Brazil (finally!) and South Africa

Brazil!

Day one - Carnival! We spent the day getting oriented in the city so we knew the shady places to stay away from at night. We did a little shopping and then went back to shower before the long night. We stayed out dancing until about 11 and then came back to the ship. I had an amazing time aside form a stomach ache I got from the steak I ate. (By the way I didn’t mention to everyone, I’m not eating red meat for the entire voyage, if I can. Partially for health curiosity and mostly because of how much destruction of the Amazon is due to cattle ranches that export beef primarily to the US. I’m also cutting back on fish now that I have learned so much about over fishing in my Life on a Blue Planet class. Plus victor and Amanda are vegan and vegetarian and its easy to not eat meat when people around you don’t.) At 1am I met up with my Amazon group! We left for our 7 hours of travel time. We eventually got to Manaus sometime early the next morning.

Day 2 - First day of the Amazon! We go to the boat and picked out our hammocks, which we slept on the next 2 nights. I picked out a really cool one because I heard we had a chance to buy them at the end of the trip. I made good friends with this girl named Kristen also. Anyway we went to the meeting of the two rivers, the Rio Negro and the Amazon. The Amazon is a light brown color and the Rio Negro is a dark iodine color. The two for some reason don’t mix so it’s a really cool site to go to. After that we docked at a place to get some lunch and took a short hike. Saw giant Lillie pads and a few decent sized camen in the water. The pictures I took there are about the last one of my trip that turned out well. I’m not sure what happened but the rest of them are slightly off in color. The contrast is pretty extreme, and I tried to fix it but looks like I may have to play with the best photos in Photoshop and try and get pictures from other people. Hopefully my camera will work by South Africa! Anyway, after that we went on a boat ride on the three smaller boast we had. As we were boating, a group of 2 small boats with a few children started to paddle up to us. in the boat they had a few tiny camen, a sloth, and an anaconda! They let us hold and take pictures with all of them. Of cours ei ahd told hold the aanaconda, bc when else in my life will I likely do that? It was really heavy, an di got a few funny pictures. I held the sloth as well, which I cant really decrie. You might just have to look it up if you have never seen one. They are relly kinda cute though. They move really slowly and just want to grab onto whatever they are on. Whe I held him he grabbed on to me like he was hugging me, which was fun until his ling claws bagan to dig into my arm haha. We gave the children what little change we had (I wish we would have known to being more) and went on. We went on one more short hie to see a tree that was so large 17 men can barely reach arm to arm around it when we welt it was almost dark so we watched the sunset and then went tooking for camen. (they are like crocks or alligators if you are wondering) the guide on our boast was really good at finding them and we had 2 with us for while surprisingly they didn’t mind us holding them and only tried to get away if we touched their tails. It was completely black as we drove around and our guide and boat driver just plowed us into bushes if they saw glowing eyes. I made the mistake of sitting in the back of the boat however so every time we backed up I kinda choked on exhaust and after a bit it started to get old. Luckily we didn’t stay out too long and when we to back a huge really delicious dinner was waiting. After that I slept my first night in hammock! (David if you see this, I have no idea how you did that for a month in our old house!! Lol)

Day 3- we got up early, ate some breakfast and then went off on a three our hike through the Amazon rainforest! We were led by Antonio again, as well as with a guide named Michelle (mee-shell). It was pretty awesome, Michelle had a huge machete and he was just hacking his way through the forest, not on any kid of a path at all. He just knew where he was going. So cool. Haha anyway as we went we stopped to check out a number of different trees and plants, some where edible and some were used medicinally. One of them was used as gun powder by the Portuguese, which they used to enslave some of the indigenous people. We stopped at one tree and Michelle tried to show us how to climb a tree using leaves braided together into a rope that you put around the tree and your feet. A few people tried and some of them made it part of the way up. I wanted to try but it was one of those times when about 20 people wanted to and we didn’t have time so I didn’t mind. Our hike ended at a waterfall where some people got in to swim and wash off. They took us to a beach to eat and take a swim and some of the local children came over sand played with us in the water. A bunch of us got into a big splashing fight and I took some pictures with my waterproof camera (finally!). After that we went to a local village of indigenous people. There were about 150 living on this island , and they had elected a president to make major decisions. The village children ended up following us around and holding our hands for the rest of the stay there. This was my favorite day of the trip because we got to really experience the culture. Towards the end of our stay there we got to play a game of soccer (football) against the locals. My first game ever! I was a goalie for a little while.. And some other position as well.. I have no idea haha. I made friends with one of the girls.. She high fived me and was really sweet. After the game we left and watched the sunset from the small boats again. After dinner I got a group of people together to sit on the back of the boat with me and stargaze . A few of us ended up falling asleep under the stars, which was really awesome bc it reminded me of when Sadler and I use to sleep outside like that in Oregon in the summers when we were little. His time however we woke up soaking wet and shivering lol.

