Kim's Semester at Sea

Hawaii

2007-05-09T21:11:00.000-05:00

oh man i wish i had a few days in hawaii it was absolutely beautiful! the weather wasn't even the best, it sprinkled here and there, but it was so nice. I went snorkling in the morning and then went to waikiki beach for the rest of the day and just relaxed. it was def needed because i was so exhausted! well i had my world music final today and i hope i got an A. All I need to worry about now is poetry final day after tomorrow then i'll be packing up! Monday night I'll be getting on a plane. Tuesday morning I'll be back in Boston! I'm really excited. Thanks everyone for checking my blogs and tracking my voyage. When I have time at home I'll probably make a webshots page and put up all the crazy pictures for my semester. I'll post that up here when i do it. Aloha!

China and Japan - this is a long one...

2007-04-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

China
Hong Kong was pretty sweeet. Walking around Monkok at night was like walking through Times Square, but it was like that on every corner! I loved the nightlife, especially the DJ’s, they were awesome! I decided last minute that I couldn’t miss China and I am so happy that I chose to travel instead of get back on the ship. I stayed in Hong Kong an extra day after the ship left, but then I got on a 26 hour train ride to Beijing. It wasn’t so bad! There were a lot of Semester at Sea kids on the train to hang out with and we had fun… I read a lot for global studies class, bleh. Arriving was a major culture shock. This was the first place we’d been that nearly no one spoke English. We tried communicate with taxi drivers to take us to a hostel but they couldn’t understand. We walked to a hotel next to the train station and almost booked a room when a girl I was with go a phone call from our friend who had traveled with semester at sea. We got the woman at the hotel to write down the other hotel name in Chinese and we met up and stayed with her and slept on the floor of her hotel room. I got to experience Tiananmen Square at night and it was stunning. We got out of our taxi and I was just in awe at all of the invisible images I saw. I kept saying to myself “I can’t believe I’m really here”. I can only compare it to maybe the feeling one would get if they walked around ground zero. It was quiet and peaceful, yet I still wanted to cry. Just knowing what had happened here. Wow. We returned to Tiananmen Square the next morning and it was a very different scene. Tourists everywhere wearing matching hats, tour leaders holding their flags… it was crowded. We bought tickets for a bus ride/tour (which was given in Chinese so I had no idea what they were learning) to the Great Wall. That was my favorite. It was just me and two other girls, we had so much fun. We had our photo shoot and stopped every two seconds to bask in the amazing view and beautiful, clear weather. Well, every three seconds we were stopped by different people asking to take photos with us – we were the only white people in sight. Two girls approached us and asked if we could talk for a few minutes. My initial thought was either they want to sell us post cards or something or they want to take a picture. I was wrong. They really just wanted to chat and practice their English. They were so kind. We told them what we thought of Beijing and our own country, told them what we study and they got really excited when I told them I sang and they asked if I’d sing for them. I immediately got kinda nervous but I thought what the hell… here I am on the Great Wall of China and I already feel like I’m on top of the world. So among hundreds of passersby I sang “the time is right, I’m gunna pack my bags, and take that journey down the road, ‘cause over the mountain I see the bright sun shining and I want to live inside the glow”. It felt great. We gave them our email addresses and one of them already sent me something hoping I’ll keep in touch and that we’ll be friends. It was so sweet. I pretty much just went shopping in Qingdoa. I was so exhausted and we were in the middle of nowhere it seemed. Two days later – yikes – I was already in Japan.

