Marrakech Express

We got in on Thursday and immediately embarked. The port in Casablanca is what they call an industrial port so basically it is a 20 minute walk to get out of the port and into the city and there are cranes and shipping stuff EVERYWHERE. So far we have only been in passenger terminals so the exit to the port is like RIGHT there. This was different and they had a shuttle running constantly to the exit of the port so that was super nice.

I got right on the bus to Marrakech for my 4-day trip. This trip was huge there were 170 people and 4 buses so it was a little frustrating at times. I sat next to Melissa (from work study) and it took about 4 hours to get there. Our tour guide Jamal was really funny and young and our bus was the all girl bus so it def. couldn't have been easy for him. We got to Marrakech and went to this gigantic shopping square called Djemaa El Fna and got lunch at this nice restaurant. It was all traditional Moroccan food so cold veggie salads and this thing they call Tagine which is meat or veggie dish that is cooked in this funny looking ceramic pot thing. It is cooked in the clay pot so everything is slow cooked together. Sorta like a precursor to the crock-pot. Morocco is also known for their mint tea, which is a green tea with mint and a lot of sugar.

We then had free time to go into the souks (markets). This is ridiculous. They are hundreds and hundreds of years old and you get so lost in them. There are literally miles of these teeny tiny alleyways crammed with vendors and stores. Every so often they turn into these open squares w. mosques and people selling their wares. Obviously I was in heaven. I was with a big group of kids including Kareem. I met him on the first day and he helped me with my bags and we are work study together. He is Muslim and fluent in Arabic (quite an asset in Morocco). We made a great shopping team because people thought I was Moroccan and he could speak the language so I bartered through him it was amusing.

We were wandering around the souks and all of a sudden the sky literally opened up. It rains about 25 days a year in Morocco...guess what day we were there for? It was actually my favorite moment on the trip so far. It was POURING and these markets aren’t really enclosed. They have little tin roofs and in some places nothing. So we were huddled in a corner trying to keep dry and laughing pretty hard. We had no idea it was going to rain so some kids just had their nice cameras around their necks; my bag was getting soaked. Not to mention there is like 200 year old clay dripping on us and rat water everywhere. Literally this place can't be described. Picture Aladdin in the bazaars then age the bazaars by 300 years and add pollution. All of the little alleyways were flooding because it isn't like there is any drainage. I got Kareem to ask this nice guy if we could have plastic bags in to put our stuff in and he gave them to us and wouldn’t even accept any money, which was nice. We got directions out (which is difficult trust me I experienced being trapped there later on) and we are running at this point because we thought we were going to be late for the bus. If you are late you get dock time, which really really sucks. It means when you get into a port you have to stay on the boat for x amount of time. 1-15 minutes late is 3 hours dock time. So anyways we start running out of the markets and as we go all the vendors start cheering us on. Like totally screaming yell go go it was soooooo hilarious. Like just a great moment they were clapping and jumping up and down like we were finishing a marathon. We finally made it to the bus and back to the hotel. We randomly got assigned roommates and I got this girl Lexi from New Hampshire she was very nice.

We went to this place Chez Ali for dinner which was horrible. Basically, it was the sad Moroccan version of Medieval Times. We got there and it was this huge facility that was made to look as “typically” Moroccan as it could. There were all these different “tribes” all singing the music of their people. Every SAS trip that was going through Marrakech was at this place so there were a ton of us and we were all so uncomfortable. They sat us in these tent like things to eat dinner. The food was actually good, cous cous & tagines. As we were eating dinner the “groups” of people came through each tent singing. They just looked so incredibly miserable the whole time we were so uncomfortable. Then they had a horse “show” in this huge pit like thing in the middle of the complex. They had a fire dancer, belly dancer and then people doing horse tricks. They were playing star wars music with all this. At this point we just died laughing. They ended with a “Magic Carpet” flying across the area with the horses. It was horrible. It left such an impression on the shipboard community that at our talent show the LLC’s ((RHDs keep the peace authority position) did a skit called “Chez Ali at Sea” and recreated this whole event. It was hilarious.

That whole thing just made me realize how lucky I have been when I have traveled to India in the past with Dad. We rarely get roped into “tourist” attractions and it is a genuine experience. It made me upset to think that some people travel to places like Morocco and just see shit like this, and are ok with it. I don’t know if I am being self important, but it really does make a huge difference traveling with people who know what they are doing.

