Le post duex

Hello friends and family! Sorry for the even crazier delay on updating this journal. Unfortunately I got sick as soon as I got onto the ship after Brazil so that, coupled with two exams, a presentation, and general busy-ness I’ve fallen down on the job as far as keeping this up goes. Maybe I’ll stop being so lame about it? I’d like to think yes.

Anyway! Things on the ship are still going well. Some people and I are looking at renting a villa in Mauritius (if you don’t know what/where that is, I have a link on the side-bar so you can research. Or you can just, you know, google it) so that’s exciting. The other exciting news is that WE’RE GOING TO BE OFF THE SHIP SOON! So I love everyone (or at least nearly everyone) here and the ship is great and yadda yadda yadda but seriously… being in one confined space for nine days with no TV and a progressively crappy internet connection that you have to pay for can start to make one crazy. I feel like my life has started to purely consist of eating, sleeping, reading, and going to class. I guess that just makes getting into port tomorrow all the sweeter?

But yeah, Cape Town! Tomorrow! At 6:30! Yes, it’s early but if the view is anything compared to getting into Salvador, then I think being a zombie might be worth it. Then I go shopping, go to Robben Island (woo penguins and Nelson Mandela!) and we’re probably going to a play and a bar in the evening before I venture on a safari at 4:45 in the AM. Yes, I am leaving at a weird time again and yes, I am stupid for not realizing it. Oh, me.

I guess I should actually talk about Brazil, huh? Well, I just have to say that while Salvador was nice, Rio was fantastic. But I’ll go into that later.

So the first day: I got up at 5 (ugh) to see our ship going into the port of Salvador and to see the sun rise. I got some pretty A-MAZE-ING pictures of it. The new camera is doing its job and I was thrilled by the view. The water around Salvador was very still and, as we went past the lighthouse where two of the main routes for Carnival converged, we could hear people still partying from the night before. Crazy.

Anyway, I went back to bed before we had a meeting at 8 to tell us how we should be careful because Carnival is kind of insane and people get mugged and all that noise. On that note, we left the ship and, after a few snags involving getting money exchanged, wading through the tourists from the 6 other cruise ships that had pulled in that morning as well, and finding ATMs, we were in the city.

I’m not really sure how to describe Salvador. The streets were empty and there was little noise anywhere but we figured most people were still feeling a little sore from partying all night. The main part of the city feels pretty much like any city does – cosmopolitan with lots of cars and (eventually) lots of people. We went through a fairly typical Latin American market and made our way towards the Elevator (a large set of elevators that takes you up from the new part of Salvador to the old and far more charming part of Salvador – Pelourinho).

I was beginning to feel a little off as we got off to elevators. I was understandably tired and dehydrated and the overwhelming smell of urine that seemed to pervade most of Salvador was getting to me. As we split our group up in order to wander around, I got that uh-oh feeling: the feeling that either I was going to a.) pass out or b.) throw up. Now, I pride myself on usually being able to get to a bathroom before I fall apart while sick but unfortunately now was not one of those times. Though I still feel lucky that I didn’t pass out, I’m still not entirely happy with the fact that I puked about 4 times on a street in Salvador. With tourists and a whole restaurant watching. Sad sadness.

Well, after throwing up I felt much better and we ended up getting food, which turned out to be a good call. Apparently throwing up on the street isn’t that big of a deal during Carnival (or I just looked really pathetic) because no one really seemed to care. Still, I felt like an idiot. Anyway, we wandered around for a while, shopping and seeing Pelourinho in full swing. There were some costumes but not all that much crazyness in that regard. Apparently Carnival in Salvador is directed more towards young people and is therefore more of a party scene than the Carnival in Rio which is focused on the costumes and floats and all that.

