Sorry!!!! Ship update!

OK so I know that I promised to write every night and keep up with my blog in Ghana…..but that obviously didn’t happen. Honestly I didn’t have one spare moment. The first night I was out until…..2 am? And then I had to leave super early in the morning. That night, even though I had plenty of time to write, I didn’t have my computer with me. The next night I was out until……hahaha5amhahaha…..and then the following night I had to get serious about my homework and studying for a test….. But I really am working right now, well not right NOW, on putting my whole Ghana experience down on paper. It will be coming very soon and I promise it is worth the wait! I am having a hard time putting in to words my experience, which is why you will have to wait a little bit longer.

Right now I am going to go out of order and tell you about Neptune day. The day after we left Ghana was the day that we crossed the equator. Because we have a very kind Captain he decided to take us a little bit off course so that we could experience something that hardly anyone ever gets to experience in their lives. He took us to the exact point where we crossed the equator AND the prime meridian at exactly 0 degrees and 0 degrees. It was a pretty exciting moment for the whole ship. Besides that, every time the MV explorer crosses the equator it is basically like a holiday. We enjoyed that holiday, called Neptune day, yesterday.   The whole ship was woken up by whistles and drums and cymbals parading through the hall ways and we were all told to go to the top deck. Once we got to the top deck we were introduced to King Neptune, his queen, and all of their court. Unfortunately the equator is where King Neptune lives and we have to ask his permission to cross over it. He said that we had to take an oath, and become….blue diamond shellbacks, in order to cross over. Also there had to be a sacrifice of hair from many people. We were all eager to do his will and while some of us were washed in fish guts, before we were able to kiss THE FISH and pay our respects to the King and queen, others were getting their heads shaved. The atmosphere of the whole place was soooooo fun, especially watching people, including girls, chop off their beautiful long hair and people supporting them sooo much….it was just so overwhelming and I couldn’t help myself…..so I stepped forward and offered my hair to be sacrificed!!!!

Just Kidding! Hehehe. But seriously it was an amazing sight. All together 100 people shaved their heads that morning and most of them were girls cutting off their long gorgeous hair. I know I would not be able to do that, but I think that for those who did it gave them a sense of liberation and independence. Later I saw other boys who had shaved their heads themselves, several with Mohawks, some had the St. Francis hair style which was really very ridiculous, and there is one guy whose hair looked like a yamacha…..silly boys. It was a long morning and a ton of fun!

Ok I just wanted to share that with you all. Now I am going to get to work on my real blog, hopefully I will be able to include some juicy details about wonderful Ghana! So look forward to it!

Jya Ne! 

Last days of Morocco, some ship updates and then on to Ghana!!!!

My third day in Morocco I started on my adventure to Marrakech. We had to take a very long and very hot train from Casablanca to Marrakech. Thankfully the hotel we decided to stay at was right next to the train station so it wasn’t long before we could put our things down in a the tiny room. We were planning on meeting a couple other friends there but we decided that there was enough time before we got there to pregame and get a quick bite. For some reason we decided to go to mcdonalds……yeah. The only differences at mcdonalds was that there wasn’t any apple pies, and the drink and fries sizes were all small. Besides that the food tasted basically the same. We decided that mcdonalds probably produces their products in one factory where they are then sent around the world frozen….I think that is pretty accurate.   

We met our friends and accompanied them as they got something to eat as well. They went to actual restaurants and ate decent food. One of the girls was vegetarian and the first place we stopped at didn’t serve vegetarians so I went with her to a place across the street where she had a veggie pizza. This was one of my first experiences interacting with the Moroccans. The waiter was sooooo nice. When we were done with our food he asked us where we were from and shook both of our hands, he repeated welcome to us over and over again. Many of the people I talked to in Morocco were like that, very kind and sincere in their welcoming.

From there we decided we had to go to the Medina so we started walking. The way the cities in Morocco work is that there is the Medina which is the original city, enclosed by a wall. Outside of the Medina is what the French added when the colonized Morocco, that part is usually very modern with office buildings French shops and restaurants. Like I said the Medina is the old town with markets places and mosques and homes. Also inside the Medina is the Kasbah which is a more fortified part of the city. That is where the royal palace is and it was also a place of protection for the people if the Medina was attacked. Inside of the Medina we spent most of our time at the market place or the souk. Our first experience there was at night. It was crazy! The place was packed full of people, a lot of tourists (mostly European) and a lot of street merchants. One of the best parts of the evening was the street restaurant that we ate at. Apparently right as the sunsets a whole bunch of displays of food and then tables are set out and about 30 “restaurants” appear. We were invited to eat at one of them and the food was amazing! The greatest part was that they displayed all of the food, raw meats, vegetables, fish, all right there in front where they can be seen. Besides eating it was cool to walk around and bargain for items. My friend really was a tea set that she found, the merchant wanted 300 dirham (about $35) fo the whole set. She sat there and bargained with him and they settled on 150 dirham. It was really funny to experience. In the market there were also women giving people henna tattoos, Berber musicians performing, monkey displays, and of course snake charmers. I stayed away from most of that because if the people even see you looking at them they will ask for money. I wish right now I could post a picture because I have a perfect one that shows the exact feeling of that night, I could not express it better in words. I don’t want to spoil it right now but look forward to it when I actually do get to post some pictures.

By the end of the evening we were all super exhausted and gross from sweating all day, so we went back took turns taking showers and then went to bed. Four of us lying sideways on a queen sized bed. It was surprisingly not too uncomfortable.

Then next day we tried to see some things like the palace and the Kasbah, and some of the beautiful gardens, but unfortunately we weren’t able to see some of those things and we ended up just going back to the market in the medina. During the day time the experience is similar but not as exciting. The best part of that day was sitting up on the roof of one of the restaurants overlooking the market and then all of the sudden the call to prayer started to sound, a few seconds later a second call to prayer sounded from the opposite direction.  It was sooooooo cool, and I actually got a video of it. OH! Another thing we did….which I gave you hint about in one of my pictures, is the riding of the camels. On our way to the Medina we ran into a guy with a bunch of camels, we paid $25 to ride them for a half hour. It wasn’t like riding in the Sahara Dessert or anything, but it was pretty cool. And there were babies which were soooo cute! The rest of the day was spent on a really, really, hot and humid and crowded train that got in to casablanca a lot later than it was supposed to.

