Beijing Part 1

We left Hong Kong last night at 8 pm.  But let me backtrack…
On February 18th I left for Beijing.  I went to the dining hall to meet Christina and Alison at noon because we had to catch the same flight and I met this girl Patty who was actually on our flight too!  She is really cool and we hung out the whole time we were in Beijing.
We caught a taxi around 12:45ish and our flight was at 3:50ish I think but we were nervous if it was going to take long to get through customs and everything.  We landed in Beijing probably around like 8 maybe and met our tour guide Tommy who is AWESOME.  I loved him.  We were waiting for our bus at the airport and he looks at us and goes…. “why do you stare at me like I’m crazy?  You think I’m crazy?”  it was so funny.  OH!  And while waiting for our bus this whole big rugby team came out of the airport and ended up being on the bus next to us… but I’ll get back to this later.  We got to our hotel which was literally 2 blocks from the Forbidden City which is so cool!  Christina was my roommate and we got ready and went to eat at the restaurant next door to the hotel.  We got sooooooo many dumplings and really good noodles with beef in them.  While we were at the restaurant there was a table next to us with Chinese people at it and they ended up coming over to our table and buying us beer and we all toasted to the new year and then apparently you have to chug the beer after you toast to the new year for good luck.  Also, they broke a whole bottle of beer onto the ground and that is apparently good luck too.  After dinner, we went out to this area where there were a bunch of small bars and clubs and live music and fireworks going off EVERYWHERE!  I loved it!  I love fireworks in general, and to see them in Beijing during the Chinese new year is AWESOME! 
The next morning we went up and had to pack all our stuff up because we had to check out of the hotel because we were spending the night on THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!  I know… I know… it’s insane.  BUT ANYWAY… so we had to meet in the lobby at 8:40 to start our day.  We headed out to the buses to put our bags down and then walked to the Forbidden City which like I mentioned before was only about 2 blocks from our hotel.  It’s… I don’t even know… words can’t explain it.  It is HUGE!  And beautiful and so detailed and I still can’t believe I was there.  I am still trying to process that I was in China for the last 8 days.  It still has not hit me.  I honestly can’t explain the Forbidden City besides the fact that it was huge.  While walking through the city though we kept getting stopped by the Chinese and got our pictures taken with them.  It was so funny because we took a group photo in the city and as someone was taking our picture, a swarm of Chinese people surrounded us and kept snapping our picture.  And also when we were walking through a doorway, I felt like the paparazzi were chasing us because we were trying to walk through this doorway and they kept stopping us to take our pictures and actually just snapped pictures as we walked past.  It was odd but very funny.  So we finally made it through the Forbidden City to Tiananmen Square and who was walking into the Forbidden City?  The rugby team from the airport!  Small World!!
We then walked over to Tiananmen Square, and I thought the Forbidden City was huge, but Tiananmen Square definitely was bigger.  We wandered around there and took another group photo, where again, the Chinese swarmed us, and then we left there to go to the Silk Market.  Oh my the Silk Market.  I’m used to going to Rice’s and all so I thought I would be somewhat prepared for it but not at all!  It was way to intense for me.  People would just reach out and grab you and try to pull you into their little cubicle thing.  And then when you did start bargaining with them, sometimes they got physical!  My one friend Brittany got pulled back into the cubicle store thing and then got hit by the person.  When I was bargaining I tried to walk away because I honestly did not want the thing I was bargaining for (a shoulder bag, typical I would get a bag)  and I tried to walk away and the lady grabbed my arm and did not let go and squeezed me so hard.  I ended up buying the bag, but she also threw in a wallet so I got a pretty good deal.  We were walking through the aisles and we heard one lady say to a kid… “Oh you lie!  Your nose grows like Pinnochio!”  Because the trick there is to say that you saw it at another vendor for a smaller price, or you got it for a smaller price at home and that helps you get them lower.  Christina got a North Face and when she was bargaining, she told the lady the price and the lady kept saying “IMPOSSIBLE!”  that is one of their favorite words.  They use that so much when you try to bargain them down.  She ended up getting the North Face for about 110 yuans (or whatever Chinese money is called).  I also got season 1 and 2 of True Blood for about 80 yuans and I couldn’t bargain that one down though because those were set prices and the people didn’t fight with you if you didn’t want it like the other people did.  After the Silk Market, we got on the bus and headed to the Great Wall!  And this is where I will leave you and continue tomorrow because I am exhausted and once I start talking about the Great Wall, I will talk forever and I don’t want too long of a post. Hahah. 
Oh and ps… we gain an hour tonight! Woohoooo!