We eventually went back to the ship and got dinner before I headed out to do my “More Mellow” Carnival thing through Semester at Sea. Basically it was in Pelourinho and was more family-oriented which was fine with me, seeing as I had already gotten sick that day and had to leave early to go to Rio to boot. Pelourinho is a small part of the city, set apart and much more charming than the other parts. It has a colonial air with old architecture and nice little shops. It also has great food. So I hung out, got a churro that was probably one of the best things I have EVER TASTED, drank some Sol beer, and watched the Brazilians. It was nice and eventually I headed back. I feel kind of lame for not being crazy like most people were for Carnival but, honestly, I felt like I had a nice experience.

I then went back to the ship to try and pack and sleep for an hour before heading to Rio. Yeah, so we had to meet to leave at 2:30 in the morning. I really need to learn to read before I sign up to do things. So I met the rest of our group and headed out to the airport to start a journey that I don’t think any of us were quite expecting.

Basically we traveled from 2:30 in the morning until 12:30 in the afternoon the next day. It was long, painful, and full with juggling bad Portuguese as we tried to talk to airline officials into letting us just carry on our bags instead of either checking them or throwing all our liquids away. We also flew with an airline that has had some, uh… interesting history and got to see what it was like to take a local flight in a quasi-developing nation. As someone who hates flying, it was an experience.

Once we rolled into Rio, we went to the hotel and some of us went out to go get food. I also got to know some of the people in our group who would provide enough conversation topics for me to bond with others in my group. I won’t go into that though so, uh, just ask me when I get home why I was being all weirdly enigmatic.

Our group was fairly small (only 19 compared to the other group who went to Rio who had 40) and I ended up meeting some awesome people. Our group leader was Al, on of the assistant deans, and he and I basically are BFF now. For realsies.

Anyway, back to actual Rio. Most of us slept the rest of the day which made sense considering the fact that most of us had only gotten 5 hours of sleep in the past 72 hours. I then went to a supermarket to eat dinner with some of the girls and tried to mix with the locals. I, again, butchered Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese in my attempt to speak with people. At least I tried, I guess. As usual, people seemed amused by me when I tried to speak their language. I can never tell if it’s just because I’m awful at it or because I’m awkward about it or if it’s just funny hearing something that’s not English coming out of the mouth of someone who is so white.

The hotel we were in was in Copacabana, the rich beach front part of Rio. Rio has both an ocean and bay front and the city is broken up by a mountain range that cuts through it. This mountain range has a beautiful rain forest and is home to Christ the Redeemer. Basically, the city is absolutely gorgeous and is like nowhere I’ve ever been before. The stark contrast of the old colonial buildings against the mountains dotted with favelas – slums – creates this odd vast sense that you’re in somewhere that’s totally unique. Suffice to say I really loved it and was impressed by its beauty.

I hung out with some of the girls the first night but went to bed early since we had to get up the next morning in order to go into one of the favelas and see a social project there.

The next day we got up and traveled to the other side of the mountains. One of the things that struck me as we drove was the graffiti in Rio – it was insanely colorful and really beautiful though it could have all been nasty words as far as I would know. We eventually made it over to the favela and entered into the social project, a project promoting education by providing after school programming and giving kids a chance to better their lives. Unfortunately, since everyone was off because of Carnival being over, we didn’t get to meet any of the children. We then went to a Samba school but again met the same problem.

We then drove to Sugar Loaf mountain (this of course made me smile and tell everyone like a nerd that I live right near a Sugar Loaf mountain and blah blah Maryland blah blah) and went on a cable car ride up to the peak. We got a beautiful view of the whole city and got to see some interesting landing techniques used by pilots to land their plants in the mountainous terrain. I also saw a lizard. This obviously made me happy.

After that we went to a churrascaria restaurant where the serve a bunch of different kinds of meats, cutting them at your table for you. Brazil is supposed to be famous for it and, really, it was pretty awesome. There was also a band that came around and played for everyone, prompting a little girl to sneak into our outdoor tent and dance around. It was adorable.

We got back to the hotel and eventually made our way to a soccer or football game in one of the largest stadiums in the world, seating over 100,000 people. Even with it being so big and the fact that it was still pretty early in the season, the stadium was at least a third full and we were lucky enough to be in the cheering section. These guys where insane. They literally cheered the entire time, playing drums and flying huge flags attached to bamboo poles. I bought a jersey and tried to chant along, again butchering the Portuguese but at least glad to be able to groan and cheer with everyone else because soccer is something that spans the language barrier. I’m just sad no one screamed “GOOOOOOOOOAL!!” for an obscenely long time like I was expecting.