The second to last day I had was dedicated to visiting the SOS Childrens village. One of my least favorite things in Morocco was the amount of men…..everywhere. There were women too but usually it was a man that we would speak to. That was basically all the children’s village was. I was expecting to go to this place where orphans live, do some kind of service for them, and then play with them. That is not what happened at all. First we took a short tour of the George Washington Academy, an American school, k-12, where they teach in Arabic, French, and English. We got to eat lunch there, all American food, and on the wall in the cafeteria was flags of all the countries that support the school and then also a picture of the king, and a large U.S. flag with a picture of Obama underneath it. I thought this was very interesting. From there we drove a while until we came to the village, we were given water, a tour of one of the homes (actually it was very very nice) and then a tour of the neighboring organization which homes and teachers people with physical and mental disabilities who are outcasts in normal society. We were then split in to two “tree planting” groups. My group of about 15 people was given 5 date trees to plant. That whole experience was so superficial. It’s like they decided let’s give the Americans a couple trees to plant, they probably won’t want to get their hands dirty so we will do all of the hard part. I swear! There were only a couple of us who actually got down and dirty in the pre-dug holes and tried to help them plant the trees. It was very frustrating that the other people refused to help in any way that would get their hands dirty. After we were given cokes, more mint tea (I really loved that stuff), and some delicious snacks. They played some music, had some art pieces which the men that live there had made for sale, and a man who was writing people’s names in Arabic calligraphy.  It was a nice little reception. We then took a picture as a group and waited, a long time, for the buses to come back. While we waited some people played soccer with some of the kids (all boys) which was very entertaining.

The rest of the time I spent in Morocco was spent mostly walking around Casablanca, exploring the beach, the mosque and some of the market. It was really cool to experience such a different culture, before I didn’t really know much about the Muslim religion, now I feel I have a strong understanding of their beliefs and their culture.

I think one of the things I will remember the most about Morocco, besides the prayer call, and the mint tea, would be the traffic. Walking around was crazy, it was like walking around downtown, only I’m not sure there was a speed limit and there were absolutely no pedestrian signs, or lights or anything. Sometimes there were pedestrian walkways….but that’s it. So basically you had to watch the traffic and whenever there was the slightest break, that’s when you would go. Usually the traffic would stop but sometimes it wouldn’t just go around the pedestrians. Really scary at first but after a while I got used to it. It was fun. Hahahaha

Okay….Thats about all I have to say about Morocco. Life back on the ship has been crazy. I just had 7 days of classes and they were rough. I feel like the traveling part is a break from classes…..and classes is a break from the traveling part…..but I haven’t had a break from either one. The ocean is still very beautiful. The other day it was very calm, so calm that the ocean looked almost like a dark blue tinted glass. That day we were able to see flying fish outside the dinning room window. They would jump up and hover just above the water skimming it for about 20 seconds and then they would plop back down in to the water. At first we thought they were birds, but no. They looked like little silver humming birds. That was cool.

In global studies we talked about sustainability, and Family, Gender and education. We learned about many of the oppressions of women that STILL go on in the world. Genital mutilation, bride burning, acid burning, human trafficking, gendercide, there is a statistic that says somewhere between 60 thousand and 1 million women are missing from the world, they should be here, but they aren’t. I could go on and tell you about the 10’s of millions of street children there are, about how two million girls under the age of 15 are sold in to sex trade each year, about the 121 million kids in the world who aren’t receiving education and that instead they are forced to work. I could go in to detail about all that stuff, and rant about how the world seems helpless because every effort we try to put in to help these people is turned around in to something that is hurting them instead….but unfortunately I am running out of time. That is a conversation for another time.

So for the seven days we have been at sea since Morocco we have had two very special guests with us. Joe Baami, a very amazing man who helped Ghana’s constitution in 1992, and Rebecca, a college student who lives in Tokoradi. The two of them were so good to us, joining classes, giving presentation about Ghana, teaching us about the culture, drumming and dancing with us in music class. Last night at our port logistics meeting, where we learn all of the important stuff we need to know about Ghana (phone numbers, transportation, medical) We were also given a talk about how the group as a whole needs to do better at representing the U.S.. Like I have told you before some people on this trip don’t realize what a huge opportunity this is, and how they are wasting it on getting drunk. In Spain, a woman who was riding on a bus with a ton of sas kids said she would never want to be around Americans ever again. Some students got up last night and confronted the community telling us that the way some people were behaving is just not acceptable and it makes all of us look really bad. After that Rebecca got up and told all of us exactly what we needed to hear. WE ARE NOT SUPERIOR TO EVERYONE ELSE. It is not ok for us to go into a country and disrespect their culture and USE their hospitality, because we are tourists, or elite Americans, that just isn’t ok. We need to realize what an incredible once in a lifetime gift this is, to enter in to the people’s home and culture and witness all of it. We should be careful, keep an open mind and not put it to waste. The whole time she was talking I was saying “yes!” in my head maybe some people will realize what they are doing and stop being such fools. I know some people won’t listen, I don’t get it. Why is it that she gets it, why do I get it, why do the teachers and some other people here get it, but a lot of people here and at home in the U.S. don’t get it? Is it really that hard to think of all people as equals? Sure America is the richest country in the world, sure other countries wish they had the economy that we do, the freedom that we do, but I haven’t even stepped foot in Ghana yet, a country full of poverty, and I can already tell what it will be like. It is a place full of sadness, but rich in culture and music and dancing and happiness and love. Every country has it weaknesses, poverty, disease, famine, crime. And it’s in the U.S. too, we’re just good at hiding it. The way I see it, the people in Ghana are just as superior as the people in the U.S., we just have more money. After her speech, Rebecca told us she felt very blessed to have met all of us, that her time with us was very fun and she was sad to leave. I was also very sad to see her go, she and Joe Baami were both very inspiring people, and I hope they were able to touch the hearts of some of the students here.  

