The Last Day...

Today was our last full day on the ship.. which was kind of bittersweet.  I had been ready to come home once we set off from Morocco, but now that I'm almost home.. I kind of don't want to get off the ship.  I really can't wait for things like my own bed, American food, my car, seeing my family and friends and such.. but this was such a great experience that I'm not ready for it to be over. 

 

I woke up early this morning for breakfast.. and then I got to work on packing up all my stuff!! Our luggage had to be packed and ready by 1pm today so we could drop it off so the crew would have it ready for us when we get to Norfolk.  Packing was interesting... but I got almost everything to fit!  I still have some stuff left in my room that I either will be using/wearing tomorrow or just throwing away.. so I hope I judged everything right and I don't have a lot of extra things tomorrow that I don't know where to put! hahaha.  It's soooo weird opening my closet and seeing nothing because it used to be stuffed full of clothes and shoes.. I don't like it.  I don't like my luggage being away from me.. I hope I didn't pack up anything that I need!!

 

So after I had all my bags packed.. I went to lunch and then back to my room to wait for my Sea to be called so I could take my luggage down to the 'designated area' .. My Sea got called around 2ish I think and I took my extermely heavy (3) suitcases down the hall and then didn't know exactly what to do because the elevators were stuffed and I only needed to go down 1 floor... so thankfully my cabin Steward Shane was there to save the day.. so he carried my heaviest suitcase down the stairs for me and I took the other two which weren't nearly as heavy! Yay for Shane.. I'm surreee gonna miss him!!

 

Once our luggage was delivered we went all the way upstairs to the faculty/staff lounge to get our passports and our certificate of completion of the Semester at Sea Program... and then at 5 we had Convocation or 'Commencement' where we all graduated from Semester at Sea!  It was kind of long and boring, but it was cool because now I am an SAS Alumni!!!

 

After I graduated, I walked around the ship and made a sort of video tour of most places of the ship so people could see what my home for 67 days looked like!  It's gonna be a gooood one!

 

Tonight at 9 we had our last Pre-Port which was really funny because we got a green sheet which we always got for the other countries that had the trips that were going on.. the currency exchange, customs and things like that... and the green sheet for Virginia had things like 'homemade meal' and 'tour of Norfolk Airport' and just random stupid things.. it was really funny!  Pre-Port was good.. a few people cried, so that was cute!??  After preport we had a multi-media show where we watched a video and slideshow of the voyage which were both really good.  Then after that was over.. we had an iPod Dance Party.. our IT guy, Casey came up with it.... basically you had to download the mix he made and put it on your iPod, but we weren't allowed to listen to it yet.... then all at once the about 60 or so people who did it, all pressed play and you danced to the song playing on your iPod.  Everyone's was the same, but if you took your iPod out, it looked really funny because everyone was dancing together, but there was no music!  The dance lasted for about 34 minutes and every once in awhile an instructor would come on the song and tell you to do things.. first it was just jump, or wave your right arm.. then it split us into 2 groups where one group threw 1 shoe in the middle and the other group got it and you had to dance w. whoever had your shoe! hahaha... then we had to go around dancing to different parts of the ship.. that part was HILARIOUS becasue some people had no clue what was going on.. so they looked at us like we were crazy! It was soo much fun!

 

The iPod party ended on deck 7 way at the front of the ship outside which was nice b/c our captain again shut off all the outside lights so we could stargaze again... and this time i saw a shooting star!!!! It was sooo cool and I got to make a wish! haha.  Also, I saw Mars, which is soooo bright because apparantly it's the closest its been in a really long time.  So that was neat.

 

And now it's 12:30 and I'm about to go to bed, because our wake up call tomorrow morning is going to be before 6am!!!!!!  Breakfast is only running from 6-7, so we've gotta get up and get to breakfast in time.  Then, I'm going to come back to my room, shower, get ready, and pack up the rest of my odds and ends, and then it'll be a waiting game until I get to get off!!!

 

I can't believe I will be back in America tomorrow.. it's soo weird.. but as I said, I'm excited to be home, but sad to leave the ship :(

 

Next time I write, I'll be in the USA!

DONE WITH EXAMS!

Today I had my last two exams: one at 8am and the other at 10:45.. and so now I am officially done with schoolwork on the ship!  I sold my books back yesterday as well, and made a whopping $7.75!! So, that was pretty exciting! haha.

 

I am really bored now on the ship though.. It has been 24 hour quiet hours for the past 3 days, so nothing cool has been going on.  Tonight there is a talent show for the students, so that should be kind of fun and tomorrow is our Ambassador's Ball where I get to get all dolled up and go eat a nice meal finally.  Speaking of food.... we're seriously running out of food on this ship, like literally there is hardly any more fruit or lettuce because it gets put out like every other day, which really sucks.  and the rest of the food has been awful lately too.. thankfully we picked up some good peanut butter somewhere so i've been having a lot of PB&J sandwiches!

 

I started to pack a little bit today.. which took up a little bit of my time.  We have to turn our luggage in on the 21st at 1pm, so tomorrow I have to finish packing other than what I will be carrying of the ship.. it will be weird to see my room empty!!

 

Um.. I'm running out of things to talk about because nothing has been going on.... so  I think I'm going to go whale-watch before dinner.  Oh.. and we're only 1 hour ahead of EST time.. and we gain our last hour tonight!!!

 

PS. Our captain says not to worry about Hurricane Bill.. right now he's 1000 Nautical Miles away from the MV Explorer so we should be good.. in case anyone was worried =) 

Classes are OVER!!!

So.... it's day number 4 of our  10 day trek back to the states.  The first 4 days were our last days of class and as of noon today I am done with classes!!!

 

Today around noon I became officially done with my actual classes on the ship.. so now I've only got 1 final paper and 3 final exams left to go!  Tomorrow is my Global Studies exam, Tuesday is my roommates 21st birthday as well as a shipwide official study day.. and then Wednesday is exam day, where I'll take my last 2 exams!!!

 

Last night the captain turned off all the outside lights of the ship at 9pm so we could stargaze... it was pretty cool going outside and seeing how dark it was without the lights on.  I went all the way up to the observation deck above the 7th deck in the front of the ship and laid down for about 10 minutes and looked at the stars.  It sounds dumb.. honestly i thought it was kind of weird too, but everyone on the deck was laying down so I figured why not!? hahaha.  It was pretty cool though because there were a lot of stars out!

 

Nothing else exciting has really been going on... earlier today I went out to watch the sunset and the wind was so strong, I could hardly walk!!! In all seriousness, the wind had to be around 30 knots because at noon the wind was 22 knots, and it was strong, but most def. not as strong as later in the evening.. it was crazy!!

 

Well... I got to go finish my paper and review sheet for tomorrow... I will hopefully update again soon and it will be more exciting than this one!

 

Morocco - Days 3 & 4

Day 3

The third day in Morocco, I was supposed to go with two other friends to Marrakech, a city about 3 hours south of Casablanca, but we decided not to the night before because we were afraid we wouldn't get back in time on the last day.

So, instead I stayed in Casablanca.. and tried to find something to do!  My friends and I set out to find a movie theater that played movies in English.. since we were running out of things to see in Casablanca and a movie theater would take us out of the hot Moroccan sun.. but we couldn't find one.  We stopped in the Hyatt hotel and asked the Consierge desk and they said that the movies played were only in French or Arabic.. so we were out of luck!  The Hyatt Hotel, though, was amazing! It was sooo fancy and pretty inside.. the whole place when you walked in was shiny black marble and silver accents everywhere.  There were bright red rugs to walk on also.. and  in the lobby there was a Louis Vuitton store!!!  It was crazy!

After we couldn't find a movie in English.. we went on the hunt for henna!  My friends and I tried asking a local woman with her two girls, but they couldn't speak English.. but they tried to tell us where we could find henna with a type of charade-style motions.. it was really nice of them, but we still didn't get it.  So, we went back to a shop we were at the day before where the man spoke very good English and we asked him.  He ended up walking us there because it was not far away.. and we found a lady sitting on the steps inside the Bazaar with a board of designs and her equipment just set out on the ground.  Her daughter was sitting next to her on a piece of cardboard and offered my friend Kim the cardboard to sit on when she sat next to her.. it was so nice of the little girl, but Kim refused it because the girl needed it more than she did.  So.. me and my roommate Alyssa got our henna done.. and it was amazing!  That lady was soooo goood.. she did it really fast and all free-hand.  Alyssa got a design on her hand and up her wrist and I got one on my foot and up my calf.. both of ours were done in less than 15 minutes, which was way shorter than what we thought!