After that wild and crrrrazy time almost everyone decided to go to a bar mainly built to attract Americans so I decided to go back to the hotel, hopefully to get a late dinner and just relax. We ended up having an awesome time – sitting and chatting, eating some excellent pizza (seriously, it was some of the best I’ve ever had. Pizzerias are everywhere in Rio. It’s kind of weird) and ice cream sundaes. It was amazing. Sure, it started raining and, sure, the service took forever (things seemed to move a little slower than we’re used to in the States) but it was a great way to end the evening.

The next day we got into open air four-by-four jungle jeeps in order to travel up one of the mountains to see the Tijuca rainforest and the Christ the Redeemer statue. The rainforest was really cool and very, uh, rainforesty (sorry, it’s getting late and my vocabulary is going down the draaain). There were waterfalls and butterflies and gorgeous views. I got some pretty sweet pictures, I must say. Again, I wish I could post them.

So after that we traveled to Christ the Redeemer. It is a crazy statue. It was also super-crowded and, like most of the mountain tops in Rio, it gave an awesome view of the city. Just a whole panorama of clouds blanketing mountains and beaches and buildings. Amazing. The statue itself is very tall and imposing, its modern art feel blending with its religious… ness. We then traveled back down the mountains and, after a snag that I won’t go into except to say that sometimes I hate Americans, we got back into the city and our hotel. We then went to the same supermarket as before (a lot of other places to eat near us were too expensive) and got some more awesome pizza. Mmm. I also bought a buttload of candy for the ship, something which I could now kiss my past self for. Seriously, that made this trek so much more bearable.

We then went to the airport and, with our direct flight, got into Salvador significantly faster than we had left it. After getting dinner I crashed and slept, trying to get my energy up for the next morning.

The next day we went into Pelourinho to eat and shop as well as use an internet café before heading out to the market to shop some more. It was really nice and I bought some good things, luckily not buying too much more than I had budgeted for. During lunch a guy came up to our table begging for food. It was a weird experience, seeing how people reacted to it. They looked perplexed or annoyed, their unease at the situation obvious and some people complained about how they would be glad to be out of places where people beg for stuff all the time. Other people were just quiet. I feel almost lucky in a way, having had this happen to me before, having had the conflicting feelings before. I can’t help but feel for the people who are obviously disturbed by it, seeing that painful process of growing, of cracking out of that shell that left them safe from the realities that a lot of people have to deal with and feeling myself becoming re-exposed to it all over again. It’s hard and it’s sad and I think we’re all going to be reevaluating our lives after all of this.

That evening we got back to the ship to eat at the barbecue the staff threw for us and hear a local band play for us. It was really nice and we watched the sun set over the water, the city lighting up as night fell. We set off that night and soon Salvador was hundreds of miles behind us.

Since then, we’ve fallen into a sort of monotony of being on the ship. Most people will be glad to get off of here, I think. We broke it up a little with a wild animal party where we all dressed as animals the best we could and danced around as the ship tried to knock us over with its rocking. The next day was Neptune day. Basically, they wake you up at around 7 by banging cymbals together and blowing horns and banging on your doors before you go out to the pool, have what they call “fish guts” dumped on you (it was really some weird green liquid that smelled heinous) before they started shaving people’s heads. It’s all some sort of ritual to ask Poseidon to give you safe travels (or something like that) and three of my friends who are girls actually shaved their heads. No, I didn’t do it, because I’m a wimp like that. But I did get the stuff poured on my head. And I kissed a fish. A dead one. Be jealous.