The next day we had to get up super early and Lexi's alarm didn't go off so it was a rough start. We headed out to the Sahara on our 8 hour bus ride. I sat next to this girl Leigh Anne from Alabama who was really great. She goes to UVA and her mom actually did SAS in the 70's so she always knew she would be doing tithis. We had some stops and ate lunch. The drive was beautiful but a little treacherous. We had to drive through the High Atlas Mountains and let me tell you that is a windy trail. Our bus actually almost got into an accident and we had to pull over. In addition to our almost accident one girl was puking almost the entire way…which added to the fun? Finally we got there, unscathed slightly.

There weren’t enough camels for all 170 of us obviously so we shared. I didn't get on at first and I saw there was a LLC riding a camel and we all didn't even have one. That annoyed me, Anyways, I finally got on one and I named it Claude. Claude was a great camel and a little smaller then the rest basically my size so that was good. I got to ride him for a while and eventually we got to the camp. It was very nice. There were traditional Moroccan singers at the entrance greeting us. It was set up really interesting. There was an area with a ton of traditional tents w. mattresses in them; we all were assigned a tent. Then there was also a "common area" that had a little bar and a big open space and then these huge tents with tables and low couches in them for dinner. They also had showers and what they called toilets (basically toilets without seats and that didn't really flush sorta gross). We watched the sunset and my friend Dani and I split a bottle of wine and a bunch of us just sat around talking. They served us dinner (tagine again duh) and the singers came back and we had a little dance partay. Then after dinner Professor Church, the parasitology teacher, had brought a UV blacklight because apparently scorpions glow fluorescent under blacklights, so I went on a voluntarily scorpion hunt. Kara and I tagged along and we found 3 scorpions! It was super cool and they really did glow. We lost a lot of the group and we stayed with the professor and she went into a little parasitology lesson and q&a it was so interesting. And also sorta weird to be learning like that at like 11:30pm. I learned loads and now never want to eat or touch anything again haha. We headed back down to the camp after a while and some people were playing mafia and just hanging out. They had a generator so there were lights.

People had decided to drag their mattresses out into the open area to sleep so we did too. They were afraid of bugs, which there were a ton of and they were HUGE. People didn’t realize that just because they moved their beds out of the tents that the bugs could still get them, but whatever we pulled out our mattresses too. There was a big group of us so it was pretty fun. I let my true colors show when Kara and I tried to pee. I thought she was going to kill me- I couldn't do it. I literally went almost 24 hours without peeing. Tried squatting in the desert but I was too exposed. Tried hovering, but couldn’t do it. She was laughing pretty hard, but I know it isn't the greatest way to influence new people and make friends haha. Finally fell asleep under the stars in the Sahara around 2 and were up by sunset. It was really cold and in retrospect probably not a great idea because I got pretty sick, but it was amazing. I got out of my bed and there was dirt and hair in it, and I didn’t even freak out because of the germs. I tried to ignore it. I used my colgate wisp! and brushed my teeth without water. They had bread (obviously moroccans eat an inordinate amount of bread) and honey and tea and stuff for breakfast. We got changed and got BACK on the camels to trek back to the buses. I got Jasmine this time. She was behind Claude, who was the best camel ever. I had Kareem taking pictures of me and Melissa taking pictures of Christie who was behind me. They were like the paparazzi we had a lot of fun. We then got back on the buses for an uneventful 8 hour trek back to Marrakech.

We stopped for lunch at a different place, which was actually pretty gross. We had tagine (again) with lamb that had mostly fat and bone on it so it was really hard to eat. We got back to Marrakesh and Lexi and I got into our room. The trip was lacking in organization and we were told we had the night to ourselves, but in the last 5 minutes of our bus ride Jamal offered to escort us to a nice restaurant. It was sweet of him because it was taking out of his time off, but we had been on the bus for 8 hours and he hadn't brought it up so we said we would go. I got back to the room and Lexi was talking about how she was going to go to Pizza Hut, which after 5 straight meals of "traditional" Moroccan food was sounding pretty damn good. So I found Melissa and we headed to the Meriem hotel to meet up with other SAS kids. The trip was so big they had to split us into two hotels.

I am always pretty confident is sketchy countries and I was the vote of confidence but there were 4 girls walking the 3 blocks to the other hotel and I was a little nervous. The girls were freaking out about how morocco is apparently the sex trade capital of the world etc etc. The only reason I felt uncomfortable is that there were no other women anywhere. Since it is Ramadan everybody is on their best behavior and being super religious. So the women are at home cleaning up after their huge break fast meal. We met up with a big group and walked over to Pizza Hut, which was quite delish we also went to Haagen Daaz. We got back to the Meriem hotel and were gonna go to a hookah bar, but the hotel was jumping and not in a good way.

