Bom dia! We left Salvador, Brazil 2 nights ago, and we are now on our way to Cape Town, South Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been thinking about how to start this blog since so much happened in Brazil, but I think I will just recount my days in order.
Okay, so we arrived in Salvador at about 6 am on Saturday, got our passports, and went to the Diplomatic Briefing. Throughout the briefing, which was extremely long, we were told countless times how dangerous it was going to be in Salvador, and all of these precautions we must take at all times. Basically, almost everyone (at least the people who paid attention) was completely terrified to even get off the boat. We kept hearing for the past week how at least some of us were going to be robbed, beat up, held at gunpoint or by a knife. Thankfully, I was traveling to Lencois (Len-soiz) for the majority of the time in Brazil, and that town is known for being safe. So after the briefing, the 24 of us who signed up for this indy trip to Lencois got on the bus immediately. We met our guide, Daniel, who we had all been corresponding with through e-mail since we first heard about this trip, and started our 6-hour drive. The beginning of the drive took us through Salvador, past the favelas, which were so interesting to see (I will post a picture even though it doesn’t do it justice). We stopped twice along the way- once for a bathroom/snack break at a gas station type of place and another at a restaurant for lunch. The restaurants in Brazil are funny you put whatever you want on your plate buffet-style and then bring it over to the register where they weigh it to get your price. Since I was somewhat terrified to eat the food, my meal cost only 2 reals, which is like 1 US dollar. While we were sitting in the restaurant it started STORMING outside- it got really dark and it was raining like crazy. The weather was like that for the rest of the bus ride. The rain slowed down a bit as we entered into Lencois, and as soon as we turned up the hill to our hotel, one of the girls on the trip spotted a rainbow- I guess you had to be there, but it was really cool because we were all marveling at the beauty of the city right before that. So we had like 5 minutes to drop our bags off in the hotel before we had to get back on the bus, and nobody knew where we were going. The bus dropped us off in town and we walked a few blocks in the rain to a community center. I can’t remember the name of the center even though I asked about 50 times, but it is an NGO that helps build community in these Afro-Brazilian towns. We walked in here, soaking wet, to find about 25 men, women, and kids playing instruments, singing, and dancing. Being the shy United Statesians and 1 Canadian that we are, we all just stood there watching until they started pulling us into the circle and dancing with us. After listening to them sing the most beautiful song I have ever heard (I will go into further details later), we did a dancing train to a different room. Here, we all took our shoes off and stood in a huge circle. Some of the girls at the center had scripted a welcome to us, but it was in Portuguese so we had to have Daniel and Cesa (I’m sure that is not spelled right) translate for us. They taught us a few songs and dances to go along with them. One of the songs, which is in Portuguese, translates into something about a snake losing a part of its tail (?), and the dance for that was nuts. 3 people start it out and go around the circle, and each time they get to this one part of the song they point to someone in the circle. That person has to crawl under their legs and then get behind them and start a train (or snake in this case), they go around doing this until everyone is in one of the 3 lines. Eventually, the 3 lines come together, so by that point everyone would have crawled under everyone else’s legs. It was really fun, and probably a good place to indicate the start of the relationship we all formed over those few days. For our last song of the night, we got into a large circle and a smaller circle inside of that. We all interlocked arms and were told to close our eyes and sway our bodies. All of a sudden one of the girls started singing a slow song and I am not exaggerating when I say that she had the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. After that we all sat in a circle and opened the floor to questions and comments. We had dinner at a restaurant in town and then walked back to the hotel, got our rooms situated, and went to bed.
The 24 of us were split into 2 groups, so the next morning 1 group left at 8 to go hiking up the waterfall, while my group left at 8:30 to go hiking through a cave. I am not going to write all of the details of that day because there are far too many. In a nutshell though, I have never done something so difficult in my life. I climbed through a cave in pitch dark. I don’t think I have ever been so scared to do something. We had to climb up rocks with nothing to hold on to and I slipped quite a few times. I was so proud of myself that I made it all the way through that. I don’t think I could begin to describe my feelings after we got back to the hotel. My first instinct was to just cry because of everything I was feeling. If there were some sort of scale for how much one steps out of their element, I would have been off of it. I exceeded any expectation I could have ever had for myself, so I know I exceeded expectations that others had for me.
More happened on that trip then just hiking though. We got to a place in the cave that had a body of water we were able to swim in. We were all disgustingly sweaty, so it felt amazing to swim in this freezing cold water. After we were swimming for a while, Daniel asked that we all sit in a circle in the water. After saying some prayers and Oms to mother nature, he turned off the one lantern that was lit. We could not see a thing; we were in the middle of a cave with no light. Daniel told us to keep our eyes open because we can still see the energy. This lasted for a while, but again I’m not going to get into all the details. It was an amazingly spiritual moment for everyone though. Also, when we got to the other end of the cave, some people hiked a little more to the top of the cave opening and bungee jumped off of it! I was terrified to do that of course. I got to take pictures of everyone hanging upside down though, and I got to see their faces when they got down. For a minute I thought I was going to regret not doing it because everyone was talking about how amazing it was, but I don’t. I did more these past few days than I could have ever imagined myself doing, bungee jumping would only be extra icing on the cake that I don’t need. That is only the first full day, if that is any inclination to how amazing my time in Brazil was.
After dinner and resting on Sunday night, we all got ready and took a bus to Palmeiras, which is a small town about an hour away from Lencois. In Palmeiras they have a traditional carnival unlike the ones in Salvador and Rio. I was so happy I got to experience this. It was just tons of dancing and having fun, It was also a good bonding experience for those of us in the group, Daniel, and Kikiu (another one of our tour guides). If I ever come back to Brazil for carnival, I’m staying there (I’ll describe my Salvador carnival experience shortly).
So the third day (Monday) we got to do what group 1 did on the first day. We hiked 9 miles! We hiked to the top of Smoke Falls (I forget the Portuguese name), which is the 2nd highest waterfall in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous, and it is definitely debatable which hike was harder. The first hour or so was just straight up vertical. My muscles have never hurt so much in my life. The next hour and a half was pretty much flat ground until we got to the waterfall. Hiking back down the mountain was quite the interesting experience as well. I, of course, was taking my good ol’ time because I was scared I would slip and go flying down the mountain, but there are these locals who like run down the mountain barefoot and don’t care if they knock into you. I did take one little spill and cut up my hand and legs a good bit, but nothing too serious. Everyone was so relieved when we made it back to the bus and then got back to the hotel.
Funny story: since leaving the community center that first night, you would randomly hear some of the people in our group humming or mumbling a song that they didn’t know the words to. We asked Daniel about it, and he said that the song is called Mama Africa by Chico Ceza. That is the song that they were singing when we arrived, and I am telling you it was just so beautiful it stayed in all of our heads. The entire time in Lencois people would randomly start humming it, or singing any words that they knew. So basically this is what you hear all day and night: Mamaaaa Africaaa haha.
The people from the NGO were supposed to be coming over at 8pm and it was about 6 at this point so Kim and I took a nap, and we were awoken by the sounds of the African drums. We got up, not bothering to see what we looked like (not that it mattered since our hotel room didn’t have a mirror) and joined the rest of our group and the adults and kids from the NGO right outside of our room. Here we were taught more songs and dances from their ancestors. We had another circle of questions and comments, but this one was a lot different. This time was more of a thanks and reflections on the past few days. Also, Daniel informed us that he would be leaving us that night because it was the only time he could get a flight. After all of the comments were said, and we thought it was time for dinner, Matt stands up and says the night is not over yet. I had no idea what was going on because apparently they had been planning something during my nap. Matt told us all that since they were so kind and welcoming to us, and taught us songs from their ancestors, that we were going to teach them a little song and dance from the States: The Hokey Pokey! It was cute to teach them that, and I think they enjoyed it. It is just so funny though because the things they taught us were so meaningful, such as the songs the Brazilian slaves, their ancestors, used to communicate with, and here we come teaching the Hokey Pokey, haha.
Anyway, after that we all went down into the kitchen and had pizza that the hotel workers had made (no such thing as ordering out). After eating, and attempting to communicate with some of the kids, we all said our goodbyes to Daniel. This was incredibly sad for everyone because he was definitely a major reason why all of us had such an amazing time in Lencois. Our new Brazilian friends stayed for a little while longer, and they sang Mama Africa for us because we were all begging them to teach it to us haha.
For our 4th and final day, we all had the option to either hike to another waterfall and go swimming or just stay at the hotel and explore the town until the bus back to Salvador left at 11am. About half of us chose to do the waterfall thing. My favorite part of the day: MONKEYS! There were about 6 tiny little Marmosets hanging out in the trees by the waterfall. I was literally like a foot away from them. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love monkeys, and these ones were really cute. There were some people there feeding them, but none of us had any food to give L. It was still cute to see them though. Around 11am we met our bus at a gas station to start the 6-hour ride back to Salvador. Since Daniel was no longer with us, Kikiu and Ari accompanied us back to Salvador, and also to Carnival at night for a little bit.
The bus ride back was pretty fun. Everyone was really excited about getting to go to Carnival, finding out about their friend’s trips to Rio and the Amazon, and just about getting back to the ship. When we got back to Salvador, Dave told us that we had 10 minutes to get on the ship, put our abada on, and get back outside to the bus. Well the line to go through security was more than 10 minutes long, but as soon as I got through I sprinted to my room and got ready. Dave and Kevin were still going through security as I was disembarking, so we did have to wait for a little while.