Japan – Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima, oh my
Made very good use of my Japan Rail pass that I bought in Vietnam. I realized something now. Until this voyage I’d never passed the border of my own country – it had always been a dream pushed aside, too expensive and out of reach and then boom it hit me – here I am in Japan, my last foreign port of this long voyage that flew by so fast and I have a new attitude. Traveling is one of the best ways to learn. I live about 15 minutes south of Boston and I’ve been nervous to take the subway to get around because I just didn’t think I could do it. Welllll there will be changes. I’m about 3 hours away from New York City, and maybe 6 or 8 hours away from Canada… the opportunity is there for me to explore and I ask myself why I haven’t taken it yet? Well it’s time. Well…. It’s almost time. My goals for the summer are similar to those of last year, make money, right? I am so broke it’s like incomprehensible and I happily keep digging myself into more and more debt and damn it’s so worth it! So basically I’ll be working all summer and if I can afford 30 bucks a month for the gym I’ll be doing that, but if not I’mm buy a cardio kick boxing tape and do it up in my tv room.
Oh yeah Japan… I had to get my Rail pass exchanged and reserve seats for all my traveling, but my issue was – I had no plan yet! So I decided to take a risk and I booked my seats and that was that. All the touristy stuff in Kobe was closing by the time I was done so I went bowling with friends and went out for a little at night. Bright and early I was off to Kyoto with some great people! We stayed in a Japanese style hotel for 50 bucks each and got dinner and all we could drink hot sake and beer. Yup even after going to college I still can’t drink beer, it’s gross. The food was awesome and we had so much fun. We saw so many shrines and temples while we were there, I even heard a Buddhist monk chanting in a room off of the main room. Tried sushi for the first time… not a fan but hey I tried. I bought chop sticks so mom we’re having a Japanese hot pot night when I get home ☺ hehe. It was getting late and I had to catch a train so I said by to the group, got in a taxi and headed for the train station. I thought I was going to be late, my heart was pounding. I made it though. I was on a the Shinkansen (bullet train) bound for Tokyo with no plan for a hotel, I had no idea if the girls I was going to meet were even in Tokyo yet because they hadn’t emailed me yet. So yeah I knew I had an adventure ahead of me. My friend Senkei who I hung out with in Kyoto wrote down a bunch of places to visit in Tokyo and I knew I had to check out the nightlife in Tokyo so when I arrived at the Tokyo station I struggled for a few minutes to find the subway, but then I headed to Roppongi. I walked around outside and found a coffee shop where a boy spoke English. He told me where the nearest internet café was and I went to check my email again… then it felt like 7 tons had lifted off my shoulders, I finally got an email from the girls and they were actually staying on the street I was already on. I started walking there and as I waited at an intersection to cross I hear “Kimmy??” what were the odds one of the girls found me and we ate. We went out to the clubs at around 12:30 and by the time we left, it was daylight. I had so much fun! We went to the Tokyo Tower (that was SWEET!) and then took the subway to Asakusa to see a beautiful temple swarmed with tourists. I was so exhausted so I took a cat nap before I left the girls and hopped back on the subway to Tokyo station to head back to Kobe. I woke up early to catch my next train to Hiroshima. It was my first trip that I really did alone. Didn’t meet anyone or anything. I just really felt like as an American it was very important to see it and I’m glad that I did. It was a clear cool day and I was amazed to see the last standing building amongst the completely rebuilt city. I was a little rushed because I had to take a street car back to the train station in time to make my train. But I got to see the cenotaph for A-bomb victims, the flame of peace, the children’s peace monument, the peace fountain, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. When I get to Hawaii I intend on visiting the Arizona monument as well. I guess I should do something to make me feel bad for my own country because we’re not on good terms right now. So there was something about Japan – it was clean, peaceful, everyone was so kind, their crime rate is like nothing! I wonder if it has to do with the fact that they have pretty much no military anymore…. Gee that sounds like a pretty good system. Who knew the most developed country in the world didn’t have a military? (get over yourself America, you don’t have it all together anymore, give it up)

I’ll be back in the United States in 7 days… another week later I’ll be on the mainland and homeward bound. I can’t wait. I miss it a lot. I want my mommy! I miss Erin and Matt and all my friends and David! But I can’t wait for Katie’s wedding to see the whole family again! I love you all, see you soon!

After Vietnam

2007-04-16T07:40:00.000-05:00

I have to stop writing a diary. Each step I take throughout a given day is not important. Yesterday I felt like they were, but I changed my mind this morning. I want to say that this past week has changed my mind about a lot of things. I used to think I was smart because I graduated high school with high honors and I’m pretty good at comprehending what my teachers tell me. But do they even know what they’ve told me? I subject myself to a system of “this is what it is” followed by exams so that one day my degrees will get me a job, but I will say this diploma represents what I have memorized - what my teachers know – and it’s time to learn the truths of facts. It’s time to get down to business. I’m talking solely about history. I’ve always hated history classes starting from the day I had the pledge of allegiance memorized. Ok I’m 19 years old, I just looked up the definition of the word allegiance, (because no one ever told me)it’s kind of frightening: loyalty or commitment of a subordinate to a superior… “I pwedge aweegents to the flag of the United Sates of America (pause) and to the republic, for which Richard stands, one nation, underdog, indervisable, with libery and justice for all.” So perhaps when I was four years old I didn’t have the pledge exactly down pact, but “that was what it was”. Don’t we all just love children? We can’t wait to make them our parrots, we even want our kids to be just like us. Yeah, they’re a fresh clean slate so we’ll teach them of this wonderful thing called democracy where we choose how we live and we have a voice and we can trust our government because we elected those endearing officials who care so much about the individuals. I used to say I hate history. Let me correct myself – I hate when someone teaches me history and then grades me on what I’ve absorbed. Who has the authority over me to determine what I should accept as truth? That the answer to number 28 is in fact C, so if I don’t circle that letter I will fail? Maybe I’m not as mad about what they’ve taught me as I am about what they haven’t taught me. Before I went to South Africa if you mentioned the word ‘apartheid’ I might have guessed that you were talking about a new brand of sneaker, or maybe it’s the name of some suburban town. Why didn’t I know about it? How about – “Kim, what do you know about the Vietnam war?” Hmmmm I gotta think about this. Oh I know that a lot of people in the United States opposed it. Probably because of the draft, and no one wanted to go fight. Not exactly sure what the war was about. I know we eventually put up a monument to our soldiers in hopes that the people of the US would support the soldiers, even if they didn’t support the cause. Where was it that all the students went to protest? Tienanmen square? Hahaha goes to show how much I learned about Beijing. So I’ve developed a new slogan – GO LEARN SOMETHING. Then relearn it until you understand it, don’t memorize and don’t believe it. Anyway so I wasn’t going to travel in China because I’m out of money, but I think I’ve changed my mind. I can’t let this opportunity go so I’m going to borrow money everyway I can and sleep on the great wall or on a park bench if I have to so I can make it to Tienanmen Square and feel it. I’m gunna go learn something from the people, maybe read some books, but if it’s in writing it might not be trustworthy. I’m not done figuring me out, but I’m just beginning to understand at least which way I need to start turning in order to head the right direction. “Travel makes you wiser, but less happy” – Thomas Jefferson