Ni Hao from Shanghai!

Ni Hao!
I’m in China!  The most populated country in the world and it shows!  We got to Shanghai yesterday and I am leaving tomorrow afternoon for Beijing to see the Great Wall and what not.  We’re also here for Chinese new years which is pretty exciting. 
Yesterday, me and Jamie just wandered around The Bund which is a street on the banks of the river with a bunch of shops and what not.  It was insane!  China so far is insane actually.  There are soooooo many people!  And unlike Japan, they shove you and cut you in line.  It’s a little ridiculous, not gonna lie.  So anyway, we walked around and went into a couple shops before going to this place to eat where we ate SOOOO much food for sooooo cheap!  Altogether we got, minestrone soup, cappuccino potato soup  (soooo goooood), fried calamari, rainforest fruit pizza, buffalo wings, buffalo wing pizza, and fried cream potatoes (keep in mind these pizzas are personal sized pizzas and each other thing came with like, 4 things each).  It was great though!  After that, we shopped around a mall and then went on the Bund Sightseeing Tunnel.  We figured we would take the tunnel under the river so we could go to the Jin Mao Observatory. The tunnel was interesting.  It was like this little car you get in and you go through this tunnel and there are flashing lights and it was kinda trippy.  We got out of the tunnel and walked towards the Jin Mao tower, only to find out that there was another river that had to be crossed!  And we didn’t know how to do that!  Hahah it was so funny.  We were so confused because we thought by taking the tunnel we would be going under the river but I don’t know what happened there.  After that little fiasco, we took the tunnel again and just went back to the ship because it was about 6ish maybe, and we wanted to get ready to go out.  We went out and it was tough with the language barrier and cab drivers but we had fun.

Today, me and Jamie went to the Science and Technology Museum and it was so cool!!  The first room we went into had all these stuffed animals in them in like their natural landscapes and everything.  Then we went into this rainforest room.  After that we went up to the World of Robots and the science room.  Then we went into the health and fitness room where like you could do all these tests and physical activity to see how fit you were and what not but we didn’t do that because it would take an hour to do plus there was a half hour-ish wait.  After that room we went to the space room and looked through that.  It was really cool and I’m glad we went.  After that, we FINALLY made it to Jin Mao Tower to go to the observatory deck.  We were determined to go because we tried so hard to go yesterday that we just HAD to go.  So we went, and you take an elevator to the 88th floor, which is the observatory, and it only takes 45 seconds to get there!  It was so cool because you could just see on and on for miles and miles and miles.  And we could see our ship!  We stayed up there for awhile before coming back down and we couldn’t decide if we wanted to go to some gardens or not and we decided not to.  Good thing we didn’t!  When we got back to the boat, I ran into my friends who told me they were at the gardens and got separated from their one friend because it was PACKED there because of Chinese New Year festivities and they searched for her for 2 hours and came back to the boat to file a missing persons report!  But luckily, Alison made it back and she is fine!  She wandered around the gardens for 2 hours also, looking for them, and then found other Semester at Sea-ers (or SASers) and hung out with them.  Now I am back on the boat and I have to pack for Beijing which I am DREADING because it is going to be FREEZING and I absolutely hate the cold!!!  Well, I’ll catch ya on the flip side, aka Hong Kong!! 