A bunch of independent trips had ended up in Marrakech at that hotel. There was a small Hookah bar upstairs and we headed up to see what people were doing and oh man it was not good. Since it was a hotel with SAS students we are still under SAS rules and since it was Ramadan and a religious country we were beyond warned that we needed to behave as Morocco is not a country to fuck around in, but no one listens. We got up there and kids were a MESS. They were taking bottles of wine from the downstairs bar and bringing it up to this little hookah bar. People were WASTED and being so inappropriate. They were shot gunning the hookah smoke between them (inhaling and then making out with each other to pass the smoke) and playing in the decor which was a bowl filled with water and flowers. The security guard looked disgusted, it was not a good scene for a seriously religious country. I am all about partying, but not somewhere like that. So Melissa and I went to the lobby and saw some people and all the hotel staff was running around yelling you could hear the people from the hookah bar downstairs. It was not good. So we peaced out of there before anything worse could happen and the LLC's got back. Melissa and I decided to just head to bed at it was midnight already and we needed to get up in the am to have time to shop. My roommate Lexi apparently had become good friends with drew fink from Wilton and she had a bf but for some reason he came and slept in our room it was weird. I guess he didn't have a hotel room or something. Anyways the next morning she told me a bunch of kids came to our hotel at like 3am and were jumping off the balconies into the pool and kids went behind the bar and stole bottles. Its like people don't realize this is not a country you fuck around in. There is no bail, no lawyers like they stick you in jail and there really isn't much you can do about it!


The next morning we head back to the giant square with the miles of shops. This is where I was annoyed with SAS. Out of the 4 buses we had 1 bus decided to take their kids to the market and back that was it. And the kids on that bus got to go and the rest of us had to find our own way there and back. It was weird. Anyways a group of 6 of us met up to go to the market. I was stunned at how scared people were. Leigh Anne didn't want to go because I couldn't find Kareem. She thought it was dangerous for us to go alone and we would get ripped off without him there to speak Arabic. I was not having this, as I am not one to rely on others. She thought it would be better for us to wait and go with the bus so 200 white kids could descend on the souks...uh bad idea. So we bartered with cab drivers and went ourselves. After we got in the souks we sorta split up anyways so it all worked out. I ended up with Melissa and I haggled the shit out of people she was so impressed. I look Arabic and they kept asking me if I was Moroccan it was great. I got a ton of great stuff. We ended up finding Kareem and taking a cab back with them. We then boarded to bus to head back to Casablanca.

We made a stop at Marjane which was Morocco's WALMART it was so ridic. They had a Lacoste & scooters and a Mcdonalds! It was amaaaazing. I got water and realized overcharged we had been for water the entire trip since we were in these huge groups. We had been charged 25 Dirhams for a big bottle in Marjane they charge 4 dirham. They also had soda and food and it was hilarious. We got food from Mcdonalds (mcchicken obvi) but they also had this sandwich called the McArabia hahahaha It was cool. On the ride home I chatted with Eddie Diaz the Ass. Dean of Students and got some dirt on swine flu. I guess once the Vaccine is done they are going to be flying it out to the ship. When swine flu is contracted (it is pretty inevitable) on the boat it is going to depend on where we are if we have to come home or not. Apparently, in China when we get off they take every single persons temperature. They are so strict and that is the country that apparently everyone is petrified for. Also, I guess health & safety wise the staff is very concerned about Ghana. Part of that stems from the fact that SAS has never been there before. I also found out that there is a 5-year waiting list to teach on SAS. Anyways, we finally got back to the boat and it was like a vision rising up in the ocean I was so happy to be home!

I ate dinner on the boat and went and hung out in Melissa's room with a bunch of people. I was really starting to feel like shit, but knew I wanted to do something. Kareem, Hannah and I decided we would go find the huge group of people planning on heading out to the bars. Since we missed the last shuttle we had to walk out and we only knew the general direction, but it ended up working out.

We found this local outdoor concert with all these people. We stopped to watch it and ended up in the middle of all these Moroccan people. It was so cool. And it was refreshing because there were all these women and teenagers flirting and just acting like kids. We watched two acts and then there was this guy dancing like a crazy man next to us and all the teenagers started egging him on. Hannah had the great insight that Moroccan boys are just like Americans they "crowd around the stupid one and clap". Somehow something happened though and someone threw a punch and there was a huge rush to watch the fight, so we ran like hell out of there. It was still amazing and just a great experience. That is the stuff I really love not the touristy planned crap, which is cool, but this was better. Then we walked out to the Hassan II mosque to see it at night. It was so gorgeous and huge. We headed back to the boat and slept.