Now about carnival:
We got to our Trio electrico at about 6:45, and it was supposed to start moving at 7, but actually didn’t start until like 7:45. So all of us were just standing around waiting, and the local teenagers standing on the side of the street kept throwing water bottles at us. One kid flicked his cigarette, and burned Andrea’s arm. So we moved farther away from the side of the street, and I was keeping my eyes open and paying attention, but apparently not good enough. Someone, I don’t know who, threw a bottle filled with urine and excrement (trying to not be vulgar for my readers) and it hit a kid that I was talking to on the chest and sprayed all over me and about 6 other people. Right then I was ready to go back to the ship. I was so tired, sick of seeing drunk people, and I smelled really really bad. But I am a trooper and I stuck it out because “it’s all part of the experience”. Finally the trio started moving and we could start dancing down the street. It was a lot of fun for a while, but then our bloco just got extremely crowded all of a sudden. I could barely move my arms and we were all smushed so tightly together I could hardly breathe. So at around 9:45 7 of us made our way out of the crowd and to a smaller street. We found 2 cabs and made our way back to the ship. As soon as I got there I went right into the shower and literally just stood there for about 20 minutes. I have never felt so dirty in my life. After the amazing shower, I went up to the 7th deck and got a Gatorade, which I drank in about 5 minutes because I was so dehydrated, and a pizza, which was amazing. I think I consumed about 2000 calories altogether the past 4 days, it was crazy. I got an amazing night’s sleep that night.
On our last day in Salvador, Eric, Jaime, Max, and I (the Philly people) walked around the market and the upper city and went shopping. We were all pretty sick of the Brazilian food so we found a cute little Italian restaurant for lunch. After we were all pretty much out of money we found our way back to the ship and were ready to get back to the high seas. So right now we are sailing in the middle of the ocean, although we did pass some small island a little bit ago. Tomorrow (Saturday) is Neptune Day, and we have no classes! Woo hoo! On Neptune Day, it is a tradition for people to shave their heads, so last night we had a “Rock the Hawk Night” Where people who are going to shave their heads tomorrow would start by having a mohawk for 2 days. Today was quite interesting seeing tons of guys and girls with mohawks. Apparently King Neptune has more in store for us tomorrow, but it is being kept pretty hush hush. I guess I will let you all know what happens with that.
I didn’t get any mail in Brazil because the post office was closed for carnival and Ash Wednesday, so it is all being forwarded to Cape Town. I also didn’t mail out any postcards because I couldn’t find any stamps, sorry.
This is an insanely long post, and it is not even close to being everything that has been going on, but I feel like there is some stuff I have to keep to myself. I have learned so much about myself just in this past week; I cannot wait to see how much I will learn by the end of this voyage. I miss you all so much, and I will post pictures within the next few days I promise!! Love you!
Friday, February 23, 2007
I Love Brasil!
Bom dia! We left Salvador, Brazil 2 nights ago, and we are now on our way to Cape Town, South Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have been thinking about how to start this blog since so much happened in Brazil, but I think I will just recount my days in order.
Okay, so we arrived in Salvador at about 6 am on Saturday, got our passports, and went to the Diplomatic Briefing. Throughout the briefing, which was extremely long, we were told countless times how dangerous it was going to be in Salvador, and all of these precautions we must take at all times. Basically, almost everyone (at least the people who paid attention) was completely terrified to even get off the boat. We kept hearing for the past week how at least some of us were going to be robbed, beat up, held at gunpoint or by a knife. Thankfully, I was traveling to Lencois (Len-soiz) for the majority of the time in Brazil, and that town is known for being safe. So after the briefing, the 24 of us who signed up for this indy trip to Lencois got on the bus immediately. We met our guide, Daniel, who we had all been corresponding with through e-mail since we first heard about this trip, and started our 6-hour drive. The beginning of the drive took us through Salvador, past the favelas, which were so interesting to see (I will post a picture even though it doesn’t do it justice). We stopped twice along the way- once for a bathroom/snack break at a gas station type of place and another at a restaurant for lunch. The restaurants in Brazil are funny you put whatever you want on your plate buffet-style and then bring it over to the register where they weigh it to get your price. Since I was somewhat terrified to eat the food, my meal cost only 2 reals, which is like 1 US dollar. While we were sitting in the restaurant it started STORMING outside- it got really dark and it was raining like crazy. The weather was like that for the rest of the bus ride. The rain slowed down a bit as we entered into Lencois, and as soon as we turned up the hill to our hotel, one of the girls on the trip spotted a rainbow- I guess you had to be there, but it was really cool because we were all marveling at the beauty of the city right before that. So we had like 5 minutes to drop our bags off in the hotel before we had to get back on the bus, and nobody knew where we were going. The bus dropped us off in town and we walked a few blocks in the rain to a community center. I can’t remember the name of the center even though I asked about 50 times, but it is an NGO that helps build community in these Afro-Brazilian towns. We walked in here, soaking wet, to find about 25 men, women, and kids playing instruments, singing, and dancing. Being the shy United Statesians and 1 Canadian that we are, we all just stood there watching until they started pulling us into the circle and dancing with us. After listening to them sing the most beautiful song I have ever heard (I will go into further details later), we did a dancing train to a different room. Here, we all took our shoes off and stood in a huge circle. Some of the girls at the center had scripted a welcome to us, but it was in Portuguese so we had to have Daniel and Cesa (I’m sure that is not spelled right) translate for us. They taught us a few songs and dances to go along with them. One of the songs, which is in Portuguese, translates into something about a snake losing a part of its tail (?), and the dance for that was nuts. 3 people start it out and go around the circle, and each time they get to this one part of the song they point to someone in the circle. That person has to crawl under their legs and then get behind them and start a train (or snake in this case), they go around doing this until everyone is in one of the 3 lines. Eventually, the 3 lines come together, so by that point everyone would have crawled under everyone else’s legs. It was really fun, and probably a good place to indicate the start of the relationship we all formed over those few days. For our last song of the night, we got into a large circle and a smaller circle inside of that. We all interlocked arms and were told to close our eyes and sway our bodies. All of a sudden one of the girls started singing a slow song and I am not exaggerating when I say that she had the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. After that we all sat in a circle and opened the floor to questions and comments. We had dinner at a restaurant in town and then walked back to the hotel, got our rooms situated, and went to bed.
The 24 of us were split into 2 groups, so the next morning 1 group left at 8 to go hiking up the waterfall, while my group left at 8:30 to go hiking through a cave. I am not going to write all of the details of that day because there are far too many. In a nutshell though, I have never done something so difficult in my life. I climbed through a cave in pitch dark. I don’t think I have ever been so scared to do something. We had to climb up rocks with nothing to hold on to and I slipped quite a few times. I was so proud of myself that I made it all the way through that. I don’t think I could begin to describe my feelings after we got back to the hotel. My first instinct was to just cry because of everything I was feeling. If there were some sort of scale for how much one steps out of their element, I would have been off of it. I exceeded any expectation I could have ever had for myself, so I know I exceeded expectations that others had for me.
More happened on that trip then just hiking though. We got to a place in the cave that had a body of water we were able to swim in. We were all disgustingly sweaty, so it felt amazing to swim in this freezing cold water. After we were swimming for a while, Daniel asked that we all sit in a circle in the water. After saying some prayers and Oms to mother nature, he turned off the one lantern that was lit. We could not see a thing; we were in the middle of a cave with no light. Daniel told us to keep our eyes open because we can still see the energy. This lasted for a while, but again I’m not going to get into all the details. It was an amazingly spiritual moment for everyone though. Also, when we got to the other end of the cave, some people hiked a little more to the top of the cave opening and bungee jumped off of it! I was terrified to do that of course. I got to take pictures of everyone hanging upside down though, and I got to see their faces when they got down. For a minute I thought I was going to regret not doing it because everyone was talking about how amazing it was, but I don’t. I did more these past few days than I could have ever imagined myself doing, bungee jumping would only be extra icing on the cake that I don’t need. That is only the first full day, if that is any inclination to how amazing my time in Brazil was.
After dinner and resting on Sunday night, we all got ready and took a bus to Palmeiras, which is a small town about an hour away from Lencois. In Palmeiras they have a traditional carnival unlike the ones in Salvador and Rio. I was so happy I got to experience this. It was just tons of dancing and having fun, It was also a good bonding experience for those of us in the group, Daniel, and Kikiu (another one of our tour guides). If I ever come back to Brazil for carnival, I’m staying there (I’ll describe my Salvador carnival experience shortly).
So the third day (Monday) we got to do what group 1 did on the first day. We hiked 9 miles! We hiked to the top of Smoke Falls (I forget the Portuguese name), which is the 2nd highest waterfall in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous, and it is definitely debatable which hike was harder. The first hour or so was just straight up vertical. My muscles have never hurt so much in my life. The next hour and a half was pretty much flat ground until we got to the waterfall. Hiking back down the mountain was quite the interesting experience as well. I, of course, was taking my good ol’ time because I was scared I would slip and go flying down the mountain, but there are these locals who like run down the mountain barefoot and don’t care if they knock into you. I did take one little spill and cut up my hand and legs a good bit, but nothing too serious. Everyone was so relieved when we made it back to the bus and then got back to the hotel.