Malaysia

2007-04-06T18:00:00.000-05:00

Easily one of my favorite ports so far. I loved every port for many different reasons. In terms of places I’d go back to or even live, South Africa wins and Malaysia follows it. I flew to Kuala Lumpur where I spent most of my time, I’m so glad I did. It sounded cool at first but it was a huge hassle to get off the boat and back on. We didn’t have a dock so we had to take life boats to and from the port and the ship. It took forever and it was an incubator inside those things. On day 1 I pretty much just walked around Penang, got some great lunch, bought calling cards and used the internet. At night I went to a shadow puppet performance, which was really cool! We learned about the tradition of Wang Kulit (that’s what it’s called). The puppets are made out of goat or cow skin, and even though you only see their shadow, they are very intricately painted. The art work is really cool. I was very interested in the music. In Malaysian music you hear many different gongs, drums, and the lead instrument is the Seranai,which is similar to a clarinet or an Indian Nagaswaram. I won’t give you a lesson on Wang Kulit here, but if you want to learn more, just ask ☺. My flight was at 8am so I had to get up really early to get there on time. I had the best blueberry muffin of my life at the airport cuz it’s been so long… anyway my first day in Kuala Lumpur was so cool. I met up with my group at this hotel (The Royale Bintang) and we had a few ideas of what we wanted to go check out. After talking to one taxi driver he told us he’ll take us on a tour for 4 hours for 200 ringgits (between 9 of us it costed like under 7 bucks for the whole time). We went to a huge Chinese temple that was really colorful and had awesome architecture. There was a tourtise pond there; there were a million turtles it was cool. We went to the King’s palace (well the gate at least). It was kinda like Buckingham with soldiers who don’t move and some sat on glides dale horses (I don’t think I’m spelling that right but whatever). We went to the Batu caves and climbed 271 really steep steps and then some when we got inside ( I slipped and fell inside because it was wet, my butt’s blue… not fun) there were shrines inside and monkeys everywhere. They were kinda scary, they chased us. There were roosters and doves inside too… kinda random. Went up the KL tower, 5th tallest tower in the world I’m pretty sure. Cool view of the city and their twin towers. I got some sweet pics of those towers from the bottom too. We ate thai food that night, not a big fan, then checked out the night life. The night life was awesome. Turns out I stayed in the hotel that the club was at the next night. Everyone left in the morning so I took a taxi (or teksi as they write it) to the Cabana Inn and spent an hour waking up my lazy friend. We just wandered and ate some crappy American Chain food – pizza hut for lunch, TGI Fridays for dinner… SOOOOOOOOO GOOOD. I miss our food. I took a teksi by myself to the airport an hour away and hopped back on a plane to Penang the next morning. Did very little shopping and just got info about class registration and stuff before getting back on the boat. It might not sound like I did too much to get that “cultural experience” but after India I don’t know how NOT to enjoy every day. I’m so thankful for life and it’s just so humbling to be able to talk to people around the world and just share our views and get along. I’m happy ☺