I know I said I wasn’t going to rant but I couldn’t help it……I guess I am my mother’s daughter….hahaha. Well I am going to get ready to explore Ghana now. Dancing and Drumming today!!!! I can not wait!!!!!! I am sure I will have some amazing stories for all of you when I get back! Wish me luck!

Jya ne!

The end of Spain- Cordoba and a little more Cadiz. Then on to Morocco.

I was sad to leave Drew. He was very nice to us and I learned a lot from him. I secretly wished that there could be a Drew in every country who could teach me about the cultures that I was visiting. Unfortunately there isn’t…

Once we said our good byes we boarded a train that would take us to Cordoba and the Great Mosque that I was excited to see. This train ride seemed a lot longer than any of the others and I couldn’t help but allow the little kid in me to think “Are we there yet? Are we there yet?” Finally we were there. This time we were able to find a tourist booth and we were able to ask where and how to get to each place we wanted to visit, most of them suggestions from Nathalia. Once we had a map and a plan we headed to the bus stop and took a bus to where our journey to the great mosque began. It wasn’t much of a journey but I felt like a pilgrim, carrying my heavy backpack following other pilgrims in through skinny cobbled roads until we arrived to our destination.  Al that we could see on the outside of the mosque was very high walls made of stone. We walked around half of the building before we could find a door. We entered and found a beautiful giant patio with trees and fountains. We also found the main entrance into the mosque but all I could see inside was darkness. We found where the ticket booth was and got our tickets and headed back towards the main entrance. Once inside we were overwhelmed by the amount of columns and arches and people. It was very dark, there were small lights hanging from the ceiling, but at the center of the mosque a great amount of light was leaking in to the surrounding areas.

Like I said, it was completely overwhelming walking in to that place. Katie and I started walking around the sides looking at the different chapels that were set up for saints but we both felt a need for someone to tell us the history of the place so we could grasp even just a little bit of its meaning. We were able to pick up a little pamphlet on the way in which described a short history of the mosque and so we milked as much information out of that as we possibly could. I learned that there was certain pattern about the Mosque. Before it was a mosque it was a Visigoth church. They know that because when they were excavating part of the mosque they found Christian ruins. Supposedly when the Moors took over Spain they built their great mosque over the church to show their power. Then when the catholic kings took Spain back they were going to destroy the mosque but Ferdinand thought it was too beautiful so instead they built their Cathedral in the middle of it. Yes there is a Cathedral in the middle of this giant mosque I saw. It was so beautiful! But in the end I had mixed feelings about the place, because although the pamphlet said that the catholic kings thought it was too beautiful to destroy, in my art history lecture about the mosque my professor said that the cathedral was built there to show that the catholic kings had defeated the Moors. That is a little upsetting to me, I know that was the thing to do but it’s hard to believe that they would be so disrespectful. My professor also said that he thought the building was just really ugly, the mosque was beautiful but all of the “junk” and the cathedral that they added to it made it ugly. All things set aside I completely disagree. I felt that the building was extremely spiritual and beautiful the way that the two styles of architecture were put together was very amazing to me, the mosque with it’s dark peaceful feel and then the cathedral which was very radiant, the two styles and religions together seemed to give off a powerful feeling. I dunno it’s hard to describe exactly what I felt. 

We sat out in the courtyard of the mosque for a while after we had explored every inch of it. It was good to be able to sit and soak in the environment and rest up before we had to pickup those heavy backpacks and continue on. We eventually moved on and saw more of the places Nathalia had listed for us like looking at the amazing patios in the neighborhood which were decorated with colorful tiles. We went to the Plaza de Corredera, a nice little square surrounded by apartment buildings and had a coke, then we walked around until we eventually found a small courtyard where there was a crucifix surrounded by lanterns. Everywhere we went was very beautiful, but it was hard for us to express that because we were both so tired and sick of carrying our backpacks, we ended up cutting our experience in Cordoba short and ending it with some yummy gelato and a long train ride back to Cadiz.

It was nice to finally get back to the ship, take a nice shower and relax! That night to celebrate our trip in Spain coming to an end a whole group of us went out to party! J We had some Tappas and then walked around to find a bar to hang out in. I think about half of semester at sea was out that night, we passed a couple of bars that were packed to the rim of our classmates. We found another less empty ba, had some drinks, exchanged stories of our adventures and enjoyed the nice evening breeze. The funny thing about this group of people is that many of them are underage, but on the ship and in almost every country kids that are 18 are allowed to drink. On the ship they are a little more strict about it, people only allowed to have much to drink, and they have to buy a drink card so that people could keep track of how much each person was drinking. However in port there was no one keeping track, kids were free and able to experience alcohol all they want. There is an island off of….barcelona….called Ibiza, which is basically just a party island, and we were told not to go there, but over 200 students went there anyways, and all they did for 3 days was party and drink... I am a little embarrassed by this. I feel like there are so many kids on the trip who are just here to “party around the world” and most of them are wasting their parent’s money. I think that really sucks. Amazingly everyone made it to the ship alive and in one piece, although some kids had money and passports stolen.

I would have to say all in all my personal experience in Spain was really great. I got to see a lot, experience an authentic Spanish lifestyle, and learn a ton about Spain’s history and the culture of today. I would really love to go back to Spain someday because I think there is so much that I didn’t get to see and it just had very nice environment.

We had a very short turn around, maybe 10 hours, and we were in Morocco. My view of Morocco when we first got there was very different from the view I had when we left. The following is something I wrote the first day we arrived. My first impressions of Morocco:

Can you imagine living in a country when 89% of the people believe in the same religion as you do? It is something very hard for me to grasp. Morocco has been intense. The climate, plants, ocean, sky, everything looks about the same as Spain, but the people are basically the exact opposite. As the bus took us to the pier gate and as we walked into the city it was a very long time before I saw a woman.

