China

We landed and the first thing i did was I grabbed a newspaper with OBAMA on the cover!!!! YAYAYAY Go OBAMA. It was so much fun and we got MSNBC feed magically on the ship. I helped organize an elections day watch party in the Union and I was running around getting results for 7 hours, but it was all worth it! People were sitting in the Union crying and cheering as Obama came on for his speech. It was awesome and the few republicans that were there watching cleared out then. It was kinda funny. I was just so happy that day, I can't get over it!

China was 100% overwhelming. I think my exhaustion from the past 6 weeks caught up with me in China. We have been in a new country every week for the past 6 weeks I think and we haven't had a break from all the running so i was so tired! I don't want to make like what I saw was nothing, because the Great Wall was amazing and the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, and the Summer palace (which was my favorite i cannot describe how beautiful the gardens are) were all amazing places. But, I left the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden city and I didn't feel anything about them. I can appreciate them but i got no enjoyment from being there. beijing right now is freezing! And my experience as a whole was frustrating there-- in a good way though cause everyone needs to be shaken when they are traveling at least once! No one speaks english so communicating is hard, especially with cabs, the majority of which never understood us or would take us back to our hotel in the middle of an enormous university- Tsinghua University. The food was pretty bad actually as well, it was bland and very fatty, had some great rice though! The people are also very vulgar, is guess is all i can say, they push and shove and don't really care that you are standing there and they are all spitting and coughing up mucus right and left, probably because the air is so dirty. One girl had a really bad asthma attack because the air was so dirty. Our final day there was so smoggy that you could hardly see 100 feet away! We saw the olympic stadiums as well, which was fun and cool to be there. There is this crazy market as well- the silk street markets which was absolutely insane, we found fake uggs and any designer, even jeans there! It was just a lot of fun being in the crazyness-- everyone is calling and grabbing you- literally - saying "lady lady what you looking for i give you good price." over and over, and this wasn't just in the china ones, in every market we have been to it was the same thing, but i loved it. It was fun going through the markets and seeing how things differed or stayed the same from country to country!

I loved Shanghai and Hong Kong much more so than Beijing- although a friend of ours was killed in Hong Kong so it was a huge shock, something we are still dealing with. Its hard to believe that this would happen because you hear about it but you never believe it will happen. Thinking about what his family is going through makes me sick and makes us all realize how careful we need to be because we are traveling in foreign places. He has a twin back home and I just keep thinking about what it would be like to go through that if I lost any of my 3 sisters. I don't know how I would get through it. I just hope for the best for his family.

Vietnam

Vietnam was so much fun and it was great seeing mom and dad. I don't even know where to begin. Mom was crying while she stood outside the boat waiting to get on and don't worry she was wearing a witch hat for halloween. The first day was really intense because we toured ho chi minh city, which everyone calls Saigon. We went the Reunification Palace and the War museum. there is this insane market there as well, the Benton Market, and you can find anything imaginable there including every copied thing ever! We got 10 dollar "north face" hiking bags. Then we went to Cambodia and I love Cambodia. Our first stop was Phnom Penh and our day there was also very intense. We started with S21 prison. For those of you who don't know what that is, it was one of the prisons the Khmer Rouge used to torture prisoners before they were taken to the killing fields. This prison was like what the camps were in the holocaust. It was so erie going through them and I think what got me the most was this one photo there. The soldiers took before and after pictures of all their victims and as you walk through the prison you see them all and i saw this one photo of a man smiling. It was the only photo where someone was smiling and It just really got me. No one made it out of the prison alive, and even as he was facing so much, he still looked at peace. After that we tried to make it to the killing fields, but traffic in cambodia was nuts. Bicycles, cars, busses, and carts are everywhere and the streets are small and then on top of all that we ran into a protest so we turned around and went to the royal palace instead. The palace was so gorgeous i still can't believe it. The pictures don't seem real!! Then we made it to the killing fields and it was so sad. Shredded clothing and teeth are still visible and a monument full of uncovered skulls stands as a reminder of the atrocities that took place there.

From there we flew to Siem Riep where Angkor Wat is. Flying in is so beautiful because you look down and see all the green rice fields. Then driving through is also awesome, there are homes that stick up in the rice fields and the sun reflecting off the water is picturesque. We saw so many temples in Angkor wat, and I don't bore you with the details, but they were all awesome. Instead of The Pagoda ones in Vietnam and Phnom Penh, these were ancient temples made out of stone. The most amazing one by far was Angkor Wat which i got to see on three separate occasions. Others were Angkor Thom, Bayon, and more but i would have to look up their names. It was such a great trip and we all had so much fun being together, although we were so exhausted after it all. Our last day together we spent wandering around Saigon shopping and having great food. You really can't have a bad meal there because both vietnamese and french foods are everywhere. The best drink is vietnamese iced coffee--try it you will love it!

