reflection

So… here I am.  Exams are over, grades are in, ambassador’s ball is over, packing is done…it’s so depressing.  The ambassador’s ball was so much fun.  We had a great, great dinner and then awesome desserts.  Then there was dancing up on the 7th deck and everyone was a hot sweaty mess but it was awesome.
        And now it’s over.  Where did the last 4 months go?  I left home January 16th, left America on the 17th and now returning tomorrow, on May 5th.  These past 4 months I can’t even begin to explain.  I can’t even think of how to put 4 amazing months into words.  How am I going to explain to people the massiveness of the Great Wall, the man with no face in Vietnam (ok, ok… he HAD face…theoretically, but it was all burned away), the slums of India, the beautiful beaches in Mauritius, the townships in South Africa and the beauty of Table Mountain, the slave dungeons in Ghana and Christ the Redeemer in Rio?  I can but it’s not going to mean anything to the people hearing it.  To them it’s just me telling stories and them seeing pictures… but they won’t feel it…and that’s what makes the stories so much better. 
        I never dreamed in a thousands years that I would travel the world and go to the places that I have been.  I’ve always WANTED to travel the world but I never thought I could actually do it.  And yet here I am.  Check that off my bucket list.  I slept on the Great Wall… THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA… I slept on it!..in FEBRUARY.  Oh it was amazing.  This whole trip has been amazing.  I honestly can’t put it into words.  I really can’t.  I saw Christ the Redeemer in Rio and he was covered my scaffolding… no one else has seen him covered in scaffolding so I feel pretty special.  I pushed myself and did things i wouldn’t do… such as abseiling down a cliff into water in South Africa.  -
        Tomorrow I get back to America.  I will be an “Academic Adventure-er” as Don would say.  I have grown so much on this trip.  I have seen things that you would only read about in textbooks, I talked with people I never thought I would talk to, I bargained with the best, ate food that I would NEVER dream of eating, and lived, breathed and learned in every country.  I’m gonna get home and be home for 5 days and have an itch to get back to the MV.  I’m gonna miss all my friends I made here, the shipboard life in general… I mean come on.. this past semester was so legit… laying out and going to class every day and broken up every once in a while with 5 days in a country to do whatever I want.  I couldn’t ask for a better study abroad program.  The things I have learned on this trip and the people I have met are incredible.  I learned so much not just about the world and the countries I visited but about myself.  I left home, thinking I knew who I was.  I came on this trip and realized there is so much more that I want to do with my life.  I want to see so many more countries, meet so many more people, and experience so many more cultures.  This trip made me “flexible”.  Who plans anymore?  Planning is for  people who not interested in the now.  The best days I had were the days that my plans were thrown out the window and I just went where the wind blew me.  The days where you just hop into a rickshaw in India and see where the driver takes you… the days where you just walk the streets and take everything in.  Those were the days I learned the most… when I just went with whatever I felt like and didn’t have a set place to go and see.  The people I have met along the way have been truly amazing.  They are people I will never forget…this trip is something I will never forget.  The MV has been my home for 4 months…and now I’m leaving it.  So depressing!
        I just want to thank my mom and dad.  Honestly, without them I wouldn’t be here.  I know so many times my dad probably wanted to kill me with all the emails I sent because I froze my account for not knowing my pin number (stupid Chinese ATM’s have their numbers all backwards).  But if it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have had this great opportunity.  So ma and dad… thank you for everything.  When I get rich… you guys WILL be life long learners.  I wish you guys where there with me the whole way so that I don’t have to repeat all my stories and so that ma didn’t have to worry about me non-stop for the last 4 months.  So…Thank you mom and dad for giving me the world…you guys really are the best parents EVERRRRRRRRRRR.
        And for everyone else… thanks for reading!  I hope it was somewhat entertaining for you.  When I was sitting in the dining hall today, Clive came up to me and told me that I’m gonna go home and everyone is going to be excited and want to hear my stories but after a week they will be bored.  He said that no one is going to understand what I saw and what I did and it won’t hold as much significance to them as it does to me.  And it’s so true.  I mean come on… I wouldn’t want to hear about someone who just spent a semester traveling the world if I was stuck at home.  Talk about BORING.  But thank you.  Thank you for reading and taking an interest.  This trip has been a trip of a lifetime… I know I said that multiple times but it really has.  And I suggest EVERYONE goes on Semester at Sea or becomes a Life Long Learner… something me and my friends here are already planning of doing together.  Hahah.  I’m not even gone yet and we are planning when to see each other! 
        It’s a bittersweet moment.  It really is.  But every story has to come to an end and it’s time to go home.  It has been a hell of a ride and experience and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 
        SEE YA IN AMERICA!!

The Rest of Brazil!

