Charlie's Adventures

The Final Post from the MV Explorer

2006-04-28T13:28:00.000-05:00

Here in the bowels of purgatory of the MV Explorer, I await my floor's departure. The wait is made to feel longer by the fact that we aren't really doing anything on the ship by watching other people leave. It also feels longer by the fact that I am running on 6 hours of sleep for the past 50 some odd hours. Sleep has been one of the most lacking activities in this adventure and finally on the last day I hit the wall pretty hard.
Lots of enjoyable and not so enjoyable activites have taken place over the last couple of weeks including prom... i mean the ambaasador's ball. Which is really more of an ambassador's dinner because the dance was awful. Would it really have been so hard to set up a lesson of teaching everyone how to ballroom dance. This contemplation of SAS dropping the ball on a great opportunity had me thinking about the many times SAS has definately suffered from a lack of leadership and direction.

I came on this trip with key personal goals in mind, learn to get closer with people, improve my diction, and find confidence. I think my discoveries in lack of leadership ties in alot with finding confidence. Only in hindsight do I realize the faults in leadership and someday I hope to let kids know about them. One example of this is the administration. I've seen sloths, and I've seen this administration team and I am not quite sure which one moves faster. The number of faculty that actually interacted with the students was increidbly dissapointing. Only the voice Tom Jelke and Scott Sherman seemed to really interact with the students and try and challenge them about the world. Not all, but majority of the faculty really seemed to only be on the ship for their extended vacation.
There's lots I will have to reflect on like this after I return to home. I will miss alot of things on the ship, including the sunsets at dinner, playing guitar out into the ocean everyday and listening to stupid, stupid questions. Like... while we were in Hiroshima... no joke... someone asked "Who bombed these guys?"

Seeing San Diego today was an amazing sight and it was weloming to be back in the United States.

Closing my eyes outside and opening to them to a beautiful mountainous backdrop and we all began to realize, we were home. For now... hope you enjoy all the ambassadors dinner pictures.

2006-04-17T19:01:00.000-05:00

Dear Missers and Well Wishers,

R.I.P. Helia Erickson. My great grandma of 105, the queen of the north, I’m sure you will take care of everyone in the next life just as good as you did in this one. Thanks for being a true inspiration of the human spirit and being a source of strength and compassion for all to admire.

https://mail.stthomas.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.legacy.com/StarTribune/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory%26PersonId=17477813

I think my desire to explore and be different stems from her side more than anyone elses. The fact that she played baseball and went to college which was something girls weren’t supposed to do. I am the same way in that if I am supposed to spend my college years drinking away and partying, I’d rather be running marathons and traversing the world in a way that isn’t the same as anyone else. That’s what brings me happiness, is being able to strike off on my own in a whole new direction and find a new sort of happiness. I hope I can do that for the rest of my life.

Stepping off the young MV explorer, I entered the wonderful place of Kobe, Japan. My first idea was natural, head to the much rumored insane baseball games. My spirits for the game were quickly dampered by the lingering seattlesque rain and the game was officially cancelled. After this I proceeded to have one of the most interesting SAS experiences yet. After taking the subway back to the station I decided to pick a temple on the map, throw the map away and make my way there on my own. It was truly a fascinating experience to just get lost in an unknown country where you can’t read anything and have no idea where you are going. It was nice to be on my own and away from any groups for a day because anywhere I wanted to go, I could just walk into without discussing it with anyone or worry about losing anyone. I found out a couple things on my journey to get lost, one was Japan truly is the mecca for all that is video games. There are playstations 2’s in all the internet café’s and the arcades are all on a grand multiplayer scale where people will spend a lot of time and money on these ‘brain builders’. After wondering into several golf shops I found my beloved temple. It happened to be a historic landmark with tickets and stuff so I happily observed the end of my quest and then headed out to dinner with some friends. Dinner was always an interesting experience in Japan because we always ate next to the nicest people would explain the entire menu to us and give us some of their food and share some drinks.

The second day I was off on my last official Semester at Sea sanctioned excursion. Our long bus ride to the town of Nara began with visting a…. TEMPLE!! It was cool, but even more beautiful was the fact that our guide told us that once a year that cherry blossom trees go into full bloom for 5 days and we happened to arrive in their prime. They were very beautiful and by the end of our trip you could tell they were starting to wilt. But for a while that tree’s were littered in pink dots and it was quite beautiful and quite cold. We also found Deer park, where deer would roam freely amongst the people and they were very fat and well fed and I continued to feed their addiction to cookies, bread and even paper. After this we proceeded to our wonderful ryokan which is a Japanese traditional style in and you have to where a robe everywhere you go and no shoes which I really enjoyed. The room’s were a hallway, a bathroom and then futons for sleeping! As I made my way to the bathroom I discovered the greatest invention of all time… Heated Toilet Seats. It almost makes a trip to the bathroom exciting. This was joined by such toilet accessories as the butt washer and water noise maker for potentially embarrassing situations and it came fully equipped with a volume control button. After a cross legged dinner, I made my way to the public bath. As is tradition I proceeded to the male only section and got out of my clothes and was prepared to wash up when much to my surprise an 80 year old woman was currently occupying the bath. I closed the door and came back a couple hours later. The bath was actually excruciatingly hot but at the same time felt incredibly nice. After such a relxing evening it was off to bed.

After exploring some more temples in Kyoto which all blend together (and have been since burma) we headed back to Kobe for another interesting dinner experience. I finally got to a sushi restaurant. After a very delicious meal, we were notified that once a year they have baby eel at this restaurant and they gave me a small bowl full of baby eels which were still SWIMMING and very much alive and told us it was custom to take it as a shot. After feeling like a contestant on Fear Factor, I decided to give it the ol’ college try and it was actually sorta tasty albeit squirmy.

The rest of my time was spent going to another cancelled baseball game and going to several Sake factories and exploring the shopping district of Kobe I just continued to walk around with some of my friends. It was on this trip I realized that out of all these great places we’ve seen in the world, it’s this circumstance of being in college and traveling with friends that truly made semester at sea a unique experience. It’s like the old saying, it’s not what you see but who you see it with. We had an absolutely amazing time bowling, doing Karokee (in private rooms with just our group) and I truly found it to be one of the best ports I have been to. Everything about Japan’s geographical setup says it should be at a complete disadavantage in terms of space, limited resources no countries linked to it. However Japan in some ways is more technologically advanced than the U.S. and also it was A LOT cleaner, and the people were very kind, the geisha’s were very beautiful. It’s strange that Japan has come so far in a short time because while the US was starting off in the 1800’s Japan was still settling domestic disputes with Shoguns. Japan is also the first country that doesn’t accept US dollars because they are very proud of their yen and really strive for excellence. I was very impressed with the countries ability to function. It was weird being in Japan seeing that it’s the only organized country to make an offensive strike against the United States since the colonial days. However they welcomed the US as friends and we were treated amazingly well everywhere we went. The memory of Japan will stay with me for a long time and its definitely a place I will return to someday just to see the behemoth that is Tokyo. After a magical experience I am sad to say that we have now begun the long journey home (14 days, ugh cabin fever and rough seas to account for as well) classes were cancelled the day after japan due to rough seas which makes up for me missing the one snow day in Minnesota. Everyone can expect a special friendly blog after our stop in Hawaii and then a blog when I hit my basement in Plymouth, MN. Until then, thanks again to Hank for another fantastic letter in Japan and all his letters really kept me smiling and were wonderful to receive. Thanks to Grace and Jenna for more awesome postcards and I hope this blog has been fun. We also had a charity auction on the ship where I took place in getting a bottle of merlot, a group of 10 friends for a week in a cottage on the coast of England, a 2-10 day photography expedition (may or may not be for someone depending on schedules) and we bought for 21 dollars a piece our very own table at lunch and dinner. Their were many tempting items including a week long hunting/fishing trip in south Africa. But I made sure my friends were included in all my thing and considering that all my things altogether are less than some of the SAS sanctioned trips like to the amazon (so its less that 1250) I thought it sounded like fun and hopefully we will have some great fun! Time to begin studying for final exam…

If I Start Digging Now, I could be home within a day

2006-04-10T06:54:00.000-05:00

Hello Joggers and Sprinters and TV marathoners
(DONT FORGET TO CHECK OUT MY MOMS PERSPECTIVE ON VIETNAM IN THE POST BELOW THIS ONE!!!)