Can’t believe what just happened! I have been running around coordinating results in the union for seven hours and it has finally happened! Barack wins!!!!!!!!!! It was great being on the ship and everyone was watching from the Union because somehow we got MSNBC feed!!!

India

I don’t think anyone left India unchanged. I say this in all honesty because the poverty we were exposed to was like nothing I have ever seen. I can’t count how many people I saw lying in the streets, on carts, benches, and sidewalks. Walking through Chennai and Agra (where the Taj is) everywhere you turn there was trash strewn, or people going to the bathroom in the streets, shanty homes, and half naked children. Still a few days later I am having trouble sorting through everything I saw. You can’t imagine the sheer magnitude of the homeless and destitute here. People are so desperate for money and at times they overwhelm you. As soon as they see you are white, ten people crowd around you trying to sell you any number of things, while kids come running down the street in the hope that one of us can give them some food. Their persistence wears you down, but even then it is all-relative. These people have nothing, and you can see it in their eyes. They somehow look lost and worn down by so many years of living on the streets, begging for money. I went to two children’s homes while in India as well. These facilities catered to the disabled and even though these kids were the lucky ones, it was still heartbreaking that even these facilities really couldn’t cope with all the kids they had. Many of the teachers didn’t have the background to handle teaching these kids, and so made do with what they could. And then what is even more startling is even when you are surrounded and overwhelmed, you can see some of the most beautiful buildings you have seen in your life: the Taj, Agra Fort, the Abandoned City, and so many wonderful temples. These places are huge and even looking at my pictures, don’t seem real. But I can’t say I was ever satisfied when I left these places. Even though I was at times annoyed with being constantly bombarded, the Taj and other monuments had lost the same spirit of the streets of India. These places, seemed to me, impractical and almost unimportant when on the other side of that barrier were a thousand homeless and hungry people. Leaving these places put things in perspective because the everyday reality of India, isn’t a magnificent palace, it’s the children, men and women who are starving. I read in the newspaper that on the Global Hunger Index, India ranks 66 our of 88 developing countries, behind China, Brazil and many less developed, as well as war torn, areas. I can’t say that I am shocked because I saw that hunger, we all did. All In all India was incredibly humbling and was really an eye opening experience.

Sky diving!!!!

WE WENT SKYDIVING over cape town. That was the most insane thing i have ever done! It was terrifying and amazing all at once. I am so proud that Jocie did it even though she was soooo scarred. We had such an amazing view of cape town and table mountain and robben island. I still can't believe we did it, but we did!! Ah we dropped 9,000ft! The videos we have are so hillarious and I can't wait to show everyone, but i can't seem to email them so it will have to wait! Okay i leave for a safari in like 5 hours so i should get to sleep!

Cape Town

Cape town is my new favorite city! The waterfront is amazing! We pulled right into the harbor, so we can walk everywhere around the waterfront. There are tons of shops, restaurants, sailing, and great performances! This is a kind of like a prettier and more condensed version of the baltimore harbor actually! Its awesome pulling right into the harbor too because unlike our other ports you have to walk a bit or take a taxi to get anywhere, so its great to walk off the ship and be right there! Cape town is so beautiful with the ocean and Table mountain squeezing the city into a fairly small area. The most meaningful things we have done here are the township visits. I can't even describe the condition these 'flats' are in. roughly 10 million people still live in these shanty towns where they have nothing more than tin roofs and dirt floors. Over the past three days I went to three different townships, and it never got easier. The most amazing thing, however, was people of all ages were so happy to see us. Kids crowded around the busses and followed us as we visited various things, and loved any attention we gave them. But, what shocked me the most was how happy many adults were to see us. Here we are white americans rolling in on huge, ostentatious buses to observe their lives, and they couldn't be more open about it. In one of the towns, Kayelitsha (the biggest township in the cape town area), a woman has started a bed and breakfast through which she has now raised enough money to do many community projects. She was speaking to us and she couldn't thank us enough for coming. To her, our presence alone was helping the community and something she said realyl stuck with me. She said "come here not to stare at our poverty, but to learn." While we were driving in I felt so awkward because I was trying to imagine how I would react if people were coming to me neighborhood just to stare. but, she immediatley made me feel at home, and as we talked to more people I began to feel like our presence made a difference. We helped make the day for so many kids who we played with, and even the adults, one of which said he took white people coming into this area as a good luck sign, couldn't have been friendlier. I was so touched by everything i saw that day. I can't imagine how these people live with literally nothing, but beyond that these are the ones who were most affected by apartheid. They were marginalized for so many years, and it is heartbreaking to see how many are still in similar situations nearly 15 years after apartheid ended. I know it takes years and years to help these people improve their lives, but no one should have to live like that. I kept thinking how lucky i was because at the end of the day, i get to leave. I get on an an airconditioned bus, and I know I will be able to eat and relax in a clean, safe environment. Following this we had the most amazing lunch in another township, where this woman has turned her home into a resteraunt. Then we headed to Robben Island, where Mandela and so many others spent years as political prisoners. What is so amazing is that many of the political prisoners live and work on the island now. How strong these people have to be to return to the facilities where they were locked up, and were treated horribly. They had to live in cells with no glass in the windows, no warm clothing or anything except a few blankets. The whole tour was amazing and so surreal, you know to walk the same halls as nelson mandela and all the other leaders of the resistance movement here. Ah its just so humbling to think what they gave up for their country.