Day 4- Piranha fishing! We went out for a little while when we woke up and I caught 3 piranha! 2 of them flew out of the water on my pole and then fell off and then the third one which was the biggest of the day got to the side of the boat and then flopped off. Either way I was pretty excited about them. We took another shorter hike and then went to a tiny beach. We swam and played with a volleyball and jumped out of some random trees. I took some underwater pictures of my friend Kristen, which did a pretty good job of showing how iodine colored the water really is. We went to another village that day and learned a little more about how they live day to day. This village had more modern accommodations than he other and had a small grocery store as well as 2 gift shops. I really loved visiting the villages, although the gift shops kind of made them feel less authentic. At the same time though I was more than happy to buy things and support them as this was a major way these particular villages made money. The village artist sat down and painted most of us with this blue dye that came from some fruit. He gave us all small tattoos that lasted for about 2 weeks… mine would not come off! It was kind of funny because I got this tribal band around my wrist and the top had worn off but the white under skin was still completely blue for about another week haha. Our tour guide told me later that he thought I looked Brazilian and asked me what was. I told him the few things I knew, and he still insisted I was part Brazilian haha. After he made me try on this Brazilian headdress and pose for a picture for him so he could use his new digital camera. I’m pretty sure I turned bright red haha. Anyway that night we had a big dinner on the beach with decorations all around. The beach was lit up with candles and hanging lights and they set off fireworks for us. Both boats came together so all 60 of us began playing random games. They played Brazilian music for us and we played some American music for them and began a game of limbo. One of my friends won the game and he s 6’2! I have no idea how he did it. After that we had a tug of war math with the guys from our boat vs. the guys form their boats and also girls vs. girls. I think their guys boat won, and when the girls went we broke the rope! We all fell on top of each other laughing.. Then they tied it back and we won. When we got back to Manaus we saw a brazillian dance show that lasted about 2 hours and was some of the best costume and dance I have seen in a very long time. We eventually left for the airport and headed back to Salvador.

Day 5 - Last day in Salvador! We got off the ship and everywhere we looked they were sweeping up the mess Carnival had left behind. I spent the last day getting in some last minute shopping and making some new friends. We went to an Irish bar and I met a few really cool people and made friends with the bar tender, who was Irish but had just left his home in Hawaii to live in Brazil. That evening we had dinner and few drinks and headed back to the ship.

Feelings on Brazil….

I am lucky. I am glad I had the opportunity to visit brazil and I am glad I got to see Salvador as opposed to Rio, because Salvador felt more authentic. To be honest though, SAS scared us. Before we got off the boat they told us horror stories of the past and what to look out for.. And to be honest… I didn’t like it. We are here to learn about other cultures and not stereotype.. But the fear they installed in us before we got to this port was so great that I ran into a TON of people on the ship that had no intentions of leaving it at night. They had come all the way to Salvador and refused to go out and experience it because of SAS. Now I’m not saying it wasn’t dangerous, there were 3 girls that got approached by some men with knives that took their digital cameras and money. It can be dangerous, but at the same time there are precautionary steps you can take to minimize your chance of being taken advantage of. don’t being things like that with you. Don’t even bring a lot of money. All we needed was a money belt with enough cash for a meal. Heck my disposable camera even got taken! What was he going to do? Develop my film? I was a little bummed about the way SAS handled it, and when we got back on the ship and reflected on brazil I found out a lot of other people were just as, if not even more, upset about that very same thing. Anyway my feeling on the Amazon.. are mixed. It was a unforgettable time that is for sure. It was eye opening to fly over the Amazon and see the effects of deforestation we had been talking about in class. It was sad to see these huge brown patches of lifelessness in the middle of this beautiful rainforest. That moved I think more than nothing else I saw. Experiencing the Amazon by boat was different, and I did like that about it. One thing I was not a fan of however was the fact that there only 2 hikes. Being a girl who loves to backpack, I was slightly disappointed that we spend a total of 3 hours hiking through the rainforest. It was amazing to see it all from the water, but it just made me want to see it by foot that much more. I feel like that is kind of how the SAS trip work though. My experience with them so far has been busses and shuttles and boats with guides and talking but not as much of the actual -doing-. It was also a bit of a drag that every beautiful shot of nature I took had a person in it. I either had to speed up to the front and snap a quick shot before everyone showed up. Or lag behind until everyone was out of the way and run to catch up. For those reasons I id have a bit of a had time justifying the cost of this trip. A friend of mine however said she thought it was worth every penny. I think it is all based in the individual. I do not regret a thing about it, and I would not do it differently because the experiences I had and friends I made would not have existed. It was also great to have guides who were so experienced and knew so much. I feel very fortunate to be one of the 60 people chosen, when there were definitely over 200 who applied for the trip. I am also glad I did not spend my entire time in Salvador because I am not the biggest partier and I think 5 nights of carnival would have left me feeling like I had not experienced enough of Brazil. On a closing note, I am all about nature. When i travel and stay in the city I leave feeling unsatisfied. That’s what made Australia so much better than new Zealand and Thailand so much better than Japan. The Amazon is what made brazil one of most spectacular places I have ever visited.


