of information which was good. But sometimes I got really caught up in what she was saying, and wasn’t paying attention to the stones underneath me, and yes, I did trip a few times. No, no face plants, just a few stumbles here and there.

 

We were given a little over an hour to walk through the Forbidden City and then we had to meet at the North Entrance, apparently. Well, I thought that our tour guide said to meet right where we were standing. We walked through the palace for about a half an hour or so and then I decided that I wanted a bottled water and a little snack, so we went right outside to grab a snack and a drink. Our meeting time rolls around, and we go to the supposed meeting place and nobody is there. So we are wandering around for about 20 minutes or so, walking up and down the Palace and looking for our group, and cannot find them for the life of us. So we figure, okay, they’ve been saying the whole time if you’re late, then you get left behind. So being that neither one of us have a cell phone, we decided to do the only thing we knew and go to the hotel and use their phone to call them. It took us another 30 minutes or so to get to the hotel because hardly any of the cab drivers spoke English, which is to be understood, being that we were in China. But it makes for a hard time getting to places in a timely manner. So we got to the hotel and asked the front desk to use the phone and we made the call and nobody picked up. So we went back up to the hotel room and after about 5 minutes, were greeted by a phone call from our trip leader, basically telling us that they waited for us for 45 minutes and they even announced our names over the P.A. system. I felt horrible for making them wait, but at the same time, we are adults, and had been told the whole time that if we were late, we’d be left behind, so I thought we did the best thing possible in the situation.

 

The group had a few other things planned for the day and they told us that we should meet up with them, but to be honest, if I would have waited for somebody for 45 minutes while I was hungry in the cold, I would have been upset, and so we decided to explore on our own for the day. We walked along the streets of Beijing, and decided to see the cultural things as well. We walked down one street and saw everybody just sitting outside of their homes, cooking food and eating together. Everybody looked so happy and we even tried some of the local food. It was really good.

 

We continued to walk down the streets, looking in all of the local stores and meeting the local people. We decided to go to a tea house and get some tea and just relax and try not to worry about the previous events. They refilled our teapot at least 5 times, and by the end of the time at the tea house, I was sweating out caffeine. But I usually don’t like tea, and I still drank so many glasses of it, it was really good tea.

 

Then we went to the place next door for dinner. We walked in and it smelled delicious. The people were so friendly to us, despite the fact that they didn’t speak much English. We got the menu and all of it was in Chinese. One of the nicest ladies there came over and she spoke English very well. She was nice enough to help us with the menu and helped us over. We ordered chicken wings, oysters and fried rice. The food there was probably one of the best meals I have had throughout the whole trip. The oysters were absolutely unlike anything I’ve ever tasted and the chicken wings were seasoned with some of the best Chinese spices.

 

After dinner we went back to the hotel and I decided to use the internet for a little while and then was so exhausted from the days events that I decided to watch some TV and go to bed.

 

Day 5

This was our last day in Beijing and we had a wake up call again at 730 am. Then we headed back onto the bus to set out for some more sightseeing. The first stop was the Temple of Heaven. We stopped here for about an hour or so. It was probably one of the other highlights of the trip. At the Temple of Heaven, a lot of elderly people come in the morning to work out. But it is not just a normal work out; they had every single type of thing that involved physical activity. We walked in and we saw them doing ribbon dancing, and they were all really good and it was actually really cool to watch. It wasn’t just a bunch of random people throwing ribbons around and clumsily bumping into each other, which is probably what you imagined. No, they were all coordinated, they all did the same moves and didn’t even think twice about it. You could tell they really enjoyed things like this.

 

Next, we continued in, and right next to the ribbon dancers was couples dancing. They had couples of men and woman and couples of woman who were best friends dancing together. And this was really similar to the ribbon dancing. Everybody knew the same dance and they were all in sync. It was even relaxing to watch. It was so early in the morning, and they had so much energy. Next to the couples dancing was sword dancing, which was really cool too, and everybody was, once again, really good at it. Then we walked up the corridor to get into the temple and one corridor had a whole row of older men and woman playing cards and dominos. I don’t think I saw a single person without a smile on their face. They were all laughing and smiling and enjoying themselves. It really hit me; these people were perfectly satisfied with playing cards with some of their oldest friends. I guess you figure, they work so hard their whole lives, going to school over 12 hours a day for 16 years, just to work in a stressful job for 16 hours a day; they deserved the relaxation. I thought of Nanna playing Bingo back in the States. You would have loved this place, Nanna, and would have fit in perfectly.

 

As we started to walk up into the temple, I saw some more people singing, in groups and solo. Also, people were dancing in small and large groups and some other people were just simply relaxing and talking with friends. Then we got into the temple. It was a beautiful place. The main temple was decorated with so many colors and this place was truly amazing and I felt so happy just to be in the presence of these people.

 

Next stop was the market. Bad news. China is known for its knock off things that look so real. And they gave us a whole 2 hours there. And people in China are VERY persistent when it comes to buying their things. They promise you the best price and best quality. Michael warned us that when we went in, the quality got worse and worse the further down in floors you went. So we started at the top floor, with pearls that were 23,600 Yuan ($4300), and worked our way down to the bottom. I bought a lot of stuff on the third floor which was shoes and handbags. Some for myself, and others I bought as gifts.

 

The bottom floor had ipods, Wiis, Nintendo’s, and other various electronics for sale. My ipod has broken on this trip, but I figure, if I can barter the price of my ipod, it is probably not the best quality. I knew better than to go for the electronics. Michael said they usually last about an hour or so and then die, well at least the watches. Because most of them are made out of plastic.