Our last day in port a bunch of us got together to head to the Hassan II mosque to get a full tour. It is so big inside & out it fits 125,000 worshippers. It was finished in 1993 and took 15 million continuous hours of labor and over 1/3 of the mosque was built on the water out of a verse from the koran that says god's throne sits on water. It is also really modern with a retractable wooden roof and speakers put into the many of the columns. Then kareem, melissa, Amanda, tommy and I and went to the markets. They were nothing compared to Marrakech, but i got some last minute stuff. We then boarded the boat to get ready for another 6-day trek to Ghana. I did my best barter with my last 40 dirham. I went to buy a bowl and he wanted 120 but I only had 40. So between Kareem’s arabic and my sick bitchyness we kept lowering him. He asked it i had the 40 + an American souvenir and all I had was my travel pack of kleenex, which I offered him. He then dissolved into laughter and let me have it for 40.

Some kids did some stupid stuff even after they scared the shit out of us. There were 3 kids (2 girls 1 guy) that met some local guy on the train to Marrakech and he invited them home with him and they actually went! I guess he was super awk and tried to sell them stuff and sorta take stuff from them. Not good basically. I just don't understand how people can be so dumb. People were also complaining about how dirty it was and how poor. I just kept thinking wait till India. This was like a baby India like maybe 1/3 as bad. It was empty and clean compared to India. I know that is totally gonna change people if they reacted like this to Morocco. They were also so upset because people are so aggressive when shopping and walking and it was nothing. These people just talked from their store in India they come out grab you touch you and talk in your face. In my head I just kept being like wait till India. I tried not to say it because I didn’t want to be a know it all, but it is going be really interesting how people react if they thought Morocco was bad.

All in all I really really enjoyed Morocco. It is definitely a place I am going to want to go back to one day, but I have a feeling I am going to be saying that about everywhere! Hopefully, I will find an internet café in Ghana or South Africa and be able to put up some pictures! I am also super proud of my Phi Mu’s for a fabulous rush! I knew you could do it. And Ellen break a leg with your shows!
xoxo

Gibraltar Rocks

On Sept. 7th we decided to trek out to Gibraltar. Gen, Drew, Allyson, Corinne and I all thought it would be a way cooler place to visit then Seville or Grenada where everyone else was headed. We walked over to the bus station, which was thankfully only a few blocks away. We got there at about 9:30 and the next train wasn’t until 11:30 so we found a little café with Churros con Chocolate. I thought that they would just serve them with a chocolate dipping sauce, but instead they serve it with sugar and a thick hot chocolate. They were delish. We got on the bus and it was a 3-hour ride to Gibraltar. This was a little longer than we had expected, but it was a very pretty ride. Spain uses a lot of wind power, so there are huge white windmills all along the coast and the mountains it is gorgeous. Finally we got to La Linea, the town right next to Gibraltar. We had to walk over the boarder to get into Gibraltar.

Gibraltar is still a British Territory, so we had to cross over the boarder and go through security to get in. It reminded me of what it would be like if one were trying to walk from Mexico in the US. We sweet talked the immigration guy to give us a Gibraltar stamp in our passport since we didn’t get one in Spain Once we got in it was a completely different world, it really was as if we walked into England. All the license plates were British, the phone booths were all red in the typically English style and all the policemen were dressed like Bobbys! They primarily use the pound sterling as well, but euros are accepted as well.

The super interesting thing about Gibraltar is there is one road in…that road also functions as the airport’s runway! This does cause some interesting traffic patterns and makes entrances and exits a little tricky. We wandered around and we started to notice that there were a ton of Gibraltar & Union Jack flags everywhere. I thought they were just very patriotic, but we found out that we were lucky enough to be visiting on Gibraltar’s National Day! We found a very cute little restaurant in Irish Town and got some food. I had chicken in a pepper sauce. Drew also ordered me a Bulmer’s hard cider, which was super yummy. We sat and ate at the base of the rock and then continued to wander around. We decided to take the cable car up to the top of the rock. They kept calling it the top of the rock, which reminded me of nbc and 30 rock.

The cable car ride was fabulous. It only took a few minutes to get to the top of the 1,396-foot rock and once we got there the view was amazing. We could see 3 countries (Spain, Gibraltar & Morocco) 2 Continents (Europe & Africa) and 2 bodies of water (the Mediterranean and the Atlantic). It was a gorgeous view. I was also amazed at how many boats were in and around the harbor. I counted over 35 just floating they weren’t all docked they were just there. I later found out why this was.

We had to get the last train back to Cadiz so we were short on time, but there was so much more we could have done. There were a ton of caves to explore and fortresses to see. There is also a Moorish castle built into the rock. We headed back down the cable car and got some snacks for the long bus ride back. We even found Sangria in a can! We were very excited. We had to run a little to make sure we got the bus, but everything worked out really well and in 3.5 hours we were back in Cadiz. It is weird doing independent travel sometimes because the dean of students was on our public bus back and forth to Cadiz. It is interesting to turn the professor/authority role on and off so easily. We are in such close quarters on the boat I work out next to my professors and then go sit in class and then eat dinner next to them and their kids. It is taking some getting used to.