South Africa! Oh god what I can I say besides there is so much to do and no time to do it all! I have to come back. South Africa blew me away. And I definitely did not get to experience everything I was hoping I would. (Mainly due to being really sick. Why is it the countries I am most excited to see.. New Zealand and South Africa… are the ones I get really sick in?) So I’ll start from day one again…

Day 1- Got off the ship as fast as I could and met Shaun at the gate! The group I have been hanging out with, Regina, Kathryn, Mike, HPU Mike (weird I met someone else who goes to HPU), Carly (dating matt vendiepen (sp) how odd is that? And she knows kellie!), Blake Brock and some other people all walked int town and ended up slitting up and doing the Table Mountain hike. Shaun needed shoes so we ended up having to stop and get some and went to he mountain by ourselves because other people had time restrictions. Anyway we took the cable car to the top, which was most amazing view ever, and hen hiked around and took pictures for a few hours. To be honest I had no expectation for cape town whatsoever, and It was by far the most beautiful city I had ever seen from so high up. I couldn’t stop taking pictures because in every direction I looked there was something beautiful I had to capture. After a while a very small amount of clouds started to roll in the hey began to spill over the sides of the mountain. Shaun and I decided to abseil down the mountain. We went up to the guys working the ropes and saw a few crushed beer cans lying around and were a bit nervous, but they seemed to know what they were doing and we felt safe so we went for it. I honesty spent more time on the way down looking out at the clouds and the ocean than i did looking at the wall. Right before we had started to repel down the guys told s to look out for a surprise on the way down. That comment honestly made me a little nervous but I had forgotten about it until I heard Shaun yell “Hey Jayme!” and then he jumped off the wall and looked to have disappeared under the overhang below. It was a good 40 feet of just gliding down with no wall to balance yourself. It reminded me of the abseiling we did in Australia down the water fall where even thought we could touch the wall it was so slippery everyone was just spinning in slow circles most the way down anyway haha. So that what we did, and I tried my best to keep myself facing the water and the mountain because it was too much to take in to only get to glance at it. After we left the mountain we got ready for our light to Johannesburg. We left along with Blake, Katie and Victor that night to stay in a hostel and get an early start for our safari the next day.

Day 2- Woke up nice and early from our hostel and had a smack, then we were off to the airport to get picked up for our safari! They got us, drove about 4 hours to Kruger and we had some lunch then drove another 2 hours to our campsite where we went on a late afternoon drive. We met a really nice Australian girl named Renee (my middle name) and I had a good talk with her about ausi and what I had done and seen. We got back to a delicious dinner and then ran into Brock and some other SASers who were staying at the campsite as well. We heard there was supposed to be a lunar eclipse that night at 1230 so we bought a few bottles of wine and stayed up drinking and looking at the stars until we saw it. I had never seen one before so I was really excited my first time was in south Africa. We also saw the southern cross which was pretty cool, since I had only had a chance to see it once or twice in Australia.

Day 3- We got up at 5 in the morning and had some tea and biscuits and then went on our early morning drive. So far I felt like maybe we had scared the animal away because we drove for quite a while without seeing anything at all. Eventually we found hippos, baboons, elephants and impalas. This day was the longest day of the trip because as soon as we got back and had some breakfast we had to immediately leave for another 2 hour drive. We got to the company’s main building and had lunch and then drove another 4 hours to our new campsite. By this time we were a little frustrated with the fact that they had moved us around and we spent an entire day driving, but when we got to the private game reserve we were staying at and realized we were the only ones there we felt better about it. It was our group of 5, a couple, one cook, and one driver. The 9 of us were the only people around for a few miles and it was really more of what we expected with tents and a lack of a million people and gift shops. We went on our night drive and saw a lion which was definitely the highlight. He was so lazy too, we pulled up and all he did was sit up, look at us for a few minutes and lay back down. We camped out in our tents that night and I woke up a few times to a really loud roar.. At first I thought maybe someone was snoring but then we realized it was a lion.

Day 4- We woke that morning and did our last drive. Again we drove for a while without seeing anything. We followed the tracks of some buffalo and ended up finding a rhino. He was marking his territory near the boundaries of the property we were on. Our guide said I guess there was another male that lived on the other side of the fence and they sometimes fight, and the owners of the property have to fix it all the time. We drove around a bit more and then found the buffalo we had been looking for. There were so many of them all together, our guide said a big heard can be around 70, I bet we saw about 15or 20. We finished that drive and flew back to cape town and by the time Shaun and I checked into our hotel it was almost midnight and we were still pretty sick so we called it a night.