HELLO JAPAN!

AHHHHHHHH!  Japan was AMAZING!!  I know I updated this when we were in Tokyo but I am going to give a more detailed thing now! (and sorry if I repeat myself, I forget what I wrote when I updated it in Tokyo). 
So after we got off the ship, we went to Yokohoma station to cash in our railpasses.  Then we went to Tokyo and found our hostel.  Good ole Anne.  We lucked out there.  We were in a 10 person room, but it was only the 3 of us in it for the 2 nights we were there!! We got ready to go out and then went to find some place to eat.  We found this place to eat and when we got there, it hit how rough the language barrier was.  We had our little Japanese language sheet but the waiter was pointing to the prices and what they were on the menu, but it was ALL in Japanese… the price wasn’t even in numbers which it usually is at other places.  So we left that place and found this other restaurant where the prices were in numbers and there were pictures so all we had to do was point to them.  I got this like noodle thing with pork and vegetables in it.  Jamie and Tess got fried rice which they LOOOOOOOOVED.  We then went to central Tokyo and found this place for Happy hour and then went to an irish pub.  It was so funny because we were sitting in an irish pub, in Tokyo, watching male ice skating from 2007 and listening to rap and Taylor swift.  It was such a odd combination.  We left there and grabbed a train and it was PACKED!  I felt like a can of sardines and there were these Japanese men just laughing at us because we were so like… “uhhhhhhhhhh?”  Then we got back to Anne and crashed because it was a long day.
The next day, we got up and went to Akihabara which is the electronic district of Tokyo and just wandered around there.  Then we went to central Tokyo and saw the Imperial Palace.  After that, we went to Shinjuku and did some shopping there before going back to the hostel.  We then got ready and went to Roppongi where we ate at a TGIFridays (soooo American I know but we were going to go to this one restaurant, until we looked in and saw the chef with a straight up dead piglet in his hand and cleaning it with water it looked like).  After Friday’s we walked around and went into a bar where we made up 3 of the 4 people there.  It was hysterical.
The next morning, we got up early because we had to catch a train out of Tokyo station at 8:33am to go to Kyoto.  Our train ride was around 3 hours.  We got to Kyoto and dropped our bags off at the hotel because check in wasn’t until 2.  We found this little place to eat and then just wandered around central Kyoto and shopped and talked about what we wanted to do the rest of the day.  We checked into our hotel then around 2:30ish I guess, and then we all got showered and ready to go see the golden palace… until by the time we all got ready to go, it was literally MONSOONING out and we didn’t go ☹.  I’m upset about that but its whatever.  So then we just decided we would go to dinner and then go out.  We found this little tiny local restaurant and I had ramen!  It was noodles with scrambled eggs and seaweed in it in a broth.  Tess and Jamie got fried rice again. Hahaha.  After we ate there, we went to the conveyor belt sushi place.  Tess tried a lot of weird things, where as I stuck with an avacado roll (Jamie too), but I also tried a roll with I don’t know what in it, and a salmon one.  It was good, but I like when the salmon is wrapped in the rice and not just laying on top of it because that way I don’t feel the texture of the fish as much! After that, we went to a bar where a university from Kyoto rugby team was!  And they sat with us and we talked about Mariah carey, and Michael Jackson (who they love) and Meg Ryan who they like too. 
The next morning, we caught a train to Hiroshima.  That was about 2 hours ish.  Maybe a little more.  When we got there we were in a station looking at a map and a guy came up to us and brought us to the information center and when he left us he each gave us a paper crane.  We went to the Atomic Bomb Dome and were walking around there when this lady came up to us and told us she would give us a free tour of some sites but it was going to be quick because she had to go home and start cooking dinner.  She took us to this statue and I wish I could understand what she was saying but she made us feel it because it used to be smooth but it was rough now because of the radiation.  There was also a shadow on the face of the statue that represented something but I couldn’t understand what.  We then went to a cemetery where the stones I believe all survived the blast but were chipped because they all fell over when the bomb dropped.  She also took us to the place where the bomb actually exploded over a hospital.  That was the craziest part, that we were standing at the actual place the bomb exploded.  After that, we went back to the park and walked around and went to the Children’s Peace Park where all the paper cranes are.  It is for Sadako Sasaki, who died when she was 12 due to radiation from the atomic bomb.  It’s said that you fold 1,000 cranes, you get a wish, and she only folded 644 before her death.  There, we put our paper cranes down with the others. 
After Hiroshima, we went back to Kobe to meet the boat and get ready to go out.  Some place was having a Semester at Sea party where everyone was so we went there.
The next day, me, Jamie and Tess explored Kobe a little and got a Kobe beef lunch!  It was AMAZING!  Then we did this awesome photo-booth thing and then went back to the ship.  The ship pulled out of Kobe at 8 last night, and we are now headed for Shanghai, China!  We will be there on Tuesday and are there for a whole week!
Alright well I’m going to go!  I have dinner with my extended family tonight and then I am going to go to post-port which is where people share their stories about Japan, and then I have a meeting for Sea Olympics.  Busy night!