So that’s about it. I’m excited for Africa tomorrow though the literature we’ve been reading and the movies we’ve been watching as a warm-up haven’t been exactly uplifting. Most people have gotten kind of depressed given a lot of the subject-matter that we’ve been going over but I think actually being in Africa will make that depression hopefully turn into an urge to act. That’s what I’m hoping for me anyway. I’ve joined the group Students of Service and am working to get charities for the ship to donate to, including working with Invisible Children and doing some micro-lending. It’s pretty cooool.

Anyway, I’ll be glad to not move for the next week. Rocking on the ship was really bad for about two days, knocking all our stuff on the floor and causing me to actually slide around in my bed. And food to slide off the tables into our laps. While I still love the ocean, I’ve had enough of it for the time being. A whole Atlantic-sized portion of it, actually.

I don’t know if this is making any sense anymore due to tiredness so I’m taking that as my cue to go to bed. I hope everyone is well. Also, if anything important happens in the news, please let me know? All I have is cnn.com and that only works a fraction of the time. Also, Heath Ledger died?!?! What? Geez.

Alright, bedtime now because of early times tomorrow. I am again not proofreading this so, uh, sorry. I love and miss you all. Really. Oh, and I hope Australia is proving to be AWESOME Anna and Melissa! I miss you both terribly and I hope the Aussies are living up to your expectations. Oh, and I hope to call you soon Ma and Pa. Love you.

-Krista

PS. You again rock if you read this whole thing. Really.

Hello everyone!

Hello my American friends/family! Though I guess some of you may be outside these our United States so hi to you too… if I really must.

Juuuust kidding. So here I am, on a ship! Or a boat, as I keep calling it… even though everyone over 30 immediately corrects me because this is most definitely not a lowly “boat.” Anyway, I am so, so sorry for not updating this earlier. I had a bit of technological angst when I discovered that, once I went south of Virginia, my computer has about a 15-minute battery life. This gave me the urge to throw my computer off a ledge, preferably into some body of water. This of course would have been very convenient given my proximity to plenty of ledges and more water than I can shake a stick at. That is a colloquialism, right? I believe I heard it on a commercial once so that’s enough evidence for me.

So yes! The ship. It rocks. A lot. And not metaphorically. It rocks a lot more than most people were banking on, it would seem… seeing as there was much sea sickness the first night. I was luckily spared from lovely puking or anything else so glamorous. I more just get dizzy when I’m not out on deck. Outside feels normal since you can see the waves but once you’re inside it’s like you’re in some kind of office building attached to a tilt-a-whirl. Or like you and all the people around you have developed some sort of severe inner ear problem where you all wobble around and bang into each other. Funny yet painful. And awkward if it’s in a tight space and you’re the only one who seems to be having so much trouble balancing. Oh, sad me.

I really only get nauseated when I’m trying to read/write which, again, made updating difficult. But no more excuses! I swear. I only feel bad for being so neglectful of my duties to keep people up to date on my progress. Even my parents have only received a few calls, thus making me the worst daughter ever. Again: sorry. For serious.

Anyway, let me see if I can give ya’ll a rundown of what’s been going dooooown. I’m currently in the Atlantic ocean, north of Brazil and headed towards Salvador. I will be hitting the city right at the end of Carnival and going into crowds where apparently people will try to steal my things and make out with me. I’m convincing myself that this is all hearsay and that I’ll be fine. I’ll then be heading off to Rio at 1:45 in the morning (a time which, if fate is kind, is a typo). Woo!

The people I have met have been overwhelmingly awesome. Sure, I’ve encountered the required quota of eye-rolling inducing folks but, overall, people seem very cool. I’m impressed, to say the least. I really feel free to be my goof troop self and sit with anyone I please at dinner. I’ve never really been this casual with people so it’s freeing in a way. Suffice to say, I’m enjoying it.

The crew is also, shall we say, awesome (I obviously need to expand my vocabulary. Pretend not to notice). Everyone is really nice and I’m kind of obsessed with the captain and first mates. The captain is from Croatia and made jokes. This makes him automatically win my affection. I also love the safety officer. He’s from the Ukraine and has a very dry sense of humor. Everyone else has been extremely kind, though it is odd getting used to people making my bed every day (I know… insanity) and taking my dishes and such. I feel pampered and it makes me slightly uncomfortable. I of course try to compensate by awkwardly meeting the crew halfway in taking my plates to them which they almost seem to appreciate. And by appreciate I mean find humorous.