Day 5- This day was pretty uneventful as Shaun and I woke up feeling pretty sick, so we didn’t plan anything but to meet up with Blake at 1. We had some breakfast and headed over to the ship around 1230 and I got a note on my door saying he couldn’t meet us that day. We walked around the waterfront area for a while and ran into my roommate Amanda. We met her later that night at Mama Africa which is this great local restaurant with live African bands playing every night. Unfortunately we didn’t have a reservation and they were packed so we grabbed a bite at a different place. We both still felt pretty bad and went back to the room to watch a movie and sleep again. Our hotel by the way was really cool. It was called the Extreme Hotel which I guess is a hotel based on the European version of Fuel TV, called Extreme TV. Anyway its crazy when you walk in there is all kind of crazy furniture and a huge bar and restaurant and pictures of guys free climbing mountains. There is even a rock wall, and its high too haha. The inside of the elevator was made to look like shark cage diving, with bars and pictures of sharks making it feel like you were under water. Then the room had a flat screen TV and all these crazy colored lights and an amzing view of table mountain. So I guess it wasn’t too bad a place for us to be recovering from being sick haha.

Day 6- Shark Cage Diving! So Shaun and I were under the impression that we were supposed to meet everyone at 5am for diving so we showed up at the ship and no one was to be found. I finally got a hold of Blake and found out we didn’t have to go until 9 because our trip had gotten bumped last night. We went back and slept a bit again as we were still feeling pretty gross. Anyway we met everyone at 9 and drove 2 hours to the place where they were supposed to take us out. After lunch we boated out to the spot, which is protected by a reef so it wasn’t supposed to be too rough of waters. It was really windy that day and the seas were really rough, so much so that we hit a big wave and as we crashed down part of the side of the boat cracked. Once we got to the spot we put the bait, which was tied to a string, out into the water and waited for a shark to show up. Once one did the first group of people got into the water and then the second. I got in with the third group and by that time the shark had left so we had to wait for another. Most of our group had decided against wearing wetsuits due to the fact that the water was about 65 and wetsuits are a pain to put on. I realized that may have been a bad idea as I sat there shivering waiting for the shark. We were in the water pretty long and one didn’t show up so we hopped out and another group waited. Pretty much as son as I got out a new one came and after the group that was in got out I got back in. it left again. Most of us on the boat decided I must be scaring them away haha. I sat next to the cage but out of the water and wouldn’t you know another showed up so I hopped in. this one was the best I had seen. He swam right at the cage, literally looking me in the face. It was really an awesome experience so be so close to such a huge shark. When Shaun got in it actually bumped the cage right in front of his face. After we left we went back and had some dinner and watched the video the videographer had made. I am a sucker and I bought it, mostly because when i had used my underwater camera I was way more concerned with actually seeing the shark with my own eyes rather than looking at him on a 2 inch screen, so I didn’t get all of him in the video. We got back pretty late again, and Shaun and I went back and showered and then tried to call the boat to meet up with everyone but the boat operator (I knew which one it was) is useless and couldn’t manage to give me the right number to call. What if it had been an emergency? Anyway so Shaun and I tried to get into Mama Africa again and had more luck this time. The food was pretty good but the live music was really what made it such a cool place. He also bought me a yellow rose which was sweet :)

Day 7- We had wanted to try and make a trip to the wine lands this day, because someone had told us the place named Spear had baby cheetahs you could pet. By the time we had woken up it was close to check out time so we asked them to hold our stuff and then we had to try and reserve Shaun a hotel for that night in Johannesburg. We had never hadn’t had a chance to walk around cape town and do Long and Loop Streets, which were a block away form our hotel, so we took a walk to check it all out. We ended up finding some really cool and some really unexpected shops. We asked a girl at the surf shop we went to if she could tell us a good place to go for lunch and we had the best smoothies ever for only about 3 dollars. By the time we were done we tried to find out how to get to the wine lands and it ended up being a hour drive with a 60 dollar cab fair which seemed kind of steep and we would have only had an hour to see the place so we passed. We met a bunch of people for dinner at this really good Mexican food place and split a punch bowl drink, which ended up being the size of a salad bowl. Luckily I saw my roommate and she and a friend came over and finished it. Right after dinner Shaun had to get a taxi so he could catch his plane and I had to get back on the boat. We were supposed to leave Cape Town at night but it ended up the weather was to rough and we had to wait until about 5pm the next day.

Reflections on South Africa as of now:

It was absolutely one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I had no expectations whatsoever of where we would be, and it was more than I think I could have even imagined. It is definitely a place I will come back to, and hopefully soon. I am a little bummed out that sickness kept me from getting as much done here as I could. Even if we had 2 weeks here I still think I would leave feeling there was still so much to do. There is no denying its beauty but it did have its drawbacks of course. The separation between the townships (black neighborhoods) and the white neighborhoods were more than I had expected. The regular housing looks like any major beach city for the most part, some big nice houses some small nice houses, all pretty close together and concentrated around the main city area and the coast. The townships however were completely separate. They were shacks literally made out of the metal sheeting people use to use to make cheap sheds out of. They didn’t blend at all. There was a clear separation of black and non black housing. The thing that was interesting, was that out on the street, everyone seemed to blend together and get along just fine. In my experience I had not seen anything bad. My roommates best friends however did. She had gotten out of a taxi and a small black boy had asked them for money and as she turned the cab driver had put his cigarette out on the boys face. Some people just refuse to get it, and I don’t understand why. The discrimination is not as bad as it was, but it is still there. South Africa has a ways to go, but from what we have studied and heard Desmond Tutu speak about, it is dramatically better than it was.