There I was stepping off the comforts of the boat into the wonderful land of Hong Kong, when I realized we aren’t at your typical harbor here in HK. I was most definitely in a mall the instant I stepped off the ship, I guess it was the equivalent of sail in shopping. The first thing I saw, McDonalds and Starbucks! In mass quantities, they were everywhere with a few KFC’s sprinkled in for effects and diversity and a pizza hut if you are a real hunter of Americanization. The second thing that became somewhat painfully obvious was that the delicious Chinese food down at your local Leean Chin or your local jade fountain wasn’t really Chinese food. It’s kinda like summing up all the McDonalds as American food and expecting all the food in the US to taste like McD’s. Not only was there lots of buildings, ships and people here in HK, there was the pollution to show for it as well. Every city in China has an incredible smog surrounding the horizon preventing anyone from looking too far into the distance. Our time here in Hong Kong passed quickly and it was time to meet our driver and head out of town to meet Michael and Christine Wu.
My friend Nicki and I began our fantastic adventure of the big red giant known as China. The first thing I asked to my local friend was, “Is China really going to be the next big superpower?” and he laughed. He explained to me that most Chinese people are really just looking for peace and it is against their nature to try start a war for any reason (say oil, money, you know like some other countries) Which I didn’t believe at first. But after walking around China it was clear that most people are very laid back and are also very into nature and the natural workings of the world.

The first town we visited was Shanghai (which is preferable to Shanglow) and we went straight to… a German restaurant! It was very tasty and considering the hordes of Chinese that was to come, I didn’t mind just having a tasty steak. After dinner we visited a local bar joint where a local band was playing on stage. They asked in Chinese if anyone wanted to play and Michael Wu volunteered me for the assignment. After singing (a very fast and out of time) when I come around by green day, I got a huge round of applause for the foreign song that nobody knew the words to. It was a really cool experience. Next we visited a dance club and the only people making asses out of themselves dancing… were from California! The next day we explored some beautiful gardens and enjoyed a nice dim sum lunch. After walking by the waterfront and the Bundt we called it a night and headed off for good ol’ Beijing following a particularly exciting argument in Chinese between my friend Michael Wu and the ticket agent lady. You haven’t lived until you watch two people argue out loud in public in a language you don’t understand.
Beijing didn’t quite have the same evil looking skyscrapers as Shanghai, but it was still a avery large city. It reminded me a lot of uptown Minneapolis, only an uptown that stretched on forever and ever. Our first order of business was to visit the temple of heavan. It was very beautiful, including my graceful fall down the steps, with all the shrines. Two highlights included the echo wall very similar to the ceiling of the house of congress where you could talk into the wall and the sound would travel all the way to the otherside of it. Another highlight was the center of the building contained an area where when you talked your voice would reverberate and echo through the entire chamber.
The food in Beijing was exceptional. I am not allowed to talk about a lot of it so as to prevent any jealousy between other parties that do business with Michael Wu, but the duck was particularly amazing. It was cool to eat in a restaurant where bush sr, Arafat, and… yanni? Had eaten. Yes yanni’s picture was up there next to all the world leaders. Every meal was delicious and was very different than what I was expecting.
The next day greeted us with a cold rain and I knew it was going to be an interesting day. We set out with one goal in mind, to scale the Great Wall. As we drove to the wall, the weather felt more and more like fall in Minnesota. It especially felt like fall because it didn’t take long until there white flakes falling from the sky. There was quite a chill to the air and the snow had accumulated to perfect snowball making height. There were lots of people walking along the wall which looks like the most twisted spine any chiropractic has ever seen. With the bricks getting slipperier by the minute, there was lots of people falling especially when the wall gets steep and it got amazingly steep in some places. It was then I whipped out Michael Wu’s cell phone and made a nice 50th birthday call to my mom. HAPPY 50th MOM! It was quite amazing to be on one of the biggest and most prestigious wonders of the world and a structure that I had built in so many cities on my old computer game Civilization.

Our next tourist stops included the Tiananmen Square and the amazing Forbidden city. The lowlight of the forbidden city was the Starbucks that was inside of it. It was more jaw dropping shockingly amazing than anything else. The history in the city was amazing as well and how perfectly square everything was and how it all lined up according to the emperor’s plan. I was amazed with China because it was setup in a style that’s made for industry but there are now random tourist things spring up all over the place. I felt fortunate to exist in a time period where I am even allowed to enter the forbidden city because that kind of access is something that wasn’t available for the first 3,000 years of time.
After all the tourist things we finally made it to the market where a couple fans of handles and steel may soon be rewarded for their odd devotions. The market is interesting because they don’t try and keep you there with words but the ladies in store will grab you by the arm and try and get you not to leave. It was also fun to see all the Olympic stuff setup and the merchandise already selling like beer on the ship, I mean… anyways.
The best part about the entire trip though had to be my interaction with Michael Wu. He was recommended by my good friend Mike and was very instrumental in creating the best time for me possible. I didn’t truly appreciate how good our time was until I got back to the ship and heard about everyone who struggled to communicate with people in China while I had no problems whatsoever in any manner. Every night seem to bring a new surprise and a new joy and I loved every minute of China. The sea’s are pretty rough right now and we will be entering a communications black out tonight at midnight till the day after we leave Kobe. Not too long now till the voyage home!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH MICHAEL AND CHRISTINE WU!!

A parental perspective in Vietnam!!

2006-04-09T22:41:00.000-05:00

Mom's journey blog entry- 4/8/06
After 9 planes, 12 buses, 5 boats. 1 train, 2 taxis, 1 tuk tuk, and an
elephant ride in 14 days later, we finally returned home. One of the
father's on the trip, Russell, said when he watched the boat leave the
harbor in Nassau, he thought to himself, "What have I just done? I just
sent my daughter off with 849 complete strangers on a boat for 100
days." This time we watched the boat leave going back down the Saigon
River out to sea and we all knew we were watching 680 Young American
Ambassadors head for China. (680 students plus staff-no-we didn't lose
150 people from the boat). After sharing their journey with them
through Vietnam and Cambodia, we all knew we were with some very
special students who had discovered themselves and found their voices
somewhere within those 100 days and many countries later. We as
parents were ready to take on our roles once more, "Have you been
eating right?", "Are you OK?" "Do you need anything?" But we only
heard, "Come on, we have many roads to go down yet, mom and dad." So!
Off we went.