Funny story: since leaving the community center that first night, you would randomly hear some of the people in our group humming or mumbling a song that they didn’t know the words to. We asked Daniel about it, and he said that the song is called Mama Africa by Chico Ceza. That is the song that they were singing when we arrived, and I am telling you it was just so beautiful it stayed in all of our heads. The entire time in Lencois people would randomly start humming it, or singing any words that they knew. So basically this is what you hear all day and night: Mamaaaa Africaaa haha.
The people from the NGO were supposed to be coming over at 8pm and it was about 6 at this point so Kim and I took a nap, and we were awoken by the sounds of the African drums. We got up, not bothering to see what we looked like (not that it mattered since our hotel room didn’t have a mirror) and joined the rest of our group and the adults and kids from the NGO right outside of our room. Here we were taught more songs and dances from their ancestors. We had another circle of questions and comments, but this one was a lot different. This time was more of a thanks and reflections on the past few days. Also, Daniel informed us that he would be leaving us that night because it was the only time he could get a flight. After all of the comments were said, and we thought it was time for dinner, Matt stands up and says the night is not over yet. I had no idea what was going on because apparently they had been planning something during my nap. Matt told us all that since they were so kind and welcoming to us, and taught us songs from their ancestors, that we were going to teach them a little song and dance from the States: The Hokey Pokey! It was cute to teach them that, and I think they enjoyed it. It is just so funny though because the things they taught us were so meaningful, such as the songs the Brazilian slaves, their ancestors, used to communicate with, and here we come teaching the Hokey Pokey, haha.
Anyway, after that we all went down into the kitchen and had pizza that the hotel workers had made (no such thing as ordering out). After eating, and attempting to communicate with some of the kids, we all said our goodbyes to Daniel. This was incredibly sad for everyone because he was definitely a major reason why all of us had such an amazing time in Lencois. Our new Brazilian friends stayed for a little while longer, and they sang Mama Africa for us because we were all begging them to teach it to us haha.
For our 4th and final day, we all had the option to either hike to another waterfall and go swimming or just stay at the hotel and explore the town until the bus back to Salvador left at 11am. About half of us chose to do the waterfall thing. My favorite part of the day: MONKEYS! There were about 6 tiny little Marmosets hanging out in the trees by the waterfall. I was literally like a foot away from them. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love monkeys, and these ones were really cute. There were some people there feeding them, but none of us had any food to give L. It was still cute to see them though. Around 11am we met our bus at a gas station to start the 6-hour ride back to Salvador. Since Daniel was no longer with us, Kikiu and Ari accompanied us back to Salvador, and also to Carnival at night for a little bit.
The bus ride back was pretty fun. Everyone was really excited about getting to go to Carnival, finding out about their friend’s trips to Rio and the Amazon, and just about getting back to the ship. When we got back to Salvador, Dave told us that we had 10 minutes to get on the ship, put our abada on, and get back outside to the bus. Well the line to go through security was more than 10 minutes long, but as soon as I got through I sprinted to my room and got ready. Dave and Kevin were still going through security as I was disembarking, so we did have to wait for a little while.
Now about carnival:
We got to our Trio electrico at about 6:45, and it was supposed to start moving at 7, but actually didn’t start until like 7:45. So all of us were just standing around waiting, and the local teenagers standing on the side of the street kept throwing water bottles at us. One kid flicked his cigarette, and burned Andrea’s arm. So we moved farther away from the side of the street, and I was keeping my eyes open and paying attention, but apparently not good enough. Someone, I don’t know who, threw a bottle filled with urine and excrement (trying to not be vulgar for my readers) and it hit a kid that I was talking to on the chest and sprayed all over me and about 6 other people. Right then I was ready to go back to the ship. I was so tired, sick of seeing drunk people, and I smelled really really bad. But I am a trooper and I stuck it out because “it’s all part of the experience”. Finally the trio started moving and we could start dancing down the street. It was a lot of fun for a while, but then our bloco just got extremely crowded all of a sudden. I could barely move my arms and we were all smushed so tightly together I could hardly breathe. So at around 9:45 7 of us made our way out of the crowd and to a smaller street. We found 2 cabs and made our way back to the ship. As soon as I got there I went right into the shower and literally just stood there for about 20 minutes. I have never felt so dirty in my life. After the amazing shower, I went up to the 7th deck and got a Gatorade, which I drank in about 5 minutes because I was so dehydrated, and a pizza, which was amazing. I think I consumed about 2000 calories altogether the past 4 days, it was crazy. I got an amazing night’s sleep that night.
On our last day in Salvador, Eric, Jaime, Max, and I (the Philly people) walked around the market and the upper city and went shopping. We were all pretty sick of the Brazilian food so we found a cute little Italian restaurant for lunch. After we were all pretty much out of money we found our way back to the ship and were ready to get back to the high seas. So right now we are sailing in the middle of the ocean, although we did pass some small island a little bit ago. Tomorrow (Saturday) is Neptune Day, and we have no classes! Woo hoo! On Neptune Day, it is a tradition for people to shave their heads, so last night we had a “Rock the Hawk Night” Where people who are going to shave their heads tomorrow would start by having a mohawk for 2 days. Today was quite interesting seeing tons of guys and girls with mohawks. Apparently King Neptune has more in store for us tomorrow, but it is being kept pretty hush hush. I guess I will let you all know what happens with that.
I didn’t get any mail in Brazil because the post office was closed for carnival and Ash Wednesday, so it is all being forwarded to Cape Town. I also didn’t mail out any postcards because I couldn’t find any stamps, sorry.
This is an insanely long post, and it is not even close to being everything that has been going on, but I feel like there is some stuff I have to keep to myself. I have learned so much about myself just in this past week; I cannot wait to see how much I will learn by the end of this voyage. I miss you all so much, and I will post pictures within the next few days I promise!! Love you!
I have been thinking about how to start this blog since so much happened in Brazil, but I think I will just recount my days in order.
Okay, so we arrived in Salvador at about 6 am on Saturday, got our passports, and went to the Diplomatic Briefing. Throughout the briefing, which was extremely long, we were told countless times how dangerous it was going to be in Salvador, and all of these precautions we must take at all times. Basically, almost everyone (at least the people who paid attention) was completely terrified to even get off the boat. We kept hearing for the past week how at least some of us were going to be robbed, beat up, held at gunpoint or by a knife. Thankfully, I was traveling to Lencois (Len-soiz) for the majority of the time in Brazil, and that town is known for being safe. So after the briefing, the 24 of us who signed up for this indy trip to Lencois got on the bus immediately. We met our guide, Daniel, who we had all been corresponding with through e-mail since we first heard about this trip, and started our 6-hour drive. The beginning of the drive took us through Salvador, past the favelas, which were so interesting to see (I will post a picture even though it doesn’t do it justice). We stopped twice along the way- once for a bathroom/snack break at a gas station type of place and another at a restaurant for lunch. The restaurants in Brazil are funny you put whatever you want on your plate buffet-style and then bring it over to the register where they weigh it to get your price. Since I was somewhat terrified to eat the food, my meal cost only 2 reals, which is like 1 US dollar. While we were sitting in the restaurant it started STORMING outside- it got really dark and it was raining like crazy. The weather was like that for the rest of the bus ride. The rain slowed down a bit as we entered into Lencois, and as soon as we turned up the hill to our hotel, one of the girls on the trip spotted a rainbow- I guess you had to be there, but it was really cool because we were all marveling at the beauty of the city right before that. So we had like 5 minutes to drop our bags off in the hotel before we had to get back on the bus, and nobody knew where we were going. The bus dropped us off in town and we walked a few blocks in the rain to a community center. I can’t remember the name of the center even though I asked about 50 times, but it is an NGO that helps build community in these Afro-Brazilian towns. We walked in here, soaking wet, to find about 25 men, women, and kids playing instruments, singing, and dancing. Being the shy United Statesians and 1 Canadian that we are, we all just stood there watching until they started pulling us into the circle and dancing with us. After listening to them sing the most beautiful song I have ever heard (I will go into further details later), we did a dancing train to a different room. Here, we all took our shoes off and stood in a huge circle. Some of the girls at the center had scripted a welcome to us, but it was in Portuguese so we had to have Daniel and Cesa (I’m sure that is not spelled right) translate for us. They taught us a few songs and dances to go along with them. One of the songs, which is in Portuguese, translates into something about a snake losing a part of its tail (?), and the dance for that was nuts. 3 people start it out and go around the circle, and each time they get to this one part of the song they point to someone in the circle. That person has to crawl under their legs and then get behind them and start a train (or snake in this case), they go around doing this until everyone is in one of the 3 lines. Eventually, the 3 lines come together, so by that point everyone would have crawled under everyone else’s legs. It was really fun, and probably a good place to indicate the start of the relationship we all formed over those few days. For our last song of the night, we got into a large circle and a smaller circle inside of that. We all interlocked arms and were told to close our eyes and sway our bodies. All of a sudden one of the girls started singing a slow song and I am not exaggerating when I say that she had the most beautiful voices I have ever heard. After that we all sat in a circle and opened the floor to questions and comments. We had dinner at a restaurant in town and then walked back to the hotel, got our rooms situated, and went to bed.