We walked to the great Mosque, the third largest in the world. It was so amazing and beautiful. I really respect how deep their faith is, how holy their mosques are, sometimes I think as a catholic myself and the rest of the people I go to church with, could learn from these people about how to respect and keep holy that which is supposed to be sacred.

The first day I mostly just walked around with a bunch of people exploring Casablanca, I wasn’t really impressed by anything except the mosque which really was incredible. But my feelings of Morocco was that it was going to be like Saudi Arabia, very strict laws about what women could do, and very conservative religious views. That changed during the rest of the trip.

The next day I was able to buy a ticket to the city orientation tour which was very enjoyable. Our tour guide was a woman which was a big surprise to me. She was a very kind, excited and somewhat loud person. One of the main points of her tour was that the King, Mohammad VI, was a good King, He was the first to introduce his wife to the public, he was also the first to marry someone that wasn’t royal.  He believed that women should have more freedom and so far has brought a lot of change to Morocco, a good King. We learned more about the mosques and the Muslim culture, it was also very interesting. The best part of the trip was when we stopped near the ocean to have a snack at a café and we ran in to none other than Desmond Tutu and his wife Leah! They were such a cute couple and a few of us were able to take our picture with them. The rest of that day we walked around, had a fun adventure in a hostal where we stole some free internet and drank some delicious mint tea.

Wow! I feel like I didn’t have a whole lot of stuff in Morocco that was hugely impactful, I am struggling to think of cool things from the first couple of days. Next time I will talk about my trip to Marrakech and by then you will all be caught up, and just in time for Ghana!!!! We arrive in Ghana the day after tomorrow and my goal is to update my blog throughout the trip, that way I won’t have to struggle to catch up like this. Hopefully it will work out!!! Check tomorrow for another update!

Jya Ne!

MALAGA!!!!

Ok on to Malaga!!! Katie and I took a semi long train from Sevilla to Malaga, we were both pretty tired from walking around all day with our backpacks, but I perked up a bit when we saw Drew coming to greet us at the train station. For those of you who don’t know, Drew is a good friend of my family. He was in the youth choir at STM when he was in high school, and is now a composer who works in Europe. Even though he lives in Europe now he always visits our family when he comes home for Christmas.

He seemed pretty happy to see us when we arrived and fist taught us that in Spain its 2 kisses one on each cheek. We took a taxi to his flat to drop our stuff off. We met his roommate, Alvaro, who is a French teacher in a university.  After relaxing for a little while and refreshing ourselves with some nice cold water, Drew decided to take us out so we could explore Malaga a little bit and then have a drink. It was so great to have Drew there because all of the history and background that we lacked while exploring Sevilla, Drew knew (mostly) about Malaga. He pointed out historical locations, showed us the charming Cathedral with one unfinished tower, and we talked a lot about how the Catholic Church stands in Spain today. Unfortunately the Catholic Church was once very involved with political matters, including matters of very unfortunate consequences to the people of Spain, like the dictation of Franco. Because of this none of the younger generations trust the church anymore and so they don’t go to mass. This was very sad for me to hear. My faith has always been very important and to hear about and know what the church did in Spain is so sad. It strengthened my belief that the church and the state should be separate. When the church gets involved with politics church turns more into what is wrong and right in this world and not about simply doing what Jesus taught us to do and that is to love.

As we were talking about this we made our way to a café type of place and sat outside. I was eager to experience the normal Spanish culture and this was the time for that. Relaxing outside talking with friends, drinking a glass of wine or a beer, so good.  After a little while Drew’s girlfriend, Nathalia, joined us.  Nathalia was very kind and tried her best to speak to us in English even though she didn’t know a whole lot. After getting to know each other a bit Drew and Nathalia became very focused on making a game plan for the evening and for the next day. It was very funny watching them name all of the things that they wanted us to see while we were in Malaga, and all the foods they wanted us to try. Soon we had finished our drinks and decided to walk to our next destination where we would experience some different Spanish wines.

On the way we saw some pretty cool things like the giant Cazar which was an old Moorish fortress which was left. We also saw a roman theatre type of place that was recently excavated. Drew said that it seemed as if there were new excavations taking place all the time. People would decide to put a new building in this one spot and as soon as they started to dig up the ground and build they would find some amazing discovery of ruins from the 12^th century or something. Pretty funny. We also passed many building on our way, which were being rebuilt.  The unique thing about them was that all of the exterior walls were still up, either because they like them or they were historical, but the interiors were totally empty. So basically there were just a bunch of empty shells all over the place.

The place where we tasted wines was really cool and it was packed. Along the walls were lots of barrels with signatures of famous people who had visited Malaga. There was even one signed by Antonio Bandarrez who is originally from Malaga. The wine we tasted was all really good, I like the sweeter wines the best. We also had some ham and cheese. The ham legs are kept right there in the shop and are cut freshly when ordered. It was really good.

After spending a while there, talking more, learning about the culture in Spain we decided it was time to get Tappas. Usually in Spain people have a normal sized breakfast, a large meal during the siesta time, and then tappas at night which are like appetizer sized dishes.  At the tappas place we had a thick tomato and bread type soup, some potato nuggets, a shish kabob stick with beef on it, tortilla con potatas which was like a egg and potato pie type of thing. It was all really good. Then finish the night off we stopped at a bar and had one last drink. It was a nice relaxing evening full of food drinks and lots of good interesting conversations about Spain and other things. We ended up getting home around 1 AM…I think. Or maybe that’s when we went to bed after we got an opportunity to check our email and stuff……I dunno, but it was a very enjoyable evening.

