So in the 6 days that we are spending at sea between Mauritius and India, many things are happening. I had midterms on the 17th, 18th, and 19th and now I am doing some research for a paper I have to write after India. I’m writing about the globalization of a pop culture phenomenon. I chose the globalization of anime from Japan to the United States. Not my favorite topic, but it shouldn’t be bad. Doing research on the ship is very frustrating because we have a limited number of books and the databases take forever and a day to load on the computers.
Two nights ago we had a huge pep rally for the Sea Olympics, which take place tomorrow. The ship is split up into “seas” by which hallways you live in and I am in the Mediterranean Sea, which is light blue. I unfortunately had a test the next day, so I didn’t stay at the pep rally long, but it was pretty entertaining. The Sea Olympics have many different events such as: orange passing, Sudoku, crab soccer, dodge ball, lip syncing, synchronized swimming, pull up contests, ect… I am not sure which events I will be doing yet. But the good thing is that to prepare for the Sea Olympics, my sea is meeting tonight and we are having chips & salsa & cookies!!! Also, one of my friends ordered an ice cream cake that says “Livin’ on a Prayer”. Why, you ask. Because we are a little over halfway into the voyage and “We’re Halfway There…” Haha
I am pretty excited/ nervous for India, but I think it should be great! We are docking in Chennai, India, which just happens to be a sister city of Denver, Colorado. We get there Friday morning (I am going to be 11.5 hours ahead of CO) and the first day I have nothing planned so far. I am doing a big SAS trip pretty much the rest of the time. When I signed up for the trip, I didn’t realize how rigorous it was going to be. Here’s a description:
CHE23 TAJ MAHAL & VARANASI –(1530 Saturday, 23 October – 0100 Wednesday, 27 October)
This trip combines the bustling city of Delhi, the majesty of the Taj Mahal, and the "eternal city" of Varanasi, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in India. Located on the banks of the sacred River Ganges, Varanasi is the holy city of the Hindus. Often called "the heartbeat of India," it is the oldest inhabited city in the world. Varanasi has been a center of civilization and learning for over 2,000 years. Here you can observe the ritual bathing in the Ganges at dawn, a practice that has continued virtually unchanged over the centuries.
ITINERARY:
Day 1: Transfer by motor coach to the Chennai airport for your 2 1⁄2-hour flight to Delhi. Upon arrival, transfer to hotel for dinner and overnight stay.
Day 2: The early morning finds you aboard the Shatabdi Express, heading toward Agra. Upon arrival, transfer to the hotel. After checking in, enjoy breakfast before departing for the remarkably preserved Fatehpur Sikri, with its red sandstone palaces. Return to the hotel for lunch. In the afternoon, visit the Agra Fort to view the halls and palaces of the Mughals. Then visit the fabled Taj Mahal where you will have the opportunity to view the Taj Mahal at dusk. An optional shopping tour, with your guide, is available after the sunset viewing. Depart for the railway station on the Shatabdi Express for your journey to Delhi.
Day 3: After an early breakfast, transfer to the airport for your flight to Varanasi. Once there, transfer to the airport for check-in and lunch. Then enjoy a tour of Sarnath, located six miles outside of Varanasi. Although the ancient city of Sarnath lies in ruins, it is as holy to Buddhists as Varanasi is to Hindus; Buddha preached his first sermon here. See the stupa and ruins of an ancient monastery as well as the new Buddhist temple. Afterward, witness the Ganga Aarti at Dasaswamedh Ghat on the banks of the River Ganges, and a rickshaw ride.
Day 4: Awaken early and drive to the banks of the River Ganges before sunrise. Board a boat and sail along the river to witness a spectacle of religious practice that has continued unchanged over centuries. At dawn, pilgrims converge at the holy waters for the ritual immersion and prayer to release their souls from the cycle of rebirth. This is one of the most memorable experiences of a visit to India. Then, continue with a city orientation of Varanasi. Depart for the midday flight to Delhi and enjoy a tour of the area. See Humayun’s Tomb and Raj Ghat. Drive past numerous government buildings, Raj Path and Rashtrapati Bhawan. Before the return flight to Chennai, enjoy an early dinner. Upon arrival, transfer to the ship and arrive shortly after midnight.
Um, sounds hectic, right? Well I am doing a lot of cool things in a short period of time.
M
For those of you who don’t know, Mauritius is a small island located 500 miles east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. There is no real indigenous population on the island and now it is inhabited by a mixture of Indian, Chinese, and Caucasian peoples. Port Louis is the capital and the city where our ship was docked. Mauritius is sometimes thought of as the Hawaii of Europe. It is most well known as a vacation spot for its beaches and for growing and exporting sugarcane.