Mauritius and India

2007-03-31T19:12:00.000-05:00

Mauritius
The highlight of my time in Mauritius was a field trip I did through semester at sea. It was called rainbow culture and religion. We visited a tamil temple, and Chinese, pagoda, a muslim cultural center, and the mahatma ghandi insitute where we saw classical Indian dancing. The architecture was quite amazing, so I took plenty of pictures. Before and after this trip I spent most of my time relaxing in our villa. It was about 10 dollars a night and it was beautiful. It just so happens that sas kids took over the complex and it was pretty much spring break. We had a lot of fun. It went by so fast and it was like a mini vacation. The population was mostly Indian and some Chinese. We kinda stood out.
India
Ok lets go day by day… Day 1 – got off the ship and didn’t really know what to do so of course we went to the market. We took a taxi and he brought us to this store and we were like ok whatever (the taxi and rickshaw drivers get commission if they bring tourists to their friend’s stores) but he took us where we wanted to go next. It was basically a mall but it had a lot of little shops. I bought a lot of stuff in India. At night I went to the welcome reception, that was pretty sweet. They put a red dot on our forehead and a yellow dot on our throat. Not really sure what was going on but they threw water on us (maybe holy water I dunno) and gave us flowers. There was food available but I’d already eaten and they had a few vendors selling jewelry and clothes And bags. There was live music and a dancer performing on stage. There was a violin (which is played with the neck on the players ankle and the body against his chest) and a mrdangam (the drumused in classical music in southern India) and a wonderful female vocalist. I have some video footage of them playing and of the dancer. That was awesome. Day 2 – off to my homestay. I did a Rotarian homestay, so they kinda have money. It wasn’t what I expected though. I wasn’t exactly hanging out with a family. My hosts were these two sisters, one of which was always working so basically it was me and two other SAS girls and our one host sister, Rabeque(Rebecca). She’s 23 and she was so cool. She’s a DJ and she was really into house/techno music. She is the craziest driver I’ve ever been in a car with. Driving in India doesn’t even compare to new york or boston. The dotted lines on the road don’t mean anything, you make up your own lanes. Stop signs are ignored. You don’t take your hand off your horn. It was crazy. We went shopping a little and then had dinner at her big house (she was in the process of moving into an apartment). Right after, we went to the rotary club for tea and a meeting. The district rotary governor spoke to us and we took pictures shaking his hand and receiving a gift. That was an honor ☺ Day 3 – we got up soooo early to go to Mahabilapurram (formerly mammalapurram) to see the temples and mosques. It was SAS style which means we went shopping most of the time and spent like 10 minutes at each temple. I was disappointed, we didn’t even go inside the temples, but I took tons of pictures. At night we went to a Bali-wood film. We saw Namaste London. It was really interesting how the people were so into it. When the hero shows up everyone screams and they cheer a lot and clap. There was an intermission, which was different. I saw ads for new films that are coming to theatres soon and I’m so excited because I didn’t know that pirates of the Caribbean is coming out when I get home. Anywayyy…. Day 4 – we got a little more sleep but I went to the beauty parlor in the morning and got my hair done. I dyed it darker again and got highlights. It looks like how I had it in high school. I like telling people I spent almost 10, 000 rupees. The currency exchange rate was good, things were very cheap. We ran a few errands and stopped for the best smoothies in the world (haha I can say that;). We were allowed to bring our homestay sister on the ship and we ate there then got ready for a night on the town. We went to a club that was playing intense, heavy techno music. It was a lot of fun. We were soooo exhausted by the end of this. I slept on the ship that night and then the next day (Day 5) we slept in and then met Rabeque at the market. Getting there is another story. Youknow how I told you the rickshaw drivers get commission if they take us to certain places? Well we tried to make it clear that we wont get into his rickshaw until he agrees to take us only to the place we want to go and we’d pay him a certain price. He agreed so we got in. Well a minute later he turns around to us and says I want to take you to a few shops, and we said no. A minute later he asks what time it is and we say 1:15, so he says oh the market doesn’t open until 2 anyway so we’ll just go to shops until it opens… haha no the market opens at like 10 am so we refused. Then he begs us just to look and we don’t even have to buy anything, we’re getting really annoying so we raise our voice and say No take us here and that it, you agreed. Then he pulls over and tells us he can’t do that and to get out.. I was a little freaked out, we were on the side of the highway. We argued for a while and he waved over another rickshaw driver and told us to get out and go with him. This guys took us where we needed to go, but I was kinda nervous. We hung out at the market in Rabeque’s friend’s shops. Her friends were really cool, we exchanged emails so hopefully we’ll be in touch. We pretty much just ran around town looking for stuff we needed and just chilled. Back to the ship to make phone calls before departure.
India had a big impact on me and I don’t really know how to explain it. The poverty is heart breaking. It’s everywhere. You just try not to look at the children as they’re tugging on your hand begging for food or money. We saw many huts weaved out of straw. Toddlers wearing nothing but panty hose. It’s so hard not to help, but we couldn’t because we’d probably get bombarded by so many beggars. I can’t really describe it, homeless people in the US look like kings and queens compared to what we saw in India. Maybe I’ll make tons of money one day and return to India and help as much as I can. I don’t know if they have soup kitchens but something like that would be a big help.
Well I’ll be in Malaysia in a few days. I land in Penang, but I’m flying to Kuala Lumpur. Should be amazing.