Suffering from jetlag and heat shock, we arrived in Bangkok. We had
our first class in foreign language from our guide, Mae. "Sawadee-ca"
for women to say, and "Sawadee-crap" for the men meaning welcome,
hello, good-by, and thank-you." Bangkok has 4 seasons, as does
Minnesota: hot, hotter, hottest and wet. We only have one of the four,
and having had 20 inches of snow fall the week before we left, it was
quite the shock to arrive in over 100 degree heat and humidity and
being told this is the hotter season. Hottest starts in April! I
loved Bangkok, The City of Angels, but I refer to it as Buddaville. We
floated down the Chao Phraya River and through the Thornburi canals,
feeding the carp, eating lunch along the shore and watching the boys
swim in the water on our first day. We saw beautiful temples, the
Grand Palace, toured the Ayuthaya, the former capital, and visited the
"Summer Palace" which I found to be stunning. We saw Buddha: The
Golden Buddha, The Jade Buddha, The Laying Down Buddha, fat Buddha,
skinny Buddha, and meditating Buddha for our enlightenment. We
definitely want to return to Thailand and see more of the countryside
including Chiang Mai.

Vietnam was interesting for all of us but for many, we spent the first
day casting off our old images of Vietnam whether they were from a TV
screen, cover of Life Magazine, or because of a visit courtesy of Uncle
Sam. A thriving city, Ho Chi Minh was a bustling city along the Saigon
River. Our first lesson: how to cross the street. It is an exercise
in faith! Follow three rules: don't look, just start to cross; don't
change your pace; don't look back. It is the city of a million
scooters. Scooterville. I thought it was a special parade but no,
just everyone drives scooters. Women dressed as ninjas surprised me but
I was told the Vietnam women don't want to have any tan lines from the
sun. The 'whiter' the better and how they do not pass out in the heat
dressed in a total cover up including the face covered, long sleeved
gloves and hats and socks is beyond me. I first thought they wanted to
be more white as in Caucasian but I quickly learned the other reason:
the whiter the skin, the more education, which in turn meant more money
and not a job working in a rice patty. 60 % of the population in
Vietnam is under 25 years old so one girl I was with from the boat had
to find someone to interview about the war for her class assignment but
that was not as easy as I thought it would be with everyone so young.
Imagine how different the US would be if over half the population was
barely drinking age! The second day, we parents stood on the rooftop
of our hotel watching for the first sighting of the ship as it came up
the Saigon River at the crack of dawn. The ship was enormous sailing
by the Sampans, the Vietnamese fishing boats. Hardly able to contain
our excitement, we dashed to breakfast and boarded the bus to take us
to the pier. Grab your Kleenex! Tears of joy came out of our eyes as
our kids hung over the ship rails hanging signs of greetings to us.
Bursting out in song of Happy Birthday to Nicci's dad, and one girl
yelling, "Guess what Mom, I am pregnant!" (Just a little joke since
the ship is 2 girls for every boy.) Little did we know, the country
had its own greeting committee with 12 women dressed in traditional
Vietnam clothes holding their own personal greeting sign of welcome to
our country. Charlie was right: the Vietnamese were very warm and
welcoming to all of us. Vietnam was the capital of Tailors as most of
the students wanted clothes made so off we went to be outfitted after
we greeted the boat's arrival. As Charlie said, "It is just another day
for us at school", we hit the ground running once the students joined
us and after our lunch on board the ship meeting the fantastic crew, we
were off to Cambodia the second day.

Cambodia was by far the most interesting. It wasn't poverty we were
looking at. It was simply a country still in its infancy in terms of
development. As it said in one of our recommended reading materials,
"Cambodia is like a broken vase. The millions of little pieces have
been glued back together but it is not very strong." It was not the
Killing Fields with the skulls piled up, and clothes or bones still
sticking out of the ground that made one pause. It was the only place
in 14 days the sky tried but failed to open up on us. It was just the
tears of the many lost souls, falling on our faces from the sky as we
just stood there on the dusty dirt roads around Phnom Pehn. On our
second day in Cambodia, we were greeted with 110-degree temps and that
does not factor in the 90 percent humidity, as we stepped off the plane
headed for the city of Angkor. Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Angkor Thom
were the highlights of this city.

After Cambodia, we were off to return to Vietnam and cruised the Mekong
Delta along the Mekong River sampling honey tea, exotic fruits and
another oriental buffet. We rejoined the group that went to Hanoi
instead and shared our different experiences with them. All too soon
it was time to wave good-by to our ambassadors. We proud parents stood
on the rooftop of our hotel to wave as the captain of the boat set sail
once again down the Saigon River headed for another stop, another
country, and another day of classes.

The highlights? The woman in the picture Charlie put at the beginning
of his Vietnam entry asked me if I wanted a Vietnam daughter-in-law
after meeting Charlie. Feeding the wild monkeys, riding the elephants,
meeting the wonderful parents of our young ambassadors, entrepreneur
Charlie selling frozen wet towelettes to the kids outside our bus,
watching Katie bargain for a cheaper taxi in H.C.M., Vince bargaining
down the price for his Congo drum, thawing out, gaining the true
understanding of the mission the Institute of Shipboard Education has
for students, Mike finding his soul mate in George for our
entertainment including the dance on stage the two did on our last
night, Charlie ordering two dinners at the French Restaurant
overlooking Saigon River before boarding the boat, and the education we
got in 3 Asian countries.

If I went back to Cambodia, it would be for a mission such as bringing
textbooks since they have very few if any teachers for the kids. I
will never forget the eyes in the little boy who clung to me at Angkor
Wat asking "Madame, One U.S.dollar, Madame". I can still hear him. I
had the great fortune of meeting General Colin Powell before Charlie
set sail and I now agree with him after I told him about Charlie's
semester at sea: We are relying on these 680 young voices to be our
next leaders and giving a voice to those who can not speak to us
directly for they have looked into the eyes of many people around the
world and listened to their messages. I think that is the ultimate
purpose of this journey for our children and I applaud their courage.
We parents are very proud of these students and know we cannot place a
dollar value on the wisdom they have gained.

Thank-you students, parents, guides and instructors for sharing your
journey with us. In three weeks, we will once again stand at the pier
with our welcome signs, Kleenex, and empty suitcases for all your
purchases and tailored made clothes and watch as the captain safely
brings in the ship into the harbor in San Diego. See you there!

Goooood morning Viet 'Mom'

2006-04-03T12:20:00.000-05:00

Hi people from Nicki :)

I woke up at 7 (ICT) in the morning to find the boat floating down a river towards Ho Chi Minh City formerly known as Saigon. The first thing that’s noted is that in Vietnam there was no Vietnam war, there was the American and Chinese war crimes. I just found this to be an interesting point of view. Next I think I will answer questions from the latest letter from my Uncle Hank because I think they are probably very common questions everyone has about Vietnam:
Do they like Americans in Vietnam? Do you feel welcome?
Yes. In fact Vietnamese love Americans and are quite welcoming to all of them. Almost everyone we talked to had a positive view about the US and hopes to visit there someday. Part of this is due to the fact that over 60 percent of the population in Vietnam is under 21. So most weren’t even alive during the war and don’t seem to hold any grudges about the stories of old. Although there’s the war remnants museum the only thing that really stands as a reminder is the flag with the red communist star. There are some destroyed buildings but we never confirmed their cause. We did sail to Ho Chi Minh through the straits of Malacca which was FULL of ships. There are ships everywhere in this area which is why we constantly had to have people on pirate watch because any boat is a potential threat. The water is also a lot dirtier in the Indian ocean and there’s constantly debris floating in the water. We had a fuel stop in Singapore but we didn’t get to get off the ship but they were kind enough to stamp our passports. Adding to my growing stamp collection. I would like to say happy trails to Courtney who cut her hand in Myanmar and got an infection and had to be sent home. This is very sad and I hope she gets to come back someday and complete her journey.