On a lighter note, if you ever go to South Africa and do a safari, don’t go cheap. I really feel like you kind of get what you pay for. Friends of mine who went with other companies did not get shuttled around 6+ hours a day, and were in areas where seeing the big 5 was a lot more likely. Just a suggestion :) Also, if you want to shark cage dive, it is worth the money if you go during high season, because you also apparently see a lot more in one day.

Anyway that is about all I can write for now. Still getting over being sick and today is our day off so I’m trying to sleep and study as much as I can. More soon, miss you guys!

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Ok so I don’t even know how to start. I feel like something amazing has happened to me in a matter of 2 days. Starting with the most recent.. I just left Monty Hempel’s class, Life on a Blue Planet, and I came back to my room and had the best cry ever. Not a bad one at all.. I’m not even sure how to describe the feeling. I just feel like I have finally found something I am passionate about. He showed us this film in class, one he had made, and it was about exploring the lakes in Palau and jelly fish and climate change. And afterwards I just was so amazed I stayed after class to ask him some questions about his trip. He said he has gone every year for the last 10 years, this may will be the first time he hasn’t gone, but he is going in July. They take university of Redlands students, he is a prof there, and they spend a month just learning about the culture and exploring everything. I asked about the application process and he said they don’t have to be u of Redlands students they can just be students that are interested usually with a cultural anthropology background or a interest in the ocean. The application process is selective as thy only take 12 students but as he listed off the criteria I am positive I would be eligible. Then I asked a question completely unrelated. I asked him what made him decide to change his major from being a doctor to being an environmental scientist. He said it was World campus Afloat. That is the predecessor to Semester at Sea. He want back in 1972, and he said about 2 months in he was in the Indian Ocean and he just decided that medical school was just not what he wanted to do. He had interests in other areas and that was so one track that he couldn’t do it and wouldn’t be happy with it. I don’t know what it was that built up inside me when he said that but I was about to burst, and then I asked what year he was when he switched and he said he was a senior. I had to cover my face with my folder for a second to keep from exposing my eyes welling up and just said “ah, don’t say that! Your going to make me want to change my major.” He asked what it was sand I said physical therapy. And I said that It wasn’t that I wanted to change my major but I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. I just couldn’t anymore. I knew too much now to just sit by and let it all happen. And what he told me was just exactly what I needed to hear. He said you know some of my best friends were business majors and various other things and they still work those jobs and they love them. They just spend all of their free time involved with organizations and went on to make a few. I got to the point where I was pretty sure I couldn’t hold anything in anymore so asked him if we could sit down and talk more about it later and he said sure I would love to. Then I just came back to my room as fast as I could and had the best cry ever.

I have been searching for something… and I haven’t been overly impressed my voyage so far. And don’t get me wrong I am having the time of my life, but nothing so far has been life changing. You know I expected seeing the Amazon would do that at least partially for me.. But it didn’t really. It was absolutely amazing,, but not life changing. And ya know was talking to Amanda last night about that and I was so excited for cape town and I told her, cape town is going to be it for me. I can feel it, cape town is going to change me. But you know what she said to me when I came in the room a few minutes ago and cried and told her everything that just happened? She aid maybe it isn’t a port that is going to change you. Maybe it will be this class and this professor….

It is so weird to write that out. I have had amazing professors in the past but no one that has ever sparked a passion in me about anything I actually felt I would act on.

Its so funny. We had our pre-port lecture last night, meaning we all came to the union (largest classroom) and had our little presentation and intro to South Africa and what we may see. And that morning Desmond Tutu was our lecturer for the entire class of global studies. By the end of our pre-port lecture that night I was so excited I could hardly sit in my chair. I was so excited all I could even manage to say was how excited I was. I cant wait. I want a slap in the face. I want to see these children that are sickand living in poverty. These people whose statistical representation of the prevalence of HIV and AIDs is 1 in 9 persons. I want that slap in the face. And I want to do some thing about it. I just want to do something. I don’t know what it was before. I don’t think I felt helpless.. I mean everyone says what effect can one person have on such a large scale of something like climate change or an epidemic. And we all respond with “nothing”. what is wrong with us? That doesn’t satisfy me. It just doesn’t I can just take that “I am only one person in the world” approach anymore. And I think I felt that before, but I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t have anything that inspired me to get up and actually do something. But now.. I just feel like Monty is going to change my life. I fell like he already has. I feel like whatever it was I was searching for is finally happening.