After getting our henna.. we walked across the street to a cafe to sit for awhile while the henna dried so we didn't mess it up.  Unfortunately, I messed a little part on my foot up walking over there because my shoe rubbed it.. but we ended up fixing it and it still looks good!!

After that, we didn't do much that I can remember.. and we were on the ship for dinner.. and then they had a movie night where they showed Hitch so we went to that!

 

 

Day 4

Today was a sad day... it was the last day of our last port.. and the last time we'll see land for a long time!!  I couldn't believe getting off the boat this morning that the next time I get off will be in America!! That's such a weird thought to me!

We got off the boat early this morning so we could go to the Bazaar and do the last of our shopping and spend up the rest of our money!!  When we got to the Bazaar, most of the shops were just opening up since we forgot that our ship time is an hour ahead of Moroccan time.. so we wandered around for awhile until all of the shops opened up.  We shopped for awhile and then the other 2 girls with my roommate and I yesterday and today liked our henna so much they wanted to get some done too.. so we found the same lady again and they both got things on their hands!  After henna, we did some more shopping and managed to get back to the port gate in time for the last shuttle before they took a 3 hour break.. so we didn't have to walk all the way back to the boat with our bags! that was nice!!

We got back to the boat and I laid out for awhile before dinner.. and at dinner we got a cake from our friend kim's mom who ordered it for her and it said "homeward bound" which I thought was hilarious!!! So we ate that.. and then our captain said we were leaving an hour early.. so we departed from Morocco at about 7pm tonight and now we're 3 1/2 hours into our trek across the Atlantic! 

Now I have a busy week ahead of me.. 4 days of class, a day for our global studies test, a study day, a day for our exams and then 2 days of nothing and then we'll be in Norfolk!

 

I'm off to do some homework before class tomorrow!  Keep checking though because I will be posting some random funny things on the way home when I'm really bored!!

 

Casablanca, Morocco - Day 2

Today was our second day in Casablanca, Morocco. 

 

We had a later start this morning so everyone could get a little bit extra sleep before we set out.  My friends and I left the ship around noon (but 11am Moroccan time!) and caught the shuttle to take us out of the port since it's over a 20 minute walk!  Once we got off the shuttle and out of the port, we set out to find this place called the "Seaman's Center" which we heard was close to the port gate and has good burgers and fries, so we wanted to go there for lunch.  We wandered around the city for a little over an hour before we finally found the place.  At the front of the restaurant, there was a big gate and a sign that said it was a "private club" so we were confused, but a man came to the gate and asked us if we were Seamen, which we didn't really know what that was, so we showed him our SAS ID cards, and he let us in.  The big sign said it was some sort of US Seaman's Center.. so I think we had to show him our ID's so he could see that we were American and from a ship.. I don't really know though.

 

That same man led us in, and this place was so cool.  It was themed like the Casablanca Movie (I was told, since I haven't seen it yet!) and there was an inside, outside, and second floor, all with free WiFi, which I wish I would have know before going there!  We sat outside under an umbrella and right in front of a big waterfall, it was really pretty.  Everyone there was so nice and spoke fairly good English.  It was nice to have a good burger and fries finally!!  Our waitress when she first gave us our menu's looked at me, smiled, and touched my arm and told me I had very nice skin, over and over again. haha.

 

We spent awhile at that place and then we were headed back into the center of town to walk around the Bazaar again.  We did a little shopping and starting talking to this one Moroccan man who had met some of the people off our ship the day before.  He had 'MV EXPLORER' written on a piece of paper that he pulled out of his pocket.  Then he asked us if he could take us to his shop.. since there were five of us, we said sure and followed him.  We got to his shop, which was a clothing store and we all didn't really want to buy clothes, but we thought we'd be nice and look around.  But as soon as we got in there, he pulled out six chairs and told us all to sit.. and then he just talked to us for a little bit about Morocco.  He also touched my arm and told me I had beautiful skin and that I could be his sister.. haha.. he was very excited I looked Moroccan and gave me a big hug and those kiss things that French people do.. he just kept smiling and telling me how much I looked like I could be his sister.  After this he asked us if we wanted some mint tea (mint tea and hospitality are huuge in Morocco).. we declined, but he insited and that his mother would make it for us.. so he sent his cousin and got us a pot of tea and six cups!  The tea was actually very good even though I don't like mint very much.  We sat there and drank the tea while he talked more about Morocco and how they love Americans and how Moroccans are very hospitable, which we could see.  He told us how his cousin lives in America.. in COLUMBUS, OHIO to be exact.. and I couldn't believe it.. I told him that's where I'm from.. and he hugged and kissed me again, and I think that made him like me even more than he already did!  He said his cousin has been there for 12 years and is studing Biology at... OSU!!!!!!  How weird is it to run into a random Moroccan who has a family member in my same city!?! It was crazy!! He gave me his cousin's name and I had him write it down so I could try to find him on the internet and tell him that I met his cousin in Morocco!  After this, he taught us some words in Arabic and wrote them down for us.. and he also wrote all of our names in Arabic for us, which was really neat!  We all stayed for awhile and I bought a shirt for pretty cheap since he liked me.. and then he walked us back and showed us all the little ships where they make the shirts, dresses, leatherware and all that stuff.. it was pretty cool!  He was very nice and told us to come back tomorrow for tea and we don't have to buy anything! haha

 

Once he walked us out, we all were tired and out of money, so we headed back to the ship.  We missed the shuttle and the next one wasn't for over an hour, so we just walked back.  It took waaaay more then 20 minutes, but I don't think we walked exactly the right way.. but still, it took a really long time!  On our walk back to the boat we saw some crew from another ship and they wanted a picture with us, Americans.. which was funny.  We finally made it back to the ship after turning the wrong way and having some people stop and tell us we were going the wrong way and then the police offered to take us back, but we said no even though they were nice.. but you never know how corrupt they are, especially after hearing stories about the ones in Turkey and even some in Egypt who ended up getting fired after we left.  

 

So.. that was the sum of my day today.. and now I have to find the 2 girls I may be going to Marrakech with tomorrow and figure out if and when we're going and all those cool details...

 

I may not be able to write tomorrow.. so if I don't I definately will on Wednesday!

 

 

Casablanca, Morocco!

Today we arrived at our last foreign port, of Casablanca, Morocco!  All of our passports had to be stamped before immigration cleared the boat, so it took a long time, and we weren't cleared until after 11am (when it's usually no later than 10).  Since it took so long, my friends and I decided to stay on the boat and eat lunch at 11:30 before leaving the ship.

 

After we ate our lunch, we set out to experience Morocco!  The port is really big and it's a far walk from where the boat is, so there are shuttle buses that take us from the boat to the gate which is nice!  The first thing we did was walk to the big Mosque, which we heard a lot of good things about.  The walk there was kind of long and very dirty and dusty.  The sidewalks were covered with dirt, so the bottoms of my white pants are now brown!! haha.  When we finally got to the mosque, we realized how increadible huge it was!  Honestly, words can't describe how big this place was, and it was gorgeous.  We wanted to go in and look around because we heard the inside was just as pretty as the outside, but visits inside weren't until 3 and it was only 1, so we didnt want to wait.  The only people allowed in at the time were male worshippers, which we clearly weren't.  It was alright though, because we got to peak inside a little from the open doors. 

 

After the mosque we walked back toward the port, and to the Bazaar they have that is really close to our boat.  The Bazaar was huge and filled with some really cool stuff.  Morocco is a very colorful country, so most all of their things are very colorful as well.  The exchange rate for Morocco is 8 Moroccan Duhraims to $1, so we definately benefit here!  The soda I bought ended up being like 35 cents or something in US currency.. it was crazy!  I bought a lot today, but didn't spend much money at all, which was really nice!  I got some really cool jewlery, tea cups, and other random things that I liked.  We ended up spending a lot of time at the Bazaar, and we were all really tired and sore from holding our bags by about 5:30, so we headed back to the ship.