The 24 of us were split into 2 groups, so the next morning 1 group left at 8 to go hiking up the waterfall, while my group left at 8:30 to go hiking through a cave. I am not going to write all of the details of that day because there are far too many. In a nutshell though, I have never done something so difficult in my life. I climbed through a cave in pitch dark. I don’t think I have ever been so scared to do something. We had to climb up rocks with nothing to hold on to and I slipped quite a few times. I was so proud of myself that I made it all the way through that. I don’t think I could begin to describe my feelings after we got back to the hotel. My first instinct was to just cry because of everything I was feeling. If there were some sort of scale for how much one steps out of their element, I would have been off of it. I exceeded any expectation I could have ever had for myself, so I know I exceeded expectations that others had for me.
More happened on that trip then just hiking though. We got to a place in the cave that had a body of water we were able to swim in. We were all disgustingly sweaty, so it felt amazing to swim in this freezing cold water. After we were swimming for a while, Daniel asked that we all sit in a circle in the water. After saying some prayers and Oms to mother nature, he turned off the one lantern that was lit. We could not see a thing; we were in the middle of a cave with no light. Daniel told us to keep our eyes open because we can still see the energy. This lasted for a while, but again I’m not going to get into all the details. It was an amazingly spiritual moment for everyone though. Also, when we got to the other end of the cave, some people hiked a little more to the top of the cave opening and bungee jumped off of it! I was terrified to do that of course. I got to take pictures of everyone hanging upside down though, and I got to see their faces when they got down. For a minute I thought I was going to regret not doing it because everyone was talking about how amazing it was, but I don’t. I did more these past few days than I could have ever imagined myself doing, bungee jumping would only be extra icing on the cake that I don’t need. That is only the first full day, if that is any inclination to how amazing my time in Brazil was.
After dinner and resting on Sunday night, we all got ready and took a bus to Palmeiras, which is a small town about an hour away from Lencois. In Palmeiras they have a traditional carnival unlike the ones in Salvador and Rio. I was so happy I got to experience this. It was just tons of dancing and having fun, It was also a good bonding experience for those of us in the group, Daniel, and Kikiu (another one of our tour guides). If I ever come back to Brazil for carnival, I’m staying there (I’ll describe my Salvador carnival experience shortly).
So the third day (Monday) we got to do what group 1 did on the first day. We hiked 9 miles! We hiked to the top of Smoke Falls (I forget the Portuguese name), which is the 2nd highest waterfall in the world. It was absolutely gorgeous, and it is definitely debatable which hike was harder. The first hour or so was just straight up vertical. My muscles have never hurt so much in my life. The next hour and a half was pretty much flat ground until we got to the waterfall. Hiking back down the mountain was quite the interesting experience as well. I, of course, was taking my good ol’ time because I was scared I would slip and go flying down the mountain, but there are these locals who like run down the mountain barefoot and don’t care if they knock into you. I did take one little spill and cut up my hand and legs a good bit, but nothing too serious. Everyone was so relieved when we made it back to the bus and then got back to the hotel.
Funny story: since leaving the community center that first night, you would randomly hear some of the people in our group humming or mumbling a song that they didn’t know the words to. We asked Daniel about it, and he said that the song is called Mama Africa by Chico Ceza. That is the song that they were singing when we arrived, and I am telling you it was just so beautiful it stayed in all of our heads. The entire time in Lencois people would randomly start humming it, or singing any words that they knew. So basically this is what you hear all day and night: Mamaaaa Africaaa haha.
The people from the NGO were supposed to be coming over at 8pm and it was about 6 at this point so Kim and I took a nap, and we were awoken by the sounds of the African drums. We got up, not bothering to see what we looked like (not that it mattered since our hotel room didn’t have a mirror) and joined the rest of our group and the adults and kids from the NGO right outside of our room. Here we were taught more songs and dances from their ancestors. We had another circle of questions and comments, but this one was a lot different. This time was more of a thanks and reflections on the past few days. Also, Daniel informed us that he would be leaving us that night because it was the only time he could get a flight. After all of the comments were said, and we thought it was time for dinner, Matt stands up and says the night is not over yet. I had no idea what was going on because apparently they had been planning something during my nap. Matt told us all that since they were so kind and welcoming to us, and taught us songs from their ancestors, that we were going to teach them a little song and dance from the States: The Hokey Pokey! It was cute to teach them that, and I think they enjoyed it. It is just so funny though because the things they taught us were so meaningful, such as the songs the Brazilian slaves, their ancestors, used to communicate with, and here we come teaching the Hokey Pokey, haha.
Anyway, after that we all went down into the kitchen and had pizza that the hotel workers had made (no such thing as ordering out). After eating, and attempting to communicate with some of the kids, we all said our goodbyes to Daniel. This was incredibly sad for everyone because he was definitely a major reason why all of us had such an amazing time in Lencois. Our new Brazilian friends stayed for a little while longer, and they sang Mama Africa for us because we were all begging them to teach it to us haha.
For our 4th and final day, we all had the option to either hike to another waterfall and go swimming or just stay at the hotel and explore the town until the bus back to Salvador left at 11am. About half of us chose to do the waterfall thing. My favorite part of the day: MONKEYS! There were about 6 tiny little Marmosets hanging out in the trees by the waterfall. I was literally like a foot away from them. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love monkeys, and these ones were really cute. There were some people there feeding them, but none of us had any food to give L. It was still cute to see them though. Around 11am we met our bus at a gas station to start the 6-hour ride back to Salvador. Since Daniel was no longer with us, Kikiu and Ari accompanied us back to Salvador, and also to Carnival at night for a little bit.
The bus ride back was pretty fun. Everyone was really excited about getting to go to Carnival, finding out about their friend’s trips to Rio and the Amazon, and just about getting back to the ship. When we got back to Salvador, Dave told us that we had 10 minutes to get on the ship, put our abada on, and get back outside to the bus. Well the line to go through security was more than 10 minutes long, but as soon as I got through I sprinted to my room and got ready. Dave and Kevin were still going through security as I was disembarking, so we did have to wait for a little while.
Now about carnival:
We got to our Trio electrico at about 6:45, and it was supposed to start moving at 7, but actually didn’t start until like 7:45. So all of us were just standing around waiting, and the local teenagers standing on the side of the street kept throwing water bottles at us. One kid flicked his cigarette, and burned Andrea’s arm. So we moved farther away from the side of the street, and I was keeping my eyes open and paying attention, but apparently not good enough. Someone, I don’t know who, threw a bottle filled with urine and excrement (trying to not be vulgar for my readers) and it hit a kid that I was talking to on the chest and sprayed all over me and about 6 other people. Right then I was ready to go back to the ship. I was so tired, sick of seeing drunk people, and I smelled really really bad. But I am a trooper and I stuck it out because “it’s all part of the experience”. Finally the trio started moving and we could start dancing down the street. It was a lot of fun for a while, but then our bloco just got extremely crowded all of a sudden. I could barely move my arms and we were all smushed so tightly together I could hardly breathe. So at around 9:45 7 of us made our way out of the crowd and to a smaller street. We found 2 cabs and made our way back to the ship. As soon as I got there I went right into the shower and literally just stood there for about 20 minutes. I have never felt so dirty in my life. After the amazing shower, I went up to the 7th deck and got a Gatorade, which I drank in about 5 minutes because I was so dehydrated, and a pizza, which was amazing. I think I consumed about 2000 calories altogether the past 4 days, it was crazy. I got an amazing night’s sleep that night.
On our last day in Salvador, Eric, Jaime, Max, and I (the Philly people) walked around the market and the upper city and went shopping. We were all pretty sick of the Brazilian food so we found a cute little Italian restaurant for lunch. After we were all pretty much out of money we found our way back to the ship and were ready to get back to the high seas. So right now we are sailing in the middle of the ocean, although we did pass some small island a little bit ago. Tomorrow (Saturday) is Neptune Day, and we have no classes! Woo hoo! On Neptune Day, it is a tradition for people to shave their heads, so last night we had a “Rock the Hawk Night” Where people who are going to shave their heads tomorrow would start by having a mohawk for 2 days. Today was quite interesting seeing tons of guys and girls with mohawks. Apparently King Neptune has more in store for us tomorrow, but it is being kept pretty hush hush. I guess I will let you all know what happens with that.
I didn’t get any mail in Brazil because the post office was closed for carnival and Ash Wednesday, so it is all being forwarded to Cape Town. I also didn’t mail out any postcards because I couldn’t find any stamps, sorry.
This is an insanely long post, and it is not even close to being everything that has been going on, but I feel like there is some stuff I have to keep to myself. I have learned so much about myself just in this past week; I cannot wait to see how much I will learn by the end of this voyage. I miss you all so much, and I will post pictures within the next few days I promise!! Love you!
Monday, February 12, 2007
Im in the middle of the ocean...
Hola! We are en route to Salvador, Brazil, and according to the map channel we are in the middle of the ocean at a speed of 19 knots. Earlier today I was sitting on my bed reading for one of my classes, and I looked out my window to see that we were 3 miles off the coast of Barbados. From what I could see it is an absolutely beautiful island. We also sailed past Martinique and St. Lucia earlier this morning. Tonight is our first Pub Night on the ship so the 7th deck is busy with people all dressed up and drinking. I decided that there are plenty of opportunities to party, and I don’t feel like wasting my money, so that is why I am sitting on my computer writing this instead! J.