Mauritius

2007-03-19T15:28:00.001-05:00

Ok so by the way the whole free wifi thing didn't quite happen. I'm on my way to india now and don't have many internet minutes left so i'll probably talk a little bit about mauritius in my India blog, 'cause I gotta go! the internet is very slow and takes up valuable minutes. i'l be in touch asap~!!!!~!!!!

2007-03-19T15:28:00.000-05:00

South Africa

2007-03-19T15:25:00.000-05:00

wow i think i could live here. i had an amazing time in cape town. i did so much i'll try my best to recap. day one was a waste of 106 dollars because the township music field practica i went on was a flop. pretty upset but i'm over it (I’ll get a refund somehow) . my friend ben got us a tour guide for a few days so we did some pretty cool things. our first day with him we got a tour of the city and visited the district 6 museum. district 6 was once occupied by a large population (all black), but during apartheid they were forced to move into townships on the outskirts of cape town. it was very upsetting to see the photo of how many buildings and just all the activity that was in the area and then drive by what it is now, a big patch of dirt and grass. the apartheid is now over, but after having a good conversation with a local girl, I learned that they still struggle with racism. The girl I talked to was “colored” which means she’s a mixed race. We were at a club and she told me that the bar tenders were ignoring her and her sister and they’d only serve the white people. She was in a better mood when I expressed my opinion, she was almost astonished because I guess she’s never met a white girl like me who believes that we’re just people, we’re not our skin color or the texture of our hair. I learned a lot from just talking to people in the city. When we drove through the township we got a response that I wasn’t expecting. Everyone on the sidewalks would cheer and wave and give us thumbs up to greet us. Having tourism through townships is helping them out a lot. On our second day with our tour guide we went to cape point, the southern most tip of the continent of Africa. The views were sweet. There were huge waves. We saw a lot of animals that day like ostrich (which I ate for lunch- sooo good), baboons, springbok (which I ate the next day, that was my favorite), zebra, cheetah (in a reserve kinda, for tourists to come pet them). I saw warthogs and the list goes on… so I didn’t go on a safari, but I think I did pretty well. I’d have to say my favorite animals that I saw were the penguins. They were so cute and funny. I took a video of some of them walking around…. It amused me. It was nice to have a day off after that. Did some shopping, wrote all my postcards, went to an internet café and made a few phone calls. Caught up on some sleep too. I was planning on going to Table Mountain, but the wind was too strong so the cable car was out of service. I never did go up Table Mountain ☹ I went out to dinner at a place called Mama Africa for someone’s birthday. I had sparkling red wine (didn’t even know that exsisted) and a wild game platter consisting of crocodile, ostrich, kudu, and springbok. Didn’t really care much for the crocodile but I loved all the other ones, they make steak look bad. The morning after I went with my friends and our tour guide to Stellenbosch winelands where we got a tour of their factory and we were shown the process of wine making followed by a wine tasting. I sent a case of wine home (mom and matt- it better be there when I get home) they were like 11-16 dollars a bottle and the minimum per case was 12 so I kinda splurged. South African wine is amazing so it will be worth it. I think I slept the rest of the day because I stayed out pretty late the night before. Ok so heres the part that will shock some people. I know I wrote in my post card to you mom that I did not go sky diving… well I wrote those post cards before I jumped out of the plane. So yeah I went sky diving in South Africa, who else can say that? It was the best thing I think I’ve ever done in my life. If I ever get the opportunity to jump again I’d do it and I wouldn’t even be scared. The feeling was just incredible. For 30 seconds I was falling at 120 miles per hour and after the parachute is pulled it’s smooth sailing for another 3 minutes. I had an instructor attached to my back and he pulled the parachute. I could see Robben Island and Table Mountain from the best seat in the house. Just amazing. I went out for one more fantastic dinner and night of dancing then slept in. Around 11:30 am my roommate and I went to Green Market Square to shop at the market. I got a really cool canvas painting of silhouettes dancing and playing instruments. I bought a wooden mask and a small ebony statue of abstract people kissing… and of course a few things for people back home. It was so hard to leave Cape Town… my description might now sound all that amazing, but the city really affected me. Scientists are trying to prove that all of our DNA traces back to Africa as our place of origin. Maybe I was home for the first time and I felt so attached to it. Everyone felt it. I was almost depressed when we got on the boat. I am getting pretty bored on this ship, my classes are pretty demanding so I feel like I’m cramming in so much in between ports. I only have 44 class days (only 22 class meetings per class) so I guess it is pretty accelerated. I’m used to having the weekends to catch up on work for all my classes, but here I don’t have classes, and there’s no way I’m going to spend my time in port doing homework on the ship. So now I’m on my way to Mauritius… did you know Mauritius has free wifi internet throughout the entire island? So I’ll definitely try to get in touch with people at home when I have free time. If anyone has skype let me know and I can basically call you for free (sort of like aim or msn messenger). Soo mom you should download that program www.skype.com I think. I dunno google it. Well folks thanks for checkin up on me I’ll try to blog again while I’m in Mauritius (I’ll definitely send a shout out to the Desai family!) Love you all! <3Kim