Namibia

Namibia was amazing! We pulled into Walvis bay a small, industrial port town on the coast. It was such a small town, but it was so weird because they have been doing so much building (for the world cup) so it is pretty developed. I felt like it was a small town in any middle american state! But as soon as you leave Walvis bay you are engulfed by the Namib Desert. I can't even express how beautiful the desert is. Sand dunes go on for miles and miles and fade in and out of this moonlandscape, rock formations that are believed to be the oldest in the world. On my first day there I got a 6 hour tour of the desert and we climb some of the moonlandscapes and some dunes, which are sooo hard to climb cause you never seemingly never get anywhere! We spent most of our nights in the neighboring town, Swakopmund (are you sensing the german colonial influence yet?) We were on the beach and exploring the town a bit. But I am so proud of Jocie, one day we did sand boarding and ATV riding over the dunes. They have some crazy sports here and you can go snowboarding but on sand. Jocie was scarred to sand board, but she did it anyways and then had a great time! I can't say enough about all the locals we met. They were so nice and we willing to help us out with anything. We befriended Nana, a cab driver, who became our personal driver sort of. He would pick us up and then come out to dinner with us and we would buy him drinks and all (when he wasn't driving us). We had an amazing time in Namibia, I just wish we could have gone up North, but that is for our next trip back!

We have landed in Cape Town and we are so excited to see this great city!

Goodbye Brazil!

Where to begin? Jocie and I had some ups and downs in Brazil. For the most part we had very positive experiences, but the first day in Salvdaor was a huge shock for us. Everything prepping us for Salvador suggested that we be very cautious, and of course being in a foreign country, you are always cautious. But, when we got off the boat, we entered Salvador in one of the more rundown parts, so it was a bit of a shock. Everywhere we went it seemed like the locals knew we would be there, and were waiting to almost prey on us. I know a few people were attacked by locals and things were taken, and Jocie’s credit card number was stolen. But looking back on this day, I am still trying to work out why I was so uncomfortable. I have traveled before and have face situations where I was uncomfortable. But It was very unnerving for both of us because we didn’t speak the language and we felt almost lost. I almost felt inadequate, like I couldn’t do anything to help these people and the only thing they wanted from me was a few real in exchange for a necklace. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I am glad it didn’t meet my expectations. I don’t think I ever considered the true poverty that has crippled certain parts of Brazilian society. I think I was just expecting to get to Brazil and go out to clubs, or tour cities similar to the US, and relax. I don’t think I gave Salvador enough time to relax form my shock, and I definitely need to go back and see more.

Following Salvador, I went to Rio and Jocie went to the Amazon. I can’t speak for jocie’s experience, but entering Rio was almost like entering a different world compared to Salvador. Rio is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been in. If you know anything about Rio, you know about its beaches, famously the Copacabana Beach. But Rio is situated in between mountains, the ocean and a bay. The views from the Christ of the Redeemer (one of the new seven wonders of the world) to sugar loaf mountain are absolutely breathtaking. There is amazing food as well. There is the great mix of cultures in Rio so you can get anything from sushi and crepes and to tradition Brazilian shrimp and meat dishes. We also visited a favela in Rio and there is this great social program called mangeuria social, which is providing education and training in the arts and sports for kids. This program gives these kids an escape from the violence and drugs in this favela, and is a mark of the push for social welfare programs that are expanding general access to better jobs in Brazilian society. Brazil is still very much divided by race, with few important government and private positions held by any minorities. There are significant signs of progress in Brazil with increasing social programs and the government’s recognition that it needs to do more to bridge the huge wealth disparities. It will be very interesting to watch what happens in Brazil in the upcoming years as it attempts to launch itself fully into the industrial world.

Salvador tomorrow!