Our second day in Rio, I went on a walk with Katie and Neha on the beach.  We walked from Copacabana to Impanema.  Rio beaches are definitely something everyone should experience.  People are all in speedos and tiny baithing suits, they are all playing volleyball or paddle ball or soccer and they are all just having a great time.  When we got to Impanema beach, we climbed up on rocks that looked over the whole beach and just took some pictures and took it all in.  We then walked back to the hotel and it was close to 2 by then and I just laid out by the pool waiting for Tess to come back to go back to the beach but by the time she came back, it had gotten cloudy and too windy so we just hung around the pool before going in and getting ready for the night.
         We ended up meeting up with Stephanie and Amy and the SAS trip that night at some carnival thing for a saint.  It was an odd place.  It was literally just this huge fair full of shopping stands, food stands and restaurants.  I got a meat kabob. Haha.  It was so good!!  We then went to a restaurant to get dinner.  After dinner we got dropped off at Lapa and we were trying to find this bar that Jaime said to meet at.  And we found it and then we met up with these other guys (who ended up being from Pennsylvania and went to Bloomsburg) and we hung out with them and walked ALL OVER Lapa before stumbling upon a free regae concert!  How clutch!!  So we hung out at the concert and then went out.
The next day we had our flight back to Salvador.  It was raining in Rio so we didn’t do anything.  We got back to Salvador pretty late (like 7) and i wasn't feeling good and was exhausted.
Our last day in Salvador I spent shopping.  There was a huge market right near our boat in the lower city so I went there and shopped for awhile.  We also went up to the upper city for a little and walked around.  After we were doing shopping, we just decided to get some beeers and spend the whole 10 real we have left and get drunk.  We went back to the ship around 3:30ish and laid out by the pool and get a table because that night we were having a BBQ.  It ended up RAINING then and we ate inside because it started down pouring.  Like I said… now I know what Brazil has been having such bad mudslides.  I went out at 8 with Steph and Tess to watch us pull out of our LAST port.
        Honestly… where as the last 4 months gone?  It has been INSANE!!  I just don’t get how fast time went and how I have been to 8 different countries.  It’s crazy.
Well I’ll write more later.  I have to PACK!  GROSS!!!!

Rio day 1

The first morning in rio we woke up around 8 and I went down to breakfast with Katie.  After breakfast, we decided to go to Corcovado… or Christ the Redeemer.  Before our trip to Rio, we were hearing rumors about Christo being closed because he was struck by lightning back in February and then was graffitied on a couple days before we arrived.  Who graffities Jesus?!  That’s so bizarre.  So anyway… we took the bus to the base of Jesus where we were hounded by a tour group to bring us up to Christo for 50 reals. me, Megan and Katie all just paid 45 reals for transportation up, to stay up there as long as we want, our ticket, and a ride down.  We ended up meeting this French guy in the van up to Christo and chatted with him.  We got to the top and saw that Jesus was not covered with a tarp which was said on New York Times because of the rainstorms but instead he was covered in scaffolding because he is going under a renovation after getting struck by lightning.  He also had a big picture covering his face because that is where he was graffitied.  How cute, even Jesus gets plastic surgery.  It was beautiful up there.  You could see all over Rio and all the different beaches and lagoons and then of course… we did a jumping picture.  That is like a staple SAS thing.  You must do a jumping picture in front of anything.  Hahah.  So after Christo, we went back down to the bottom and we saw MONKEYS!!  Oh I was so excited to see monkeys!  They were like chilling on the roof of the ticket place eating and drinking soda!  How precious. 
        After Christo, we walked the streets of Copacabana and found a wet market/fresh market where the Brazilians do their grocery shopping.  These markets are so cool because no one sees these things in the states.  They literally shut down 2 blocks and it’s just vendors of fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, flowers, and spices just line the street.  I have seen these markets in Hong Kong and Brazil and it was interesting to compare them.  In Hong Kong there was waaaay more fish and in Brazil there was more fruit.  After the market, we just went back to the hotel because it was close to 3:30 or 4 ish and just laid out by the pool.  At the pool we ran into a SAS alumni!  They were the LLC of the Yellow Sea and the Librarian of the Spring 2009 voyage!  How crazy is that!?  We literally just sat at the pool with them for awhile and talked about everything. 
        That night i went out with jaime and her sister Ashley who came in from Argentina to see Jaime.  We saw a samba band at a hostel and then went out in Impanema.
Well i have to go get ready because tonight is our ambassadors ball!  woohooo! 
oh and i am OFFICIALLY done with classes and finals.  I am no longer a junior.  WEIRD.

Salvador, Brazil

I know... i know... it has been awhile!  but its the last week of our voyage (CRAZY I KNOW!) and i have been mobbed with work and packing and cleaning.  so here is just a quick detail on what we did the first day in brazil...
We got to Brazil on Wednesday, April 21st and we were there until Sunday, April 25th.  We were docked in Salvador so that day me, Jaime and Tess went out for the day in Salvador.
We took the elevator up to the upper city.  Oh yea, Salvador is separated into the upper and lower city… we were docked in the lower city.  Not much down there.  So we took the elevator up to the upper city and went to the old city.  It started monsooning so we ducked into a restaurant and grabbed some lunch.  That rain was coming down so hard, now I understand why Brazil has been having all these mudslides.  When it cleared up, we went to a church, Sao Francisco and went inside it. So we went into the church and it was beautiful in there… beautiful but creepy in a way.  There were all these statues and each statue was like life-size of all the saints and of Jesus and Mary and Joseph.  But there was beautiful blue and white tile morals.  Upstairs, another creepy part, there was a statue of Jesus being crucified and there was blood pouring out of him.  And then in the basement of the church there were graves!  So it was definitely a little bizarre.  After the church, we had to go back to the ship and grab our stuff because we were going to RIO!!!!
        Our flight to Rio was about 2 hours long, and we landed around 9ish.  By the time we got to our hotel… the Windsor Excelsior in Copacabana, it was close to 10 and we were all exhausted and ended up crashing.  Lame I know.

and tomorrow i will fill you in about RIO!!