The night before we got to Mauritius we had a cultural and logistical pre-port on the country. A few people gave presentations and they basically all said that it was “Spring Break” time for all of us and that all it had to offer were beaches and drinking. Okay…
We got to Mauritius the next morning and I looked outside and the water was crystal blue. The city looked just like any other city. A big group of us took a water taxi to the center of town and found an ATM. Mauritius uses Mauritian Rupees for its currency (not the same as Indian Rupees).
We asked some people where the best public beaches were and everyone told us that they were a short drive to the north in Grand Baie. We hailed a couple of taxis and bargained for a price and drove about 40 minutes to Grand Baie. Once there, we split into 2 groups and half of the group went to a Chinese restaurant and the other half of us went to a seafood restaurant on the waterfront. The view from our table was gorgeous- the bluest water I have ever seen, white sand, and many little boats on the shore.
After lunch, we went to the public beach about a ten minute walk away. It was so nice to be able to lie in the sun and relax. The water was warm and I swam for a while, then took a nap on the beach. Our other friends met back up with us and we all relaxed on the beach for a couple of hours. After that we walked around the shops and bought postcards and souvenirs. I also bought a small pineapple from a street fruit vendor and he cut off the outside of the pineapple for me and made a handle for me to hold and it looked like a turkey leg. It was so juicy and delicious. We decided to go back to Port Louis for dinner so we got on the public bus this time. It was air conditioned, efficient and so much cheaper than the taxi.
We ended up going to dinner at a “sports bar” called Shooters. It was good to have some “western” food. After dinner we walked around town for a while and ended up going to a place called The Keg for dessert. I had a milkshake (mmm) and some cake. Then we met up with some other friends and they all went back to Shooters for drinks and to socialize.
The next day we were planning on going hiking, but the place we wanted to go was somewhat far away and we had to be back on the ship by 6PM, so we decided to just take it easy. My friend Krystal and I went to a café and had hot chocolate and used the Internet in the morning. We met up with a big group for lunch and we went to a restaurant called “Friends” (it had the same sign as the Friends TV show). In the afternoon we walked around the mall area and went to the craft market. I got a Mauritius pin for my collection and I bought some orange juice from the street juice cart. We got back onto the water taxi and headed back to the ship. My time in Mauritius was short and relaxing. :)
This is probably going to be a very long entry.
Rand is the currency in South Africa (roughly 6.8 rand = 1 USD when I was there).
Ohmygosh. So now that I’m finished with my 3 midterms (2 of which I think went well, but the one I just took I’m not so sure about) I can write about South Africa.
Well let me start with before South Africa. In the main class everyone on the ship takes (Global Studies) we had a guest lecturer a few days before we arrived. It was none other than Archbishop Desmond Tutu! Everyone packed into the Union and gathered around the stage to listen to him speak. He spoke about the troubles that South Africa had before apartheid and what life was like in the country during apartheid. He talked about the hard times and how he got through it all with laughter and a positive attitude. Every now and then, in the middle of one of his stories, he would burst into laughter and everyone would laugh along with him. He has the greatest laugh of anyone I have ever heard. :P
Towards the end of the two-hour lecture, he told us the secret to winning a Nobel Prize. “A name that is easy to pronounce- ‘Tu-tu’… a big nose… and sexy legs. All three of which I have”. Hahaha
Day 1 SA
We arrived in South Africa and had to be up extra early for the immigration officials to come on board and meet each of us individually to stamp our passports. During breakfast I got my first glace of Cape Town- beautiful! It was definitely the nicest port that we had been to so far. I got some pictures of the sunrise over the port and Table Mountain in the background.
Then we had to go to the union for the diplomatic briefing. Two US diplomats came onto the ship and gave us some of the current information that we needed to know about South Africa. The first diplomat was great and he gave us information about the ATMs, exchange rates, places to go, places not to go, ect. The second diplomat made it sound like Cape Town was literally in the middle of Baghdad. He told us that we couldn’t trust anyone because everyone will try to scam us. He also told us several stories about other US government workers that are stationed in Cape Town who have been drugged (because the woman left her drink sitting out when she went to the bathroom) and a couple of other government workers who got scammed because they used a broken ATM (where is the common sense in that???). From those stories, I concluded that we must have some very dumb US government representatives working in Cape Town. He told us that people regularly go around bashing people in the side of the head and taking their money as well. Another comment that I found particularly heartwarming was when he said, “someone is going to get robbed or assaulted or bashed in the head so don’t let it be an American. Let it happen to the French or the German tourists instead” (not an exact quote). WHAT?! How about let’s not have any of those things happen to anyone? The guy was pretty much off his rocker… I understand safety, but come on.