After the brief Ambassadors meeting, which happens in every country ambassadors from the American embassy come talk to us about what to expect, Nicki and I prepared her dad’s 50th bday sign and went upstairs to see our parents waiting for us on the dock. It was quite the welcoming experience to share part of the journey with my mom and mike. It was also fun to compare them because this is their first stop and our seventh, so what seems routine and normal to us like crazy traffic and the heat, was almost overhwleming to them at first. The next thing you’ll notice about Vietnam is the traffic. I know the traffic has been zany in every country, but here is especially crazy because there’s a constant stream of scooters at all times which can make crossing the street a challenge. It really becomes an exercise of faith in humanity as you just set your direction and walk and hope the traffic avoids you, it’s fun and dangerous, but altogether part of the great expereience. The next best thing about Vietnam is movies, no not their movies, our movies, that are all out in theatres right now, are all out for sale here. For a dollar. To put it in other terms, C.S.I. the TV show is 75 dollars per season back in the United States. Here, it’s seasons 1-5 for 39 dollars. The only thing you risk is buying a dvd in the wrong regional code so you have to watch on your lap top, OR, you may get one that doesn’t work at all. Although this was very tempting, I don’t watch too many movies to justify ripping off the industry in a grand legal style so I didn’t purchase any.
My mom and step dad were there part of the Semester at Sea parent trip so there was a group of parents there and the next day we all departed for Cambodia. I had pretty high expectations going into Cambodia and I am happy to say they were all easily met. The first day we headed into the mother of all temples Angkor Watt and it was quite the large infrastructure. With all it’s sheer size being amazing I could only imagine what it would have been like in its hay day when jewels were implanted on every stair and the first was lit in every corner. After me and the other 20,000 (not an exaggeration) tourists left my small 30 person group headed back to our very wonderful quaint hotel.
The next day we headed to the Killing Fields. Those that have seen the movie have some idea of what I am talking about. A couple of decades ago, a man by the name of Pol Pot took power, and decided to torture and kill all the traitors (makes sense) and educated people (doesn’t make sense) and you can still see this resonating through the country today. The genocide museum made quite the impact I think on everyone who saw it. After that we explored a some more beautiful temples. One temple was where they filmed the movie Tomb Raider and had trees literally growing from the around and on top of the walls.
After the umpteenth temple, we made our way to the plane and did the one thing no one wanted to do 40 years ago… fly back into Vietnam. Comparatively, Ho Chi Minh City, AKA Saigon, is head and shoulders above its Phenom Penh and Cambodian natives. There was still a lot of anger amidst the people of Cambodia towards its current Vietnamese government. I wouldn’t be surprised to see violence of some sort rise out of Cambodia in the next decade. Which made me very feel very fortunate to have been there in this small window of time.
The last night I was treated to dinner at a fancy French restaurant on the 14th floor of this building overlooking my ship. I ended up getting back to the ship just in time, around 10 30 with required on ship time being 11. However right around 11, there was a mad rush of the gang plank with things getting out of control due to alcohol. So a lot of people got dock time in china which can be anywhere from 2 hours to 24 of required staying on the ship. So now its on to the rising red giant of china to see the next competition, thanks for the wonderful time in Vietnam for everyone who came and everyone who wasn’t, I recommend visiting. It’s an extremely entertaining and cheap town with a 100% Italian wool suit costing only 400 compared to 1400. I haven’t stopped learning now for 74 days, and in the next few days I’ll hit the 75% mark of the trip for the final stretch. Don’t blink now, or else you’ll miss an entire episode of charlie’s adventures. More to come from a parental perspective of this fascinating and wonderful country….

Next Stop on the SAS tour: The Bagan Open

2006-03-21T22:14:00.000-06:00

Ahoy Freedom Fighters

We have officially departed from the town of Yangon (Rangoon) and made our way out the mysterious state of Myanmar and I feel like I even learned a thing or two. Myanmar is by far the most intriguing state we’ve visited simply because of it’s current state of affairs. For those of you who are unaware of what’s going on in Myanmar… I mean Burma… it’s a very sad situation. 14 years ago the people held their first free election and 80% voted for their president. This right of democracy was soon denied by the military regime who threw the victor in jail and a general remained at the helm. Now in the year 2006, only the government refers to the country as Myanmar, while the natives and everyone else in the world, knows it as Burma. Now the government is trying to tighten it’s grip by cutting off everyone and everything from the outside world, including shutting down most access to outsiders and making long distance phone calls cost up to 12 dollars a minute. Another way they try and discourage tourists is by offering a really bad exchange rate that’s not all too different than working with a six year old. The official exchange rate is 6 Kyat (chat) for 1 USD. However after wandering the streets for a few hours, you’ll find the black market exchange rate is a whopping 1,100 kyat to 1 USD. The bottom line became, when you were in Burma one dollar can take you a long, long way… unless it’s a bottle of rum you are buying for 50 cents, then you aren’t going very far except by taxi. So I bought a lachee (spelling?) basically a man skirt, and a nice eastern style button up shirt and made my way to the city of Bagan.

Bagan: The land of 2,000 pagodas and 2 actual buildings. The landscape of Bagan is absolutely breathtaking because the horizon of pagodas goes on and on and on. The first day we stopped at Shwedogan pagoda and it was amazing to see all the activity going on including prayer, Buddhist novication ceremonies, and all the monks dressed in their monkee attire. The second day I finally achieved something very few Americans can claim. I played a round of golf in Bagan. I shot 100 in Bagan, but it was glorious. The unfortunate thing is that the golf course probably had government ties, but this is something that’s very hard to avoid in a country that’s run by the military. We had caddies and all and the whole round cost us about 50 dollars. It was fun because we were the only people on the golf course. So at the turn instead of taking a 5 minute break. We took an hour lunch break and decided to wait off the heat. For those people who hate clouds, I have a country for you, there were absolutely no clouds the entire time I was there. But plenty of smog for you smog addicts. With the faithful caddies, I only lost one ball the entire round. Later that night we watched the sunset from a pagoda and enjoyed a relaxing night watching Back to the Future on HBO. Really not much of a nightlife in Bagan. One night we went out to dinner at a puppet show theatre house. I wasn’t too impressed by the puppetry and thought that it seemed strange.

After this short trip we made our way back to Yangon for one last night of exploring the town. The city of Yangon is actually very wonderful. My thought association of Yangon is much higher than that of India because there weren’t as many beggars and everything seemed a lot cleaner on the whole. We eventually made our way to a local restaurant we they let us come on stage and sing with the in house band. People were defiantly very interested in seeing and learning as much as they could about foreigners. They seemed almost confused at our reasons for being there. One thing that is dirtier in Burma (noticibly) is the water. It literally looks like a boiling puddle of mud. We ended up docking actually in a fairly wide river which took a toll on when we could and could not leave because of things like tide and water height. Now we off and I am on my way to Vietnam/Cambodia to see my mom and mike. And soon our boat can stop conserving water, which would be wonderful. One thing to explain is that my amazon trip and safari were all done independently. My last two over night trips have been completely arranged by Semester at Sea. When you actually get away from the main group and do things independently the trip is a little riskier, but infinitely more rewarding. To anyone thinking of going on SAS or knows anyone going SAS my advice would be to first check everything out independently and you experience will be far richer. If you ever get a chance to see Myanmar/Burma, I would definitely do it, with military regimes becoming a fad of the past, it’s something I recommend to anyone. It’s a very safe country and I think it’s a country that is worth getting behind and fighting for independence from the control of the government. But after India, is a democracy really an improvement for everybody or even an ideal setup, are people smart enough to rule themselves? I am not too sure anymore. Today on sea we finally hit our first storm but it was not too rocky. Also they put out a PIRATE ALERT!!! They have all the hoses dispensed and ready and people watching guard on the back of the boat as we head through the most heavily pirate infested waters in the world: The Malacca Strait. Ahoy mateys... I am ready to take them on! We also had a crew talent show which was really AWESOME! Things are getting better all the time. Oh I have to go get ready for the drag show. TaTa.