At the equator! I read something really interesting today about a study done through reading journals of students who traveled all throughout Europe. The teacher observed that many of the students observations were superficial and that they didn’t interact much with locals. In fact most of their time traveling was spent running from city to city as they tried to pack as much as they could into their experiences on the weekends,something that seems to be distinctly american. They were rarely just enjoying what they were doing. While the teacher said the students didn’t learn all that much about the cities they were in, they did grow as people. Because the students were always traveling, they were constantly confronted with challenges and problems to solve, where to go, to stay, what to eat, how to get there etc. In trying to solve these issues, the students unknowingly engaged locals and had to figure out how to understand them. The students ultimately became more adaptive and self-confident because they had to “cope with the surprises, the inevitable problems that arise when traveling, and doing without the comforts they were accustomed to at home” (Gmelch). Looking at what I have planned now, it makes me a little sad that so much of what I am doing in these cities is planned. I want to be confronted with these problems, just to see if I can get over them. Israel was my first real experience planning something on my own at the end of my trip. But even then, we didn’t really explore as much as I would have like, and we depended on the soldiers we met to get us around. I want to be pushed and hopefully I will be able to get lost a little, find my way, and cope. I want at the end of this journey to say that I am more flexible, self-confident, and more empathetic.

Can't wait for Salvador and Rio!!

Onward to Brazil!

We are headed to Brazil!! We arrive on Sunday Sept 7th and I can’t wait to see Brazil!! All of our classes in some way or another are devoted to learning something about Brazilian culture. We have been learning about Candomblé - the religion of spirit possession and its origins from Africa. I have been reading a bunch of articles on how Candomblé and even though I find the whole thing bizarre, I can see how it is similar to many western religions and figures those religions pray to. I also picked up a 5th class. Right now I am not sure as to why on earth I would do that because for every class we have TONS of reading. But I really like all of my classes so I can’t complain past the enormous amount of reading we have to do. My 5th class is Anthropology of Tourism, which I think actually is going to help me understand my impact as I enter these countries. Tourist tend to negatively impact the places they go, so maybe this will teach me to be more conscious of how I am viewed and how I treat locals. Also I just find the whole thing interesting, stepping back and analyzing exactly what I am doing. I am on a cruise ship, which is essentially a tourist ship, that is going all over the world, so I think I am really going to like this class. We signed up for some more trips, and I really hope I get this one to China where we go everywhere - the Forbidden city, the Great wall, Tiananmen Square, the Olympic places, temples and then get to interact with university students which I think will be awesome. The weather has been split so far, today was gorgeous, but we have had some storms and the boat has been sooo rocky cause of the hurricanes I guess, I don’t know though. We had to change course a bit to avoid some storm other than Gustav, and then we picked up speed to compensate so that made the rocking even worse. Crossing the Atlantic is going to be interesting is all I can say. We are getting closer to the equator, and yes mom jocie and I are wearing sunscreen, don’t worry! Its day 5 and already I am sick of the food- we have pasta and undistinguishable meats for lunch and dinner so I am basically a vegetarian now out of necessity, but I really can’t complain about anything else! That’s all for now.

Bahamas

We got to the Bahamas yesterday and it is amazing here! It is so warm and sunny and the hotel is a  complete zoo.   I can't imagine a hotel that is bigger, the atlantis is literally a compound with anything you can think of on it.  For the record my mother wanted to go on the slides before we did.  There is this one that drops straight down and she forced me to do it (even though my eyes were closed the entire time and i missed all the fish around me), but we had so much fun anyways.  Couldn't get Jocie to do it, but she says that on this trip she is going to push herself to do things she is uncomfortable with.   Between yesterday and today I think almost everyone on the ship will be at the hotel so it should be interesting to see everyone.  Staying here is kinda bizarre, it feels like freshman year all over again.  Last night everyone who was here seemed to be in the lobby or heading out to bars in clumps because no one knew what else to do.  Jocie and I have met some great people thus far as well.  I think there were 15 kids on our flight alone and the girl sitting behind us on the flight turned out to be so nice and we have been hanging out with her ever since!  

The strangest part about being here is that everyone knows what is coming ahead, the big goodbye, and its looming overhead.  Meeting kids has definitely made a lot of my worries go away.  But anyone who knows me knows that tomorrow is going to be hard for me, as I know it will be hard for Jocie and my mom respectively.  I'm in a much better place than when I left for college, I don't fear this experience and I am certainly not afraid like I was for college.  I am still a bit weary of leaving my family (I know I am a baby and I have jocie but still!), but I can't believe that I have this amazing world experience ahead of me.  I just hope that I will let it change me and open me up.  I know I need to relax a bit and allow people in, and I just hope that my experiences this semester will loosen me up and open up my, thus far, limited perspective on the world.  

Thats it for now, talk to you from the seas!

Thanks for all the letters and send off wishes! If you haven't seen the book rachel made, stop by before we leave on the 27th!