I had a dream.. well it was today actually. I stayed up most the night studying for my psyh exam, mostly bc I could hardly concentrate. But anyway I left global studies, where Tutu had spoken again in a question and answer session (amazing by the way), and I slept for a good 4 hours before my Life on a Blue Planet class. I had this dream and I cant remember all of it… but I know it had ended with me completely changing my mind about semester at sea. I had started out.. not with a negative view, but also not overly impressed, similar to how I was feeling a few days ago. By the end everyone, specifically the staff (non of which I recognized as actual staff members, dreams are weird like that) had just blown me away. I woke up and I was just suddenly so impressed. I’m not even sure what I was impressed by.. It was just a nap.. but that was the only feeling I felt. Now, back in my room after Monty’s class, all I feel is inspired. I really believe this is it for me. I am in it and I am so…just.. excited.

some thoughts on life in between ports...

So have been putting a lot of thought into my life lately. I’m nervous because I’m taking a class with this amazing teacher named Monty Hempel who teaches my Global Environmental Politics and Life on a Blue Planet class and he is so much like me. He was a pre med major back in the 70’s and after getting his bachelors decided he didn’t want to get into medicine at all but rather into environmental science. He changed his mind during a time when these issues were becoming big. I just… I feel like I’m in the right field. don’t get me wrong. I want to be a physical therapist by all means. I just feel like the older I get the more my interests seem to change towards an environmentalists point of view. I’m not even sure where exactly it stems from. Actually, that’s not true. I blame Hawaii. And living by the beach most of my life… and scuba diving in some of the most beautiful waters in the world. I decided to drop one of the health classes I’m taking.. I will be taking those the next 3 years of my life and although they interest me I just feel like this is my last chance to take some classes that I’m really interested in. I feel like I’m a late bloomer or something. I feel like everyone else knows what they want to do by this time… which is probably not true at all.. 22 is young. Very young. But its far enough along that I feel like I cant change my mind. I don’t think that I want to exactly… I just wish I had more time. Now that I’m in my last semester of undergrad.. I just cant grasp it all. How did it go by so fast? Am I ready for grad school? I thought that was what the last year was for… a break and to prepare myself for grad school but now that I’m on this boat… I just want to do this. Travel the world. Be by the ocean at any cost. I love Creighton. I really do. It is a fantastic school with some of the best professors I have ever met. I would be so very lucky to be accepted into a school like that. But then I get to thinking about Nebraska. I try and tell myself its only 3 years, and 2 really since the last year is internships anyway. And I begin to think.. how import is location? How important is it to my success and my happiness in life? … and then I feel so spoiled and selfish because I actually have the opportunity to go to all of these awesome schools and to see the world and to have food and clean water and parents who are beyond amazing and supportive and I just… cant find an answer. I will end up where I end up and that’s all I can think. There is a part of me that just wants to be by the ocean… to stay really involved in all of the new interests I have. Its just so hard to be a bystander. One of the things that excites me the most about this voyage is that I am going to find a way I can get involved and still stay on the same educational track I’m on. I joined about 10 different clubs at the club sign up last night… and I’m not really sure what I was thinking. This is the first chance I have had in the past month and a half to sit down and just write.. But anyway I joined the environmental science club. I’m excited most about that. And the yoga group. I decided last night I’m going to start my own club and get Monty to be the teacher representative and have it be for scuba divers. I’m excited. I have planned a shark cage dive in south Africa as well as a dive in Mauritius. We also decided last night that we are starting a star gazing club. We are on a ship in the middle of the sea and I cant think of a better place to see every possible star without light pollution. I hope the captain will let us do it. Even if its only like one night a week… it just clears my head. I use to have moments in Hawaii where I would get so overwhelmed with everything going on in life or in school and I would climb up on my roof, sometimes with Kerry, and just stare at the stars. It puts everything in perspective. We are so tiny and insignificant. You have heard me say this a million times before if your close to me, and it sounds kinda cheesy but its true. I cant think of any better way to feel small. I think it will be nice if we get this club going. I could use some star gazing right now. Not to sound like I have big problems.. I really cant complain. Life is unbelievably amazing right now. I’m just hoping to find some answers as far as what the hell I’m going to do when I get back. On that note I’m going to stop thinking about it all right now and enjoy the moment I’m in.

Puerto Rico and the ship

So where do I even begin? We have been here for like 5 days but it has felt like 2 weeks. I don’t want to leave anything out so ill start from the beginning and just kinda write what we have done so far.

Day 1- So I got to the Bahamas, had no way to contact the girls I was supposed to room with and didn’t get any email from them saying where to go so mom got me a room at the Hilton, which ended up being really nice (go mom). So that night I took a taxi to the Nassau Beach Hotel to meet some SASers and a big group of us went out to dinner. That night I ended up meeting 2 people who I am really good friends with now. I met a girl named Amanda, which is the name of the girl who semi stood me up in the Bahamas but it didn’t end up being the same girl. I also met a guy named Victor who is my best friend on the boat so far. After dinner we went out and had a few drinks and then went back to our hotels.