konichiwa!!!!

Konichiwa everyone!!!
currently i am sitting in a hostel in tokyo (the ueno district to be exact, which is part of old tokyo). just a quick update. ...
we got off the boat yesterday around noon and got to the hostel (anne hostel) at around 2-3ish. it was such an easy way to get here because the public transportation in japan is like fool-proof. so after we checked in, we got ready and went out to find some wehre to eat where tess and jamie had teh best fried rice everrrr (according to them, and i did have a bite and it was very good i must say) and i got some noodle and pork thing which was so good. we then went out in tokyo and today we did a whole bunch of stuff... akihabara, shinjuku and then back to the hostel.
im sorry this is short but we are currently getting ready to go out in roppongo (spelling?) and then we are coming back early cuz trains stop at 12 and we have to catch a train at tokyo main tomorrow to kyoto at 8:33 am otmorrow. i`ll update more tomorrow or on friday or saturday when i get back to the ship! i hope everyone is enjoying teh snow back at home! its cold here too so i:m in the same boat with you... minus the snow! hahaha. ok see ya!!!!
christine!

we get to japan on tuesday!! woohooo!so here is a quick little update about what is going on....our voyage theme is sustainability and in global studies we have to do a group project and if it wins the grant, it will be used to teach high school seniors about sustainability. my groups project is going to be about poverty, and we are going to try and live off of 2 dollars for 1 day in each country and document it to show that there is a little less than 50% of the worlds population living off of 2 dollars a day. thats insane! i'm doing it in south africa, and i plan on doing a district tour also to get some great footage and what not.we have a test in global studies tonight. boooooo tests! it's so hard to get any studying done because it is so distracting on this boat aaaaand we are having rough seas.our captain actually went 190 nautical miles out of the way to avoid rough seas and what not. there are so many rumors going around about what is causing the rough seas. nauturally, the seas are going to be rougher as we get to japan because we are out of the tropics and it is cold in japan which makes the sea rough. but there is also a rumor that there was a volcano erruption in japan, which is causing mini tsunami's and if we went on the path we were supposed to go we would have hit them. there was also another rumor that the coast guard was going to be coming onto our ship until we got to japan. so now we are going to japan, and instead of the waves hitting us broadside like they did from mexico to hawaii (broadside means that the ship rocks from left to right)... we are now hitting the waves head on. so the ship will hit a wave and come right back down... its almost like when you float to the top of a wave before it breaks and you like flop back down on the other side... thats what we're doing. oh and my one professor had dinner with the captain one night, and they asked the captain that on a one to 10 scale, how bad was it from mexico to hawaii... and the captain said a 3! a 3! i dont even want to know what a 10 is.. its probably abandoning ship! and that won't happen.speaking of the captain though... i saw him today! and he said hello to me! it totally made my day! i woke up all early today to go to breakfast and then i sat in the 6th floor dining hall studying for my class and test, and then i got cold so i went to go down to my room to get a sweater, and i was walking down the steps and he was walking up them and i said hi to him and hten he said hello to me. it made my day. hahaha. well thats about it for now. nothing really has been new. just everyone wants to get to land and have this trip finally start! ok see yaaa!