 

After the market, we headed to lunch. Lunch was good and they even served us French fries which was refreshing to eat some American food as well. After lunch, we made our last stop at the Lama Temple. This place was really cool too. They had one of the largest Buddha’s in the world. It stood 26 meters tall. It was so enormous, and it was carved out of a tree hundreds of years ago. We walked through the temple for about an hour or so and then headed back to the bus to head to the airport.

 

Once at the airport, a lot of people had to check their luggage because they had bought so much at the market (including myself). So it took a little longer than our first flight. We waited at the airport for about an hour and a half. We all got some snacks and waited at our boarding gate. At about 500, we boarded the plane. We sat on the plane for about an hour so because I guess there was a little bit of a delay. But we finally lifted off around 6 and the flight was about 2 hours to Shanghai. Once we finally arrived in Shanghai, we found our bus driver and we boarded the bus to head back to the ship. The drive was about 20 minutes, and the city was amazing. It was so beautiful. The lights were all so colorful and bright. The architecture was so amazing too. I saw some of the coolest buildings ever.

 

We got to the ship, and the line to have our bags checked was so long, so that took about another half an hour to actually get our bags checked and get back on the ship. So by that time it was around 9 pm. I wasn’t going to go out, but I was hungry so Jaclyn and I decided to go and grab some food somewhere. There was a really cool restaurant at the top of one of the buildings that had really awesome lights and the top was a ball, which was a rotating restaurant. We decided to go there. Anders came with us and we grabbed a taxi. We told the man where we wanted to go, and after about 5 minutes of hand gestures, the man got the idea of where we wanted to go. When we finally got there though, the restaurant and building was closed. We were so hungry and the language barrier was so hard, we stopped and asked several times where we could get food. But nobody really understood, so we just settled for McDonald’s.

 

After McDonald’s, we went next door to a place called KTV karaoke. We got to rent out our own Karaoke room for 36 Yuan an hour (about $5) and we got some drinks and we sang our hearts out. It was a great time, but after three hours, we were exhausted and decided to head back to the ship. That took about another hour or too. We got lost and trying to communicate with our taxi driver was a struggle. But we made it to the ship and went to sleep pretty late, but still made it nonetheless.

 

Day 6

Last day in China. We awoke later and I had a trip to go on at 300 for one of my classes. So Jaclyn wanted to go to a market, and I decided that I would go with her for a couple hours. She googled a placed and we got it in Chinese writing so that it would be easier to show the cab driver and we wouldn’t have any problems. So we got in the cab and he took us to where we wanted to go and it ended up being the local museum. We were kind of confused, but there was a lady waiting outside of our cab who kept saying, “Market?” We looked at her a little strange, and Jaclyn showed her the paper with the name of the market and she nodded and seemed like she knew where to go. So we walked through the museum and downstairs and outside behind the museum and it was market galore.

 

The lady was like our own personal market tour guide. She took us to a purse shop and the lady took out a wall and took us in this back room. They had so many purses, and as we were going into the little room, the lady goes, “Hurry, before the police come”. I couldn’t tell if she was kidding or serious. But we looked at the purses for a little and we bargained and I got a nice purse for Yuan and a cup of coffee. They were really nice people. We continued through the market for Jaclyn to look for shoes or whatever her heart desired, I had done way too much shopping the day before. We walked around for about another hour or so and then decided to head back to the ship because I had to be back by 3 for a day trip for one of my classes.

 

We hailed a cab right outside of the museum, and we showed him the address of the ship in Chinese and of course, he didn’t know where it was. So he called his friend to find out. We headed back to the ship, and Jaclyn and I decided that we wanted to stop at a supermarket to get some snacks for the room. We decided to stop at a local convenience store, nothing too special, and got a few snacks. Our taxi driver waited for us and then we headed back to the ship. The taxi driver got a little confused I guess because he took us the opposite direction, away from the ship. We tried to tell him to make a U-turn and turn around and go the other way and he just smiled and nodded. So I let Jaclyn take the reins and he turned around and we got dropped off near the ship.

 

We got back with a few minutes to spare before my trip, so I grabbed a snack and my backpack and headed out to meet my group. We had two buses and we were heading to the Children’s Palace. This was like an after-school daycare, kind of like Bar-T in the U.S. We got there at about 345, right when the kids began to show up. We toured the facility and saw all of the different kinds of rooms. They had rooms for dancing, ballet, sketching, piano practice and other random interests. We sat in on an instrument recital of a 16 year old boy and girl. They played two different instruments that I had never seen before, but it was so amazing to watch them play. They were some of the most amazing musicians that I have ever seen, and they were only 16 years old. Then we moved on to see some of the younger kids dancing. They were probably around 6 or 7 years old and they were so cute, but so nervous. But once they started performing, they were so enthusiastic, and so in sync. It was a really fun experience to see all these kids.

 

After about an hour of visiting the palace, we headed back to the ship. Our on ship time that night was 6pm, so I got on the ship at about 5pm, and ate dinner and then did a little homework, and fell asleep pretty early. China was so exhausting that I needed as much sleep as I could get. I really enjoyed seeing all of the things that we did.

 

Our next stop is Japan and we arrive there tomorrow morning. It is the same thing that we did in China. We are sailing to two different places. We arrive in Kobe tomorrow morning and have two days, and then we have one day of sailing to Yokohama, where we will be for another two days. Three more ports and a little more than a month left. The ship life is still pretty consistent, nothing really new going on here. Still having an amazing time and miss everybody at home.

 

Love,

Caitlin