After we were all scared to death by the diplomat, the immigration officials cleared us and we got off the ship. My friends and I got together and walked around the V&A (Victoria & Alfred) Waterfront for a while. It was definitely a high-class tourist destination. We called for a couple of taxis and made our way to Table Mountain. We got there and it was pretty warm outside and we began to hike. It was a pretty strenuous hike and we were climbing up rocks the whole time. Some of the people in our group turned back and took the cable car to the top instead. It took about 2 hours to reach the top of the mountain by climbing, but it was worth it in the end. The view was beautiful, but it was really windy and chilly at the top. I was starving by this point so my friend Chris (who goes to CU!) and I got some overpriced, but much needed food in the café. We met up with the rest of our group and then we took the cable car down. It only took 5 minutes to get down by cable car.
We returned to the ship and showered and then went out for a second lunch (I was starving again) at a restaurant on the pier called Quay 4. I brought my computer and was pleased to have Internet for a while. I ordered some calamari and it was amazing.
Later in the evening my friends and I walked around the shops and the mall at the waterfront. I got some amazing ice cream at a little stand in the mall. For dinner we all went to a place called the Green Dolphin and I got seafood and more calamari. We all decided to have Springbok shots (crème de menthe and amarullo) and they were delicious.
At night we went to Mitchell’s Pub and had drinks and nachos. I think half of the ship was there that night and I was tired of being around so many obnoxious college students so we left early and went to bed.
Day 2 SA
Day 2 was supposed to be the day that I went to Robben Island, but the ferry broke so I was unable to go. Instead my friends Jacob, Nick, Chris, and I explored Cape Town. We walked out of the waterfront and into downtown Cape Town. We passed through Green Market Square (big outdoor market) and found an AMAZING burger place. It was very trendy and it was called the Royale Eatery located at 273 Long Street. I ordered a chicken burger with avocado and bacon (I think it was called the Ms. Piggy) and a chocolate mint milkshake. It was one of the best things I’ve eaten on this trip, haha.
On the way back to the ship we passed through a local crafts show near the harbor. There were some really cool paintings and artwork, but they were somewhat expensive. There were also guitars made from oil cans and they sounded really neat! We were sitting and relaxing in the building where the craft show was located and an old couple behind us said something to Chris about CU because he was wearing the CU fight song t-shirt. The woman graduated from CU in 1969 (or somewhere around there). It was a small world. We told them all about Semester at Sea and told them they can become passengers on a future voyage as life long learners. They seemed really interested. ☺
We met our other friends, who were doing FDPs during the day, back at the ship and we decided we were going to walk around the mall and try to find Internet. We found Internet and I took a detour to go to the Pick ‘n’ Pay grocery store to get some things. I got some snack foods, chocolate, and some hot chocolate. These are all coveted items on the ship. I went back and used to internet to Skype and check my email. We then went to a café in the mall that Chris had been to before, called Melissa’s, and had the best hot chocolate I’ve ever tasted. It was made with steamed milk (not water, like on the ship ☹ ) and the inside of the mug was coated in Nutella and so was the spoon. Delicious. I bought some tea there called “Afro Tea” to bring home.
After that we did the same thing we did the night before, but backwards. We went to Mitchell’s for dinner and I had a chicken olive sandwich (I can’t get enough of olives lately) and some of Krystal’s feta, olive, bacon pizza (which was sooo good). After dinner we returned to the Green Dolphin for drinks and live jazz. The Green Dolphin is in the Guinness Book of Records for having the most consecutive nights of live jazz. Their motto is “Live jazz 8 days a week”. It was really good.
Day 3 SA
I got up very early on this day to get ready for my safari. I had breakfast at 6 and met my group in the Union at 6:30 to go. I wasn’t a huge fan of anyone in my group, but a couple of people were nice. There were only ten students on my trip along with a professor, his wife, and their son.
We took a small bus to the airport and boarded our 2-hour flight to Johannesburg. Of course, I got the middle seat. Side note- Johannesburg has the highest reported homicide rate of any city in the world. Woo hoo!