Anyways, the last day in Spain was Gen’s birthday, so we wandered around, had some churros and used the internet for the last time in a while. There was only one day between Spain & Morocco and we actually spent it docked in Gibraltar’s harbor. I guess fuel is extremely inexpensive in Gibraltar, which explains why there were so many boats just chilling everywhere. It is still very expensive to fully dock, so a fueler ship just pulled up along side of us and filled us up as we were floating. It was strange, but also really cool to see how they did it.

Spain was really great, but definitely a cushy introduction to what will be our next few ports. It was a gentle way of easing us into this experience. Anyways, miss you all loads!
xoxo

España

So we finally got to our first port of Friday September 5th. I woke up and peeked out my window and saw the sun rising over Cadiz, Spain it was ridiculous. Thankfully, customs didn’t take that long, and the boat was cleared for us to disembark within 2 hours of our arrival. I have heard when we get to more dangerous ports it can take up to 4 hours to clear us through. Since Spain is relatively safe we did not even have a Diplomatic Briefing. I got off the boat in a big group, but quickly realized that walking around a new city with a big group wasn’t realistic. So Gen & Eric and I broke off and wandered on our own. The first thing I needed to do was to find a food market for my Anthropology of food & culture class. This was a great covered market that had vegetables, meat and an inordinate amount of seafood everywhere, I even had a mussel squirt at me.

We then wandered to the back of the market and walked through their version of a supermarket, which was very similar to ours with the glaring exception of the pig legs hanging around. We then got some churros from a street vendor. We mistakenly asked for 1 Kilo and they laughed at us and gave us the correct amount. We ran into Drew and ate our churros in the flower market. We continued to wander and came across a beautiful Cathedral. After ducking inside we continued to walk near the water. We visited the recently excavated ruins of a Roman Coliseum. Apparently, they are the 2nd biggest found ruins after those in Rome. It was very cool and interesting because they were found so recently there are literally apartments right on top of the ruins. Then we wandered some more and headed towards lunch. Eric said he was supposed to meet up with Fiana & Jayson (roommate & her bf) and I didn’t really want to hang out with them. They are nice, but I don’t need to spend any more time with them then I already do. Thankfully, we were shopping in Zara and I found my friend Melissa so I sort of switched groups. I went out to lunch with Melissa, Hannah, Cynthia and some other girls. We got 2 types of paella and a few pitchers of Sangria that were delicious! We were going to wander and shop a little bit more after lunch, but it was siesta time and everything closed. I thought siesta would really just be a few stores closing, but I was wrong. The country literally completely closes from 2-5:30. This is after they open at 10am. I have no idea how anything ever gets done there because things are closed all the time. It is such a stark contrast to the states where people work 10-hour days. So, I went back to the ship to nap before Flamenco Night.

Flamenco Night was my first Semester at Sea organized trip. We figured it would be hugely touristy, but thought it would be interesting. Hannah, who I had lunch with, was also going so I met up with her and we headed down to the bus. Hannah knew a big group of girls that were going and I ended up sitting next to this great girl, Kara, from Rye, NY. We drove for a half hour and ended up in the middle of nowhere. We got off the bus and were offered sherry. There was a little bullring that we climbed up into. The first thing we saw a flamenco performance with 2 women, a man and a horse. It was very interesting to watch these women dance with the horse and not with the man. Then a boy that couldn’t have been older then 12 came out into the ring dressed as a matador. It was so cute because then this tiny baby bull ran out and the kid tried to fight him. His friends were all standing around the perimeter of the ring laughing at him. One was a dead ringer for Owen…his Spanish clone- I took a picture. This kid was pretty cute, this bull wanted nothing to do with him. His friends were laughing hysterically. They signaled that the event was over, but then we were invited in to the restaurant. We were all perplexed because we really were in the middle of no where and couldn’t figure out where a restaurant could be. We walked for about five minutes and ended up in this gorgeous restaurant. It was all lit by candles and they had sangria and different types of tapas including Spain’s famous Jamon. A man and women walked on the small stage at the front of the restaurant and began singing and playing the guitar. All of a sudden 3 female flamenco dancers and 1 male dancer came out and began to dance again. This was a much more intimate setting and It was very interesting. We all sat and watched for a while. It was then I noticed that my favorite movado ring that I got from mom & dad for my 16th birthday had broken! The hoop that held the dangling gold heart had split and the heart was gone. I was wicked bummed but tried to to let it ruin my night. We then got the opportunity to try flamenco dancing ourselves, which was fun!