CRAZY LIKE A RICKSHAW!!

2006-03-17T05:48:00.001-06:00

Good Morning Zelda Fan Club, (pictures are still on the way)

Sorry for the long time since India and lack of post, pictures can take even longer to develop out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There have been quite a lot of activities going on here on and off the ship. First activity was the great Sea Olympics. For one day, classes were cancelled and there was a complete mixed bag of activities ranging from dodgeball, to board games, to lyp synch competitions, to how many marshmallows you can stuff in your mouth, and much much more. I participated in the Tug o’ War and my team placed second. Even if you weren’t participating in the games, you were participating in the cheering section. I am still amazed at how for one day everyone in our section of the boat bonded and made up cheers for our team the Red Sea Ringers. You can tell some people here really really miss their college sport festivities. The day ended with us getting 4th overall in the Olympics. so that’s what order we get off the boat in San Diego which is good news for people who are waiting for me. Finally what you’ve all been waiting for… the top 10 things to know about India:

10. Wow… Columbus was way off.
9. You get to be a celebrity because everyone here wants to be you.
8. Caerful Driving… Cows everywhere even the middle of the street.
7. Careful Driving part 2… Road rules are really Road recommendations so when your rickshaw turns around to go against traffic… just smile.
6. Never pay even half of what anyone in the market is asking for.
5. If you’re a guy… friend is your new name to everyone on the street and if you’re a girl… pretty lady is your new name.
4. Don’t Breathe… near a city. Or you will get sick… and belong right at home here on this boat.
3. Don’t eat pizza… cheese/dairy/India… not a healthy mix. In fact, it’s better if you just don’t eat anything.
2. India actually likes America… I am not sure why, but everyone here is really friendly. And they really want to get to America.
1. Never trust a rickshaw driver, but don’t be afraid to fall in love with the rickshaw.

The First day of India was a nice walk through an Indian movie studio. It was amazing to see them still using film technology since in less than five years, those techniques will be somewhat extinct. It was cool though to see how Hollywood USED to work before all the digital technology. It was a nice learning experience and was a good way to spend my first day in this intriguing country.
The second day, I put myself on a bus for Mallalapuram and we rode out to this small town just ouside of Chennai. The resort we stayed at was quite cozy and air conditioned so it made for a relaxing time. In the morning we watched a group of professional dancers do some cool on the spot dancing and they put on quite the show. Later that afternoon we took a walk around the city and visited some cool shrines and pagodas that dated back to the 7th century. It was pretty amazing to see a place where the tsunami hit because there were a lot of signs for hope. Though with all the trash you really can’t tell if its debris from the tsunami or just part of the filth of India. Either is equally plausible. Street vendors and beggars are just about everywhere, and its quite amazing how they never ever stop following you. We spent the evening dining Indian style in the hotel and enjoying a nice break from the hubbub.
The next morning we woke up at 6 in the morning for an early yoga and meditation session. It was quite relaxing and a good way to see the sunrise in the brownish dirty ocean. After yoga, the group gave in and had a wonderful horse ride on the beach which was quite fun. Then we headed to a village headed by one medical guy where he donates his medical services to everyone in the town. Although it seemed quite nice and he seemed quite unselfish, I was amazed at how nice his house was, and in what poor condition everyone else’s house was. After a nice lunch in the downpour, they decided to cancel our overnight stay in the village and we headed back for a nice walk around the town. In the morning a couple of friends and I headed out to a pagoda on top of a hill which used to be a light house. I was amazed going through this place because of the long stair climb, and then the priests blessed the Gods of Vishnu and Ganesh and asked us for money and… pens! Random… yes. But actually pens was something commonly asked for by beggar and rickshaw driver alike. After this amazing cultural experience we returned back to the city markets of Chennai. This involved more of our beloved rickshaw ridings which for those who are still unaware, is a cross between a scooter and an old Ford model car. Really quite remarkable and I think would be pretty popular on some college campuses.
India was by far the dirtiest country we have been to. I have to admit, unless I was exploring the Taj Mahal or the beautiful small villages of South India, I would not come back here. But it was altogether a very good experience for me. It was one of the more different cultural experiences and for that I am grateful for having seen it, but at least it was a good spiritual place that seems overcrowded with people and energy. Things are getting serious now, as we begin to ration water and we make our way to the military regime of myanmar (burma). Go gophers!

Pardon the Interruption

2006-03-08T21:16:00.000-06:00

Hello all intended and concerned,

Just to let you kids know, two days ago there was a terrorist attack in India, and we just arrived there at this moment. So no we were not there during the attack and yes we are still here. We are not going near the town of Varanasi, me or anyone on the ship, and hopefully there won’t be anything else going on cause its ho enough here as it is. I am off to Bollywood, Mallalumpara, and then maybe a little fun on the last day. So I’ll see you all again in six days.

This is the dawning of the rest of our lives...on HOLIDAY!

2006-03-02T01:13:00.000-06:00

Good Morning Dreamers and Sleepwalkers,
I have now departed Mauritius one year more mature than when I arrived. No longer considered a rookie of the drinking age in America, it’s only a matter of time before I can go crazy and rent a car. So what did we learn in this country? Not really a whole lot that you can’t learn in Hawaii unfortunately. I think Mauritius stands as a good introduction to the Indian culture before plunging head first in India. The people here were incredibly kind and the weather was incredibly more kind. I like to call Mauritius the land of magical rainbows because you always see one right before it rains. One appeared very and ended just over a fence. Unfortunately I am still traveling so you can assume safely no pot of gold was found. But we saw quite a few rainbows and they were quite common because the sun was always present as well.
I started my first day with my friend Nicki and we walked around the marketplace bartering with the locals and eating at tasty holes in the wall. I think I am turning religious cause it takes a lot of prayer to ward off Montezuma and his spiteful revenging meanace. Hmm I think Pepto Bismal is the new Crystal Meth on this ship. I’ve been ok since the Amazon but you never can be sure in these countries. After that we visited the village of Bambou which is like an organized orphanage. The first kids we saw weren’t too excited to see us and much preferred to watch Sylvester and Tweety Bird on TV. The next house we visited, we went all out to give out stickers and we soon won over the kids warmth which resulted in lots of running and around and small soccer games. What was a slumbering community, was now more awake than we usually are on the ship. It was about this time I stepped into a hole in the ground and felt my ankle bend in some not so friendly ways. I hobbled my way off the field and spent the night before my b-day with a bag of ice and watching movies on the ship.
The next we paid a visit to Adventure Park which is a basic ropes course, nothing too challenging but an enjoyable way to begin my 22nd. This ended up being a dangerous excursion because there was tons of man eating mosquitoes which happened to be carrying a chiknugyen virus which was just breaking out when we arrived. After this muddy excursion we visited the rest of the Semester at Sea party people at Flic en Flac beach and spent the next few hours staring off into the abyss of the Indian Ocean. I spent the rest of the night mingling with friends and playing games that are similar to ping pong and basketball meshed into one wonderful conglomerate. Most SAS kids rented bungalows or villas in these towns, I just visited these great houses and was glad for it because there was quite a few ransackings and robberies that occurred to some.