First we drove to Soweto, a township where the Nelson Mandela house is located. All throughout Joburg (and Cape Town) there are signs of the World Cup. We had lunch at a little restaurant called “Wandie’s Place” and it was so very delicious. ☺ I had chicken, pumpkin, potatoes, spinach, beans, and some scrumptious homemade bread. It reminded me of The Sink in Boulder because the walls were covered in writing, foreign currency, and business cards. There were also two live singers who sang some traditional African songs and some modern American songs.
After that we went to the Mandela house on Vilkazi Street. Coincidentally, Desmond Tutu’s house in Joburg is on the same street as Mandela’s old house. It’s special because it’s the only street where two Nobel Prize winners have both lived. Anyway, it was a short tour because it was a very small, modest house.
We drove around the city more and then we reached the Apartheid Museum. It was a great museum and I was really impressed with the way it was organized. There was a wall in the front with a quote by Nelson Mandela that said “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”
Each person was given a different ticket, some of which said “white” and some of which said “non-white”. I got a ticket that said “non-white” so I had to go into a different entrance. In the museum there were a lot of film clips and there was a whole exhibit on Mandela. In a couple of spots there were film clips and huge pictures of the same man that I eat breakfast with on the ship- Desmond Tutu. It’s crazy to think that I am traveling around the world with someone who is in museums and history books. Anyway, the museum was really great and I would recommend it to anyone.
We got to our hotel, the Sandton Sun, after that and I was shocked a how nice it was. It was a five-star hotel and you could tell. When we checked in we were all given sparkling cranberry juice in wine glasses and our luggage was taken to our room. The hotel had a five star restaurant inside and it was connected to a mall 10X nicer than Cherry Creek. There were only 3 girls on the trip and the other 2 were rooming together so I got my own room! Thank goodness! Everything was so fancy. I went to the mall with the girls and they were buying all sorts of $400 jeans and $300 shoes… I got a hot chocolate.
Dinner that night was 3 courses of amazing. My first course was a salad with pears, walnuts, avocados, pumpkin seeds, and dressing. Main course was lamb with fresh mint puree on a bed of leeks with some sort of potato thing. Dessert was berry tart with nutmeg ice cream. It was fantastic. I had free soda while all of the others were having $100 bottles of wine. Haha.
Day 4 SA
Day 4 found us getting up early again and having breakfast at the hotel (again, really good food. I didn’t know there were that many types of juice). Then we all left the hotel and went to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. I thought that was an extremely random stop on our itinerary, but I went with it. It was interesting, but would have been much more so had I been a finance major.
After a long 3 hour bus ride, we got to our hotel in Pilannesburg. It was called the Bakubung Bush Lodge. I guess bakubung means hippo in Xhosa or Afrikaans or something. We had lunch there and that was pretty amazing too. I had a greek wrap which had olives and something delicious in it (but I have no idea what it was). At 4PM we all got into the range rover type vehicle and went on our first game drive in the bush! Our guide was something straight out of a movie. He had a very heavy South Africa accent and he only had one arm!!! Literally! Someone in my group asked him if he carried a firearm on him for safety and he responded by saying, “No, but I’ve got a left arm”. Haha It was pretty sweet! We didn’t see much up close on that first one, but we did see giraffes, a rhino, lions, a bunch of birds and some kudu.
We had a braai (BBQ) that night in the bush! It was amazing. (Seeing a trend here with the food?) They had every kind of meat imaginable and at least 30 different side dishes. Mmm... We drove back to our hotel in the safari-mobile and I went ot bed early.
Day 5 SA
We all got up at 5AM this day to go out for our safari a 5:30. It was very early, but very worth it. We got to see the sun rise over the savannah and we got to see a bunch of lions just lying in the road! We also saw about 20 rhinos (and a baby rhino) in various places. It was really windy and cold (surprisingly) so we stopped at a craft place while we were out and I bought a giraffe mask for the wall and a hot chocolate! (I can’t get enough hot chocolate on this trip!) We drove around a little more and saw a bunch of baboons and more impala, kudu, and zebra.
We went back to the hotel around 8:30 for breakfast (guess what? It was delicious also!) and I had crepes and an omelet among other things. I took a nap in the afternoon because I was exhausted and woke up in time to go on another game drive at 4:30pm. Half of the group that I was with decided that they would take a taxi into town and go to the casino, so they missed the afternoon game drive. Good riddance, they were awfully annoying.