 

Casablanca really isn't that touristy of a town, so there isn't much to see or do, but I had a good day today, and didn't mind coming back to the ship somewhat early to catch up on some homework and relax.  I am planning on going to Marrakech, Morocco, Tuesday and Wednesday, which will be nice because I have a feeling I will have done everything I wanted to do in Casablanca by the end of tomorrow. 

 

The weather here is different.  In Egypt, we would eat outside on the deck for breakfast at 8am, and the sun would be so hot already we would be sweating.  But here in Morocco, this morning there was a really nice breeze during breakfast and it wasn't that sunny or hot out yet.  The heat didn't really hit until about 2pm today, and it did get pretty hot.  There is usually a nice breeze though, since we're on the coast of the Atlantic, which is nice.  Morocco is another Islamic country, so out of respect, we are supposed to cover our knees and shoulders again.. so it makes it even hotter when you're wearing pants and a tee shirt! 

 

Another weird thing here is that the boat and Morocco are on different times.  We all thought we were supposed to gain another hour before reaching Morocco, but apparantly it's the captain's call when we change, and we didn't.  So when we got off the boat this morning, all of our watches were saying it was 1:15, but the big clock by the bank was flashing that it was only 12:15... so now it's very confusing because our ship is going to be an hour ahead of Moroccan time this whole time! Ughh!

 

Now it's time for some more homework and then off to bed!  I will write about Day 2 in Morocco sometime tomorrow!!

No More Mediterranean :(

Today is the day before Morocco, and we stopped around 9am to refuel in Gilbraltor, Spain.  This is the strait that is directly between Spain and Morocco, and when outside you can look one way and see Europe and the other and see Africa!!  I got a picture this time, so I was excited about that!!

 

Refueling took a long time.. I think we left Gilbraltor around 6 or 7.. and at about ten til 8 we had passed through the strait and were out of the Mediterranean Sea and back into the Atlantic Ocean :(  It was a sad realization that we were not going to be sailing in the Mediterranean anymore, but atleast we still have 4 more days in another country. 

 

At our Preport meeting tonight, one of the assistant deans actually teared up when talking about how this was our last foreign port, and how we've all grown so much as travelers.. it was sad.. but i for sure didn't cry! haha..

 

So, nothing new has really been going on these past 5 days we were at sea.. I already talked about the Crew Talent Show and the only other thing we had was a Shipboard Drive Auction which happened Thursday night.  There was a silent auction that went on for most of the day for things like clothes, jewelery, different foods, souvineers, and a bunch of other random things.. and then at 8:00 that night we had a live auction in the Union, and we all got paddles and everything.. it was way cool!  This auction was crazy.. all the money raised goes to different funds around the ship, like scholarships, greening of the ship, crew funds, etc.. and we raised over $25,000 on it!  Wow!  There was a lot of trips and such which went for good amounts of money.. like a trip to Pakistan went for $2500 and there were two of them, so thats $5000 right there.  There was also trips to different places around the US like Philidelphia, LA, Charlottesville, Alaska, Mississippi, Colorado and some others I forget.. there was also a trip to Nassau, Bahamas.. I bid on that one for awhile, but stopped because it reach $1000 and I have no where near that kind of money right now!?  Other things that were auctioned off were a map of where we went signed by the captain and crew (went for $750!), the chance to be "the voice" and do the announcements for a day, the ability to pick out the menu for a day, a milk and cookies party, internet minutes, your own outside room.. all kinds of random things.. they all went for a lot of money, but that was the point, to raise money for the Shipboard Drive.  It was really cool and fun even though I didn't win anything!!

 

So now, we are headed into Morocco and will be there tomorrow!! I'm really excited about Morocco, but not that excited that this is our last foreign port and the next time we dock will be to debark!  The water is really rough right now, and we were warned at preport and earlier today in our Dean's Memo that the seas get pretty rough coming into and going out of Morocco because of the two currents coming together there.. I think this means the Mediterranean and Atlantic meeting there or something??? But.. the seas were really rough on the way across the Atlantic to Spain, but I think these may be worse because we were advised to secure things and when you walk around the ship, different things are tied up or fastened down for precaution.  Right now, it's not too bad, but it's more rocky than usual.. but I'm sure I won't even notice the worse parts because it will be during the time I am sleeping.

 

Oooh, and everyone is so confused right now because of time zones.  We were supposed to be 3 hours ahead of Egypt in Morocco, which means only 4 hours ahead of EST, but we only gained 2 hours total, so we'll be 5 hours ahead of EST, and we all think we're going to be an hour off of what the people in Morocco say the time is!  This will be funny tomorrow trying to figure out exactly what time it is!?! haha.

 

Ok, well I'm off to watch some Friends episodes from my lovely cabin steward before bed!  I will write about my first day in Morocco tomorrow!!!

 

PS, if anyone is counting, I'm looking at my calendar and today marked exactly 2 weeks until I'm back in America! Woaaah!

 

talent show!!!!!

We are on day 3 of our 5 day sail to Casablanca, Morocco from Egypt.  Today is a no class day, which is always nice.  Last night, however, was probably the best night on the boat so far... it was the Crew Talent Show!!!!

 

The talent show started after one of our Explorer Seminars, so me and my friends went to the Union before the seminar to get good seats... unfortunatley a ton of people had the same idea, but we still got seats and they were pretty good.  We actually reached capacity in the Union and had to send people out and into satellite classrooms to watch the show.. there were people sitting everywhere!!

 

The talent show started at 9 with a band who sang 3 songs, and they were really good!  There were two singers, two kids on guitars, and a drummer.. they were sooo good!! 

After that another big group sang a Christian song which was really good too. 

Next one of the crew members who just got on a couple weeks ago sang two songs by himself.. they were old love songs I think and he was an older guy.. and he was amazzing!!! he sang really really well and half of the audience gave him a standing ovation!

  Next was one of my favorite parts.. it was a group of the crew that works in the dining halls and they did a dance... it was awesome!  they were all in sunglasses and some of them had their shirts unbuttoned.. it was really funny but they were really good.. even one of the older guys who works in the dining halls was dancing in it and he was really good too.  i'm pretty sure they got a standing ovation after that performance!! 

next was a solo by one of the housekeeping staff who sang a song i feel like i should know the title to, but i dont.. but he sang really really good! 

next up was 3 of the 'girl' crew members who did a dance to beyonce's single ladies... it was really good, but why i said 'girl' was b/c the lead who was beyonce was actually a boy.. but the other 2 were girls! haha.. 

next was another dance group with 5 of the crew and they were really good too... they did a mix of a song i forget and gasolina.. it was funny....

next up was one of my good friends thats works in the dining halls.. hes from jamaica so he did a reggae song by bob marley, and he was dressed in all jamaican gear! it was funny!!  

after that was a group of 3 of the cabin stewards (not mine tho) and they did a dance to 'low' by Flo Rida.. im not even kidding.. it was sooo funny!!! 

next up was a solo by our IT captain.. the guy in charge of all the technology stuff.. and he sang an italian opera song and it was amazing!!! i would have never thought he could sing like that, it was soo good!!  

after him was the 'girl' who was beyonce before and she/he was dressed like a nun and supposedly it was a part from the sister act.. but she/he sang and danced and did some weird drawing on an easle with fingerpaint and it ended up being a face and said 'Jesus Christ' under it..??

up next was a solo by one of the guys who sang in the first set of songs of the show.. he was really good too, but i forget what he sang but i think it was a religious song

after that was 2 of the younger guys who work in the dining hall and they both did performances by themselves with wine bottles, like doing flare as if they were a bartender.. it was really cool and i want them to teach me! haha

last was a performance by a tooon of the crew (my cabin steward was finally in this one!!!) and they sang a song about the world i think.. and they all had flags of different countries.. it was cool.

