Yokohama, Japan

Yokohama, Yokohama, Yokohama...... I have such good memories of this place and I cannot wait to go back because it was just soooo amazing.

We started out the day by getting up at 5 in the morning so we could go up on deck and watch us pull in to the dock. However, the weather gods decided that we should go back to bed because it was raining like a mother chicken. So we went back to bed! Then later that morning we got up again and got ready for the day. For some odd reason it took forever and a day to get the ship cleared and we did not even get of the boat until like 2 when we were supposed to off by 11 so we pretty much lost our whole day. Once we got off we started walking out and we say our first vending machine of Japan (everything in this country could be found in a vending machine, it is crazy!)

So my group of homie g's and I came up with an indy trip to got to Tokyo! We began to walk all the way across the city of Yokohama to find the train station. We bought train and subway tickets to get ourselves to Tokyo. We had to take two subway lines to get to the train station, and that gave us our first insight to how crazy the subway system is! We found that when you have multiple colored subway lines and everything is in Japanese plus you have to find the automatic ticket booth (which is in all Japanese) and buy your tickets then find your gate where the subway leaves! Holy, the first couple of times using the subway was amazingly stressful, but by the time we left Japan I was so pro at, it was like I lived there! Once we finally got our selves to the train station we saw a small group of kids that were probably 9--10 ish and we could tell that they just got out of school and they were just super cute! They were playing a game that was sort of like "patty cake/ rock paper scissors" but it was way different. We got the courage to try and talk to them (which made them all embarrassed cause I don't think that they knew much English) but we finally just started trying to play their game with them. It was really fun cause we just kind of bonded with some random kids!!

For some reason or another we all were fascinated by the trains, some of the things that really stuck out to us was people don't talk at all and it is just very quiet. People seem to really know their own personal space because you can be standing on a super packed subway and not be able to move, but no one will ever bump into you. We also noticed that people rarely smile at others, especially people they don't know. People are also just very respectful to others and especially their elders. In the subway "the younger generations" would get up and give there seat away so some one older could sit down, it was also true for disabled people or women that were pregnant. I also saw some crazy adds on the subways and the most crazy one was an add for a cream that could make your skin whiter! Its true after I saw that sign noticed that people were vary fair skinned and I noticed how crazy dark I was compared to them.

Another really big thing that Kristen and I noticed was that people dressed in very “blendy” colors. All of the men wore dark blue or black pants, with a white t-shirt, and very shiny shoes. The women all wore either and white or light khaki shirt with a black formal skirt. We got really excited when we saw a Japanese man wearing a green shirt cause we had not seen one for a while.

After a medium length train ride we ended up taking the JR line (train) to Tokyo and then transferred lines to Asakusa where we found a student hostel to stay the night. The hostel was called Sakura Hostel. And it cost roughly 25 dollars each for the night and we had six of us in a room. The hostel was very nice for what it was, we had free Internet, our room had three bunk beds in it, there was one boy and girl bathroom on each floor to share which was nice. It had a nice big common room with a kitchen where you could go do whatever you want. It was a really nice place. That night we went out to celebrate Leila’s birthday (was on the September 9th) and had dinner at this really cool restaurant. We shared vegetable tempura and chicken soup. I tried sake for the first time and we toasted to Japan. We met a husband and wife who were presidents to a magazine in Japan. They were bundles of energy and let’s just say the woman enjoyed her sake a lot!

O, side note. So Japan is a very “green” country. The electricity only came on if you put a key in your room, otherwise if you left your room and needed your key everything would turn off. The escalators only turned on if you got within the sensors, that way they were not running all day! Also when every you are in a public place pretty much where ever there would be a trashcan would be there would always 3 or 4 waste bins. One cans and bottles, one paper, one “burnable” and one “unclassifiable.” Cool hunh!