We headed back to the boat around 11 and everyone was itching to go out when we got there. I didn’t know if I wanted to go out really crazy because I had a 9am trip in the morning. I am having a hard time finding a balance between the partying and the cultural parts of the trip. As my friend drew put it “there are kids who just want to get wasted in every country t o say they got wasted in 11 countries then there are kids like us that party more than enough at school and want to have a good time while getting everything out of every experience”. Being hungover for a day would take away the already little time I have in each country. That being said, we all know I love to go out, so it is a rough street to traverse. I am trying to find people with the same mindset as me and I am getting better at it. Its not like I wanna travel the world nerds either.

Anyways, so when we got back to the boat there were a ton of kids standing outside and I found my friend Andy. Apparently all the hot clubs were in New Cadiz so 8 of us hopped a cab over there. We got there around 1130 and everyone was hungry. In Spain they eat so late so everything was still open. We found this little place that served tapas and was completely empty so we went in. The owner was such a great guy. We befriended him sat and talked to him for forever. He had a beer with us and let me try his favorite white wine , which was delicious and apple based. Very different, but yummy! Wine is Spain is almost cheaper than water! In the supermarket is was 3euro a bottle! I was happy! It was really a cool authentic experience. He made us all his specialties and even showed us how to debone & take out the spine of these tiny fried fish. By this point it was 1 am and we headed to the club everyone was at. We got there and there was an 7 euro cover and it was already 1:15, so most of us said screw it and went back to the boat. It was a great night though even though we didn’t go out.

Our second day I had a trip called the White Town Route, I really had no idea what to expect and it was really awesome. The first town we went to was called Arcos and was about a half hour from Cadiz. It was built into a hill and every building was pure white. It was gorgeous. Here we walked around for a long while and saw some churches. Our tour guide then brought us to the “Oh My God Balcony”. That is the name of this lookout point. It was gorgeous. Rolling hills and farmland was below and you could see for miles it really was amazing. Then we went to a town called Ronda. When we got there we had lunch at this nice restaurant. We had chickpea soup, a type of pork (w, fries) and delicious flan. Dad would have loved it. Then we began to wander around the town, which was packed. Our tour guide explained that Ronda has the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain and was home to Pedro Romero who killed more than 5,600 bulls in his lifetime. Well, the day we were there was a national holiday celebrating the bullfighters and the rarely used bullring was holding a fight later on in the day. Unfortunately, we were unable to attend the fight, but the city was buzzing with excitement. Ronda is also built into the mountains and there is a river that runs through the center, which over time had carved the 100+ meter El Tajo canyon. There is a bridge that goes over & down the canyon to connect the city. When I say bridge I really mean architectural masterpiece. This bridge was built in the 1400’s and is massive. It goes all the way down the canyon and stands 390 ft tall. We visited what used to be someone’s summer home and is now donated to a fund that allows retired teachers to use it. This mansion was beautiful with intricate tiles and a massive garden that had fabulous views of the surrounding mountains and the bridge. After visiting Ronda all day we headed back to the boat.

A group of us decided to venture out for dinner, at 10:30pm. As we were leaving we ran into my friend Drew and he said he would meet us at the restaurant. We wandered around downtown Cadiz for a while and finally found the restaurant that claimed to have “the best paella” it also had the most expensive paella, so we wandered some more and found this great outdoor restaurant with music. However, we remembered that drew was supposed to meet us at the other restaurant, so we left a post it note on the door. This is what happens when you have girls that have been preparing for this trip for months, we actually carry post it notes with us.

The dinner at the other restaurant was great. Gen and I shared steamed mussels and the BEST mini tuna tomato empanadas (even better than Valencia’s). We all ordered things and shared so I tried real gazpacho, which the served in a glass, fried peppers & potatoes. Our most eventful order of the night came when Lizzy thought she was ordering tuna. It came and was distinctly not tuna. It had a vein like texture and was very crumbly, so we assumed it was brain and all tried it anyways…it wasn’t very good. A few days later we found free wifi and googled it….it was not brain or tuna, but was fish ovaries. Not very good for future reference.