 

the talent show was sooo much fun.. its soo funny to see the crew today who i saw perform yesterday b/c they were totally out of the element that we usually see them.. singing and dancing and not in their uniforms!!!  one of the guys that was a dancer in most of the dance groups im friends with from the dining hall and i always talk to him.. and i saw him earler today and stopped him to tell him he was amazing last night!!!  my friend lina works with the technology stuff and she's gonna try to get me a copy of the show so i can show ppl when i get home! i hope she does b/c i tried to take videos but they're only parts of each act!

 

OOOH and more good news.. 2 nights ago we got to set our clocks forward, and tonight we get to tooo!! so tomorrow we'll only be 5 hours ahead, and by the time we get to morocco we will be only 4 hours ahead!  im excited to get an extra hour of sleep tonight!!

 

 

 

 

Egypt - Days 4 & 5

Day 4

 

After going to Cairo for 2 days straight, I was extremely worn out and so were my friends, so we decided to sleep in and meet at 11 to go explore what of Alexandria we hadn't seen yet, which wasn't much.  We decided we wanted to see the Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa.  These catacombs was a sort of cemetery situated underground on 3 different levels.  You had to walk down these spiral stairs far to get to the start of them.  The whole place is huge and you could for sure get lost trying to explore it all.. but thankfully we didn't.  While walking around you could see the slots they put the dead bodies in and there were benches throughout for the relatives of the deseased to come and hold a sort of mourning time.  Inside the catacombs were decorated with both Egyptian and Roman inspired art.. there were carvings on the walls, statues, and other sorts of decorations throughout.  It was pretty neat!

 

We took a cab to the catacombs and our driver was really nice.  As soon as I stepped out of the cab to go into the gate of the catacombs... my flip flop breaks!! I had noo clue what I was going to do because you had to walk throughout the whole place.. but thankfully our driver found a pin and ended up fixing my flip flop really well and I could walk in it again!  It was really nice of him to do and I'm glad he had a pin to fix it with because none of us had anything we could even try to use!!

 

After coming back from the catacombs.. we stopped at all the shops inside the port again since the shop owners really like us and visited for awhile, then we headed back onto the boat.  I layed out for awhile before dinner and then ate and went to an internet cafe.  The internet cafe was quite different than any I had been to.. but they had wifi which didn't work very well.. but it only cost me $1 for almost 2 hours, so I can't complain too much!

 

 

Day 5

 

Today was another relaxing, slow-paced day since we had seen everything there is to see in Alexandria and we had on-ship time today, so we couldn't really leave the city.  I only ended up leaving the boat for about 3 hours to the shops inside the port again to spend the little amount of pounds I had left.. which went pretty far.  I had 40 pounds left which is equivilent to 8 dollars and I got some cool things.

 

The rest of today I spent on the deck laying out, catching up on some homework and reading for classes tomorrow!!

 

It's weird to think we are about to have a 5-day stretch of being at sea.. we haven't had more than 2 days since we got to Spain!!  It's going to be rough with only class and not much else to do.. but the 3rd day at sea, we don't have class and there will be a shipwide auction and rumored casino night.  Also that day I think is the crew talent show which I am really looking forward to!!

 

So, these posts weren't very exciting.. but contrary to how it sounds.. I absolutely loved Egypt!!! I think this is by far the coolest port we have been to and probably my favorite one thus far as well!  There was just so much cool things to see.. the Sahara, the Pyramids, Sphinx, Nile River and soo much more!!  I really did like Egypt a lot and I'm sad to be leaving :(

 

We set sail for Morocco, our last port, in about 30 minutes.. it's so hard to believe how fast this trip has gone by!  We only have 19 days left on the boat!!! I remember when we first started and had 67 to go.. now we're down to 19.. thats crazy!

 

Hopefully something interesting will happen at sea, so I can post.. but if not you will hear from me in Morocco!!!

Egypt - Day 3: Cairo

Today was my third day in Egypt and second day going to the city of Cairo.  Today was the best day here, by far!!!

 

I had another trip today with SAS which started at 7:30am, once again.. but it was ok because it's a long bus ride to Cairo, which means I could nap!!  We arrived in Cairo a little less than 3 hours later, and for the second time I was standing in front of the great pyramids.  I would have never dreamed doing it once, but now this was my second time.. and it was just as good as the first!  Having a different tour guide today, I learned more about the pyramids and building them and stuff.. the blocks that I said were huuuge, weigh anywhere from 2-15 TONS each and.. if you combine all the blocks from the 3 pyramids as Giza, they could line up and stretch for the entire border of France, being 6 meters high and 2 meters wide... WOW!!!  Now can you see how absolutely huge these pyramids are!?

 

Me and my friends walked around the pyramids and then went in one of them.. you couldn't go in one of the big 3, but one of the queen's pyramids you could go in.. so we did it!  It was crazy getting down, you had to crawl and it was really steep and scary, but I didn't want to pass up a chance to actually go into a pyramid.  We went down and there was the little burial room which was the only place we could go, but that was ok.. it was really hot down there!  But now I can say I've been inside a pyramid in Egypt!!

 

After the pyramids, we did the panoramic view and the Sphinx, which I did yesterday, but it was worth it to do it again!  I got some more good pictures, and let's face it.. seeing the pyramids more than once is just fine!  It took awhile to actually sink in that i was standing in front of the great pyramids that are one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world!!! 

 

After the Sphinx, we boarded the bus and were off to Sakara, the city where the first pyramid ever was built.  Here, we stopped at the country club we were going to eat lunch later and got into our jeeps for the jeep safari portion of the trip!  This part was crazy.. I honestly don't even know how to begin to describe it.. we started going and it was fine and then as soon as we hit the Sahara desert.. it was literally 'pedal to the metal' time... we were going sooo fast up and down sand dunes and hills just driving through the Sahara desert, which I never thought I could say I did.. it was sooo much fun!  I actually don't know how we didn't roll the jeep.. there were many times where I was in the air for a few seconds straight, but we all loved it and had so much fun!  I attempted to take a few videos of the ride and when anyone sees them, I think they're going to get motion sick.. haha.. I think our driver really enjoyed us because he would go really fast up a hill and then stop when we were just looking down this steeeeep sand dune just waiting to fly down it and he'd crank up the music in the jeep and then we'd go flying down!!! I could do that all day, it was so much fun!

 

The jeep safari ended and took us to a part of the desert where there were a TON of camels waiting on us, for our Camel ride!!!! As soon as I stepped out of the jeep, a little boy came up and led me to my camel, who's name was Michael Jackson.. I'm not even kidding.. but half of them were named Michael Jackson and if it wasn't it was either Moses or Charlie Brown.. they're not very creative with names!  I got on my camel and then it stood up and I realized how extremely high i was.. it was crazy!!  Camels are huge.. and thankfully I did not get spit on!!  I looved the camel ride part, it was so much fun and my friends were telling me how tight they were holding on and how bad their hands hurt.. and I laughed and said the only time I held on was when the camel was sitting down for me to get off! haha.. I thought it was so much fun and the little boy who led my camel was so cute!  I felt bad that he had to walk the whole time leading the camel, in jeans and a long sleeved shirt in the middle of the desert, but he didn't seem to care.. he even would stop every now and then and take my camera to get pictures of me on my camel, which I thought was really nice!!  We were supposed to tip them and I gave him a little extra because of how nice he was.. I just wish he could speak English, but since he was so young he couldnt.  At one point he stopped and made a kissy face and the camel leaned down and gave him a kiss.. it was so cute!

 

The camel trek took us back to the country club where we ate lunch.. the lunch wasn't as good as yesterday's at the hotel, but the Country Club was really nice and the pita bread was amazing!!  After lunch we boarded the buses again to go to some of the funerary chambers and the Step Pyramid which was the first pyramid in the whole world.  It was interesting seeing the funerary chambers, but also kind of creepy... these people built their burial chambers while they were still alive and told the artists how they wanted everything decorated and stuff.. the place for just one Nobleman was huge and we couldn't even see where the actual place he was buried in it was because it was blocked off and really far down.. but it was neat.  We learned about how they were buried with masks and some of their possessions and things they wanted to use in the afterlife.. and the bodies were buried in a coffin, in another coffin, in yet another coffin.. and then they'd have on a mask, and another mask under that.. so their spirit could find and recognize them to go back to the body.. it was weird but interesting.  The mummy wasn't left in this chamber, but it was found there and taken to a museum.  Apparantly a lot of grave robbers would take the mummies because of all the precious gems that they are buried with.. so the funerary chambers have to be misleading and hard to find where the mummy actually was.  This one was a good one since they actually found the mummy in it before.  After seeing those burial places, we went to the Step pyramid to get a closer look..  It was pretty cool! 