Cape Town South Africa

2007-03-08T09:57:00.000-05:00

i'll be writing asap... can't wait to tell you everything,, but it will be quite the novel. just thought i'd let you know i am still alive and well! cheers!

Salvador, Brazil

2007-02-22T16:45:00.000-05:00

The past week is now one of the highlights of my life. I’ve learned so much about the culture in Brazil, about people and peace, and about myself. There were so many moments that were so powerful that words and pictures can’t come close to explaining what I’ve experienced. Before I start telling you a little about my time in Brazil, it’s very important that I give thanks to some great people. First of all I probably wouldn’t have had those life changing moments without the help of Dick Nagel. Thank you so much for your donation to this trip. The first four out of the five days were possible because of it. Mom, (I miss you so much) you’re love and support has not only made this voyage possible, but I wouldn’t even be doing anything like this if it weren’t for you raising me with such an open mind. When our ship docked in Salvador da Bahia I could hear the drums of a group of four Afro-Brazilians welcoming us with music outside the ship. Women of Yaruba ancestry were wearing the traditional hoop skirt dresses and white African turbans and tied ribbons to our wrists. People were handing out coconuts to drink from, while just past the gate was a tour bus waiting for 23 other students and me to take us to Lencois (pronounced lensoice). We saw many favelas on the way (all the houses where the impoverished majority of the population reside). We saw many skinny cows grazing in what used to be the Atlantic Rainforest. Our first stop in Lencois was at an NGO (non-government organization), which teaches children the original culture and keeps the community strong and close. It was pouring. There was a circle of the members dancing and playing instruments as we awkwardly stood to the side and watched. It took us a while to finally break the ice and take turns dancing in the middle of their circle. Smiles are universal, we did not speak the same language. After a while we were learning songs on Portuguese and holding hands and playing games and laughing together. Our guide was Daniel, and I’ll never forget him. We were so fortunate to have him, he knew so much about the culture and nature and everything else a guide should know… but he also was on a mission to open our minds to life and love.
The next morning we at breakfast and started our adventure. In that day alone I changed. At the beginning of our hike I was trying my best to go around plants so the wouldn’t touch my legs. It took me a while to realize I can’t look at natural things as icky and gross. Their part of life too. So before too long I let the plants feel my arms and legs. I didn’t step on the rocks to avoid muddy water, I just trekked right through, ankle deep. I can’t tell you how amazing the caves were that we climbed through… but hey wait til you see my pictures, it definitely wasn’t just a dark path. We got to the point in the cave were a stream flows into a small pool with a rather swift current. When our guide Kikiu said its time to go swimming we all looked at each other like--- uhh, are you going in… I don’t think I’m going in. Well… we all went in. In our bathing suites and sneakers, too. It felt real good to cool off. In the next moment I experienced fear, love, peace, life, and epiphany. Daniel got us all in a circle in the water and we sat there while the guide extinguished the lanterns. I’d never experienced pure absence of light. In silence, we listened to, felt, and breathed earth and energy. With eyes wide open and digging my hands in the sand and water, I had a powerful moment that is very difficult to explain because I’d never felt anything like this before. I cried. My tears were the same as the earth’s. This probably sounds really strange, but again I can’t really explain what happened there. It was pretty cool when we could see the light at the end of the cave (no pun intended) and see the mountain open up. We climbed to just about the edge of the cave and at lunch on the rocks. It was amazing how high the ceiling of the cave was and that just above it people were on top of that mountain… and then I climbed up there. This is the part my mom is probably not too thrilled about. My heart dropped at the view from above the cave because I was about to jump off of it. Yeah, I was freaked out too. It was completely safe, don’t worry! Anyway so yeah a couple other students and I bungee jumped off of this cliff and saw the cave from upside down. I don’t think I’d ever screamed so loud in my life. However, unlike most people who just kind of lean forward and let themselves fall forward off the mountain, I bent my knees and 1, 2, 3, I dove off that mountain. Definitely the biggest adrenaline rush ever. It was worth the fear. It down poured as we hiked back down and went to our inn. My legs and feet felt like they were going to fall off. After an hour nap we were up and at ‘em again. We went to a small local Carnival celebration. It was really fun, but my feet were screaming at me! There were two blocks with stages like an outdoor concert and when one concert ended, the “compactatrio”, the big sound truck lead us to the next block. So we danced like tourists to samba to the next block and danced even more. It was wild.