The third day involved some more exploring of the town of Port Louis. Unfortunately my ankle didn’t allow for me to golf on an a course that is built on an island. Also there’s quite a bit of hiking to do in these places that was left undone. Three days ended up being way too short after spending 7 days in South Africa. However Maurituis stands more as a spring break and not much for culture, but a good vacation before heading into the jungle that is South-east Asia.

Since this was one of the shorter ports I figured now is the time to say a thing or two about ship life. The food is ok, it’s just a variation of a pasta, meat, fish and a potato. So pretty standard cafeteria preserved food which doesn’t mix nicely with the local food in some places. Classes are sort of a mixed bag. Global Studies the core class of the ship, is good when the main instructor is teaching, but he often has guest lectures who could make a living off helping people fall asleep. The two main areas of congregation are the 7th floor pool area and the 6th floor piano lounge. You are required to attend the global studies class somewhere official, it’s on TV in all the classrooms and normally we hang out by the piano bar and watch it on TV there. It’s very strange having a steward to make your bed and clean your room. Lots of kids like to get hotels when we get into port but the ship is so nice that its almost not worth getting a hotel. The ship really is a floating Raddison. Most days I spend at least a couple hours a day hanging outside playing guitar and looking over the ocean. Every now and then you’ll see a school of dolphins go jumping by, still haven’t seen a whale yet which is disappointing but I am not worried.
I go through a coke and a bag of popcorn a day because the smell of popcorn is just too hard to resist. After some shenanigans last time, we aren’t allowed to drink and dance anymore on the same night. So there was lots of grumbling at the stoplight dance. Which is red if you are in a relationship, green if you are single, and yellow if you are unsure or as our announcement guy said, have become less committal with each time change.
They do a pretty good job of keeping our minds occupied between ports and most of the time they do a good job of accommodating everyone’s needs. Except my psych teacher when it comes to putting together a test that actually tests our knowledge and not our ability to remember random lists of symptoms. I think that’s all for now, we lose an hour and half to India, yes they are a half hour off from the rest of the world which I find fascinating. Have I learned anything so far? The main thing I’ve learned is how centralized everyone is around their jobs and money in the US and not everywhere else and this seems to be correlated with their happiness. Not implying the correlation equals causation, just an observation. I also met some people who were pro president bush in Mauritius which so far has been a nonexistent minority. We are a little nervous about the massive protest rallies in India for the president this week and with us coming next week, but we haven’t had any issues so far. Thanks Jen Onsum for the bday car, Hank, for another great letter, and for all the awesome facebook and blog bday wishes. I can’t it took so long to get to 21 and now I ‘m already at 22. To put things in perspective this trip is 100 days long, we are on Day 42, today is day 22/55 at sea, classes are officially half over, 20/45 days at port are over. This trip really is sailing by quickly, We have less than 2 months to go and I’ve barely just begun to understand the world.

Lions, Flyers, and Beers Oh My!

2006-02-11T07:51:00.000-06:00

Hello Friends and Readers
It was quite the week spent here in South Africa. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting, but all my expectations were greatly exceeded. We landed in a port called the Waterfront which really just looked and felt like a miniature version of fisherman’s wharf in San Fran. We arrived early on Valentines Day and the entire town was enveloped in fog with the only thing standing out being the grandiose Table Mountain shining in the reflection of the sun rise. After that there was some delay due to fog which caused some chaos for the plan on the day. Unforunately my trip to Robyn Island, to see the prison where Nelson Mandela was jailed, was cancelled. This ended up being an ok thing because it was really the only chance I had to walk around the nice little town. That evening we visited a township, which is like the slums, to hear them put on a musical show. We played some bongo’s, had a delicious home cooked meal and then danced for a while before heading back to the ship.
The second day included a beautiful bicycle ride through the mountains and the winelands of South Africa, before sitting through a couple episodes of wine tasting at these vineyards. (Speaking of one or two wine collectors should be expecting a phone call in a couple of weeks from the airport) I also visited a great place called Mitchell’s Brewery, so if you see me sporting a new hat in a couple of the piutres, you’ll know why.

At five in the morning, we woke up and made our way to the airport to begin our safari. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect, but it was Celeste, Tracy, Danielle, and me which was the smallest safari group by far so I knew we’d all get individual needs met for seeing animals. We arrived at the Kapama River Lodge and I must say if you do a safari, do it this way. The lodge was beautiful and pretty plush, and the food was delicious and the staff was amazing. Our guide Liezle, was a young woman who probably knew anything and everything about animals and their habits. We took two game drives a day, everyday from 5-9 no matter if its AM or PM because otherwise its too hot/dark and it would be a miserable experience. First night we crossed off the Amazing rhino’s, and the numerous bufflo. The second day we were greeted with a friendly greeting from the Giraffes and the Elephants. We some zebra and hyena and other things intermixed, but it wasn’t till the last day we were able to finally see our lion. The only thing that eluded us was the shy Leopard, which is the hardest to find. On an amazing note, on the third evening there, we were able to arrange an elephant ride which is kinda like riding a horse only slower and higher off the ground. My elephant was named Jimmy, and Owen my driver told me a lot about Zimbabwe. The advantage of riding an elephant is that most the animals aren’t afraid of them like they are the engine of a 4 x 4 jeep. So they will act more natural and walk right by you. This is when we the majority of baby zebra and giraffe. The safari was unbelievable and it was very painless and I recommend going here to anyone willing to go on one. It was definitely different than I had imagined cause there were trees everywhere and a large network of roads. These dirt roads actually help them track the footprints of game, but it defiantely wasn’t something I was expecting.

It also extended my streak of someone mentioning they felt like they were in Jurassic Park to all 3 countries.
The next night I finally took a nap and decided to spend my last day in Cape Town sky diving. When we awoke in the morning it was raining and there was fog everywhere. Luckily by 3, the clouds wore off and we were given the ok by the company. I was the very last person to go which I now count as a blessing because I got to just as the sun was beginning to set on the land. Yes sky diving is crazy, but it’s also a lot of fun. There were a lot of clouds when I went up but I told one girl who was concerned, clouds are better because without them you can’t get the feeling of flying above them. Which I thought was a good mantra for life as well. The plane ascended to 9,000 feet before my tandem guide opened the door and we leaped through. What took 5 minutes to scale by plane, took 30 seconds by free fall. Falling above, through and under the clouds was unbelievable and the view of Cape Town and Table Mountain were astounding. Cape Town was a beautiful city, and I think this is an A plus vacation spot. It was nice because there was no language barrier, and so we tried hard to take advantage of this and do everything while our guides still understood us.
A couple of last minute notes, cause of sky diving delays I wasn’t able to get postcards sent out, so to those who have sent a letter, it will be sent in 6 days when I reach Mauritius, to those who haven’t sent me a letter, I guess you don’t want a post card. We also had an 80’s party on the ship which some people actually dressed like they came on the ship prepared for this. We learned one thing from this party which was there will be no more alcohol nights and party nights at the same time. Lastly, we have something called “special questions people ask” which are really “dumb questions people ask”. I will leave you with a few of these:
“When we are in china, and we want Chinese food, do we just ask for food?”
“Is lobster so expensive because they are extinct”?
“If we keep losing an hour, will we miss the sunset?”
“Does the sun set in the east now that we are in the southern hem.?”
And in spirit of South Africa
“Is table Mountain, the flat one?”