 

There are pyramids everywhere in Egypt.. I think they said they've found over 100 pyramids different places in the desert.. and they discover new burial chambers every day.. I probably saw at least 300 hundred different ones today, which is nuts!  It's so hard to believe how long ago all these pyramids were built and how they are still standing.. it's amazing!!

 

OOH and I forgot, but yesterday I saw the Nile River!!! I think I saw it today too, but I'm not positive because it's big and not very distinct.. but I know for sure I saw it yesterday, so I thought that was cool, but not what I expected!

 

Now, I'm off to bed... I don't have to get up at 6 tomorrow, which is a nice change of pace.  My friends and I are just going to be staying in Alexandria tomorrow to see some things we haven't yet.. but I know nothing is going to compare to today because it was amazing!  I wish I could have described it better, but I would have been writing this for hours trying to describe everything I saw and did.. I'm sure I will remember something important though tomorrow, but I will update you I promise!!

Egypt - Day 2: Cairo

Today was my second day in Egypt and was even better than the first!  I woke up this morning a little after 6am.. yes 6 AM!!!  I had an FDP for one of my classes to Cairo which is the biggest city in Africa, and 3rd largest city in the world! 

 

Cairo is an almost 3 hour bus ride from Alexandira, so we left at 7:30 and got to Cairo around 10:15 and I was standing in front of the great Pyramid no more than 15 minutes later!  Never in my life did I imagine standing in the middle of 3 pyramids in the Sahara desert!  It was unbelievable and amazing.. the pyramids are absolutely huge.. and to think about how they were built is even crazier!  The blocks that make up the pyramid are bigger than you could even imagine also.. I don't remember the exact dimensions, but they're bigger than a normal room wall in a house.. I think a block would be as big as my cabin here on the ship!  We learned the blocks were moved with a lot of animal power, from elephants and camels and of course the men building it.  It's so hard to imagine something that great being built without cranes and construction equipment.. and they were obviously built very well since they're still standing today!

 

After walking around and learning about the father and the son's pyramids.. we got back on the bus to be driven up hill to a spot where you can see all the pyramids and 18 miles worth of the Sahara desert.. it was amazing!  I got some really cool pictures of all the pyramids together with the blue sky in the background and the Sahara desert off to the side from up higher.. it was so pretty!! 

 

Once we were done with our 'panoramic view' we drove down to the Sphinx, which is also bigger than you can even imagine!!! With the Sphinx in the front and some of the pyramids in the background, those were some of the coolest pictures I took.  The Sphinx was really cool and it's something I never thought I would actually see from a few feet away!  All the pyramids were really cool, but it was so hot out, you would just stand and drip with sweat.. without even doing anything.  I think when we arrived in Cairo it was 30 degrees and that was before 11am, so it only got hotter throughout the day!

 

After the Sphinx, we made our way to a really nice hotel which set up a big brunch for all of us.. it was pretty good, but thankfully they had both Western and Egyptian food.. and I found out I don't like Egyptian food all that much.  Once we got off the bus and were walking into a hotel, an Egyptian type band came out and lined our walkway and played music as we were walking in.. I felt famous!  The actual hotel though was really nice and big and the people who worked there were really nice to us too!

 

Once we were done with lunch we went to the Egyptian Museum, which is full of artifacts and things from inside the Pyramids and found other places.. it was really neat.  There were whole rooms dedicated to King Tut, with all his belongings, his casket type things he was in, his masks, and many other things.  The museum was really big and had a lot of cool stuff in it, but the museum is not air-conditioned, so it was extremely hot in there.  Also, most of the things in the museum are original, but not in any kind of glass case or anything to help keep it looking new.. it was so weird because the museums in America have everything so protected you can hardly get to it.. and some of the tombs and statues you could actually touch here.  It's kind of sad though that Egypt has all these cool things, but they are so poor they can't afford to keep them nicely.  Another bad thing about the museum was that you couldn't take pictures.. you actually couldn't even take your camera into the museum and we had to leave them on the bus.  I really wish I could have taken pictures of some of the things in the museum, but thats ok.

 

After the museum was the trek home.. which only took 2 1/2 hours this time since our bus driver flew!!  I only fell asleep for about 45 minutes, though.. so I got to see a lot of rural Egypt, some things I didn't want to see.. and others I did.  One thing that was weird and gross was that all the men pee on the side of the road, even when they're are cops around.. they don't care at all.  I also saw a lot of different animals and things on the side of the road.. like cows, goats, and other things.. I'm not quite sure if they were owned or if they were wild or something. 

 

Once we were back to the ship.. my friend Lilly and I (who I went with last night) went back out to the shops inside the port because all the owners there love us!  I bought a few things and got even more for free!  The owners will just put stuff in your bag and say 'it's a souvineer from me' and then we promise that we'll come back the next night.  I feel like I am going to end up with so much stuff from Egypt since things are really cheap here, and I'm getting half of it for free!!

 

Now, I am off to bed early again.... another 6am morning tomorrow!!

 

 

Alexandria, Egypt - Day 1

Today I took my first steps in Africa!!!!!

 

Egypt is not at all what I, and many others, pictured in our heads before we got here.. it's much much different so far.  I stayed in Alexandria today, and it is a very big and busy city!  There are cars and cabs and horse-drawn carriages around every corner.. and they all HONK at everything.. and I mean everything!  I don't think I ever went a minute without hearing a car honk, probably even 15 seconds.. haha.  The Egyptians so far like the Americans and we get a lot of stares and cat-calls when walking down the streets.

 

This morning it took awhile for our boat to get cleared, probably because all of our passports got stamped, but I don't know!?  So, around 10:30 we finally made it off the boat, and started our journey through Alexandria.  I went with 3 friends and we didn't have a real agenda or anything.. just to walk around and see what Alexandria was like! 

 

We decided to head toward the Alexandria Library and see what we found on our way there.. and no more then 2 1/2 minutes once we stepped out of the port we were asked at least 2 dozen times if we needed a cab!  We kept saying no no, we're going to walk, but they were very persistent!  However, the cops are extremely nice around here and pointed us in the right direction and told us what cabs/ horse carriages not to take because they would charge too much.. so that was very helpful!  We all ended up walking to the library, which took over an hour, but didn't really seem that long and we got to experience the busiest parts of the city.. and the task of crossing the street when there are no crosswalks or streetlights!!! What an adventure that was.. but I'm alive and in one piece so thats good!  We finally made it to the library, which was huge and crazy! It only cost 10 pounds ($2) to get in, and you had to check your bags, which was weird.. but we went in and had a free guided tour in English of the Library.  This new library has the biggest reading room in the whole world, which can seat 2,000 people!  The library's design is very modern and really big.. There are either 9 or 11 floors to it, I forget.. and the bottom 3 are below sea level which was weird.  In addition to the Library, there is a conference center and planetarium shaped like a giant sphere. 

 

After leaving the library, we were all hungry but afraid to eat real Egyptian food because we've heard lots of things about it from our medical staff.. so we ate at a Hilton Cafe.. haha.  It was pretty good and really cheap.. my whole meal cost only 28 pounds, which is a little over $5.. crazy!  Next, we headed back in the direction of the boat because we had been gone for awhile and were all very hot and tired.  It was in the upper 90's today in Alexandria, and supposedly Cairo is 20 degrees higher on average, which is where I will be spending my next 2 days! 

 

We attempted to walk back to the boat, but stopped and asked directions as the ancient Roman Theater to some police officers.. who told us to get a cab because it would be much easier, and he was right!  The police hailed the cab for us, told him where we needed to go, and negotiated our price because there are no meters.. and we were back at the port in no time!