The next day we did a lot of sightseeing, We tried to go to a couple museums, the museum of modern art, the Picasso museum (which in fact is in the house where he was born), and also to tour the inside of the Kazar. Unfortunately all of those were closed because it was a Monday and the day to take a break from all of the tourist events of the weekend. Although those places weren’t opened we were able to see the Cathedral. The cathedral was very beautiful and had a lot of interesting art pieces. One of the cool things that I learned about from Drew is the Saint festivals which are held in every neighborhood. I believe ( and I might get this wrong) that each neighborhood has a patron saint, usually some form of the virgin mary (Like the Virgin of Macarena), during the Easter celebration over 200 (?) men will help carry giant statues of the saints around the whole neighborhood while there is music and dancing. The streets are totally crowded like a giant parade.  Inside the cathedral I was able to see one of these giant statues that are carried around, the carrier of it really is gigantic.

After exploring a bit we took the bus to the one of the beaches where we had lunch. Lunch was sooo good. We had fish, salad, and calamari. Now those of you who know me know that I don’t eat Calamari…it is too weird for me….but I actually ate the calamari there and it was soooooo good!!! I think I really missed fried food from home and that could be why it tasted so good but seriously it was great! We also had some Sangria, which became one of my favorite drinks.  We hung out on the beach for a while, dipped our feet in the water, and enjoyed the beautiful sun and gorgeous weather.

We decided, after our long day of walking, to take our own little Siesta. We went back to Drews apartment and enjoyed some down time. I enjoyed some computer time. One of the things I really dislike about the ship is the lack of internet availability, it’s there we just have to pay for it. Although I can see that it is a good way to help us focus on the voyage and not be distracted by our usual obsession with internet (facebook and such) but I think that when we are in port and find free internet we spend our time catching up on our obsession rather than exploring the new country. I have been able to balance it out pretty well, but I know people who in Morocco spent a whole day sitting in a hotel on the computer. That is sad. 

Anyway back to Malaga. After out Siesta we met Nathalia back on the beach for drinks and to watch the sunset. The scene of beach and the city lights with the sunset in the background was just breathtaking. We met one of Nathalia’s friends who came with her brother and her 1 year old nephew. The little boy, named Gael, was soooo cute. He was carrying around a stuffed Sponge bob. His dad would play the theme of the sponge bob show on his phone (it was in Spanish) and Gael would smile so big, then he would sing it too.

After a while we decided it was time to get Tappas. That night we had the Tortilla de Potatas, the potato nuggets, and fried shrimp. My favorite was the fried shrimp. I never realized how much I like fried food. Hahahaha. We also tried another new drink called Tinto de Verano, which was basically wine with club soda in it, or sangria without the fruit. It became another one of my favorite drinks. One sad thing about the trip was that that day Nathalia was told by the office she worked for that they would not be able to renew her contract and she discovered that soon she would be without a job. That is a sad truth for a lot, too many, people in Spain right now. As many people know when the economy is bad a lot of jobs end up being cut to save money. This is going on all over Spain right now. Most of the night was full of us, mostly Drew, trying to make Nathalia feel better. What a scary thing to not have a job. Hopefully that will soon change.

The night ended with delicious Gilato and a nice stroll back to the apartment. Since the next morning was an early one, we decided to go to bed a little earlier.

Okay, sorry I am not posting this stuff as quickly as I was hoping to. Life got crazy again once we started classes, but hopefully I will be able to catch up and be all set for Ghana by the time we get there. For now I am not going to be posting any (or not as many) pictures, because it ends up taking a lot of my internet time. But I promise that when I get free internet in port I will post lots of pictures to catch you all up.  Next time I will finish up Spain and the hopefully I will be able to talk all about Morocco.

Jya Ne!

Sorry its so late! the beginning of Spain 09/08/10

The boat is rocking again. But only until we get to Morocco tomorrow afternoon!!! That is a day earlier than it says on our itinerary. But wait!!! I haven’t told you anything about Spain yet!


My five day trip to Spain was amazing! I saw a lot, learned a lot, and felt like I got to know the authentic Spain! It was great.

Day 1- Cadiz

The place we ported was a tourist city called Càdith, at least that’s how you pronounce it with the Spanish Lisp. Anyways, because I didn’t have any big plans that day I joined my roommate and our friends in their journey to the train station. When we had arrived, we and the long strand of students before us were greeted by a gigantic line at the ticket booth. It was crazy! Most of them were SAS students and they were all super loud. We waited in line for about an hour and a half and tried to figure out their train plans. When we finally got to the front I decided to try and buy my train ticket for the following day now, might as well since I was already there. The person at the window looked absolutely overwhelmed and agitated….not good. I asked about my train ticket and he immediately said no and shooed me away from the rest of the line. Well, alright.

After my friends got their tickets we decided to head back for a free lunch on the ship. Nancy and our friend Katherine decided they were too super tired and so they went to take a nap. My friend Katie and I decided to go out and explore Cadiz. It only took a short walk to get to the town center. Once there, we wandered around, looking at the Cathedral and the people around, just sitting on the steps in front of the cathedral. A short walk from the Cathedral was the beach! It was such a beautiful post card like image. The ocean was a bright teal/blue color, there were lots of different colored umbrellas and swimming suits. The cold water was called Katie’s name so I watched her things as she ran to the water and dipped her feet in. I watched the people, little kids running around girls lying out, people walking down with their giant umbrellas and snacks. It was such a comfortable sight. A little shocking to see several women with their tops off…..but I guess that’s the culture right?

When Katie came back to claim her things again, we both decided it was just too super hot and we had to go get a coke and cool off, so we went in search of a nice cool spot to take a break. The break was nice and the coke was very refreshing. When we set off again we realized we weren’t quite sure which way we should go. We soon came to the realization that we were far far away from the ship, and so we started our trek back to the ship. Finally we had arrived. We decided to take a break after so much time in the heat and then go out and use the internet that was available at the cathedral. It felt so nice to be back on the cool ship and I finally began to feel the sense of home.

The rest of the afternoon we explored the main square of cadiz, this time not wandering very far from where the pier was. The odd thing about walking around was that most of the shops were closed. We were super confused, it couldn’t be a holiday that day….what the heck. It wasn’t until I saw a sign on one of the shops that said the time and I realized that here in Spain they are very serious about their Siesta. The siesta (meaning nap) is a 4 hour period in the afternoon, usually starting at 1pm and going until about 5 or 5:30, everyone stops working, they enjoy their very large meal of the day and of course take a nap. We both felt dumb that we had forgotten about that, so we wandered around until the shops opened up, then we went back to the ones we were interested in. it was so odd to see shoes and clothes and other things that were only 5-15 euros (7-20 dollars). We were very happy about that.