My roommate is also awesome. She’s a very sweet and unassuming person and we’ve already had some late-night bonding. Hooray! She actually kind of reminds me of Amanda Rummel so, Amanda, I am thinking of you daily. Not that I wouldn’t anyways.

I guess I should talk about some of the places I’ve been, shouldn’t I? Well, the flight from BWI to Charleston was fine though early. On the way to the Bahamas I got a glimpse of some tropical islands, something I’ve never seen before. Suffice to say, I was quite excited.

Nassau is an odd place. It’s a weird mixture of old and new worlds where there’s obvious poverty living beside western businesses and tourists. I’ve never really been anywhere like it before and, honestly, I’m still not sure what I thought about it. We got to stay at Atlantis (I know – swanky!) which was kind of amazing. Sure, I always talk about wanting real experiences and not packaged resorts but, really, this place was stunning. It was like Disney World but where you drink and gamble. I couldn’t help but be taken in by the aesthetic beauty of it – the guy who designed it really did a gorgeous job of combining nature and architecture. It felt a little overindulgent since I’m not used to places like that but, still. All part of the experience.

Leaving mom was hard. But I’m glad that she got to see where I was and that she got to meet some of the other parents. Still… it was hard.

Anyway, Puerto Rico! Okay first off: I want to move there. It was one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been. The weather was lovely the whole time and I really did love it. I wish I had gotten to go out salsa dancing one of the nights but oh well.

Okay, so I’ll try to give a rundown of what I did. The first day I went on a city orientation tour. This was nice and gave me an overview of what San Juan was like, though there was a little less walking than I would have preferred. We went to the old fortress and got to see where the Spanish set up camp. The whole time I couldn’t help but feel I was in Florida though, given the English signs and American road systems. It was weird but nice to have some familiar things in such a foreign place. I think India will shock that right out of my system.

After that, I went on a rainforest hike… which is exactly what it sounds like. The forest was the El Yunque rainforest located in the mountains outside of San Juan. We drove up into a mountain, past thick foliage and waterfalls to near the top of the mountain. The views were ridiculous. I’ve never seen anything like it. I wish I could post pictures but I’ll get charged a huge amount extra if I do.

Anyway, we then hiked down a portion of the mountain, all the time beside a waterfall. It was so beautiful, I can’t describe it. After spending some time splashing around in a pool at the end of the trail that was fed by the waterfall (I didn’t have my bathing suit so my splashing was relegated to foot-type splashing only), we hiked back up. I only stopped once – something I consider an accomplishment – and that was mainly because I couldn’t fight the feeling that the ground was still rocking. Apparently you get that way after being on the water for a while. That explains Jack Sparrow looking drunk all the time… I can assume that I didn’t look much better.

I then called it an early night because I had to get up the next morning to go to Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, and Tibes, and old indigenous ceremonial ground. At Tibes we got a tour of the small (and freezing) museum and then saw a documentary in a small (and freezing) auditorium. After that, we got to see the actual ceremonial grounds. The people who lived there (whose names are escaping me at the moment) all died out around the time the Spanish came, due to the usual cause of disease. They think some survived and got to Venezuela where their descendents still live today.

Our tour guide was quite possibly one of the most eccentric people I have ever met. Ever. I had to fight the urge to laugh the entire time he talked. He was about my height and I at first assumed he was Puerto Rican, given his complexion. He then revealed that he was in fact from New York but was trained by the Navy to speak proper English, hence his British/New York accent. I caught it on tape because I knew I’d never be able to recreate it. He also told us that women are angry and vengeful, that all bodies of water are female because they’re unpredictable, and that he had just discovered he was Jewish, in spite of the fact that both of his parents were Puerto Rican. He then proceeded to make many offensive Jewish jokes. It was awkward.