In the middle of the pacific!

ok... so i wrote this on tuesday but it never updated so i'm sorry! here it goes again....

Hiiiiii!
sorry i took so long to update! after hawaii we started classes back up on Friday. It was weird to get back into the swing of things after hawaii and to actually go back to class instead of running around in a port. it was fun though to hear what everyone else did and what our professors did in port. I started doing yoga on the ship. it's hard to do for me in general let alone a ship but i will try and keep it up because it was fun and what not. last night i met my extended family. its dr. harnish and his wife maxine. dr. harnish is the music teacher here on board. they are really nice and we have dinner tonight and tomorrow night also. i have a bunch of new sisters and 1 new brother. on the ship... its like 3 girls to every guy. After dinner we went to salsa class and it was fun to learn how to salsa and what not. and then last night we had a dance! hahha. everyone was talking about how it was going to be an awkward middle school dance with girls on one side and boys on the other but it ended up being a lot of fun. it was a mix andmatch theme too so everyone was wearing crazy clothes and what not. it was sooooooo hot in there too but it was a lot of fun. who knew old school dances would be fun?
today we have no classes which was pretty sweet! i finally got to sleep in but rene... oh yea... i have a cabin steward... someone who comes in every day and makes my bed, straightens up and cleans my bathroom everyday and his name is rene. but yea, rene like knows our schedule and always comes in at 915 in the morning cuz he knows we are not there, and today he came in and me and neha were still sleeping. ooooops. hahah. but he came back later. i went and worked out at like 1030ish and it was chilly out but its so cool to lift weights and there is nothing but the ocean surrounding you. i know that sounds corny and what not but it is! hahah. after i lifted, we went to lunch around 11:45 and then after lunch we started planning japan. ahhh its crazy that japan is in a week! and me and my friends were saying that we didn't realize how much planning we actually have to do because it will be in a foreign country and all. and there is so much to do in japan in so little time! i want to do sushi, saki bombs, and karaoke! ahh i'm so stoked! today is also picture day. haha. we had our group ship picture and at 3:50 ( we are currently 7 hours behind the east coast) i have my school picture withthe one other girl on the ship from monmouth. currently... i'm sitting out on the top deck. its beautiful out but of course there is like no room because no one has classes today so everyone is out here.
well thats pretty much it!
oh! tonight we cross the international date line. so wednesday does not exist here. its so weird to think about! oh and currently our captain is up on this deck now too... him and his red glasses. he scares me but i want to meet him. haha. he is like the president, his word goes here on this ship... so like if you get in trouble, you see him and he decides your punishment and if you stay on the ship or not. so yea.. hes like royalty around here. haha.
alright well i'm gonna go!
i promise ill write more and not take 3 day breaks again!