That evening after Katie and I had journeyed back to the ship and eaten dinner I left for my first falculty lead excursion: Flamenco Night. We gathered in a group outside the ship, everyone was pretty dressed up, there were even girls wearing their heels, Professor Ferguson was all dressed up in his suit and fancy black shoes. I found my adopted brother Chris (the Toscanos also adopted him) and we started our journey to a tiny bar in the middle of Cadiz. This experience was awesome! Simon, an English man, was waiting for us. He is a Flamenco expert who dances and plays guitar, he gave us a lecture about flamenco. He talked about everything from guitar techniques to how the dance looks like a bull fight. He taught us about how flamenco is usually in 12 time and taught us how to count it. He talked about how the songs were usually in major minor or the frigin scales. He showed us the castanets and taught us about how the left castanet was the male and kept time and how the right one was the female that danced with a pitch that was just barely higher than the male.

Finally, after eating a Tappa and drinking a little sherry, the music started. I was blown away, the singer was so intense, and woman who danced was so beautiful and amazing and all together it was incredible. A beautiful way to end a great day.

Day 2- Sevilla

The day started with a bit of a panic attack. Katie and I had gotten up before dawn to buy ours train tickets before our 6:45 train left for Sevilla, but when we got there at 6 am the ticket booth was closed, even thought it said it opened at 5:30. We waited around until a worker came, and then we asked if we would be able to buy a ticket before our train left. She smiled and said not to worry. She was right, the doors opened at 6:30, we were able to buy our tickets and got on the train.

The countryside that we passed was very pretty. Spain being one of the largest producers in the world of olive oil (that’s where Italy gets theirs) we passed hundreds of olive orchards.

When we got in to Sevilla our first priority was to find the cathedral. It was easy to find a taxi that took us, and we soon arrived to this gigantic building in the middle of an old fashioned coble-stoned neighborhood. The reason we went to the cathedral was so that I could go to mass, since it was Sunday. But since we had a couple hours to kill we walked around and took pictures upon pictures of all the old buildings and the perfect European neighborhood. We stopped at a café to get some breakfast, we couldn’t help but take advantage of the delicious backerys while we were there. The atmosphere in the café we went to was wild. We were sitting at the bar, there were no alcoholic beverages to be seen, just several espresso machines and coffee machines. The three guys behind the bar were running around like crazy filling orders, none of them looked especially stressed, they were just very focused and worked fast. It took us forever to get our bill because of this.

After our breakfast we walked around the cathedral some more until it was time for mass. Inside the cathedral is was sooooo big. Usually people had to pay to get in but because I was going to mass I was allowed to go in for free. Mass was held in a small chapel on one side of the cathedral. I had been to many masses in Spanish while in Nicaragua and Mexico, so the language difference was not a huge shocker for me, even with the Spanish lisp. The mass ended up being very long, the old priest gave a very long homily. There was no music and there were only about 30 people there, but still it was a decent hour.

I was able to explore the cathedral a little more before I felt guilty enough to have to leave. When I found Katie again she told me she had found an amazing place. It was a place we had just seen in a postcard we were looking at. So we started our little journey to find that place again. Once we got out of the neighborhood around the cathedral Sevilla suddenly turned into a giant city. There were old building, beautiful fountains, and peaceful parks everywhere, but there was also office buildings, thick streets, busy pedestrians in the mix. We walked for a long time, and it was especially hard because we had to carry our heavy overnight backpacks with us too, not pleasant. We decided after about 20 minutes of walking that we need a break, so we went inside another small café and enjoyed a water and a coke, and gave our backs a rest. A man with a strange looking instrument came up to me and I usually try not to pay much attention to people going around asking for money….but his instrument was just too interesting to ignore. He was from Senegal, and he said his instrument was a pumpkin. It was a giant pumpkin, with a stick coming out of it, plastic strings pasted over a hole in the pumpkin and the wrapped around a large stick which was coming out of the top. There were no frets and the string was just wrapped around the stick, but they were each a different note. The man smiled and sung a short song for me, and let me take a picture. Sorry I can’t help but ignore and handmade instrument like that.

Finally after our nice little break we made it to the place we had journey so far to see. As we were exploring the giant courtyard with towers and beautiful mosaics of each city in Andalucia, we had no clue what it was, how it got there, or anything. We found out later that it was called the Plaza of Spain, it was beautiful but it was really just a bunch of government halls.

This is where we had our first experience of theft. We had gone upstairs to take pictures and look at everything from up high. We also wanted a break so we put our backpacks down. Not a good idea. It was difficult to take pictures up there because we were in the shadow and so as I was trying to take a picture of Katie and the beautiful view behind her, but the flash wouldn’t go off so she was always really dark. We were working hard to figure this out and stopped paying attention to what was going on for a split second. All of the sudden I hear Katie yell “Hey wait” I turned around and saw a guy walking quickly towards the stairs dragging Katie’s backpack with him! Katie was about to bolt after him but thankfully he saw her and dropped the backpack. He walked quickly down the stairs and Katie grabbed her backpack. That was close. After we both calmed down about, the weight of our backpacks and the shock we still felt from that incident made us ready to head back to the train station.

Well I will leave it at this today. I will post more about Spain and Morocco within the next couple day. To leave I will put a cute picture sneak peak of my adventure in Morocco!!! :)

Want another Morocco sneak peak? go check out my facebook.... ;)
Jya ne!

VIDEOS!!!!

Well  right now I am in Malaga, Spain. :) Yesterday my friend Katie and I took a train to Sevilla from Cadiz (where the ship is), We walked around beautiful Sevilla, I got to go to mass and see the gorgeous gigantic Cathedral, and then we walked around running in to amazing sights. Now we are in Malaga with my family's friend Drew Morgan. We were out almost all night last night walking around town, tasting the Tappas and local wine, it is so nice! Today Drew has a whole day planned out for us, sounds like fun!