We then went to Ponce. Unfortunately everything was closed since it was a Sunday but we still got to see people preparing for Carnival and families spending their Sundays together. I then decided that Ponce was the city for me because, really, it was adorable. Every house was colorful and, while it was definitely a city, it had a more small town feel. So cute.

When we got back, I went off with another group to go to a bioluminescent bay. We drove for about an hour and a half and, at 10 at night, arrived to what appeared to be a common meeting place for locals to sing and dance. Stray dogs were running around and we were directed to a bathroom with no light and some sort of questionable liquid on the floor. Basically, I did some gymnastics and somehow changed from jeans into a one-piece bathing suit. Be impressed. I sure was.

We then proceeded to the departure point (a beach) where we met our guides and were directed to our kayaks. Since I was near the end of the line, I was told that I had to go with a tour guide. Though I was sad to bid my partner goodbye, I decided that, hey, this would be easier since the guide would do the hard part with the rowing and I wouldn’t have to feel so stupid when it became obvious that I had no clue as to what I was doing.

Being in the back with the guides ended up being really fun, seeing as they decided that, because they were bored, they were going to make the tail end of the group an impromptu dance party. One of them turned on his cell phone, playing whatever he had as we paddled from the dark shore into a small inlet. Pretty soon, you couldn’t see anything save the glow sticks on the front and back of the kayaks and the stars peaking through the branches of the mangrove trees that lined our path. The air was fairly cool with a nice breeze and, when the cell phone wasn’t rocking out, we got to hear the sounds of the coqui, the national symbol of Puerto Rico: a tree frog. It was beautiful.

As we went further, I began to see something odd in the water. At first I thought I was just seeing the bubbles from the paddles going into the water but then I realized it was way too dark to see that. My guide then instructed me to put my hand into the water. I was amazed when the water around my hand sparkled as I moved it – like little glowing bubbles. This glowing is a natural occurrence; there is a single-celled organism that lives in some bays in Puerto Rico as well as a few other places in the world that glows when it moves. It’s kind of what the firefly glow looks like, only more brief and all over the place. Also, the organism can’t control the glowing.

We went a little further and ended up in a larger inlet, the sound of the ocean not far away and the glowing now all around us. The stars were really bright – there were only a few clouds out and no moon. We all grabbed onto each other’s kayaks and gathered around the main guide to hear him tell us about the bay and how it works. It was really peaceful and amazing. I still can’t believe I’ve gotten to see something so beautiful.

On the way out, one of the pairs kayaking near us purposefully capsized so that they could see what it looked like to be submerged in the water (technically you’re not supposed to swim there – stingrays and all that). It looked like glowing snow angels. So cool.

Anyway, by the end I was tired and covered in orangismy and mangrovey water. It was a really amazing experience and not one that I think I’ll soon forget.

The next day I didn’t feel very good (I went to bed with a sore throat) so I tooled around old San Juan for a while. San Juan is pretty but odd in the way that you can only find American stores or tourist shops. I couldn’t find a single authentic place. But it’s okay since I’d rather live in Ponce anyway.

So that was Puerto Rico! In a nutshell with all the unimportant bits (hopefully) weeded out.

As far as classes go, mine are going well. The rocking of the ship makes it difficult for me to stay awake/read but I’m getting better. Hopefully my narcolepsy will go away. The food is fine by my standards and there are smoothies if I ever feel the need. I’ve gotten to do yoga out on the deck during the sunset so that in itself is pretty darn amazing.

Besides that, being on the ocean is a lot less disconcerting than I was expecting. I really love being so near to the water, though the confines of the boat are getting to me. Sitting on the deck and watching the water has become something I love to do, rain or shine. I almost like the rain better, actually. The ocean is really cool when it gets all grey and angry.

I also saw about 4 flying fish today and another school of fish jumping out of the water. Amazing.

So there you have it. If you read this whole thing then, by all means, pat yourself on the back. You’re amazing and deserve chocolate or cookies or something. I’m about to fall asleep, seeing as it’s almost two here. I apologize for any/all typos that are probably rampant in this thing but bed is more important than proofreading.

I love and miss you all!

-Krista