Puerto Rico was amazing. I got to speak Spanish and amazing. I got to speak Spanish, and it was just a great place to start our journey. I don’t think I have ever been so excited in my life to wake up and see that my cell phone had service. Not only that, but I had 3 texts! Haha. On our first day in Puerto Rico Kim, Meredith, and I disembarked around 11am and walked to Old San Juan. We did some shopping and walking around the city for a while. It was so hot, so we went into this little restaurant and got frozen drinks. We met up with Jordi and Dannie and walked around some more. After we got back to the ship we got ready for the Welcome Reception, which took place at a few local universities. We all went to the Universidad de Puerto Rico and met some students there. Everyone had a pretty good time, but I was a little homesick so I snuck away to talk on my cell phone- I know it is bad. After the Welcome Reception everyone wanted to go out but I was feeling “land sick” so I decided to stay in and get some sleep. The next day Jordi, Ashley, and I took the city bus (which was interesting) to Kmart to stock up on some stuff, and then just took a taxi back. I got back to the ship in time to meet up with a group of students who were kayaking on the Bioluminescent Bay indy, so I hopped on that trip. We rode in a squished van for about an hour and a half to the bay and then paired up and got a little lesson on kayaking. Max and I were partners, and I must admit I am an excellent kayaker. So it is pitch dark out and we are kayaking in a single file line through mangroves (crashing into them) for about a mile. Then we get to this huge open lagoon surrounded by mountains. The leaders tied all of our kayaks together and gave us a little science lesson about bioluminescence and the dynoflagellates that cause it. Then it was time to go swimming! It is extremely hard to describe swimming in this bay. I describe it as something I have only seen in the movie Fern Gully with the different colors that come about when they touch the trees. My roommate Ashley described it as looking like fairy dust. Basically, when you move in the water it lights up a gold color, it is really amazing. So we were allowed to swim around for a while, and then we kayaked the mile back to the shore, and took our bus ride back. Later that night Dannie, Jordi, Kevin, Andrea, and I went to Old San Juan and found a little place to eat, drink, and dance. I didn’t want to party too much because I had to meet up with the SAS group at 8am the next morning for the Rio Camuy Caves.
The caves were crazy! First of all it was a 2-hour BUMPY bus ride to get there- no fun. But I fell asleep for a little bit, so that was good. Apparently everyone on the island decided to go to the caves that day because we waited for at least 3 hours before we even arrived at the opening of the cave. I walked around the caves with Eric and Tim, and took A LOT of pictures. I know I keep saying I will post pictures, and I haven’t been doing that, but I will. So anyway the caves are extraordinary. They were so beautiful; it was hard to make myself believe that it was a natural place. So we walked around the caves for a while, but not as long as had anticipated, and then had a picnic lunch before getting back on the bus for the 2-hour ride back. I slept the entire way back it was great. We got back to the ship at about 530pm and on-ship time was 900pm so Eric and I decided to look for an Internet café. We were told that McDonalds had free Internet so we walked there, but we couldn’t get on, so we went back to the ship, met up with Jaime and Terron, and took a cab to Starbucks. I didn’t have much battery on my computer so I just checked my email, Facebook, and my blog comments quickly. Thank you for reading and commenting by the way everyone!! So after that we went to this cute restaurant and ate dinner. We got back to the ship around 820 and I was freaking out because I thought there would be a long line and we would end up getting dock time, but there was no one in line and it was fine. It was really sad to leave Puerto Rico for many reasons. For me at least there was a slight comfort about being in Puerto Rico as opposed to other places on our itinerary. I speak Spanish- I won’t be able to speak the language anywhere else. My cell phone worked- I’m going to have a hard time communicating with home for now on. Also there was just something about it being a US Territory that made me feel good. So I was just sitting on the 7th deck talking on my cell phone, when apparently we left the dock early. I started freaking out because I hadn’t called my family to say goodbye or anything. So I quickly called up whomever I could before my service cut out. I was really upset to be leaving, and I was not expecting that at all. But now we are at sea for 7 days on our way to Brazil (yes, with class everyday :p). Ship life is very interesting. I don’t know if it is because of the situation we are all in, but everyone has gotten so close so fast. We have only been here for a week, but I feel like I have known these people for a lot longer, and I have been hearing the same thing from other people. Okay, I actually stopped here last night and now I am trying to continue where I was. Last night was the roughest we have had at sea, and it is not much better now. Until now when we looked out into the ocean it was relatively calm, but it is so wavy now and the ship is rocking like crazy. We had the activities fair the other night where we could learn about and sign up for different clubs. I signed up for Ambassadors Club, Students of Service, Extended Family, and Diversity Committee. The diversity committee should be really interesting considering the lack of diversity on the ship. During orientation the dean spoke about diversity on the ship (at least one person from each state, 65% female 35% male, 1 person from Switzerland, 1 from Puerto Rico, and a handful from Canada), but I don’t think I would consider that diverse. Oh well I guess it just makes me more excited about meeting people in the countries we are visiting. People have been asking me about the food on the boat—its good, but it is the same thing everyday. There is always salad, fish, chicken/beef, potatoes, pasta, and veggies. There is also always PB & J and bread. We had our first Taco Day for lunch on Saturday- it was excellent haha. The one thing that really bothers me about the dining halls is the hours. I don’t start class until 9:20 everyday, but breakfast is over at 8:30, and I mean 8:30 on the dot. They take everything away, and don’t care if you just got there. It’s really annoying, but I get up anyway J. I did get my letters from Bay Hey and Mom and Dad in Puerto Rico and I must admit I was so excited; I have them magnetized to my wall. My roommate got like 4 letters L lol but its ok. I can’t wait to get Brazil and go on my Lencois trip- it is going to be great! Hopefully I will be able to post on here from an Internet café on my last day in Brazil or something. I miss everyone a lot, please send me emails about what is going on in your lives. Love you!!
Puerto Rico was amazing. I got to speak Spanish and amazing. I got to speak Spanish, and it was just a great place to start our journey. I don’t think I have ever been so excited in my life to wake up and see that my cell phone had service. Not only that, but I had 3 texts! Haha. On our first day in Puerto Rico Kim, Meredith, and I disembarked around 11am and walked to Old San Juan. We did some shopping and walking around the city for a while. It was so hot, so we went into this little restaurant and got frozen drinks. We met up with Jordi and Dannie and walked around some more. After we got back to the ship we got ready for the Welcome Reception, which took place at a few local universities. We all went to the Universidad de Puerto Rico and met some students there. Everyone had a pretty good time, but I was a little homesick so I snuck away to talk on my cell phone- I know it is bad. After the Welcome Reception everyone wanted to go out but I was feeling “land sick” so I decided to stay in and get some sleep. The next day Jordi, Ashley, and I took the city bus (which was interesting) to Kmart to stock up on some stuff, and then just took a taxi back. I got back to the ship in time to meet up with a group of students who were kayaking on the Bioluminescent Bay indy, so I hopped on that trip. We rode in a squished van for about an hour and a half to the bay and then paired up and got a little lesson on kayaking. Max and I were partners, and I must admit I am an excellent kayaker. So it is pitch dark out and we are kayaking in a single file line through mangroves (crashing into them) for about a mile. Then we get to this huge open lagoon surrounded by mountains. The leaders tied all of our kayaks together and gave us a little science lesson about bioluminescence and the dynoflagellates that cause it. Then it was time to go swimming! It is extremely hard to describe swimming in this bay. I describe it as something I have only seen in the movie Fern Gully with the different colors that come about when they touch the trees. My roommate Ashley described it as looking like fairy dust. Basically, when you move in the water it lights up a gold color, it is really amazing. So we were allowed to swim around for a while, and then we kayaked the mile back to the shore, and took our bus ride back. Later that night Dannie, Jordi, Kevin, Andrea, and I went to Old San Juan and found a little place to eat, drink, and dance. I didn’t want to party too much because I had to meet up with the SAS group at 8am the next morning for the Rio Camuy Caves.
The caves were crazy! First of all it was a 2-hour BUMPY bus ride to get there- no fun. But I fell asleep for a little bit, so that was good. Apparently everyone on the island decided to go to the caves that day because we waited for at least 3 hours before we even arrived at the opening of the cave. I walked around the caves with Eric and Tim, and took A LOT of pictures. I know I keep saying I will post pictures, and I haven’t been doing that, but I will. So anyway the caves are extraordinary. They were so beautiful; it was hard to make myself believe that it was a natural place. So we walked around the caves for a while, but not as long as had anticipated, and then had a picnic lunch before getting back on the bus for the 2-hour ride back. I slept the entire way back it was great. We got back to the ship at about 530pm and on-ship time was 900pm so Eric and I decided to look for an Internet café. We were told that McDonalds had free Internet so we walked there, but we couldn’t get on, so we went back to the ship, met up with Jaime and Terron, and took a cab to Starbucks. I didn’t have much battery on my computer so I just checked my email, Facebook, and my blog comments quickly. Thank you for reading and commenting by the way everyone!! So after that we went to this cute restaurant and ate dinner. We got back to the ship around 820 and I was freaking out because I thought there would be a long line and we would end up getting dock time, but there was no one in line and it was fine. It was really sad to leave Puerto Rico for many reasons. For me at least there was a slight comfort about being in Puerto Rico as opposed to other places on our itinerary. I speak Spanish- I won’t be able to speak the language anywhere else. My cell phone worked- I’m going to have a hard time communicating with home for now on. Also there was just something about it being a US Territory that made me feel good. So I was just sitting on the 7th deck talking on my cell phone, when apparently we left the dock early. I started freaking out because I hadn’t called my family to say goodbye or anything. So I quickly called up whomever I could before my service cut out. I was really upset to be leaving, and I was not expecting that at all. But now we are at sea for 7 days on our way to Brazil (yes, with class everyday :p). Ship life is very interesting. I don’t know if it is because of the situation we are all in, but everyone has gotten so close so fast. We have only been here for a week, but I feel like I have known these people for a lot longer, and I have been hearing the same thing from other people. Okay, I actually stopped here last night and now I am trying to continue where I was. Last night was the roughest we have had at sea, and it is not much better now. Until now when we looked out into the ocean it was relatively calm, but it is so wavy now and the ship is rocking like crazy. We had the activities fair the other night where we could learn about and sign up for different clubs. I signed up for Ambassadors Club, Students of Service, Extended Family, and Diversity Committee. The diversity committee should be really interesting considering the lack of diversity on the ship. During orientation the dean spoke about diversity on the ship (at least one person from each state, 65% female 35% male, 1 person from Switzerland, 1 from Puerto Rico, and a handful from Canada), but I don’t think I would consider that diverse. Oh well I guess it just makes me more excited about meeting people in the countries we are visiting. People have been asking me about the food on the boat—its good, but it is the same thing everyday. There is always salad, fish, chicken/beef, potatoes, pasta, and veggies. There is also always PB & J and bread. We had our first Taco Day for lunch on Saturday- it was excellent haha. The one thing that really bothers me about the dining halls is the hours. I don’t start class until 9:20 everyday, but breakfast is over at 8:30, and I mean 8:30 on the dot. They take everything away, and don’t care if you just got there. It’s really annoying, but I get up anyway J. I did get my letters from Bay Hey and Mom and Dad in Puerto Rico and I must admit I was so excited; I have them magnetized to my wall. My roommate got like 4 letters L lol but its ok. I can’t wait to get Brazil and go on my Lencois trip- it is going to be great! Hopefully I will be able to post on here from an Internet café on my last day in Brazil or something. I miss everyone a lot, please send me emails about what is going on in your lives. Love you!!
Monday, February 05, 2007
En route to Puerto Rico
Hello everyone!! Right now we are almost half way to Puerto Rico!! We have been doing all kinds of orientation things today and last night; nothing too crazy—just mainly talking about safety on the boat. We also had our first Global Studies class. It was just an introduction to the class, and we got our syllabus and discussed the theme. The Global Studies theme for this semester is Peace and Conflict in the Developing World.
It seems like it will be interesting. I have been meeting a lot of people, and I even met a few from UM that I didn’t know where coming- of course I’m wearing my UM gear all the time J.
Yesterday we had a lifeboat drill before we departed, and we have to wear long pants, long sleeves, sneakers, a hat, and our lifejackets- it was SO hot! We stood there for like 45 minutes waiting for the captain to go around and make sure everyone was there and prepared. That was horrible, I hope we don’t have any more of those. I took a picture with my roommate in our lifejackets so I will post that later on. My roommate’s name is Ashley and she is from Omaha, Nebraska, and goes to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Apparently there is one other girl on the boat from Nebraska, but she hasn’t met her yet. Last night we did this roommate questionnaire that our RD gave us about our style of living, and we both put the same answers for almost everything so that is good.
I’m going to backtrack to the Bahamas since my last post wasn’t that long.
So first of all I stood in the wrong line at the Miami airport for about 25 minutes because no one speaks English and the signs were confusing. I never flew international by myself before so I was just like ah! Where do I go? beside the fact that I could barely drag my bags. So I finally found the right line and it was so long! I stood in that for about an hour before I got to the counter and had to pay $25 for one of my bags being heavy L. Then I dragged my bags off to the security thing and they asked for my boarding pass. The lady was like your late you have to run to your gate! Great… I didn’t even get through security yet! So I went to security, and the line wasn’t long, but there was this guy who didn’t speak very good English and he was fighting with the TSA guy because he kept beeping, but wouldn’t take his metal off (not suspicious at all). So finally I got through with no problems and I was like running to my gate. I only had 1 part of my battery left on my cell phone and I still didn’t call anyone to say bye so I was like freaking out about that. After 2 people my cell started beeping LOW BATTERY. I was standing at my gate calling people as fast as I could like hysterically crying- I really must have been a sight to see. I am so sorry Tal and Jenna that I didn’t get to call you guys before I got on the plane!!!
So I took the bus to my incredibly tiny plane on the tarmac, boarded, and fell asleep right away. I didn’t wake up until we landed (which was only 46 minutes, but still). The Nassau Airport is so cute. It’s really tiny and all colorful. I went through customs easily because the guy knew I was with SAS, so I went on to baggage claim. I was so nervous about my luggage because I had heard that 4 people’s bags were lost already, so I was standing there all anxious and I didn’t see anyone else who resembled an SAS’er. Thank god my bags came out pretty fast. There were about 50 Bahaman men with carts who keep asking if you need help, and I didn’t really want help but I was blantantly struggling with my bags so this one guy was just like no, I’m helping haha. So then I had to go through the other customs guy and tell him what was in my bags. We went outside and I walked past 4 people agreeing to share a cab to the Atlantis, and there was no one else around really so I was like Oh man, I have to go alone.. But I asked if I could share anyway, so we did that. There was a mother and daughter- the daughter is on SAS, a woman whose mother is a Lifelong Learner passenger on SAS, and a man on business or something random.
So then I got to the Atlantis, got a key to the room I was staying in, and maneuvered my ridiculously large bags. When I got to the room, Hilary and Monica were already in there so I got my bathing suit on and went to get something to eat. Hilary went to the beach for a little bit because she was leaving to go home because of a family emergency. I wish I got to spend more time with her, but she is going to fly and meet the ship in Puerto Rico.
I just have to add right here that I just looked out my window and it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
Anyway, Monica, Jordi, Kim, Dan (who turns out is Eric’s roommate on the ship), and I hung out all day going on the lazy river and just hanging out. At night we met in the Atlantis lobby with about 120 other SAS kids and a few of us (15) decided to go to a local bar that Kevin suggested since he had been there for a while, instead of the expensive places with everyone else. So we all packed into a cab and went to Joe’s. Let me attempt to describe this place. It is a tiny building in the middle of the block in a residential part of Nassau. There were about 10 Bahaman men in there (all much older, missing teeth, smelling of alcohol and pot) drinking and playing pool. At first I was like what in the world are we doing here? But after a little while, and talking to the guys I realized that these were so cool! Everyone was just listening to reggae, playing pool, and dancing. It was such a good time! And when we were about to leave they were like please come back here if you are ever in the Bahamas! It was so cute.
On the morning of the 4th, Kim and I met up at like 645 am and got a taxi with 2 other girls to the port!! We got in line, but it wasn’t too long so we only had to wait a little while. Once we got our bags searched and got our id cards we were allowed to board! Dannie was a greeter at the gangway so we stood and talked to her for a little before getting our carry-ons searched and going through the metal detector. Then we both ran to our cabins, but mine was being cleaned L so one of the RD’s let me put my carry-ons in his room and then gave me a quick little tour. When I got back from breakfast one of my bags was there so I went in to unpack. Our room was one of the junior suites! It is awesome! Our beds are actually turned the other way (bow to aft) instead of port to starboard so the rocking of the ship feels like a cradle or something instead of making us sick- it is so nice! We even got a little mini couch and more storage space than other cabins. Woo hoo!
So basically for the past 24 hours I have just been hanging out, meeting people, and organizing my room. It’s been fun so far and I’m really excited for classes to get started tomorrow. That’s all I really have for now. I hope you are all getting your free SAS Internet postcards. They are so sweet to send, but I don’t like that I can’t get a free response lol. I will be checking my gmail tonight, and probably responding to any letters with internet postcards. Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!
PS. I heard the Colts won the Super Bowl!!! I hate the Bears haha :\
I’ll talk to everyone soon! J
It seems like it will be interesting. I have been meeting a lot of people, and I even met a few from UM that I didn’t know where coming- of course I’m wearing my UM gear all the time J.
Yesterday we had a lifeboat drill before we departed, and we have to wear long pants, long sleeves, sneakers, a hat, and our lifejackets- it was SO hot! We stood there for like 45 minutes waiting for the captain to go around and make sure everyone was there and prepared. That was horrible, I hope we don’t have any more of those. I took a picture with my roommate in our lifejackets so I will post that later on. My roommate’s name is Ashley and she is from Omaha, Nebraska, and goes to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Apparently there is one other girl on the boat from Nebraska, but she hasn’t met her yet. Last night we did this roommate questionnaire that our RD gave us about our style of living, and we both put the same answers for almost everything so that is good.
I’m going to backtrack to the Bahamas since my last post wasn’t that long.