Day three we took a one hour drive through Chapada Diamantina (the national park) where we climbed another mountain to see the Fumaco water fall. I was already in pain from the day before and this one was even harder to climb. Well I did it. I was inspired by my boyfriend, Dave, who always seems to be in much better shape than me. I am so proud of myself. The hike was a total of 12 kilometers. Very intense. The view left me awe struck. I have great pictures, but I can’t share them until I come home unfortunately. (By the way I haven’t checked my e-mail since I was in Puerto Rico and I may or may not check it in South Africa) The hike down the mountain was a completely different work out. Although I was dying and sooo sore and tired, I ran down the steep part of the mountain. It felt like dancing, bouncing back and forth between rocks. I can’t believe I climbed that mountain. I’ll definitely be taking the gondola up Table Mountain in South Africa because I heard that’s much more intense. We got to sleep a little before the people from the NGO came to our inn to visit with us one more time. They taught us even more songs and dances and we felt like we’d learned so much for them and didn’t know what to do for them… I was embarrassed at the thought at first, but we all decided to teach them the Hokey Pokey. It was hilarious and really fun! We enjoyed our homemade pizza dinner together before passing out again.
Day four started at 6am. We got up (those of us that prayed for a fourth wind to get us to hike again… some people just couldn’t take it and slept in) and went to see another waterfall and swim in the river. Well… I did go, but I chose not to swim because we were pressed for time and really only had five minutes to swim so it was more like another hike. But hey I got to see some cute monkeys! I wasn’t expecting that. They were little and they reminded me of squirrels. The 6 hour drive back to Salvador began at 11, we were on our way to CARNIVAL! It was unbelievable! It was very different from what was going on in Rio de Janeiro, but I’m glad I was at the Carnival in Salvador. We had t-shirts that were basically our ticket to be in the parade. Let me explain something first… In Rio, there are many samba schools and practice all year for their parade which goes down at the huge samba drome. Humongous, elaborate floats and unbelievable dancers compete in front of judges and leave millions of people in awe. But I wasn’t there… in Salvador there are the Trio Electricos. They are giant sound trucks that probably shake the concrete in the camarotes (camarotes and private clubs sorta where people can drink and dance and watch the parade from balconies above, it’s said to be safer). Each Trio Electrico has a large space roped off around it for everyone to dance in the street. This area is called a bloco. The bloco that I was in was called Crocodilo. On top of the trio is a band and usually a very famous singer and the professional dancers in their great costumes. They play mostly afoxe music, which is samba/popular music and the bloco I was in had more of a reggae, but still very upbeat, style added to it. The group that brought together samba and reggae is called Olodum and they are HUGE in Brazil. One of the best female vocalists in Bahia was on our trio and she sang basically the whole parade. It was incredible how star struck people were. I had the most amazing time of my life in that parade. I think I’ve done ok picking up samba. Danced until we couldn’t quite hold our bodies up with our legs anymore. At times it was a mosh pit and we were jumping up and down really fast to the tempo and sometimes we were absolutely squished with whoever was around us. But it was nothing but good times. If it started raining beer on you, you’d brush it off and just keep on dancing. If you got rammed by anyone- no worries. When we got to wider parts of the street it was really fun to dance and twirl around with whoever was around you. I did make some observations. Some things were much different from the United States as far as accepted sexuality and public displays of affection. I didn’t interview anyone or anything but it appeared to me that mal homosexuality was everywhere. Guys were making out everywhere. Guys were hitting on the guys in our group and at first it made some of the guys incredibly uncomfortable and freaked out… but it warmed my heart to see my new friend Alex holding the hand of a transgender twirling around. What I did not see was gay women. Also, the men were better dancers by far from the women. I really don’t know how possible it is to top this port. It was so incredible. I have to go back to Carnival again in my life. I love Brazil. I want to make one more point… I went into the port scared out of my mind that I’d get robbed or mugged or hurt because of everything I was told, however I felt very safe. Everyone was there to have a good time, live and love. The people were much nicer than a lot of people in the United States.
So I’m back on the ship now. I’m safe, I’m happy, and I’m loving life. I get home sick, but I know where my home is and I love you all more by the minute as I keep learning more about myself. On my way to South Africa now! I’ll write more as soon as I can. Love you all!!