Well once I have a bit more time I will post more stories about Sevilla and Malaga! 

for now here is that video of the tour of my room. Enjoy!!!

http://www.facebook.com/video/?id=768220789#!/video/video.php?v=10150250688590790

Yesterday was a good day. My class was pretty nice and easy, mostly just listening to discussion. After class I had lunch and then my Nancy, my ship mom, let me go out and sit on her balcony to study. That was very nice and helpful since I have a whole load of reading to do for each of my classes, and it is very difficult to find someplace on the ship that has no distractions. It is so amazing how blue the water is! It is such a bold blue, I could probably go to my box of 64 crayons and pick out its exact color. It doesn’t look real….but I guess it is huh? Haha. 

But right now I am supposed to be focusing on classes….right. I am taking five classes. Global studies (all the students are required to take this class), Global Art and History, Global Music, Chorale Ensemble, and Globalization.

 Our global studies class is pretty interesting; it’s all about current issues in the world and focuses on each country or region that we are going to. Right now we are learning about prosperity in the world, so yesterday we heard a lot about the amount of poor people there are in the world. Did you know that half of the world (3.5 billion people) live on less than $2 a day. You would think that with multinational organizations becoming so big, and developing countries beginning to develop stable economic systems the wealth would be beginning to spread. In fact, between 1981 and 2004 the number of people living in poverty has risen.  Another fact I found shocking is that the combined income of 50 million of the richest people in the world is equivalent to the combined income of 2.7 BILLION poor people. OMGSH! We really need to do something about this. Some pretty cool websites that our professor introduced us to are : www.worldmapper.org and www.stwr.org. Today we talked about Spain and Morocco, just simple stuff like the capital, populations, and government. Our Dean of Students, kind of our vice principle, Dean David, has spent a lot of time in Spain so he was our guest speaker, he just gave us a brief history of the 20^th century politics, like the Franco Dictatorship and what happened after that. He also showed us a video clip (that he probably shouldn’t have recorded) of a lunch he was invited to in the royal palace with the King of Spain. That was pretty cool. I think that they Dean David was actually knighted by the kind of Spain. Seriously some of the people on this ship are like legends. I didn’t tell you before but we actually have an agent of the national secret services on the ship. She is helping out on the trip…..crazy….she even has this aura around her that is…..well….i dunno….but it’s different.  

Back to classes…..Global Art and History is pretty interesting too. In that class we are focusing on each country we are going to. Learning about the history of Spain is interesting. Its lots of layers, and layers of different ethnic groups, coming in a planting their cultural traditions within the rest. There is roman art, Visigoth art, Muslim art, neoclassical art, just a ton. Today we talked about the different places in Spain which we will most likely see, and some of the historical site we should check out.  

Global Music is awesome!!!!! Right now we are focusing on Spain and particularly Flamenco. When you normally think of flamenco you think of the dancers, with the red dress, big shoes, tight bun and the guitar right? Well actually Flamenco came from the Gypsys who travelled to spain, from the middle east and at first it was all sung. Eventually guitar and finally dance was added. We watched some videos yesterday of the singers, they are intense! The amount of passion they sing with is insane and I haven’t heard or seen anything like it ever! One of my trips in Spain is a flamenco experience. I am very excited to experience that. If I can find a link for a video I will try to get that to you guys. My teacher Professor Ferguson is really cool too….He looks like someone who played guitar is a rock band….he probably owns a leather jacket….he kinda reminds me of Bob Rupp…..yeah, but he is really nice and gets really excited about what he teaches.

The Choral Ensemble is….interesting. It will definitely be an easy class. A lot of the people have either had lots of experience or no experience with choral music. What is cool about it though is that we are singing the classics, we just finished working on a short JS Bach chorale and we are now starting on one of Vivaldi’s Gloria’s. I always value the opportunity to sing work from any of these greats, but I think it is really wonderful that people who have never sung before get the chance to sing them too.

Globalization…..one class that I tend to dread the night before but always find really interesting. It is a lot about politics and economy which I know pretty close to nothing about, so it’s a good learning experience for me, especially since I have personally witnessed what globalization does in place like the copper canyons with the Taraumara people and in Cusmapa. This class is mostly a read a discuss type of deal. The professor gives us article and books to read out of and then in class he asks a question about them and leaves it open for discussion. I don’t participate other than active listening since I usually have a hard enough time trying to understand what everyone is talking about.

One thing that makes me a little different from everyone else on the ship is my major. I have yet to meet another Education major, mostly it’s polysci, international communications, and some other government/social justice type of majors with a few English majors mixed in. I get a lot of surprised looks when I say I am an education major.

One of the highlights of yesterday was the time I spent with Rhydder. Rhydder is 4 years old and his mom asked me to watch him for an hour every other day. He really is a lot like Isaac. He is very smart and likes to try and boss people around, but mostly he just likes having fun. When I met him it didn’t take him long at all to start talking to me and asking me to play. We went up to the snack bar by the pool and got some popcorn, and then went back to his room (which by the way is bigger than mine and he gets it all to himself) and listened to a book on his ipod. While we were at the bar he got a hold of a straw and started blowing on it. He would blow it at me and I would act like he was blowing me away, he thought that was the funniest thing ever. I think he liked me because when his mom came to get him for dinner he was hoping I would join them. I had to decline because they had a very special dinner to go to with Father Tutu, or the Arch like he calls him, and I didn’t want to intrude uninvited.