So the next day our group got up pretty early after a long nigh out and headed out on a mission, we were going to go buy sumo wrestling tickets! I know, cool hunh! Well we got really lost on the way there and people got to the point of being really tired, hungry and then just angry! To fix that we found a cute little bakery that we had breakfast at right after we bought the tickets. Since we had plenty of time until the bouts started we had some more time to walk around Asakusa. We ended up finding this amazing park where it seemed like a movie should have been shot, then we found some temples. Right before we went to the sumo matches we wanted to find some lunch and we found this place where I am not even joking you I had the best meal of my entire life! You walk in and you have to order through a vending machine where you put in money and look at the pictures and choose what you want. So I ordered a beef bowl and a beer…. Oooo but it was so good and I enjoyed every single bite, I think it was just the spices or something!!!!

The Sumo matches were soo amazing! We sat up in the 1st balcony for $22 but if we have wanted to sit on the 1st floor you would have to pay anywhere from $200 to $400 . I had so much fun during the whole experience and I have some video that I took of some matches, so when I get home all of you guys can see that. The “bouts” are very short but there is lots of superstition and tradition. It was just super cool to watch! Then later on we went walking in Tokyo at night and just consumed all of the lights and crazy times!

I really just had an amazing time in Yokohama and Tokyo and I cannot wait to go back someday! I LOVE JAPAN!

Honolulu, Hawaii

Well I finally made it to beautiful Hawaii!!!! One of the first things I remember when I first walked outside is it was so nice to see green things! I missed seeing trees and and birds (even though we have little sea birds that follow our ship all over) so it was really nice to see that.

So Kristen and I decided that we would make excellent traveling partners
(which we did and still do) and we wanted to just have a chill day in Hawaii. So it took all of us a very long time to get off the boat even though we started going through customs at 7am and we did not even get off until 11ish, but o well! Once we got there everybody slowly got off the boat and went there own ways. (I know at least 100 kids panned there own trip to go skydiving and from the sounds of it, it was a lot of fun!)

Kristen and I made it a point to find a starbucks and a jamba juice before we left the United States. So that was the first thing we did. After we found that we just walked around and did not really do too much. We went to this mall cause my iPod died a couple of days before we got to Hawaii so we found an Apple store that I could exchange it for a new one. Then we found some lunch (I had tamales) and went to the beach. Since there were 600+ it was pretty easy to find all of the SAS kids which we hung out with for the rest of the afternoon. After it got dark we went with a small group to find some dinner. We went to this little cute cafe and got some cheap dinner and headed back to the ship.

We have these rules that you have to be checked in and back on the boat two hours before it is set to leave. However, in order to be back on the boat by that time you have to come to the ship at least an hour and a half before that time even. The reason being is that we have to go one by one through security both in the terminal and in the boat to make sure people are not bringing illegal things on the boat. Like alcohol! There were a hand full of kids that tried to sneak alcohol on and they got busted and got "dock time" for the next port (which means that they have to stay on the boat so many hours in the next port after the last person gets off). One of my "friends" got 24 hours of dock time in Japan! So as a result of that crazy long security line we all now know that we have to be standing in line 2 hours before the time you want to be on the ship.

Over all I had a good time in Hawaii. Just hung out really and tried to have a stress free day! But Hawaii is in the US and is always some place I can go back to.

Unique to SAS

Here are a couple of unique things that can only be on a SAS trip!

*this is where I tend to study everyday!

1. I have noticed that I am not used to going to school for more than 4 days in a row and going for a solid 9 days in a row was pretty rough!!

2. We have these things called "pub nights" where you can go up on the pool deck and you can buy a drink for $3.50 (you can only have 4 drinks in 3 hours) and your choices are either really crappy red or white wine or keystone and coors light. But the funny part is that people go crazy for these nights and people tend to find loopholes to be able to get more and make them amazingly crazy nights!

3. I have decided that SAS is the coolest place in the world because where else on earth can you be sitting in class and a whale swims past your window while you are discussing the economy of Hati! True story!! And it all happened during my cultural geography class!