We got back to the ship and found Drew. Apparently he actually got our post it note! We were so excited, but our directions were sort of shitty so he didn’t find us. We were just excited for our victory with the post it. We headed to bed around 1:30 so we would be ready to get up for our adventure to Gibraltar the next morning!
Sorry these have been so long. Email me if you prefer an abridged version, I just want to make sure I get everything out before I forget!! Miss you all.
xoxo

Bridge Tour

There are so many interesting things about this boat and the people I have met especially the crewmembers. I took a tour up to the bridge and it was so cool. They still have a look out that is constantly scanning the horizon in case he sees anything. They still have paper maps, which are used mostly, but they also have a gps obviously. The captain has a pretty sweet job. He works 1 semester on 1 semester off. So he sailed the spring voyage, had the summer off, sails the fall voyage, has the spring off etc. And he is allowed to bring his wife. The captain, even on a program like this, has ultimate say in any matter. He able to deny entrance anyone to the boat for any reason and still gets treated like the king with special captain´s dinners and other things. He can also leave the port any time after the on ship time has passed so it is so important not to be late even if scheduled sailing time isn´t until later.
H1N1 is also a huge topic. If anyone contracts H1N1 odds are we are going to have to come home. Since there are so few kids on this voyage they entire 2nd deck is empty. They are keeping it empty so it can be used as a quarantine area should an outbreak happen. It is very scary stuff and they actually have people standing throughout the ship forcing us to use Purell.
The MV Explorer is one of the fastest cruise ships in the world. Its maximum speed that can be reach is 33 knots. There is 1.51 mph to every 1 Knot, so the fastest it can go is about 45 mph. This did not seem very fast to me apparently when the government assessed this ship they said that anything that can go above 16 Knots will be able to escape pirates so that is good. On our voyage we have been averaging about 15 knots both to conserve fuel and so we can get all our classes in.
The boat has 4 engines, but at any given time there is only 1 running to conserve fuel. They do switch which one is running which explains the unsettling vibrating feeling that is sometimes felt in the dining room. She can hold up to about 1,000 tons of fuel; 1 ton of fuel costs $400 and the boat uses approximately 176 tons of fuel per day, so you do the math. It is a lot of money! The captain said it generally the single largest item in their yearly budget.
When we went on our tour it was the rockiest day we had experienced yet. Many items in the campus store were flying everywhere and several clothing racks even fell. The captain said on this day we were rocking at about a 5 degree angle. Even at this slight incline people were stumbling and stuff was everywhere. Apparently, during the bad storm of 2005 the boat was rocking at a mere 47 degree angle. He said at this angle there is no danger of capsizing, but it basically felt like the boat was on her side. At 67 degrees the decks start hitting the water. I couldn´t even imagine what it would be like if 5 degrees was that disruptive. Hopefully, I will never have to know!
Claudia is an employee on the staff that is training in the bookstore where I work. She just graduated from university in Holland. She decided to work on Semester at Sea for fun with her best friend. She signed a 4-month contract so she is done when we are. There are 233 men in the crew and just 15 women. They have their own crew quarters complete with gym. She was explaining to me how archaic their dining system is. Everyone is required to wear their uniform to eat and are segregated (for lack of a better word) into different dining rooms based on their position. For example, Claudia has one stripe on the shoulder adornment of her uniform and can only eat in the dining room for staff with one stripe. They all get the same food in each dining hall, but for some reason they are all separated. It is interesting how these customs continue from what must have been 100 years of seafaring traditions.
I also learned that the MV Explorer can never leave from an American port. I couldn´t figure out why, but I learned why today. Apparently, if a ship leaves an American port it needs to have enough money to insure every passenger if anything were to happen. Since Semester at Sea is a non-profit program they could not afford to cover all of us. So they have to leave from non-American ports. It is almost like a loophole.
In the last 8 days I have seen 2 ships, 3 birds and a ladybug. I am pretty ready for land!xoxo

It’s not a Boat it’s a Ship; It’s not a Cruise it’s a Voyage….

So I am finally on my worldwide journey and it has already been a whirlwind and its only day 6! I left Wiltonia on Wednesday after making a scene in the airport as usual. We knew my bags were grossly overweight, but we were hoping to only get charged for one. This was before we met Edouard. Our lifesaver of the day. He turned a blind eye and let use re arrange stuff so one bag weighed 58 lbs and one weighed 56 lbs and he didn’t charge us at all! I was also almost late for my flight and didn’t get on I had to turn on the tears. Finally, I got everything through and got on the flight. Mom, dad and Tim stood at the security gate crying and watching me go (very depressing). Got to Halifax pretty easy. My cab driver was very nice and told me all about how he has invested in a pig farm in Cuba.