Day 2- I got to board the ship at 10am, and after waiting in a super long line got up to my room. So I walk down the hallway and see a bunch of the girls I had gone to dinner with and say hi, then get to my door and see the names Jayme and Amanda on the door. I was nervous for a second it would be “bad” Amanda, which is what we named her, but luckily the Amada from diner ended up running up to me an hugging me because she was excited I guess haha. We were both relived to have each other because we were nervous the night before we were going to get one of the girls we had seen dancing on the bars or something. Anyway she is from New York and goes to school in Manhattan so we have already decided one day I’m going to come visit her. So that night we had a bunch of meetings and then passed out.

Day 3- meetings all day long. Very boring. Fin.

Day-4 this was the first day of our A day classes and all I had was abnormal psych and the global studies that we all have to take everyday. My abnormal teacher seems pretty cool so far, she did give us a really weird first assignment though. She is really… open. I don’t know how exactly to describe her yet. I wanted to add Life on Blue Planet, which is pretty much a marine bio/oceanography type class bc I had met the teacher and he seemed really cool, so I sat in on his lecture and he ended up really liking me bc I threw out a few random facts about Hawaii that were relevant to what he was talking about. I’m also adding his Global Environmental Politics class., so im pretty excited about that. I met the teacher for my 2 health classes and when I introduced myself all he said was “you know these are upper division courses, they will be hard” and all I could think to reply was “well I’m a second semester senior so I think ill be okay”. uhm, ya. So I may try and get that Life on Blue Planet course to replace on of his. I’m on this trip to have an awesome experience and id rather not have some grump teacher trying to being me down. Its kinda funny later that night I was standing in line for dinner and the guy behind me was by himself so I introduced myself and we got to talking and he had said something about his brother snorkeling with him on the Bahamas and I asked if his whole family came with him. He was like “they are still with me” I asked what he meant and he went on to tell me his dad was a teacher, and it ended up being the health teacher. I told him what happened and not to tell his dad haha. He said he may give a lot of work and come off as a hard ass but he will grade fairly. That’s kidna when I decided maybe taking 2 of his classes wasn’t the best idea. Anyway aside form that I just met a ton of people and made a little bit of a closer group of friends. Victor is pretty much my best friend I have made so far. He goes in Oregon state and is from San Diego so we had some stuff in common. His roommate Blake is also a good friend of mine now. Uhm… I think that’s about it for that day.

Day 5- Puerto Rico! I spent half the day exploring old San Juan with Blake Victor and Amanda. Blake and Amanda had to go on a kayaking trip and later Victor and i had a Bioluminescence Bay trip so we split up and they went to do their thing and we went to the beach. We found a nice beach near the Hilton and just played around, took some towels and went on their water slide. We also saw a kick ass iguana just walking down the beach. The evening we did the Bioluminescence Bay trip. It was one of the coolest things I have done so far. I guess there only a few bays in the world and Puerto Rico has 3 of them due to the warm climate. We got into these 2 person kayaks and paddled down this channel in the dark. It was pretty crazy because there were all these trees hanging over us with iguanas on them and they would get scared from us talking and running our boats into each other and they would jump out of the tree into the water and a bright greenish blue streak would follow behind them. If we cupped the water and let it run down our arms and legs they would start to sparkle all over. I wish I could remember the detailed explanation of what is going on, but it is pretty much a chemical reaction that produces energy and emits photons which is what causes the sparkle in the water when you disturb it. Every stroke we took made a cloud of sparkly water, it was so beautiful. The funniest part of the night was when the fish jumped in my boat. The tour guides said it may happen but its unlikely and it would only be one and they said not to touch them because the scales are sharp and can cut you. We had a fish epidemic… haha. I had like 8 fish jump ion my bat and they don’t just sit there they jump around and suck on whatever is bear them, which was my butt and toes. I had brought my camera so I turned the light on to try and get them out with a tiny leaf. Victor and I couldn’t see a thing and got about 2 out but somehow so many ended up in there we couldn’t get them all. He tried to pick one up and I guess it kidna bit him or something weird so we spent like 5 minutes trying to shovel them with the paddle. We had gone from being the second boat behind the tour guide to being passed by all other like 20 of them and eventually a guide came back and got them all out for us and was laughing pretty hard at us. I have no idea how I managed to get 8 fish under my butt…

Day 6- we decided to make it a beach day again and met up with a big group of people who ended up being pretty cool. Victor and I decided to try parasailing so we went over and made arrangements. It was super windy that day so the boat wasn’t really driving anyone around he just kidna had to sit there and let the guy hang. We thought it looked kinda boring so we asked the driver if he could take us down the beach and back, but he said only if we went tandem, so we did. I took about 30 pictures and 3 movies with my camera… it was totally worth the 60 bucks we paid. The view was amazing. After that we grabbed some lunch at this restaurant that was on top of a hotel. It ended up being a super nice outdoor place with a pool and a bunch of white lounge bed/chars and a bar all with a view of the ocean. The food and drinks were really good and not too expensive and the view was awesome. They were playing some really good tunes as well. We went to an internet café and I called Shaun and we tried to arrange our South Africa plans. (Which look pretty amazing so far… 4 day safari, rock climbing, cage shark diving, and diving the east coast!) We went so San Sebastian street which is apparently the area where all of the local bars are in Old San Juan. ( we went out in that area the night before as well) probably about half the people on our boast went down to the same area so just about every bar was packed full of other SASers, which was a really fun because we pretty much knew someone at every place we went to. We got back pretty late and hung out on the deck of the boat with a bunch of friends and eventually got to bed.