4. One of the coolest is....in one months time I will only have 6 days of class!

5. The best sunsets in the world that you will see at school can only happen here at SAS!

First Impressions

Well well well.... where to start! So Aug 27, 2007 became the day my life began to change and grow! We all met in San Diego, California to pile on to buses to get bussed down to Ensenada, Mexico. The bus that I was on was ironically all Colorado kids, so we all had a good time figuring out similarities between each other. It was a very pretty drive down and I even saw dolphins swimming in the surf along the coast. Once we got there we had to go through tons of lines to get on the ship and sign papers and pick things up and just lots of weird security stuff. But one good part of all those lines was I met this really amazing girl. Her name is Kristen Olsen and she is from Colorado too! (She goes to Fort Louis in Durango) We totally hit it off right from the start and we call ourselves 'passport' friends cause we met in the passport line! Kristen is one of those girls that I feel like I have known my whole life and I absolutely love her! We have so much in common and everyday it seems like we find another similarity or reason that we like each other more and more. She is just plain awesome and I totally love her!

Once I finally got on and done with all the paper work, I found my room on the 3rd floor on the port side. I walked in and it looked just like a regular cruise bedroom. Nice and tiny with two beds, a bathroom and a closet. Ok I am just going to paste my first email here for those of you who have not read it yet. If you have just skip this part!

Well here I am, I am aboard the fastest cruise ship that is around, sailing around the world!!! So this “ship” as I keep being reminded is an actual cruise ship. The story of the ship is that it was a cruise ship that sailed in the Mediterranean a couple of years ago. Then the company that owned it went bankrupt and then the ship eventually became the new official ship for Semester at Sea and she is named the MV Explorer. There are 632 students aboard and 762 total people which includes all the staff for the school and the staff for the boat operation. So in a sense there are a lot of people on a pretty good size boat.
However the crazy part of this whole thing is that I am on an actual cruise ship, literally! Our rooms get cleaned and our beds get made everyday, we get our laundry done for us, the food is actually pretty good (WAY better than Africa food!) and we get served at all of our meals! It’s so crazy but really fun! We even have a spa aboard the ship so we can get our nails, hair, massage, facials, hydrotherapy baths….the whole works! I know, crazy hunh!
As far as the boat, it moves a lot more that I expected it to….way more than a “regular” cruise ship. As we all walk form place to place on the boat we all sway back and forth with the all the rolls in the hallways. It is really funny to watch but it is also really hard to walk all drunken like all the time! I usually never get sea sick at all but unfortunately it got the best of me yesterday afternoon. I am pretty sure that almost all of the people have gotten sick as well cause there are wet-vacs running all the time if you know what I mean!
The one thing I was worried about on this trip was my roommate, but I think I got pretty lucky. Her name is Leah Dicicco and she is fun Pittsburgh, PN and goes to the University of Pittsburgh. She is a pretty cool girl but the only down fall is she is a.d.d. about our room being really super clean and organized and if something is not in its place she kind of flips out a bit!! But besides that she seems pretty cool.

Well my classes are going really well and I don't really have a lot of "busy homework" but there is just a lot of reading to do. I think my favorite class so far in terms of interest is my poverty and disease class but my cultural geography class is awesome because my professor is really amazing and unique!

I am just meeting lots of new people of all different types from all over the country and all over the world. I have my group of homie g's that I hang out with everyday and we are from all over the US! We are already planning future road trips to visit each other!

Well thats all for now!

Pre-blog life

Hi everyone, look who is still alive!! I am so so sorry that I have not been able to keep in touch with many of you while I have been away. So, as a result of that I decided to create a blog so that you can keep up with me! So when you have time you can read its and see what has been going on. I know that if you are a Gmail user you can post your comments on my blog...but if you are not, you can just email them to me just like all of you have been doing! O and I thought I came up with a pretty good fitting for my URL hunh!

Well, right now I am sitting in the cafeteria of our ship in the bay of beautiful/fantastic/amazing Hong Kong while I wait for the ship to leave for Vietnam soon. :( (If you can't tell, I absolutely love Hong Kong. I think it is the best place I have ever visited in my entire life!!! But I will have to explain all that later). I know, Hong Kong already.... and nobody knows what has been going on since before Hawaii!! So my plan is to go back in time and relive all what has already happened and create entries based on that. Since a lot has gone on since I left, it will take me a while to catch up with myself but I will try to do as fast as I can!

I hope all of you are doing well and life is good for everyone. Keep in touch, cause I love hearing from people that I love! But no promisies on long responses!!
Love Ya!

Ok... so here it goes! The World according to me, as seen through my eyes: