Back in the ocean

I went to this science center thing called Inpa that was kinds of like a free roaming zoo. All of the animals could go wherever they wanted, so I liked it a lot more than a zoo. (I got a lot of turtle pictures for you, Jenny!) And Erin and I had the most productive shopping trip on our last day.

We got out of the Amazon River late Saturday night, so the ship is rocking a lot again. Still haven’t gotten seasick though. Class for 6 straight days with one reading day and then 2 more classes before Ghana is rough. And the reading day isn’t even a reading day because we all have to participate in the “Sea Olympics.”

We lost 2 hours in the last three days, so now we’re 3 hours ahead of Pittsburgh, and we still have to lose 2 more hours in the next 5 days before we get to Ghana. The only thing I have to look forward to with losing all these hours is getting two April 12ths. I still don’t understand how exactly this happens, but it will be cool anyway. Though we’ll have class on both days, so maybe it’s not such a good thing after all.

It’s sunny out today, so I’m off to lay out :) See Susie, I really don’t have anything interesting going on yet.  I’ll update after Ghana!

Here you go Susie

Brazil is amazing! We walked around Manaus Sunday afternoon, and it was really crowded, but nice. There are parks and courtyards everywhere. Sunday night, there was a Samba school of dance. (Sidenote: the drivers here are nuts! Our cab driver backed up an entire street without turning around going about 40 mph! He also put in the Beatles for us!) At the samba dance thing, the entire street was just full of Brazilian dancers (some with little drums and tambourines). They let us all dance with them and play their instruments. It was fun. Then on our walk back to the ship, I heard that the Steelers won the football game, and even though I have no Pittsburgh pride, I started singing the Pittsburgh’s going to the superbowl song (really loudly) with Erin.

Monday we got to go piranha fishing (I caught one!) and see baby crocodiles. Everyone got to hold it, but when it was my turn I freaked out when it started squirming around and dropped it in our canoe. It was a huge fiasco because we all jumped up onto our seats and had to wait for our guide to catch it again so that it wouldn’t bite any of us. Our guide was crazy! She drank the water from the Amazon and walked waist deep in the river at night barefoot to catch the crocodile with her bare hands! Then we went back to the “lodge” to sleep, but Charli, Emmy, and I were too scared to sleep in the beds they had made for us because people found cockroaches and lizards in their beds. So we got to sleep in hammocks. It was actually really comfortable.

Everyone here speaks Portuguese, but most of the time the language barrier isn’t too difficult. We’ve just been pointing and miming a lot to get our point across. They do understand some words though (like beer, thank God). And everyone is very friendly. Shelly and I were at the mall in a shoe store, and after pointing to our size, all three workers in the store just kept bringing us shoe after shoe to try on.

I'm in the jungle bitch!

We sailed down the Amazon. The water is brown. Really brown. And shallow. At one point we only cleared the bottom of the river by 4 feet. And apparently there is this sandbar that is always changing shape somewhere along the river that's the size of Switzerland??! There are bugs everywhere. Everywhere. And they are on steroids. There was a beetle literally the size of my hand on the pool deck. I hate bugs. And my bug spray apparently attracts more bugs than it repels, because I have about 5 bites on my legs from today alone. But we're like 2 degrees south of the equator, so the sunshine is amazing! We had a "reading day" today, and I got to lay out for 5 hours :) The river is actually really wide; at some points you can't even see the banks from the middle. But we got to a narrower part of the river and sailed pretty close to the shore today. It was so cool to see all the huts along the banks. People left their little houses to come out onto canoes so that they could see the ship up close. The little kids were especially cute. I took so many pictures, but none of them can even begin to describe how pretty the jungle is (and I've only seen it from my boat so far!). We get to Manaus, Brazil tomorrow!

Dominica (doh-min-EEK-a, not doh-MIN-ick-a)

I love Dominica. It's so beautiful, I can't even describe it. When we got there, we walked around the city for a while. There are little trenches on either side of the street where the overflow water (and God knows what else) goes. Literally everything is closed down on Sundays there because I guess the Dominicans are super religious. Anyway, here's a list of some things that I did while in Dominica:
+We went to the botanical garden and accidentally ended up hiking up a mountain (luckily I decided to wear my keds so that I wouldn't get a staph infection while walking around town). We had a great view from the top; we could see the entire side of the island where the ship was docked.
+I went river tubing in the afternoon.
+Even though the island was basically shut down Sunday, since there were over 600 students that wanted to drink, a few bars opened up for us. Drinks here are strong and cheap, just how I like them. I was really chatty at night, and Greg's roommate told me that he didn't know whether to describe us (Greg and I) as brother and sister or an old married couple. This could not be a more accurate way to think of us.
+I climbed down these massive rocks so that I could swim in the ocean. It was fun. My friend has a waterproof camera too, so that got some use.
+My friend and I snuck into a hotel (his idea, not mine) so that we could swim in the sweet pool there with a waterfall, then we got drinks at the very overpriced bar there. The rum punch here is STRONG.

Now I have to start my homework :( but I guess I can't complain too much because I've only had 2 days of classes so far and this is the first time I'll be opening a book

because my room is being cleaned and I can't go take a nap..

Well, I spent close to $100 at the campus store yesterday, but now I have all of my SAS gear for the rest of the trip (sweatshirt, sweatpants, tee shirt, and long sleeve tee shirt—all completely necessary). It was so nice out yesterday, and I was done with class by noon, so I got to lay out by the pool all day! I did get a little bit burnt though… The wind really cools you off, so you don’t think you’re getting a lot of sun. And I keep forgetting how much further south we are. We stopped in Puerto Rico to refuel, and since it’s a U.S. territory, I got to call home and say hi to my family and a couple friends! We were only there for a few hours, but it was like Christmas morning on the ship. Everyone was calling home and texting like crazy.  We’re currently sailing by the Virgin Islands, and I can see land from my window in my room (to the left, or port side, of the ship). Classes are boring, as usual. I fell asleep in my first one today because they turned off the lights… what do they expect? A group of us tried to sleep out on the deck last night since it was so nice out, but once we left Puerto Rico and the winds picked up, it got too cold, so three of the five left.

My roommate found a quote yesterday that I really like, so I'm repeating it: "The world is a book, and those who don't travel read only the first page." (or something along those lines anyway).

First post from the ship!

I'm not totally sure if this will even work, because I haven't tried emailing my blog before. Anyway, I made it on the ship (with my contraband straightener sans automatic shut-off) and we left the dock at 8pm.  I'm living on deck 3 (there are 7 decks, 7 is at the top) so I'm close to the bottom.  I feel like Jack Dawson in Titanic.  Upside is that apparently you don't feel the rocking of the boat as much closer to the bottom of the ship.  Regardless, I haven't been feeling seasick (knock on wood), but there have been a lot of people already throwing up :/ It's hilarious because nobody has their sea-legs yet, so we all are stumbling around like drunk idiots. I'm in a quad, but luckily we got one of the biggest rooms on the ship.  Most of the quads have bunk beds (and when I say bunk beds, I mean there is one bed on the floor and another bed that folds out of the wall that just sits on top of the other one-- shady) but ours had 2 separate rooms, each with 2 regular beds. My room even has a huge window, so I can look out into the ocean! Our blinds are broken at the moment though, so the sun shines in really bright in the morning. Luckily though, I have this snazzy leopard print sleep mask to wear that Kelsey's mom bought for me! Since our room is at the back of the ship, we can hear the engine. It's loud. The room shakes a little bit. But I'm over it, because I'm a pretty heavy sleeper anyway. My roommates are really nice, and I think that we'll get along really well. The girl that's actually sharing the room with me has the same cleaning habits that I do (throw your clothes everywhere and let the room get messy for a few weeks and then spend a few hours tidying up when you get a chance every so often) so I think this should work out. The ship is so nice, it's like brand new! I'll upload pictures once I get into Dominica sometime after Sunday. We changed time zones last night, so it's currently an hour later here than home. I'll post pictures once we get to Dominica.

Bahamas!!

Some things that are different in the Bahamas:
1. They drive on the left side of the road. I knew this before, but I didn't realize how weird it is.  I almost got hit a few times because I looked the wrong way down the street and didn't notice a car coming in the other direction.
2. On a similar note, the lanes are not marked very well, so people drive pretty much wherever they want to. This is also inconvenient when trying to figure out when to cross the street.
3. The locals are VERY pushy. We went to a market yesterday and a woman came up to me and just put a necklace on me and said "It's free! My gift to you!" When I thanked her and began to walk away, she yelled at me and told me that I needed to tip her (so much for a free necklace-- that I didn't even want might I add). So to be nice I gave her $2. She then yelled at me again asking "What kind of tip is that?!" I apologized and told her that I didn't have any other money and walked away. I should have just given her the stupid necklace back.
4. The locals don't like white people dancing in their nightclubs, apparently.  Last night a group of us left Senor Frogs to go back to our hotel, and decided to stop at a local club that was blasting music.  As soon as we got into the club and began to dance, all of the Bahamians around us stopped dancing and just stood there watching us. This didn't deter us though. When we finally did leave, everyone began to dance again. Weird.
5. Apparently when people honk at you here, it's a good thing. They are either trying to tell you that you can walk in front of them, or just saying hi.  When we first got here, I thought that I was getting in everyone's way because they just kept honking, but they were just being friendly?
6. They love conch (pronounced with a -ch at the end or a -k.. I still don't know for sure).  My roommate and I were feeling adventurous yesterday for lunch and ordered a cracked conch basket to try (we also ordered a chicken sandwich just in case we didn't like the conch) and it was surprisingly good. It's pretty similar to calamari.
7. The McDonalds here doesn't have chicken selects, instead they have fried chicken wings with the bones in them and all. And the pop is flat. It's annoying.
8. The water is actually clear here. I can see to the bottom of the ocean for the first time in my life! But the sand is a lot coarser than I'm used to.
9. Tips are included in everything already. At least I noticed this before paying so that I didn't give a 35% tip!

Sooooooo close!!

Well, my 2 hot pink suitcases are finally packed (to the brim) and hopefully under 50 pounds! I think that I have all of my important documents (license, passport, ticket confirmation, etc.) organized and in a safe place in my new, big, ugly, black backpack. My snacks (cherry and watermelon jolly ranchers, cherry and strawberry starburst, and swedish fish-- yes I only like red and pink flavors) that are supposed to last me a few weeks will most likely only last a few days, but I'm okay with that. And I just uploaded the wonderful going away cd that Kevin made for me to my ipod. Now I just have to shower and then try and get some sleep so that I can wake up at 4:30 am to catch my flight (ick). Peace out America!!

5 days to go...

So I leave for the Bahamas in 5 days, and I'm not nearly ready.  I've packed most of my clothes (which leaves me to wear only my old clothes that I don't even like anymore until Monday) but that's about it.  I still have about a million things to do before I leave, most importantly meeting with friends and family one last time before I go.  My flight leaves at 7 am which means I have to get up at an un-Godly time in the morning.  Then I get to spend two (hopefully) relaxing days in the Bahamas until I board the ship!

Once I get my Semester at Sea email address I'll let everyone know, but I'm also going to have my gmail account, so you can reach me through that as well (Pitt doesn't like SAS, so I'll lose that email account for the semester).  I'd absolutely love to get some mail (although postage may be atrocious, so I won't take it personally if you don't send me things) so here is the information for that: http://www.semesteratsea.org/current-voyage/overview/staying-in-touch.php. Unfortunately, I'll only have 120 minutes of internet time (excluding email- thank God!) so I won't get to check facebook very often.  If you want to reach me, definitely use email.

That's it for now-- hopefully I'll be good at keeping this updated!