Honolulu, Hawaii

Aloha!!
The past two days i spent running around Honolulu and it was fabulous!  After we got on the boat in Hilo, it moved to Honolulu.  Our first day in Honolulu was Wednesday and we had all day.  Me, Jamie, Erica and Andrew were going to go to Diamond Head but after we found out it was an hour bus ride, we decided to skip that and head to the beach!  We went to Waikiki beach and just laid out all day.  Tess and Stephanie met up with us on the beach and Wednesday was actually steph's 21st birthday!  So they met up with us on the beach and then me, steph and andrew decided to get some surfing lessons and go surfing!  Our teacher was Tony and we were literally on the sand for about 3 minutes, and then he was just like.. alright lets get in the water!  Paddling out is not fun AT ALL!  my shoulders were on FIRE from paddling so much.  Once we got out there though we caught some waves.  I got up each time but the first couple times i would only be up for like 3 seconds before falling down.  After my like 3rd wave though i could ride one.  it was awesome!  and me and stephanie actually caught the same wave one time and rode it for soooooo long!  it was kinda annoying though because i could have rode so many waves longer, but there were so many people that i had to jump off before i crashed into them.  but it was awesome!!  After surfing, we went back to the ship and showered and we actually stayed in a hotel in Waikiki wednesday night for stephanies birthday.  So we went to the hotel and got ready and then went out to dinner at Duke's, which is this awesome restaurant on the beach.  It actually kinda reminded me of Hollister on the inside.  I had Huli Huli chicken which was sooooooooooooooooooo good!  everyone said how their food was amazing and the service was amazing too (stephanie made sure to tell the hostesses that it was great service, great food and our waiter nick was awesome).  They also brought out this HUUUUUUUUUUGE ice cream cake slice to stephanie, which we all ended up eating because it was soooo big, and it was free!  how awesome is that?! hahaha.  After Duke's we went to Senor Frogs.  It was fun and i actually met people from Belmar there!  what a small world. we stood there and chatted about monmouth and the jersey shore for a long time.  and if anyone has ever heard the song "i'm on a boat"... it came on last night at senor frogs and everyone from SAS got up and was dancing on the stage because that is our life!  we're on a boat! hahah. After senor frogs, we went to zanzabar but decided not to go in because it was late and no one wanted to pay a cover charge.  We then just went back to the hotel and crashed. 
This morning, we woke up and went back to the ship and then went to Wal-mart where we stocked up on snacks!  On the ship, we only get 3 meals a day and then you can buy snacks from the pool bar all day but that can get expensive.  After wal-mart, we came back to the ship and then me and Tess went out to buy a Japan railpass.  A railpass can only be purchased in the united states and not japan, and its a train ticket that is valid for 7 straight days and you can use it as many times a day you want on any train besides the fastest bullet trains.  Since we want to do a lot of travelling in Japan to many cities, we decided that would be the cheapest thing to do instead of just buying tickets at each train station.  Also, Japan is VERY expensive and you could easily spend 100 dollars on 1 train ticket one way and that is on a sleeper train... not a bullet train.  so it will be really convienent and now we dont have to worry about transportation and language barriers in that department.  After we got our rail pass, me and tess just wandered around Honolulu and the Aloha tower stores and then eventually went back to the ship around 4.  When i got on the ship i wrote some post-cards out and made some phone calls... since i wont have my phone again until May 5th.
The ship pulled out at 8 tonight.  I was up on the 7th deck while we pulled out and its weird to think that...
a) we wont be seeing land for another like 10 days
b) we are leaving america until may 5th
c) the trip basically is just beginning!
everyone on the deck was waving goodbye to land and yelling bye to it because we wont see it and wont see america til may 5th.  its crazy to think that!  I've heard that this stretch is going to be a little rocky weather and wave wise but once we are in japan, it will be smooth sailing between countries.  also i have a feeling that once we get to japan, this trip is going to flyyyyyy which i'm nervous about. hahah.  and its just so weird that like... our school is a ship!  this whole trip so far still amazes me and i love every second of it. 
wow, today was a long post! 
oh!  my email adress too is cmtammany@semesteratsea.net
email me if you guys have any questions or even just to say hi!  getting emails is the highlight of my day.  oh! and i was on facebook today and it was odd because i havent had it in so long that i wasnt even on it for long! shocking i know, since im ALWAYS on it haha but im getting used to not having it.  so yea, emails are great because i have no contact with the outside world. hahah.  i should be posting pictures soon too.  probably while at sea ill buy some internet minutes to do it and when i do i'll post the link on here if you arent already my facebook friend or don't have one. 
well, i need to go to bed... i'm EXHAUSTED and there is no such thing as sleeping in either which sucks. hahah.
so until next time!!
captain tam!