Day 7- we woke up at 630 this morning to try and do this spelunking trip that is supposed to be one of the best things to do in Puerto Rico. We went down to where we had read we were supposed to meet everyone and no one was there… so we went back up and realized victor and I hadn’t bothered t look at the date on the paper and had missed it by day. It was about 7 at this point so we got breakfast and met some of the “lifelong learners” (what they call the few adult passengers) and got Victor a ticket to go hiking with the group I was originally supposed to hike with. We showed up at 8 and realized it didn’t leave until 9... Sooo we decided not to back into our rooms and wake our roommates up again and just hung out on the deck for a bit. We went on a rainforest hike at El Yunque which was fun but kind of touristy. We went on a bus with a bunch of other kids and had a lady taking us through everything like our guides do. The highlight of the hike is the waterfall we get to get in at, which was nice, except that there were 3groups of 25 kids that all kind of showed up at the same time so it ended up being a little crowded. We had a lunch at some local restaurant and then went to a really nice beach. I took a lot of pictures.. It reminded me a lot of Hawaii’s beaches and I got really homesick. Oh ya! And Victor got bit on the nipple by a tiny shark. That was pretty funny. We didn’t believe him at first but then we actually saw it swimming around haha.

Anyway that’s about as detailed of summary as I can crank out on my 3 hours of sleep last night but I will have the next 8 days to write something more than just a list of what I have done. And I promise, unlike the Australia and New Zealand trip, I will this time!

PR tomorrow!

I’m writing a big post tonight… so it will be up tomorrow! I’m answering all the emails I had as of 2 days ago… but we will be in Puerto Rico tomorrow so I will get to everything else soon. PR I’m stoked! :)

Back in Cali

Wow. That went by faster than anything. I cant believe my 4 weeks is up so soon. I have made some really great friends and unforgettable memories... and now I’m getting ready for semester at sea! I’m really excited.. but also kind of nervous. The friends I made in Ausi are so awesome.. the ones I make on sas have some big shoes to fill! :) I have a lot to reflect on and a lot to update you all on... but frankly I’m just too tired right now. I take my GRE tomorrow, then I have a few appointments and then I have to do all of my laundry and pack because I fly out again the next morning. whew. I cant wait until I have a chance to just sit back for a few minutes and relax. When I do, I promise ill write a freaking book here :)

So this has pretty much been the time of my life so far. Let’s see… we went to the Blue Mountains a few days back, and went abseiling/ canyoning. It was the most fun and exciting thing I have ever done. We had to put on these really thick wetsuits and jump into a series of canyons from these high rocks. The pools of water were freezing and we had to jump out really far to make sure it was deep enough. We did one of the jumps backwards, which was hilarious if you have ever seen me jump off a high rock (Waimea for example). I let out the funniest squeal ever haha. Next we repelled down a huge waterfall a few hundred feet up and slipped and slid all over the place on the way down. It was a pretty funny thing to watch. I hope someone got pictures of me doing it… I’m not sure but I know we have tons of pics of everyone else doing it. We stayed in this really awesome youth hostel that had a few huge grills and we all had a big kangaroo bbq. It is really good by the way, if you’ve never had it you should definitely try it. It tastes like steak only sweeter and is way better for you. It was a pretty nice place, especially for a hostel. The guys that took us out canyoning where super cool. They gave us all a beer when we got back and liked us so much that they invited us to go hang out and have some drinks at their favorite beer garden. What else.. OH! The opera! It was amazing.. I have seen one about 4 years back at El Camino.. but oh my god. Nothing can ever compare the performance we saw. It was beyond what I had imagined. The opera house is by far the best architectural structure I have ever been inside of, or even seen. Funny that it was designed a long time ago too. If you don’t know the history behind it look it up, it will be a really interesting read. Hmm… oh yeah we went to a zoo as well! I got to pet a few koalas, and my favorite part was feeding the kangaroos. They are officially my new favorite animal. I made friends with this one, and I kept going back to visit him and pet him and he liked me so much he started rubbing his head on me like a cat and licking my arm. It was just about the cutest thing I have ever experienced. Anyway today Kellie and I fly to Queensland.. in about 3 hours actually so I have to wrap this up, but keep the emails coming, I’ll be able to get back to you faster in the next three days since I will be staying with a friend. K gotta run!