So first of all I stood in the wrong line at the Miami airport for about 25 minutes because no one speaks English and the signs were confusing. I never flew international by myself before so I was just like ah! Where do I go? beside the fact that I could barely drag my bags. So I finally found the right line and it was so long! I stood in that for about an hour before I got to the counter and had to pay $25 for one of my bags being heavy L. Then I dragged my bags off to the security thing and they asked for my boarding pass. The lady was like your late you have to run to your gate! Great… I didn’t even get through security yet! So I went to security, and the line wasn’t long, but there was this guy who didn’t speak very good English and he was fighting with the TSA guy because he kept beeping, but wouldn’t take his metal off (not suspicious at all). So finally I got through with no problems and I was like running to my gate. I only had 1 part of my battery left on my cell phone and I still didn’t call anyone to say bye so I was like freaking out about that. After 2 people my cell started beeping LOW BATTERY. I was standing at my gate calling people as fast as I could like hysterically crying- I really must have been a sight to see. I am so sorry Tal and Jenna that I didn’t get to call you guys before I got on the plane!!!
So I took the bus to my incredibly tiny plane on the tarmac, boarded, and fell asleep right away. I didn’t wake up until we landed (which was only 46 minutes, but still). The Nassau Airport is so cute. It’s really tiny and all colorful. I went through customs easily because the guy knew I was with SAS, so I went on to baggage claim. I was so nervous about my luggage because I had heard that 4 people’s bags were lost already, so I was standing there all anxious and I didn’t see anyone else who resembled an SAS’er. Thank god my bags came out pretty fast. There were about 50 Bahaman men with carts who keep asking if you need help, and I didn’t really want help but I was blantantly struggling with my bags so this one guy was just like no, I’m helping haha. So then I had to go through the other customs guy and tell him what was in my bags. We went outside and I walked past 4 people agreeing to share a cab to the Atlantis, and there was no one else around really so I was like Oh man, I have to go alone.. But I asked if I could share anyway, so we did that. There was a mother and daughter- the daughter is on SAS, a woman whose mother is a Lifelong Learner passenger on SAS, and a man on business or something random.
So then I got to the Atlantis, got a key to the room I was staying in, and maneuvered my ridiculously large bags. When I got to the room, Hilary and Monica were already in there so I got my bathing suit on and went to get something to eat. Hilary went to the beach for a little bit because she was leaving to go home because of a family emergency. I wish I got to spend more time with her, but she is going to fly and meet the ship in Puerto Rico.
I just have to add right here that I just looked out my window and it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
Anyway, Monica, Jordi, Kim, Dan (who turns out is Eric’s roommate on the ship), and I hung out all day going on the lazy river and just hanging out. At night we met in the Atlantis lobby with about 120 other SAS kids and a few of us (15) decided to go to a local bar that Kevin suggested since he had been there for a while, instead of the expensive places with everyone else. So we all packed into a cab and went to Joe’s. Let me attempt to describe this place. It is a tiny building in the middle of the block in a residential part of Nassau. There were about 10 Bahaman men in there (all much older, missing teeth, smelling of alcohol and pot) drinking and playing pool. At first I was like what in the world are we doing here? But after a little while, and talking to the guys I realized that these were so cool! Everyone was just listening to reggae, playing pool, and dancing. It was such a good time! And when we were about to leave they were like please come back here if you are ever in the Bahamas! It was so cute.
On the morning of the 4th, Kim and I met up at like 645 am and got a taxi with 2 other girls to the port!! We got in line, but it wasn’t too long so we only had to wait a little while. Once we got our bags searched and got our id cards we were allowed to board! Dannie was a greeter at the gangway so we stood and talked to her for a little before getting our carry-ons searched and going through the metal detector. Then we both ran to our cabins, but mine was being cleaned L so one of the RD’s let me put my carry-ons in his room and then gave me a quick little tour. When I got back from breakfast one of my bags was there so I went in to unpack. Our room was one of the junior suites! It is awesome! Our beds are actually turned the other way (bow to aft) instead of port to starboard so the rocking of the ship feels like a cradle or something instead of making us sick- it is so nice! We even got a little mini couch and more storage space than other cabins. Woo hoo!
So basically for the past 24 hours I have just been hanging out, meeting people, and organizing my room. It’s been fun so far and I’m really excited for classes to get started tomorrow. That’s all I really have for now. I hope you are all getting your free SAS Internet postcards. They are so sweet to send, but I don’t like that I can’t get a free response lol. I will be checking my gmail tonight, and probably responding to any letters with internet postcards. Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!
PS. I heard the Colts won the Super Bowl!!! I hate the Bears haha :\
I’ll talk to everyone soon! J
En route to Puerto Rico
Hello everyone!! Right now we are almost half way to Puerto Rico!! We have been doing all kinds of orientation things today and last night; nothing too crazy—just mainly talking about safety on the boat. We also had our first Global Studies class. It was just an introduction to the class, and we got our syllabus and discussed the theme. The Global Studies theme for this semester is Peace and Conflict in the Developing World.
It seems like it will be interesting. I have been meeting a lot of people, and I even met a few from UM that I didn’t know where coming- of course I’m wearing my UM gear all the time J.
Yesterday we had a lifeboat drill before we departed, and we have to wear long pants, long sleeves, sneakers, a hat, and our lifejackets- it was SO hot! We stood there for like 45 minutes waiting for the captain to go around and make sure everyone was there and prepared. That was horrible, I hope we don’t have any more of those. I took a picture with my roommate in our lifejackets so I will post that later on. My roommate’s name is Ashley and she is from Omaha, Nebraska, and goes to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Apparently there is one other girl on the boat from Nebraska, but she hasn’t met her yet. Last night we did this roommate questionnaire that our RD gave us about our style of living, and we both put the same answers for almost everything so that is good.
I’m going to backtrack to the Bahamas since my last post wasn’t that long.
So first of all I stood in the wrong line at the Miami airport for about 25 minutes because no one speaks English and the signs were confusing. I never flew international by myself before so I was just like ah! Where do I go? beside the fact that I could barely drag my bags. So I finally found the right line and it was so long! I stood in that for about an hour before I got to the counter and had to pay $25 for one of my bags being heavy L. Then I dragged my bags off to the security thing and they asked for my boarding pass. The lady was like your late you have to run to your gate! Great… I didn’t even get through security yet! So I went to security, and the line wasn’t long, but there was this guy who didn’t speak very good English and he was fighting with the TSA guy because he kept beeping, but wouldn’t take his metal off (not suspicious at all). So finally I got through with no problems and I was like running to my gate. I only had 1 part of my battery left on my cell phone and I still didn’t call anyone to say bye so I was like freaking out about that. After 2 people my cell started beeping LOW BATTERY. I was standing at my gate calling people as fast as I could like hysterically crying- I really must have been a sight to see. I am so sorry Tal and Jenna that I didn’t get to call you guys before I got on the plane!!!
So I took the bus to my incredibly tiny plane on the tarmac, boarded, and fell asleep right away. I didn’t wake up until we landed (which was only 46 minutes, but still). The Nassau Airport is so cute. It’s really tiny and all colorful. I went through customs easily because the guy knew I was with SAS, so I went on to baggage claim. I was so nervous about my luggage because I had heard that 4 people’s bags were lost already, so I was standing there all anxious and I didn’t see anyone else who resembled an SAS’er. Thank god my bags came out pretty fast. There were about 50 Bahaman men with carts who keep asking if you need help, and I didn’t really want help but I was blantantly struggling with my bags so this one guy was just like no, I’m helping haha. So then I had to go through the other customs guy and tell him what was in my bags. We went outside and I walked past 4 people agreeing to share a cab to the Atlantis, and there was no one else around really so I was like Oh man, I have to go alone.. But I asked if I could share anyway, so we did that. There was a mother and daughter- the daughter is on SAS, a woman whose mother is a Lifelong Learner passenger on SAS, and a man on business or something random.
So then I got to the Atlantis, got a key to the room I was staying in, and maneuvered my ridiculously large bags. When I got to the room, Hilary and Monica were already in there so I got my bathing suit on and went to get something to eat. Hilary went to the beach for a little bit because she was leaving to go home because of a family emergency. I wish I got to spend more time with her, but she is going to fly and meet the ship in Puerto Rico.
I just have to add right here that I just looked out my window and it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
Anyway, Monica, Jordi, Kim, Dan (who turns out is Eric’s roommate on the ship), and I hung out all day going on the lazy river and just hanging out. At night we met in the Atlantis lobby with about 120 other SAS kids and a few of us (15) decided to go to a local bar that Kevin suggested since he had been there for a while, instead of the expensive places with everyone else. So we all packed into a cab and went to Joe’s. Let me attempt to describe this place. It is a tiny building in the middle of the block in a residential part of Nassau. There were about 10 Bahaman men in there (all much older, missing teeth, smelling of alcohol and pot) drinking and playing pool. At first I was like what in the world are we doing here? But after a little while, and talking to the guys I realized that these were so cool! Everyone was just listening to reggae, playing pool, and dancing. It was such a good time! And when we were about to leave they were like please come back here if you are ever in the Bahamas! It was so cute.
On the morning of the 4th, Kim and I met up at like 645 am and got a taxi with 2 other girls to the port!! We got in line, but it wasn’t too long so we only had to wait a little while. Once we got our bags searched and got our id cards we were allowed to board! Dannie was a greeter at the gangway so we stood and talked to her for a little before getting our carry-ons searched and going through the metal detector. Then we both ran to our cabins, but mine was being cleaned L so one of the RD’s let me put my carry-ons in his room and then gave me a quick little tour. When I got back from breakfast one of my bags was there so I went in to unpack. Our room was one of the junior suites! It is awesome! Our beds are actually turned the other way (bow to aft) instead of port to starboard so the rocking of the ship feels like a cradle or something instead of making us sick- it is so nice! We even got a little mini couch and more storage space than other cabins. Woo hoo!