That is something I haven’t told you guys very much about yet. While on the ship I have seen Archbishop Desmund Tutu only three times. Our first day on the ship, while we were exploring, a girl that was with us said that she had  found Tutu’s cabin, we all wanted to see so we went up and I took picture of it…haha. Then as we were walking away from his room back towards the steps I heard a voice, one with a very distinct African accent, and  I thought maybe…..As we walked down the stairs and cute little old man climbed up and walked passed us. As he passed he said “Hello lovely ladies” in a very sweet voice. All five of us stopped and looked, mouths open, as Desmond Tutu walked away from us. Then we turned from each other and in disbelief asked if we had just seen who we thought we had just seen. On the second day Father Tutu surprised us all and gave a small speech. He talked about how people asked him why he had decided to come on the trip since he is about to retire from public life. He said he came because “you the young people give me a high” he smiled a giant smile and pointed to all of us.

 He continued talking about how extraordinary it is that we decided to come on this trip. He hoped that we would ignore the older people who are skeptical about the world and the possibilities it has, and to just believe in ourselves, that we can change the world, that world peace is possible and WE are the instruments that will make it happen.

WOW. I still can’t help but tear up when I remember him saying this. I was one of the first standing as he entered and as he left, but the whole room was just in awe of him.

The third time I saw him was a little funny. The poor man, with his wife Leah, were passing the library on their way to dinner and this other old lady was practically in his face trying to ask him a question. It was quite a sight. I have heard rumors of kids that have gotten to sit and have dinner with him. I haven’t had a chance yet but I still have another 3 months to get my chance. Also I think Rhydder is a good open window since he is good friends with the Arch, actually yesterday his mom had suggested that we go visit Father Tutu, but we didn’t get around to it.

Well I think that it is all for now and I might not get a chance to write again until I am in Spain (which is the day after tomorrow!!!! YAY!!!) but hopefully I can post some videos and links to the flamenco stuff. Now I have to get ready for the last class of the day and then confirm my plans for Spain. Hopefully everything will work out ok.

Also I did watch the sunset yesterday and it was beautiful!!!

Jya ne!

It has officially been a week since I left home for this trip. Wow. It already feels like it’s been a month! This morning we passed by a group of Islands called the Azores, so a bunch of people went out to watch as we passed. It was sooooo beautiful! Not just the Island, but also the sun. It was 8 AM here (2 AM Denver time) and so the sun was still pretty low to the horizon. I have seen so many Colorado sunsets, and a couple sunrises, we have some of the most beautiful sunsets in the mountains….but I have never seen something like what I saw this morning as the sun rose over the ocean. Amazing!!!

On the ship we have two days worth of classes that cycle 7 days a week so our weeks on ship are not 7 days, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday etc, but A days and B days. Today is day B2. I like B days because I only have one class at 10:45 and I am done by noon. I have recently taken up nannying for a four year old boy named Rydder a couple hours every B day. I am pretty excited to be with little kids again, although it sounds like Rydder and Isaac would get along really well. :/ haha.

What? Did I say kids? Kids on a ship? Traveling to 11 different countries? Yup that’s right. I guess now I should tell you all a little bit about the people on the ship. There are 604 college students from all over north America and some outside of the U.S., 60 some lifelong learners, 40 some family members, including 26 children under 16, 30 some faculty and staff, and then the Captian of the ship and his 100 and some crew and staff members (sorry I don’t remember all of the exact number, but I think I am pretty close). Making the grand total over 900 people While the student ages range from 18-25, the ages on the ship range from 6 months old (the head librarian’s baby named Griffin) to just over 90 years old (a lot of the lifelong learners are over their 70’s! See Grammy I told you you’re not too old!) Now just a note about the amazing ship I am on, The MV Explorer is the fastest Cruise ship in the world, with a 15,000 horse power engine. She can go pretty fast but right now we are only going about 13 knots.

Pretty amazing right? Oh also the state which is most represented on the ship is California. The second most represented state is none other than COLORADO! Woot! When I tell people I am from Colorado I get one of 3 reactions: “I’m from Colorado too! What area?” “You’re from Colorado too? I have met so many people from there.” Or “You’re from Colorado? That is soooooo cool! I love it there!”  It’s pretty good being from Colorado. But I think it is so cool to be surrounded, already, by people who live so much differently than I do. I have been sitting with my roommate for meals, she and her other southern friends sit properly with no elbows on the table, with their dainty fork and knife action. It’s pretty interesting to watch and I almost feel out of place….but then there are people from California, Nevada even from Boston….and other places that seem to be so free of anything that it is a little ridiculous hearing how loud they are and how much food they eat. The other day my roommate asked if the boys where I’m from dress like the boys here on the ship. What? Either the boys she’s from wear tuxedos every day, or they go naked every day….I dunno, cause the boys on the ship seem pretty normal to me. What I find ridiculous is the amount of girls who walk around in nothng but their bikini and a shear tshirt or dress over it. Yeah it is a cruise (although we get in trouble if the staff hears us calling it a cruise rather than a voyage) but when girls are in their bikinis during class I find it a little disrespectful….but maybe that’s just me.

Well the fact that we are just passed the Azores (which are part of Portugal) means that we are getting close to Spain!!!!! YAY!!! A little less than three days and we will stop rocking on the ship and start exploring Spain. No one can wait, I think most people are already sick of classes and once we are in Spain we won’t have classes until after Morocco. But that is so tiny compared to the fact that we will be in freaking Spain!!!! I have gotten completely wrapped up in getting used to life and culture on the ship that I have almost forgotten the real reason I am on this trip. Gosh I can’t wait.

Sorry I haven’t posted a ton. Getting used to life on the ship, my classes, getting financial aid all settled, and figuring out the ridiculous internet system has really taken up my time but I already have my next blog partly written up so hopefully I can post that tomorrow or on Friday……maybe tomorrow since I will be getting ready for Spain on Friday!!!!!

Well that is all for now I think. Thanks to those of you who have been emailing me. I am glad to hear that life in Colorado is staying pretty normal. I will hopefully get around to emailing you all back sometime before Spain. I have a couple videos I have taken, like a tour of my room, and the dolphins we saw yesterday (yes we saw dolphins yesterday they were sooooo awesome! They even jumped for us!) and I really want to share those with you but my internet constrictions on the ship are awful so hopefully I can figure it out in Spain. But for now I will leave it with that!

Jya ne!