 

On our walk in the port there are many shops inside, so we stopped at a few of them and made friends with one of the shop owners... he started out by giving us free shot glasses and then tank tops for $2 and I bout 2 pairs of linen pants since this is a Muslim country and it's offensive to show your legs/shoulders... and the pants were only $5 each!  So, I ended up with  2 pairs of pants, a tank top and a shot glass for 50 pounds.. or $10!!!  Also, that owner of the shop engraves these pieces of silver jewlery with your name and so me and my friend Lilly ordered them because we thought they were neat!

 

We finally made  it back to the boat, laid out for about an hour and then went to dinner.  At 10:30, Lilly and I went to go back to the shop to pick up our jewlery and made friends with all the other shop owners.. it was nice though because we were still in the port and you can only get in with your passport and you have to check in with your room number on the ship and stuff.. so it was safe and the shop owners were really nice!

 

Now, I am off to bed because my trip for Cairo leaves at 7:30 am tomorrow, which means I have to get up at 6 in order to get ready, go to breakfast, and be at the buses by 7:15!!!  I am sure my stories from tomorrow will be amazing because I will be seeing the PYRAMIDS!!!!!!!!!

Bulgaria - Days 3 & 4

Day 3

Sunday was a late start for me especially because it was raining all morning, so who wants to get out of bed and go outside in the rain!?  I sure didn't so I got in some extra sleep so I would be ready when the rain finally stopped!  Once the rain stopped I went with some friends around the city to do some shopping and sightseeing.  We had originally planned on going to the waterpark of Varna all day, but since it was raining in the morning, we figured it wasn't such a good idea.  Honestly, there isn't much to do in Bulgaria that we found because it hasn't evolved into a crazy tourist destination yet.  The beaches are always really crowded, but there isn't anything really cool to go see.  So, we shopped around the center of the city and then went to the mall of Varna which was pretty big!  The mall was set up vertically.. so there were about 20 to 30 stores on a floor and then you went up and up and up... there may have been 6 or 7 floors to the mall, so it seemed pretty big.  On the top floor was a movie theater and bowling alley so that was cool!

After shopping for awhile, we came back to the boat for dinner as usual.  Then we just went out and set on the beach for awhile in the evening.  It was another relaxing and uneventful day, but that's fine with me!

 

Day 4

Today was day 4 and our last day in Bulgaria!  I had an FDP (field directed practica) for one of my classes this morning to none other than McDonald's... I'm not even kidding.  I was not happy about this trip, but it was required for one of my classes, so I had to go!  So, we took a bus for like a 5 minute ride and then walked for another 5 minutes and just went to a regular McDonald's.. the manager and some workers talked to us and then we walked through the back to see how they make stuff.. and then we got to eat fries, a ham and cheese sandwich and yogurt water.  Yes, gross, right!?  The fries were good and i was kind of mad about the ham and cheese because i really wanted a regular hambuger, but apparantly the Bulgarian McDonald's are more famous for ham and cheese??  And the milk stuff... gross!!! I honestly just opened it and smelled it and decided not to try it b/c everyone that did said it was terrible!

After my faaabulous trip, I went back to the ship for lunch and to wait and meet up with friends.  After eating, we all went out for some last minute shopping around town and some of them needed to find postcards, which are usually everywhere in each port, but since this isn't a very touristy place, you really had to search for postcards!  So we did some shopping, found postcards, and got ice cream.. and then it was time to come back to the ship before on ship time at 6. 

About an hour ago, at 8:00, we pulled out of the harbor, with the help from a tug boat and I watched the whole thing which was cool.  It was crazy seeing this really tiny boat trying to pull our huge ship out.. and we must have been really popular with the Bulgarians because people were lined up everywhere watching us pull out.. and they did the same thing when we were pulling into the port.. it was kind of neat!

Now, I have to do some reading and homework, I have 2 consecutive days of class :( This will be weird with only having 1 day of class for the past 3 countries.. but I need to get used to it... it's 2 class days, Egypt for 5 days, 4 class days, morocco for 4 days, and then the long trek home with class and finals!! I cannot actually believe that the voyage home is in the near future. Only 2 ports left!! That's crazy!

Ok, well I hope everyone has a good week!  If nothing exciting happens on the ship, the next time you will hear from me will be from Africa!!!!

Bulgaria Days 1 & 2

Day 1

Friday was the first day we were actually allowed to get off the boat and finally step on the land of Bulgaria!!  We had to anchor about a mile away from the port for half of the day, which meant taking tender boats to and from shore, which are just our lifeboats.  I think it's fun to use the lifeboats, but a lot of people don't like to.

After getting off the tender on the port, me and a few friends walked around the city to figure out what Bulgaria had to offer.  Maybe 20 feet away from the port as we were walking right next to the beach, you could see the beach crowded with so many people, tents set up everywhere and loud music playing.. it looked like Bulgaria would be a fun place!!

After walking past the crazy  beaches and pirate ship restaurant, we got into the city and started to walk around.. we found a market and a lot of shops and restaurants.  We did a little shopping and walking around the town and then went to one of the restaurants for lunch.  After lunch we walked around some more and got some ice cream.. which was delicious, but still not as good as Italy's Gelato!!!

We walked around for awhile and then headed back to the port to catch a tender before they were done at 4:30.. From 4:30 to 7 the boat would be moving from the anchored spot to alongside the pier.  When we got to the tender location, we got our bags checked and headed onto the boat.. about 5 minutes later, we were told that the seas were too rough to head back to the ship so we had to wait around until the captain cleared us.. it wasn't until about 30 minutes later that we were cleared and we boarded the tender again and started to head back.  That boat ride was the best boat ride I'd ever had!!! It was soooo rocky, we could have sworn the boat was going to tip!  Almost all of the people on the lifeboat with us were freaking out .. but me and my friends were laughing the whole time.  It felt like a crazy rollercoaster.. and the ride took over 30 minutes because of how slow we had to go b/c of the waves.. it was crazy!  When we finally made it back to the ship everyone started clapping.. I wanted to go againn!!! haha.

Once back on the ship, we watched the boat pull alongside, and decided to stay in for the night.  In one of the classrooms they were playing 27 dresses, so me and some friends went to that.. and it was a good idea b/c they had chips and salsa, cookies, brownies and pop! It was greatt!!!!

 

Day 2

Today was a lazy beach day and I loved every second of it!!  The beach is literally as soon as we walk off the ship.. so we walked down a little further to where it wasn't as crowded and found a nice spot close to the water!  The whole beach was really crowded especially because it's a Saturday, but it was fine!  The Black Sea, however, is kind of black.. not really but it definatley didn't compare it all to the water in Greece in Croatia which was soooo clear... in the water here, you can't see your feet, which made me a little nervous.. but the sea was nice to cool down in since it was above 90 degrees today laying on the beach!!

We spent most of our day at the beach and came back to the ship for lunch and dinner since it was so close.. but that was the basis of our day!  Now me and about 4 other girls are getting ready and we are going to go back out to see what's going on at night on the beach!! It should be fun!!

 

ahh.. we're so close!

Today is Class day 13 and we are more than half way through classes!!!  A little before noon, we anchored in Bulgaria... but we aren't getting off the boat until tomorrow!!  Do you have any idea how annoying it is to see the beautiful coast of a country and not be able to get off the boat!?  I layed out after class today and the whole time I wished I was on the beach I was staring at and swimming in the Sea to cool down.. Black Sea to be exact!

 

So, that's how my day has been.. class, class, class... seeing land and being stuck in the ocean!  Now I know how most of the crew feels when we are in port on the days they aren't allowed off of the boat!  I feel bad for them!

 

Right now we are in our pre-port meeting learning about Varna, Bulgaria and what to expect and what precautions to take.. and yes, I am paying attention, don't worry!  From hearing about Bulgaria, it seems like it will be somewhat like Croatia, relaxation on the beaches :)

 

I will update tomorrow night about how my first day in Bulgaria was!!!

Turkey - Day 5

So, today is our last day in Turkey and I am sad to be leaving!  I always feel like once I get to know my way around the country and start to feel comfortable we leave!  Oh well.. we still 3 more ports! I can't believe we're down to only 3!!!  AND.... I just looked at the date and it's July 22.. we have excatly a month left which means this trip is more than half over! That's crazyy!!