So basically for the past 24 hours I have just been hanging out, meeting people, and organizing my room. It’s been fun so far and I’m really excited for classes to get started tomorrow. That’s all I really have for now. I hope you are all getting your free SAS Internet postcards. They are so sweet to send, but I don’t like that I can’t get a free response lol. I will be checking my gmail tonight, and probably responding to any letters with internet postcards. Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!
PS. I heard the Colts won the Super Bowl!!! I hate the Bears haha :\
I’ll talk to everyone soon! J
It seems like it will be interesting. I have been meeting a lot of people, and I even met a few from UM that I didn’t know where coming- of course I’m wearing my UM gear all the time J.
Yesterday we had a lifeboat drill before we departed, and we have to wear long pants, long sleeves, sneakers, a hat, and our lifejackets- it was SO hot! We stood there for like 45 minutes waiting for the captain to go around and make sure everyone was there and prepared. That was horrible, I hope we don’t have any more of those. I took a picture with my roommate in our lifejackets so I will post that later on. My roommate’s name is Ashley and she is from Omaha, Nebraska, and goes to the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Apparently there is one other girl on the boat from Nebraska, but she hasn’t met her yet. Last night we did this roommate questionnaire that our RD gave us about our style of living, and we both put the same answers for almost everything so that is good.
I’m going to backtrack to the Bahamas since my last post wasn’t that long.
So first of all I stood in the wrong line at the Miami airport for about 25 minutes because no one speaks English and the signs were confusing. I never flew international by myself before so I was just like ah! Where do I go? beside the fact that I could barely drag my bags. So I finally found the right line and it was so long! I stood in that for about an hour before I got to the counter and had to pay $25 for one of my bags being heavy L. Then I dragged my bags off to the security thing and they asked for my boarding pass. The lady was like your late you have to run to your gate! Great… I didn’t even get through security yet! So I went to security, and the line wasn’t long, but there was this guy who didn’t speak very good English and he was fighting with the TSA guy because he kept beeping, but wouldn’t take his metal off (not suspicious at all). So finally I got through with no problems and I was like running to my gate. I only had 1 part of my battery left on my cell phone and I still didn’t call anyone to say bye so I was like freaking out about that. After 2 people my cell started beeping LOW BATTERY. I was standing at my gate calling people as fast as I could like hysterically crying- I really must have been a sight to see. I am so sorry Tal and Jenna that I didn’t get to call you guys before I got on the plane!!!
So I took the bus to my incredibly tiny plane on the tarmac, boarded, and fell asleep right away. I didn’t wake up until we landed (which was only 46 minutes, but still). The Nassau Airport is so cute. It’s really tiny and all colorful. I went through customs easily because the guy knew I was with SAS, so I went on to baggage claim. I was so nervous about my luggage because I had heard that 4 people’s bags were lost already, so I was standing there all anxious and I didn’t see anyone else who resembled an SAS’er. Thank god my bags came out pretty fast. There were about 50 Bahaman men with carts who keep asking if you need help, and I didn’t really want help but I was blantantly struggling with my bags so this one guy was just like no, I’m helping haha. So then I had to go through the other customs guy and tell him what was in my bags. We went outside and I walked past 4 people agreeing to share a cab to the Atlantis, and there was no one else around really so I was like Oh man, I have to go alone.. But I asked if I could share anyway, so we did that. There was a mother and daughter- the daughter is on SAS, a woman whose mother is a Lifelong Learner passenger on SAS, and a man on business or something random.
So then I got to the Atlantis, got a key to the room I was staying in, and maneuvered my ridiculously large bags. When I got to the room, Hilary and Monica were already in there so I got my bathing suit on and went to get something to eat. Hilary went to the beach for a little bit because she was leaving to go home because of a family emergency. I wish I got to spend more time with her, but she is going to fly and meet the ship in Puerto Rico.
I just have to add right here that I just looked out my window and it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!
Anyway, Monica, Jordi, Kim, Dan (who turns out is Eric’s roommate on the ship), and I hung out all day going on the lazy river and just hanging out. At night we met in the Atlantis lobby with about 120 other SAS kids and a few of us (15) decided to go to a local bar that Kevin suggested since he had been there for a while, instead of the expensive places with everyone else. So we all packed into a cab and went to Joe’s. Let me attempt to describe this place. It is a tiny building in the middle of the block in a residential part of Nassau. There were about 10 Bahaman men in there (all much older, missing teeth, smelling of alcohol and pot) drinking and playing pool. At first I was like what in the world are we doing here? But after a little while, and talking to the guys I realized that these were so cool! Everyone was just listening to reggae, playing pool, and dancing. It was such a good time! And when we were about to leave they were like please come back here if you are ever in the Bahamas! It was so cute.
On the morning of the 4th, Kim and I met up at like 645 am and got a taxi with 2 other girls to the port!! We got in line, but it wasn’t too long so we only had to wait a little while. Once we got our bags searched and got our id cards we were allowed to board! Dannie was a greeter at the gangway so we stood and talked to her for a little before getting our carry-ons searched and going through the metal detector. Then we both ran to our cabins, but mine was being cleaned L so one of the RD’s let me put my carry-ons in his room and then gave me a quick little tour. When I got back from breakfast one of my bags was there so I went in to unpack. Our room was one of the junior suites! It is awesome! Our beds are actually turned the other way (bow to aft) instead of port to starboard so the rocking of the ship feels like a cradle or something instead of making us sick- it is so nice! We even got a little mini couch and more storage space than other cabins. Woo hoo!
So basically for the past 24 hours I have just been hanging out, meeting people, and organizing my room. It’s been fun so far and I’m really excited for classes to get started tomorrow. That’s all I really have for now. I hope you are all getting your free SAS Internet postcards. They are so sweet to send, but I don’t like that I can’t get a free response lol. I will be checking my gmail tonight, and probably responding to any letters with internet postcards. Hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!
PS. I heard the Colts won the Super Bowl!!! I hate the Bears haha :\
I’ll talk to everyone soon! J
Sunday, February 04, 2007
BAHAMAS!!
Hey everyone!!!!!!
I am alive and well in the Bahamas! My flight from Miami was only about 45 minutes long so I arrived in Nassau at about 1130. My bags came out pretty quick which is awesome because a lot of people's luggage was lost. So then me and the guy helping with my bags went outside. I walked by 4 people who had jus agreed to share a cab to the Atlantis and I was like oh man there is already 4 of them :( .. but i asked anyway and they were like YEAH! come on.. so it was only 10 bucks and it only took about 25 minutes which was awesome.
Soooo.. the Atlantis is absolutely beautiful! I checked in and went up to my room with Hilary and Monica. A little later we met up with Jordi, Kim, and Dan and went on the lazy river. Yeah, there is a lazy river in the hotel!..
It is so funny seeing people walk around and recognizing them from facebook and them recognizing me.
I am using Jordi's internet minutes to write this so I am not gonna go into detail until I can get internet on my own computer because I feel bad!
Tonight everyone met in the lobby of the Atlantis and there were so many people there! I met Kevin finally YAY! hahah.. he is awesome just as I thought lol
He took us to Joe's which is a local bar and we just hung out there for a while. The Bahamian guys are so cool. They are very friendly, but not sleazy which is great.
I'll post pictures of my new Bahamian friends next time. I am waking up in about 5 hours and me and Kim are going to the boat around 7am. Let's hope they let me on board! Love and miss you all! I am really excited now because I have only known these people for less than a day and I feel like we are already close! It's been a good start so thats good. I'll hopefully post soon!
LOVE YOU!!!!
I am alive and well in the Bahamas! My flight from Miami was only about 45 minutes long so I arrived in Nassau at about 1130. My bags came out pretty quick which is awesome because a lot of people's luggage was lost. So then me and the guy helping with my bags went outside. I walked by 4 people who had jus agreed to share a cab to the Atlantis and I was like oh man there is already 4 of them :( .. but i asked anyway and they were like YEAH! come on.. so it was only 10 bucks and it only took about 25 minutes which was awesome.
Soooo.. the Atlantis is absolutely beautiful! I checked in and went up to my room with Hilary and Monica. A little later we met up with Jordi, Kim, and Dan and went on the lazy river. Yeah, there is a lazy river in the hotel!..
It is so funny seeing people walk around and recognizing them from facebook and them recognizing me.
I am using Jordi's internet minutes to write this so I am not gonna go into detail until I can get internet on my own computer because I feel bad!
Tonight everyone met in the lobby of the Atlantis and there were so many people there! I met Kevin finally YAY! hahah.. he is awesome just as I thought lol
He took us to Joe's which is a local bar and we just hung out there for a while. The Bahamian guys are so cool. They are very friendly, but not sleazy which is great.
I'll post pictures of my new Bahamian friends next time. I am waking up in about 5 hours and me and Kim are going to the boat around 7am. Let's hope they let me on board! Love and miss you all! I am really excited now because I have only known these people for less than a day and I feel like we are already close! It's been a good start so thats good. I'll hopefully post soon!
LOVE YOU!!!!
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