Hope you aren’t nervous about the future of America, See you after Mauritius.

Wow... we are in the Amazon...

2006-02-08T10:46:00.000-06:00

Hello Travel Fans,

There has been a lot going on lately, and even a lot more that I can’t talk about here, but that doesn’t it make any more or less intriguing. The ship has stopped rocking for the most part, either that or my mind just rocks along with it, I am never sure which is true. Along those lines, class is still rocking, sometimes amongst all the things going on here, it’s hard to remember it’s all just another day at school here. At the end of the day the books still need to be cracked just as often as they are at home, the only difference being that here we have 3,000 nautical miles of ocean around us to stare at. Truthfully the ocean never gets tiring, I can still look at it and be in awe as I watch the never ending tail our boat leaves behind. It makes for some nice dinner outside on the back of the boat with the sunset. Fortunately, I do sometimes get more done than nap and eat outside on the deck, and now is one of those times. So starting with the oldest events, here we go.

Things had become pretty routine as far as ship life goes until January 29th. On this day we officially crossed the one and only equator of earth. This is officially called Neptune Day by the ships elite, though I liked to call it wept tune day, for reasons that shall be revealed shortly. For those of you who are sailors, you may be somewhat aware of the initiation process that rookies go through when they cross the equator for the first time. Well for this ship, it was tamed down… somewhat. If you wanted to partake in this event, your first objective was to be dumped with fish guts. I am not really sure what was in the fish guts besides the most rotten smell known to man. After jumping in the now very yellow pool, I climbed the ladder only to be greeted with the task of kissing a fish, and the King Neptune’s ring to the joy of his raucous followers. Here’s where the fork in the road came and I chose the road somewhat less traveled which was to not shave my head. However many boys and girls chose to do so and I respect their bravery and wish them luck on finding their hair again. Thankfully, we had the rest of the day off and nothing else happened that is worth reporting.

Which brings us to the real meat of this article. It was on February 1st that I became an official member of the fellowship of the sloth. 14 of us boarded a 8 hour plane that stopped 5 times on our way to Manaus in Brazil. I must say, I was very impressed with the service on the airlines in Brazil. It was also here at the airport tha we discovered our first real hiccup. Which is, Portugese is not Spanish, and contrary to my ability to get by with Spanish, a lot of people don’t know it. I guess I assumed if you knew portugese Spanish really wouldn’t be that hard of a jump, but there was quite the language barrier. We did know a little and it seemed to be just enough to get by. In Manaus we stayed in a small little hotel that was about as white and bleak as one can get. The next morning we headed into the Amazon jungle which was pure amazement. The water seemed reminiscent of black ice back home it was so smooth. Soon after this I realized my biggest folly yet. I began to feel a few rain drops and it was at that moment I realized I had forgot my RAINjacket for the RAINforest. I wasn’t sure how much it would rain at the time, and my qualms weren’t eased when the guide said it could last for a week. It soon subsided though… and somehow rarely rained again. We arrived at our cabin and hooked up our hammocks to the roof and did what came natural to us… napped. After that, a few of us decided it would be a great idea to go swimming in the river. The only tip the guides gave us was… don’t urinate in the water or else it attracts something… which you really don’t wanna know about. Swimming in it was really nice and the water was actually warm. Our cue to leave the water came when people started fishing and catching pirhana at the end of the same dock we were swimming at. That afternoon was spent searching for wildlife, and only did we see wildlife, we ambushed wildlife. After seeing a few monkey jump back and forth we soon found a sloth. Our leader Frank had now accomplished one of his life’s goals. However our guide’s felt life they had not sufficed our groups appetite. 60 feet later, our guide was towering above us looking like the monkey’s we had seen not to long ago. A short poke and jump later and we all became witnessed to a flying three toed sloth. Well.. a falling one. Somehow this lazy herbivore managed to cling to another branch, to which our guide seemed more than happy to drop him 30 more feet into the waiting Amazon River. At which point Frank the sloth dreamer, dropped all his possessions and plunged into the water to rescue his dream. And yes, it was one of the ugliest things I have ever seen. After exchanging pictures it was onto the next event which was Caymen hunting. For those who don’t know, caymen’s are tiny alligators. Our brave guide of no fear jumped into the water and wrestled one to the ground. After passing that around, suffice to say we all passed out in our hammocks very satisfied with the days events. The next day was full of hiking through some of the most beautiful environments of the world and badgering my friend Kim who is in fact a victim of the recently swept Wisconsin Badgers school of thought. One night we slept in the jungle and it was really loud cause of these howling monkeys and talking girls. The rest of the trip was relaxing and full of pictures but nothing as exciting as our ambush of the sloth.

The town of Manaus I found to be quite nice. It had an opera house in the center and everyone seemed really friendly around town. Don’t have any malaria yet which is a good sign, although after eating fish for 3 days straight, ship food didn’t exactly settle in my stomach too quickly. Although ship life is getting pretty repetitive, it’s defiantely worth it for the onland adventures. Our last adventure was a surprise. We ended up going to a local Brazil game and it was division 3 professional so it wasn’t that great, but the arena defaintely filled up. One thing that keeps people coming back is 2 Reia’s beers which is 1 american dollar. The crowd was basically divided up into two sections one cheering for Bahia, the other for Vittoria. There was tons of chants going on and lot of people in the crowd lighting flares and playing any drum they could get their hands on. It was one of the more festive experiences I had seen. The game ended in a 1-1 tie and everyone went home slightly bitter but slightly happy. Then dock time quickly approached as a few people who tried to catch the start of the super bowl wandered in late. Groundhog’s day and the super bowl went by without so much as a thought in my mind and I didn’t miss it too much. Well this long post has finally come to an end, we are now on our way to South Africa and this is our 3rd 23 hour day in a row which is a little rough if you have an 8 am class. Hopefully you’ve made this far into the post and I would do more pictures but unfortunately they take a while to download and I don’t have that much internet time. Hope all is well and smiles are finding their way to your faces, thanks to Hank and Melissa Claude for letters in Brazil, there are postcards on the way! A letter for a postcard, fair is fair.

Hasta la Vista, Puerto Rico!

2006-01-26T22:09:00.000-06:00

Hello hop scotch fans,
Well we just left the US territory of Puerto Rico and we are once again back out into the wild. It’s been quite the adventure so far and we are currently on our way to Salvador, Brazil, what the teachers our calling our most dangerous port of call. To continue the trend of taking pictures with people, here’s me and the secretary of Puerto Rico who came to speak to us on the ship. I asked him about the independence from the US and he said there was an even split of 50/50. A lot of them want to vote and be included but they enjoy the luxury of not having to pay federal taxes. The city was really beautiful and I met some wonderful people. Here’s a breakdown of my activities and the wonderful time in the 51st state… sorta.
Monday- In the morning we went to El Yunque rainforest and walked through the jungle setting. It was really nice, and its when I developed my equation that Semester at Sea could also be called Speed Tourism. Monday evening , we ended up going to a local universe where we mingled with some of the locals and they taught us how to salsa dance. They also made me salsa dance on stage which was a lot of fun. After that we came back to the boat and fell straight to sleep.
Tuesday- In the afternoon, I headed out to the Bacardi factory, which was more of a Bacardi museum since we didn’t get to see any of the real machines. But it was two free drinks, and the whole tour was free so I wasn’t complaining. That evening we took a long drive to bioluminescent bay, which is where the plankton glow from the sun and when you touch the water they light up a little brighter. It was probably one of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life. And if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend it, it was also a perfectly clear night and the stars here were perfect.
Wednesday- I went horseback riding on the beach in the morning with a gorgeous view of the sunrise over the mountains and it was a wonderful expereience. After that some friends and I toured Old San Juan and we stopped in some local restaurants and shops to try and some local cuisine.
All in All, Puerto Rico was a great first port because it’s like the fire before jumping into the frying pan. Now we are back to rock and rolling on the ocean and hanging out on by the pool and getting some nice tan lines. I’ve been drinking a lot of coke but for some reason the rocking of the boat makes you really tired so napping’s been wonderful. Thanks for all the wonderful comments, my psych teacher is like 35 and from South Africa and he’s really smart. New Guinnea is just north of austrailia off the eastern tip, I think its time to play some poker. It’s another pub night which means we can drink if we buy these uber expensive tickets and we are limited to five drinks a night on the boat. So I am going to try and win some money from the fun people. 7 days till BRAZIL!