-Kim

San Juan, Puerto Rico

2007-02-09T14:39:00.000-05:00

Yes! this internet cafe is helping me out. It's 3 bucks for 20 minudos. Anyway, Tonight we set sail again. I've enjoyed my stay in Puerto Rico, but i know it just doesn't compare to what we're about to get into. On the first day we walked to Old San Juan and checked out all the shops and stuff. This area seems very touristy. Everyone wanted to go out and dance and indulge in some servesas. We all went to a club, which we totally took over. It was all semester at sea kids. Day 2 we went to la playa (the beach) de Isle Verde. It was beautiful!!! The day was perfect. Not terribly hot, nice breeze, and the water is a lot warmer than the ocean i'm used to. After the beach I got ready for my first SAS trip. I went to a bioluminescent bay. We got in our kayaks when it was almost pitch dark. We headed into this narrow channel and all we could see was a blinking red light on the kayak in front of us. Our tour guide only used his flashlight occasionally to see if a turn was coming or to point out iguanas sleeping in the overhanging trees. It was like a cave for a while we couldn't see the sky. When was got closer to the bay we noticed that our oars light up when in the water. That was cool. We got to the bay and learned about the micro-organisms that live here and in only four more places in the world (all in the Caribbean). We jumped in and as we moved around, our bodies were glowing neon green. It was quite an amazing phenomenon to all of us. We were all exhausted after making the trip back to the shore. Afterwards we headed our for some salsa dancing! Once again, Semester at Sea students took over the whole block of San Sabastion Street in Old San Juan. Today so far we've been to the beach, but it's sooooo hot that I'm not feeling very well so I'm gunna grab something to eat and mail some postcards and try to stay out of el sol caliente(the hot sun). Tonight we are Brasil or bust! (i have no idea what that means)

Hasta Luego!
Kim

The MV Explorer

2007-02-09T14:29:00.000-05:00

When I left the Bahamas I spent three days at sea. Majority of the time was spent either at meetings or lying in the sun by our pool. The ship is quite luxurious. We have cabin stewards who clean our rooms everyday. We have waiters who clear our plates and bring us drinks at meals. Gym facilities, a spa (which i probably won't waste my money on however wonderful it seems), a hospital sorta. We've got it. I've had two classes so far. Global studies is everyday and I'm not really liking it because the whole ship has it at once and they can't accomodate everyone in one room so we scatter around the classrooms and watch our lecture on the television. I am interested in what we are learning because it is focused on the places we're going. Intro to world music is going to be great.... for me. A lot of students are taking the class just because they thought it'd be fun and easy. I'm the only music major. People are bummin because it's going to be a lot of work. Other than that I love my roommate and everyone on the ship is wonderful. I'm having the time of my life. I'm trying not to let the homesickness get to me but i do miss you all a lot. Speaking of sickness. Day one at sea was not fun. I felt pretty sick but i got used to it. We all had sea legs and thought that puerto rico was moving under our feet. I'll write as soon as I get a chance!

Love,
Kim

safely landed :)

2007-02-03T19:32:00.000-05:00

ok no more planes until may 14th. I'M HERE! saying goodbye to mom and dave was really hard this morning, but at least i didn't go it alone. My friend Jordi sat next to me on the plane and we're sharing a room in the Atlantis Resort. The hotel room is very nice; we have a balcony with a view of beautiful palm trees, the pool, the beach, and the lazy river. We met up with a couple girls at the hotel and we kinda adopted this boy because he had no roommate yet, so he has done very well putting up with girly talk the whole time. we checked out the beach. it was so beautiful, I've never seen such blue water! All of the native are very nice, but sort of make me nervous because they're very pushy to try to get you to take a taxi somewhere, rent jetski's, braid your hair, and all of that. we just walked on the beach for a little, and i know i sound crazy, but it was getting a little cooler and so we didn't lay out on the beach. It got pretty cloudy and it started sprinkling a little. We went around the lazy river a few times in inner-tubes. The water was heated, it was definitely wonderful. After that we were so exhausted and decided it was nap time. Just got a few winks and we're going to go find some dinner in a little bit. We plan on taking a streatch hummer (i know my life is so terrible) limo to downtown to check out the local night life (ps- it's only $4 a person... the cheapest thing i've found on paradise island so far).
Well I board the ship tomorrow at 0800 hours. I'm going early with one of my new friend's, Brenna, hopefully to skip the hug lines. I miss you all so much! If you're interested in the detailed itinerary visit www.semesteratsea.com and click on spring 2007 voyage (i think you can get there quick by clicking on Desmond Tutu's picture) and the click itinerary. If you wish to send me some snail mail please pester my mother or my boyfriend dave for the addresses of the different ports. Next post I'll tell you all about Puerto Rico!

Love,
Kim

counting down the days

2007-01-17T21:42:00.000-05:00

wooo i have a BLOG. now i'm official, huh? check me out for updates on my trip. I'm leaving in about 2 weeks. tell a friend :)