 

This morning I woke up and went to breakfast, and then headed off the boat to the Bazaar for the last time!  I ended up buying a lot there today because it wasn't nearly as crowded as it was the first day because we went so early, so that was nice.  Still, though, I was being called names like "angel" and a few guys even told me I dropped something and when I went to look down they said "my heart" hahahaha.. Turkish men are quite interesting I would have to say!!  After spending awhile at the Grand Bazaar, we went to the Spice Bazaar which is waaaaay smaller and they mostly have food and spices, hence the name of it.. Through both the Grand and Spice Bazaars, I ended up getting quite a few things.. I got some turkish tea which is faabulous, turkish delight, a bracelt, a really pretty scarf thing they wear here, a shirt and i forget what else.. but I was happy with my purchases!

 

After the long morning of Bazaare madness.. I took all my bags to my room and then headed off the boat for the last time to the resteraunt across the street where you can get free wifi.  I had gotten some wifi earlier in turkey, but it wasn't good at all.. so I figured I  should try again.. and it was much better!!! I got some researching done and uploaded my last sets of pictures from Italy.. and then so many SAS people were there and on the internet that it started to get slow and I didn't have time to finish uploading, but that's ok I atleast got some up!! 

 

Once I was done with the wifi, it was time to step off turkish ground for the last time and get back on our boat :(  I really did enjoy turkey, it wasn't what I had expected at all.  In our briefing before we got here, we learned about all the terrorism going on in Turkey and how the crime rate is really high.  Last year 4 days before the summer SAS voyage got to Turkey, a major bombing occurred so they didn't even get to come here because of it.  We were warned a lot about terrorism and not going out at night, so it was scary and the only reason I am saying this now is because I am safe and on the ship and nothing happened to me while I was in Turkey.. I didn't want to say this before I got to Turkey so everyone would be freaking out.. but thankfully no bombings occured and I am safe!!

 

Now, I am off to finish up my homework since i have class tomorrow :( yuckk!! And i think we may fit in a game of catch-phrase tonight with some friends before actually finishing my homework... haha!

 

PS. I just realized that it is exactly 1 month before we disembark in Norfolk, Virginia... and this was a sad discovery because as of now.. I am most definately not ready to leave the ship!  I wish this was my college all year round, that would be amazing :)

Turkey - Day 4

Today was an early morning.. I woke up at 7am to get ready and have enough time to eat breakfast before having to meet for my trip at 8:15.  I went on a trip to the Prince's Isles today to the island of Buyukada, the biggest of the 5 Prince's Islands.  The ride there took about an hour and a half, but it didn't seem like that long b/c the scenery was so pretty!

 

Once we got to the island we went on a horse-drawn carriage ride around the island which took about another hour and a half.. and it was great!  Our horses liked to go really fast, so we kept passing other carriages.. it was kind of funny!  The ride around the island was great.. we got to see a lot of the residential areas which were amazing... the houses were all soo pretty and huge!  It was really cool seeing real Turkish life in the residential areas!  I felt like the island was pretty touristy, but when you got away from that and into where the houses were it was really traditional and neat to see that part of Istanbul.

 

After the ride, we had some free time to eat lunch and walk around the island to do shopping or whatever else we wanted to do, which was nice.. and after about 2 hours of that we boarded the ferry and took it back to the part of Istanbul we are in now... this trip reminded me of why Istanbul is the largest city in Europe.. it is sooo big.... riding almost 2 hours away from the port of Istanbul, we were still in the same city.. that is huuge!!! 

 

After my SAS trip was done, I met up with some people for dinner and we discussed what we wanted to do later.  We ended up going out for dessert, where 2 of the girls got bachlavah and me and the other 3 got some chocolate mousse cake thing which was sooo good!  After eating dessert we went to a hookah bar on the water that is under one of the bridges.  Hookah is really popular in Turkey and at basically any restaruant you see they have hookah as well, so we figured we should do it.  The hookah bar we went to was really neat, all the chairs were big bean bag chairs outside and they had a lot of couches and pillows inside.. I really liked it.  We sat outside and got to see the sun set over the skyline of mosques and skyscrapers, so that was really cool!!   Hookah was really chill and we got orange and apple flavors and ended up being there for over 3 hours because you could just sit there and talk while over looking the water!  I am really going to go through water withdrawl when I get back to Ohio, I can already tell!  i am being spoiled with water all around me all the time!  At the hookah bar, we met 2 boys from Ireland who are hear because they are doing a tour from Ireland to Cairo, Egypt I think is their last stop... riding bikes!!!  They are doing it for a charity and once they get to their last stop, they are giving all their money to the charity and donating the van that is following them for the people to use as an ambulance.  I forge tthe exact charity they are raising money for, but it's something for neonatal care and a burn facility in a hospital which I thought was really neat!  I could not believe how much they are biking though... they were only going to be in Istanbul for a day and then tomorrow at 5am they were setting back out to ride for 14 hours!!  They have already been through many coutnries and i remember them saying they liked Syria the best!  They had been through Bulgaria already and said they had a lot of beaches, so I am excited for that... they were really nice and I'm glad we met them!

 

Now, I am off to bed since tomorrow will be another early morning.. which shouldn't suprise anyone by now.. I am soo accustomed to getting up before 8 it's rediculous!  I plan on meeting a friend for breakfast and then we're setting off to the Bazaar to do some more shopping before we leave!  She hasn't been there yet, so this will be an experience for her!!  I cannot believe our last day in Turkey is tomorrow... I remember just writing an entry where I was like I can't believe we are going to be in turkey tomorrow... it's crazy!!  One more day of Turkey, one class day, and then Bulgaria for the beaches!!!!

Turkey - Day 3

 

Today was day 3 of Istanbul!  It's def. flying by!!  As I usually say, I got up for breakfast, but this time I went back to sleep for about an hour or so after breakfast because I had a trip, but it wasn't until noon, so I had some time to catch up on my sleep!  My trip was a bosphorous excursion, so we got on a ferry and sailed for a little over an hour and a half down the bosphorous, between the European and Asiatic side of Istanbul.. it was really neat!  The weather today was very different.. it was cloudy all day and windy, so it wasn't scorching hot all day, which was a great change of pace!  The weather also made it a great time to try turkish tea on the boat, which was amazing!!!  I really liked it and plan on buying some to take back home!!  So, the boat ride was good and i even saw some dolphins on it.. and when it was over we went to a private museum to look at artifacts, clothing pieces, accessories and a bunch of stuff from the Ottoman times I believe, which was also neat.  After the museum, we took a bus ride back to the port, which took about 45 minutes since we had sailed on the boat so far down the Bosphorous.

 

Once back to the ship, I went to dinner with my roommate because I hadn't eaten lunch and was starving!!  After an entertaining dinner with our friends the waiters, we decided to go out and search for some internet.  We found some free wi-fi at a restaurant and all you had to do was atleast order a drink, so we each got some tea and water and used the internet... which sucked!  I think there was too many people using it and it kept getting interrupted, so I didn't even get to upload any more pictures b/c it was going too slow and I kept getting kicked off! Ugh.. oooh well!

 

After our internet experience we found some ice cream and then passed our cabin steward and his friend eating, so we stopped and talked to him for awhile.. but we couldn't sit down with them b/c if someone saw us they could get in trouble.... which is sooo dumb! 

 

The rest of the night was un-eventful and I went to bed early because I had a trip that left at 8:30 am the next day.. which you will hear about soon!

turkey - day 2

So, today as usual I woke up early, got ready and then went to breakfast with my roommate.  After breakfast, I finished gathering up my stuff and headed off the boat for my SAS trip "Palaces of Istanbul and Asiatic Side."  So if you haven't guessed, today I finally stepped on Asian Ground!!!!!!  It was so exciting crossing that bridge in Istanbul and seeing the bright, highlighter yellow sign that read, "welcome to Asia" on it.. I had finally made it to my 3rd continent!!