And we're off!

2006-01-17T01:18:00.000-06:00

Hello there fams and fans,

Well to those of you who thought that this trip would be a 33.3% boys, and 66.6% girls, ended up being quite mistaken. It’s actually a 30%-70% which in numbers wise adds up to around 210 guys and 484 girls. The funniest story so far was from two years ago, where as the ship departed the Bahamas, the guys hung a sign around the railing for all the parents waving goodbye saying ‘Fathers, thank you for your daughters.” So I decided to take a break from sun bathing and come inside for a little bit and make my first of many blog updates from the ship. It’s been really good weather so far, however with the ship traveling at a meager 9 knots out of a possible 27, it’s so far been a slow and very rocky trip. So far every night has been dubbed as the worst night for sea sickness. I have only come down with a constant light headedness, but with lots of coke (acola) I have been able to keeo myself from losing any food. Speaking of, the food here is pretty bland, but bland enough where it’s liveable for now. Classes are good, we have lots of little meetings at night, and I have played some great hands of go fish during Global Studies.

Other then global studies which not one person stayed awake for today, classes seem pretty interesting. I am watching lots of documentaries and my psych teacher asks for a lot of work, but he seems really smart and funny. Not a whole lo to do here on the ship but sunbathe, study, play guitar, plan our next adventure and nap.

Well Puerto Rico is tomorrow and I will be rain foresting in the first day and biolumenscent baying it the next night. I am pretty excited. Last night was the first ‘pub’ night where they serve alcohol to anyone willing to buy, and I decided it would be wiser to save my money for more coke and other such necessities of happiness. I don’t have anything else to report at this moment. The ship is more comfortable than anything you can possibly imagine a ship to be. Although the constant rocking is making me really look forward to land. That’s all for now, for questions on how to comment look in the FAQ’s part of the last post. Ta ta.

Final 24 hours in the USA! (and FAQ's)

2006-01-16T10:56:00.000-06:00

I can't believe that tomorrow I will be on a plane bound for the Bahamas. It's weird to think that this is my last 24 hours in the friendly USA. Unless you count the Bahamas as still in the USA. Plans in the Bahamas are to enjoy a nice round of golf and go swimming near a shark tank. We actually set sail on the 19th, and beging classes on the 21st i believe. With Puerto Rico coming a week from today!

It's been a packing frenzy lately with lots of visits to the old target store and REI. But now i feel like its really getting to be crunch time and its time to get excited. there's so much to remember and even more you dont want to forget because there's nothing worse or sometimes nothing better than being ill prepared.

A couple of FAQ's!
1. To make a comment simply click on the word comments at the bottom of a post and then click the middle option or post anonymously. After that write a little something, and then hit publish and then i can see your comments.

2. Yes it's all students and teachers and yes you do take classes on the boat and recieve school credit.

3. Their is a cost to being online on the ship. so although i will try my hardest to post regularaly before and after each post, there are no promises.

4. There will be a wonderful party after the trip and not before. and hopefully if you keep up with this blog, most of your questions will be answered here.

5. I am taking 4 classes. Abnormal psych, health psych, docuemntry film and the required global studies class. Hopefully all of them will be wonderful and i hope i get along with my psych teacher cause i have him for two classes.

6. NO!, DONT send any packages or currency they are very heavily taxed and not allowed in some countries. Just postcards and letters please. and DO include a return address so you can get a letter from Mbokabakabstan. or somewhere like that.

I am sure i will think of plenty of more FAQ's as time goes on, amazingly, metallica is playing in south africa a month after i'll be there... what rotten luck. Well, this is the last post from the US. Talk you all on the far side of the world!

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering." - St. Augustine.... and a picture of my hotel in the atlantis!

One week to go

2006-01-10T21:30:00.000-06:00

The birth of a blog space. Well skittles, this my first post for the semester at sea Adventure. we are currently on Day -9 and things are getting exciting. Packing is about to commence. I think all this build up and hype is gonna pay off soon. HERE'S WHERE YOU CAN SEND THINGS TO CHARLIES MAIL BAG. THINGS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!!!

I would absolutely love to receive mail while I'm on the ship to hear about how everyone else is doing. Even a postcard would be great! Of course I'll send something in return. :) Send mail to:

Charles Mitchell
C/O: MV Explorer
Arrival Date**
Port Agent Address**

Important: The U.S. Post Office recommends sending international mail at least two weeks in advance, so try to send it BEFORE the suggested dates below. Letters/Postcards should be sent Airmail only, do not enclose currency or send packages!

**
San Juan, Puerto Rico (Suggested airmail date January 9)
January 23, 2006
Cruise Plus Service & Sales
1760 Fernandez Juncos Avenue
San Juan, Puerto Rico, 00909

Salvador, Brazil (Suggested airmail date January 18)
February 1, 2006
Oceanus Agencia Maritima
Av. Estados Unidos, 555
7th Floor/Room 712
40015-010 Salvador, BAHIA-BRASIL

Cape Town, South Africa (Suggested airmail date January 31)
February 14, 2006
John T. Rennie & Sons
PO Box 702
1 Thibault House
8000 Cape Town, SOUTH AFRICA

Port Louis, Maritius (Suggested airmail date February 11)
February 27, 2006
Ireland Blyth Limited
1 Queen Street
PO Box 53
Port Louis, MAURITIUS

Chennai, India (Suggested airmail date February 23)
March 9, 2006
J.M. Baxi & CO.
3rd Floor, Clive Battery Complex
4 & 4A, Rajaji Salai
Chennai-600 001, INDIA

Yangon, Myanmar (Suggested airmail date March 2)
March 16, 2006
Myanmar Port Authority
Sea Horse Agency
347/1st Floor, Mahabandoola Road
Kyauktada, Yangon, Myanmar

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (Suggested airmail date March 11)
March 26, 2006
General Forwarding & Agency
5th Floor Osic Building
8 Nguyen Hue Avenue
D. 1, Ho Chi Minh City
VIETNAM

Hong Kong (Suggested airmail date March 20)
April 3, 2006
Inchcape Shipping Services (HK) Ltd.
Units 1802-1805, 18th Floor
No 3 Lockhart Road
Wanchai, HONG KONG-CHINA

Qindao, China (Suggested airmail date March 24)
April 7, 2006
Penavico Qingdao
21 Wuxia Road
Quingdao, 266002, P.R. CHINA

Kobe, Japan (Suggested airmail date March 28)
April 11, 2006
Inchcape Shipping Services
Kenryu Bldg, Room 502
6, Kaigan-dori, Chuo-ku
Kobe-shi, Hyogo-Ken 650-0024
JAPAN