Right when we got into the park our guide heard on the radio that a cheetah had been spotted a little ways away from where we were. We sped over to the spot and sure enough, there was a cheetah on the side of the road in the bushes and plants slowling stalking a group of kudu on the other side of the road. It was amazing! The park is huge and there were only 2 cheetahs in the park, so we were really lucky to see one. We sat there for a while waiting and watching the cheetah to see if it would make a move when a car (private owned car) stopped suddenly and scared the cheetah. We were all really mad. We waited for another long while and the cheetah surely, but slowly crossed the road and make his attack on the kudu. He wasn’t successful, but it was cool to see it start running.
After that it was almost dark and we drove up a road and saw a big pack (herd? Idk what the word is?) of elephants right next to the road. They were all eating and there were a couple of baby elephants too! So cute! The big male elephant was in musk, so we stayed away from him. Our guide taunted another smaller male elephant and kept driving towards it and the elephant would back up. It was crazy! I have it on video. :P
We drove around in the dark using the spotlights to try to find animals for a while and we managed to see the cheetah again, relaxing under a tree. We also saw a group of fox-like creatures and an African jungle cat (I guess they are really rare to see, but it looked like a house cat to me, haha).
Dinner that night was served at the hotel and it was Mongolian BBQ (I am going to search for a Mongolian BBQ restaurant when I get home, yum!)
Day 6 SA
I got up at 5 again for another early game drive, but I was feeling very very tired and a bit sick so I stayed in my hotel and slept in. I got up for breakfast and then we packed up and went to the airport. On the way we stopped at a gas station for some snacks and I got some Simba brand chips! When we finally got to the airport I was starving and the only thing I could find to eat was Wimpy Burger. I got a chicken sandwich there and it was as the name implies- wimpy and disgusting. They served us a sandwich on the plane, which was actually much better than Wimpy Burger. We got back to the ship 15 minutes after everyone was supposed to be on, but since I was on an SAS trip, I didn’t get dock time. ☺
After each port we have post-port discussion groups an hour after we start moving and I have the assistant dean Sue as my discussion leader. She was in a panic and looked worried. She told us that one girl hadn’t turned in her passport right before we left and they tore apart her room looking for it and couldn’t find it. (To be counted as “on the ship” your passport needs to be turned in and your ID needs to be swiped). Since they couldn’t find it, they had to get her off the boat so we didn’t get fined for having a “stowaway” when we got to Mauritius. The gangway had already been taken down so they had to rush her off of the ship out of a special secret compartment and we had to leave her at the port with a US official as we sailed away. How sad!!! I’m not sure of what happened to her, but hopefully she got a new passport and was able to meet us in Mauritius.
Speaking of emergency situations, the professor that teaches global studies had an emergency when he was in Cape Town. On the second day there he had to be rushed to the hospital and have emergency surgery for a detached retina! Ahh! No good! He and his family stayed behind in South Africa and rejoined with the ship in Mauritius. We had some last minute guest lecturers in the class while he was gone and his wife just happens to be the teacher of 2 of my classes and she stayed behind with him in South Africa so 3 out of 4 of my classes were affected between Cape Town and Mauritius. It all worked out okay though.
All right… next entry- Mauritius!!!
Yes, yes, I know... I still haven't written about South Africa or Mauritius. It will happen eventually. These past few days at sea I have been super stressed and busy preparing for midterms. I had my first one today, I have one tomorrow, and one the next day. Ugh. I have not stopped studying. We moved our clocks another hour forward so now I am eleven hours ahead of CO. Before we get to India I think we have to move our clocks forward 1/2 an hour because that's the Indian time zone. Weird. I guess it's something to do with India not wanting to be on the same time zone as Palestine? I'm not sure.
Also, I signed up to tutor the daughter of 2 of my professors (they are married!). I will be tutoring her in Italian every other day for an hour. I think she is in 5th or 6th grade, but I'm pretty sure she is going to know a lot more Italian than me because she lived in Rome with her parents for a year about a year ago... hmm. Haha, but it will be good practice. :)
I must continue to study now.
Hope all is well,
Michaella
(I'll update after my test on the 19th hopefully)
I've been feeling pretty sick all day and sleeping a lot, but tonight was worth it! I went to snacktime at 10 and everyone was standing outside on the deck. I went outside and it was SO windy and the waves are HUGE. Lightning was striking every ten seconds and the thunder was really loud. My friend Jacob and I ran downstairs to get our cameras and to get our other friends to come outside. We all ran back up to deck 7 and gawked at the amazing storm. After about 20 minutes people came rushing over and yelling that we needed to go inside immediately. It was so cool!
Anyway, just wanted to share that tidbit. I got some funny pictures and videos of the storm. I'll write about South Africa soon! I'm really busy and there is so much to say!
Michaella