 

Asia wasn't much different than Europe, the only difference was that Asia was more residential with more housing and green landscaping than the European side of Turkey, but really, you couldn't tell the difference.. I didn't care, though,  I had stepped over to yet another continent on my trip!!

 

For my SAS trip today, we visited 4 palaces throughout Istanbul, and those palaces were amazing!!  Unfortunately, in 3 out of the 4 palaces we couldn't take ANY photos at all, or else I would have been in there all day taking pictures!  It's amazing how intricate the artwork is in all of the palaces.. you have to look everywhere to see each and every detail and the most fascinating art work is usually on the ceilings, the last place anyone would think to look!  It was absolutely amazing though.

 

The first palace we went to was "Dolmabahce Sarayi" and was by far the biggest palace we visited today.  It took my group a little over 1 1/2 hours to go through, and that is without seeing all the rooms and hearing all the stories the palace had to offer.  I believe there were over 250 rooms in the palace, so it was huuuge!  There were the most gorgeous chandelleirs throughout the place, with the biggest one weight 4 1/2 tons, yes  I said that right.... now picture something weight 4 1/2 tons and picture how big of a room it would have to be in to make it look smalll!!!! The room that chandelier was in had over 50 columns, I started counting just because I was amazed that in the ROOM ther were huuuuuge columns that you would normally see outside of a place, not in it.. but they were in it and they were absolutely giant!  I could not ever imagine living in that palace, it would take you at least a week to figure out how to get around, and that is if you did nothing else but try to figure out the layout of the palace.  There are no other words to describe this palace, but absolutely increadible.. I was amazed at every single thing we saw in there.. and one fascinating thing we learned was that the kitchens in the palaces were never actually inside the living quarters, they were always outside in another building so the whole place didn't smell like the food that was cooking! werid!

 

After the first gigantic palace, we went over to the Asiatic Side and visited "Beylebeyi Sarayi" which had the prettiest chandelleir in the entranceway.. I wanted to steal it!  The chandelleir was made of all crystal, but most of the crystals were a really prett blue-turquoise color.. it was giant and beautiful!  This palace was not nearly as big, with only about 24 rooms in it, but it was filled with the prettiest chandelleirs, and most of them were really colorful.  In this palace there was also a giant pool in one of the halls, but it's not used for swimming it was only used for the noise of the water and for decoration! 

 

The third and fourth palaces weren't as big or as cool.. but they were still interesting.. in the 3rd palace which was "Yildiz Sale" it was the guest house to the palace, and you would have never known because it was huge and beautiful.  In the biggest room in that palace, yes room, the rug in it was 4400 square feet and it went from one end to the other, which meant that room itself was 4400 square feet, just in one of the rooms!! Also in that palace we walked by a camera crew and all these lights and stuff and found out that they were filming a documentary for the history channel on Monarchy during the ottoman empire.. so we saw the actors getting made up for it and the settings and everything.. that was neat!  Everyone doing the documentary tried to get our dean's youngest daughter to be in the documentary as the princess.. they all loved her!  She is 2 1/2 and apparantly in Turkey, they love babies.. so the director took pictures of the kids, gave them gifts, and then gave our dean his information so apparantly he could bring back Gracie (the little girl) if he wanted to!?  It was soo funny!

 

In all the palaces we visited, something they all had in common was chairs and large dining room tables.  In every room of each palace there were sooo many places to sit.. in one room the size of a big living room or soemthing there would be at least 12 big chairs in it.. and then 2 or 3 couches as well, it was crazy.  In each of the palaces they all had really big dining room tables, that could easily sit at least 20-30 people.. they were huuug!!!  Also, in all of the palaces we had to put on these booties on our feet, like a plastic bag type thing that is made for your foot and they were pink.. everyone had to wear these around.. they looked dumb, but I guess that's a way of preserving the palaces!

 

After a lonnng day of looking at palaces, I came back to the boat and took a nap before going to dinner.  After dinner me and 4 other girls went to the big square in Istanbul which I forget the name of.. apparantly it is like New Orleans, and there are people there all the time, all night long.. so we walked around, shopped and then listened to some Turkish music... me and my roommate also tried Turkish Raki, which is the special drink of Turkey... and it was not good!  It reminded me of ouzo in Greece in that it tasted kind of licorice-y, but it wasn't good.. atleast I can say I tried it though!  The whole time we were walking around the square, though, we were followed by a little gypsie girl trying to sell us tissues.. yeah little packs of tissues and she would weave in and out of all of us trying to put it in our hands and stuff.. it was so annoying and she finally left us alone after about an hour!

 

All in all it was a good but very tiring day!

 

Istanbul, Turkey - Day 1

This morning we arrived in Istanbul, a little later than we had been told, so when my alarm went off at 5:40 am to watch us pull in, we were still in no sight of land... so I went back to sleep and missed it!  That's ok though, I heard a lot of people say it wasn't worth waking up for anyway!

 

I did get up early anyway to get to breakfast before it closed.  After breakfast, immigration still hadn't even gotten onto our ship, so I could tell it was going to be a long morning!  Finally around 9:15 or so, they got on and so we had our diplomatic briefing where a US Ambassador comes onto the ship to talk to us about Istanbul.. thankfully that is shown not only in the Union, but on our TV's, so I layed in bed while listening to it, and ended up taking a nice nap!!  After that was over,  we all had to get our 'landing cards' which are blue cards that we have to show in order to get in and out of the port and allow us to travel throughout Istanbul only.  You have to get a visa in order to leave the city, which I don't plan on doing because Istanbul is huuuge, so I don't need to worry about going outside of the city.

 

Once we were allowed to get off the ship (around 10:30 or so, when usually its by 8!) I got off with some friends and walked around a little bit to find the Grand Bazaar which I would categorize as the largest flea market I have ever seen in my life!!!! There is an estimated 4400 shops that line sidewalks and an indoor type place.. it was absolutely crazy!  I spent hours there and didn't see all of it, that's for sure.. and I was getting so lost inside, you never knew where you were or where you had already been, it was crazy!!  There was soo much there, it was really quite overwhelming.. I was so overwhelmed I only bought one thing, which is pretty unusual!!

 

After being at the Bazaar all day, we were all exhausted and went back to the ship for dinner, and a little time to relax!!  I wasn't even hungry from smelling fish and odd things all day, but it was nice to sit down for awhile and have about 8 glasses of water! My friends at dinner all convinced me to go see Harry Potter tonight, because we were kind of advised not to really go out, and there was not much else to do, so I gave in.. and spent 2 1/2 hours of my time in Turkey in the movie theater!!!   I couldn't believe I was going to see Harry Potter, but sure enough that's where I just got back from!!   I have to say though, it was a really good movie, and wayyy cheaper than in the US, I got into the theater, popcorn and candy for 11 Lira, which is not even 7$, so I thought that was a good deal!  During the movie, I almost forgot I was in another country, until the screen went black about an hour into it, and it was time for intermission!? Most of the movie theater was full of SAS students, so everyone was so confused, why was there an intermission during a movie!?  It was sooo weird.. but thankfully the movie came back on after like 7 minutes.. an odd amount of time!?

 

So, before we got to Turkey, we were warned how the guys here are "charmers" and they sure try to be!  Let me just name off a few things I was called today....  "babyface"  "angel"  "angelface"  "charlie's angel's"... and not to mention we were asked a few times if we were sent from heaven, if we come from paradise, and many other things.. I was also told though that I have nice skin and a good color, and could pass for being Turkish!? So, I guess that's good...?

 

Also, since Turkey is a very Muslim country, many of the women wear long skirts and shirts with a headdress, and some even only show their eyes, which was a definate culture shock coming from Greece!! It kind of sucks though because we were advised to not show our shoulders or too much of our legs, so I wore a short sleeved shirt today and capri jeans, which can be extremely hot when it's in the upper 80's and your surrounded by the hundreds of people running around Istanbul.. but I cannot complain too much, the Turkish women have to do this every day, not just for 5 days..

 

So, Istanbul is a CRAZY busy city.. but so far I do like it!  Tomorrow I will be going to the Asiatic side and going to different palaces of Istanbul with SAS, so this will be fun, and I will have reached my 3rd continent!!!