It was really hard leaving my hotel room Thursday to get to the port. I had to say goodbye to facebook and the internet…very sad. Also this was it the last hurdle before I got to the big boat. My cab driver was slightly incompetent and dropped me off very far away from the entrance to the port. I did a great drag and pull rally down the sidewalk with my 4 bags and even fell on my ass in front of everyone…great first impression. Finally 2 people offered to help and I got all my bags inside and started check in. I met s nice girl in line and was finally on my way up to the boat! They took all my big luggage so I thankfully only had to haul my backpack up the 4 flights of rickety steps to get to deck 5. I had time to spare before my first meeting and went to room. As I got there my cabin steward, Shane, was delivering my bags to my room. Then Aleks and I explored the boat and had a short meeting about Work Study. I met my supervisor and fellow campus store workers and we all had lunch together. We then folded about 20 boxes of 100th voyage shirts.

After we were done folding I unpacked my room, and had my only break down. I was going to go into the town of Halifax with some girls, but we ended up missing each other and I had nothing to do. There were only 80 kids on the boat that first day and I walked around trying to find people, but no one was around. We were allowed to leave the boat and lots of kids parent’s were still there so it was very empty. Thankfully, I still had a phone and talked to Olivia, which made me feel a lot better. Especially after she gave me the pep talk “You can hang out with losers and freaks at first they won’t be your real friends just people to get by with for a little while.” So I took her advice and went to dinner alone…which was super hard for me. I met some kids and ended up walking around Halifax with 2 random kids. Halifax was wicked cute. They had lots of little shops and hippy stores and cafes, obviously I loved it. I ended up liking the guy I went with, but the girl would def. have been on Liv’s list of freaks, but it got me by for the evening. I went back to the ship and ran into some kids that were going to a club where all the kids in town were headed. I went out with them, but a group of 8 of us broke off and went to this great martini bar. It was fun and much better to get to know 8 kids better than to head to a crazy club where you can’t really meet anyone.

The next day I had to work and help everyone board which was boring but I got to see Elan, Nicky & Drew so it was good to see familiar faces. I went down to meet my roommate and was hit with a huge surprise. She was on SAS with her boyfriend of 5 ½ years. I was stunned, with all my worrying about a roommate this was nothing that I could have even IMAGINED as a problem. Totally not what I wanted to be dealing with for 4 months especially after paying all this money.

I left the boat for the last time to walk around the boardwalk section with Kareem, Kelsey, Katie & Dan who are all work study kids. We kissed the ground and bade it a fine farewell as we boarded the boat for the next 8 days.

Fun Fact: Halifax is only 70 miles from where the Titanic sank…I found this out as we were leaving.

The boat left with a little fanfare we had bagpipe players and all the parents there waving as we left. It was very strange seeing land for the last time for a week. The boat rocked way more than I thought it would. Before I left everyone was adamant that I wouldn’t feel it unless it was bad- well they all lied to me. The first night we had a little welcome meeting and my head was spinning. I did learn that there are 520 students from all 50 states and something like 438 different schools. Including the staff, faculty and crew we are sailing with about 925 people. The union where all the big events are held is at the front of the boat so it is the worst for movement. I took a seasickness pill and went to bed.

Saturday was orientation so it was just meetings all day…very boring-very painful, but the medicine helped and I wore the dorky bands and those helped too. After orientation I headed up to the gym to try out the elliptical machine. Man, that is hard to do on a rocking boat, but I figure I am burning more calories since I’m holding on for dear life the entire time. Unfortunately, the gym is so small you have to sign up for times, but I haven’t had a big problem with that yet. My friend Katie was on the treadmill and whenever a big wave crashed into the boat she would brace herself with the wall and we would all just look around at each other thinking about how ridiculous this was.

There was also an activity fair or event symposium as they called it on Saturday. I signed up to be adopted by a Lifelong Learner, and signed up to work on the voyager book & a lot of aerobics classes and I was already signed up for the vicarious voyage program.

The other days have passed by pretty quickly I was taking Global Studies, Anthropology of Food & Culture, World Cinema and Comparative History of Women, but I dropped Comp. History because the teacher was so scattered and unclear I didn’t want to be struggling here. I switched into the History of Jazz for Graham so I can talk to him about it when I get home. All of them are super interesting except for Global Studies, which is the course the entire boat has to take. It is just dull and focuses exclusively on Globalization, which is a lot of repetition from AP Environmental Science & Poli. Sci. I already have a presentation due Thursday.

Sorry this is so long a lot has happened these first few days! I have been thinking loads about Tim (duh) and his first day at work yesterday! I am so proud of you and sad I couldn’t be there to see you. I am also So proud of Liv for getting a job! I knew you could do it…it just took you some time! And my Phi Mu’s I am sure you are kicking so much ass at recruitment and I wish I could be there to see it, but I trust you all. Just remember the #’s don’t matter that’s not how we got to where we are! Ok off to bed we have lost an hour the past 3 nights so I am exhausted! Spain Friday!
xoxo