Day 89 (04-16-09)

Today, the only thing really of note was the Talent Show. The planning committee that I’m a part of put on a talent show for the shipboard community. It was a long night; we had 34 acts performing. But it was lots of fun… singers, dancers, Chinese yo-yo, juggling, band performances, comedy skits, spoken word performances, etc. Mayhem. It lasted 2 hours. But we loved it. Afterwards, we all just kicked back and relaxed around the ship. We’re in the home stretch… time to soak it all in. More sea days to come, I’ll try to live them up also.

Day 90 (04-17-09)

Class. Boredom. We’re all avoiding the white elephant. No one wants to admit the fact that we have less than 3 weeks left. I’m included in that group.

There was a Multicultural presentation tonight in the Union. We all gathered together and one of the counselors read out a list of things that students could relate to. If a certain statement applied, you stood up. The purpose was to see some of the diversity that we have onboard the ship, and for us to realize that there are some major social, economic, and cultural differences even between those of us in the room. The exercise worked very well. I thought it was pretty eye-opening seeing some friends that I’ve known for months stand up when asked, “Have you ever helped your family to pay the bills? Has your family ever relied on welfare and food stamps? Will you potentially be barred from marrying a person that you love due to sexual orientation or other social/political reasons?” Stuff that us upper-middle class straight white guys don’t usually think about.

Afterwards, we had a “block party” for those of us that live on the 5th deck. It was pretty fantastic. A gathering of faculty/staff and 5 kids aged 14-19 eating ice cream cake together. Delicious. I’m pretty pleased with the 5th deck situation. Living up with the faculty is probably a much different experience than living down with the other students, but it’s what I’m used to and I don’t think I’d change it if given the choice. I mean, seriously, free cake.

Day 91 (04-18-09)

Pre-port. Finally. We’re almost at another port. Hawaii is tomorrow. Oahu. Honolulu. Family. Mother. Father. Sister. Grandmother. Wowzers. People from my little bubble back in Pennsylvania actually still exist. Who knew?

One of our professors on the ship has lived in Hawaii (on Molokai) for the past 13 years, so he gave a presentation on the islands and gave us some background on the culture and the people and whatnot. And then there was hula. I like hula.

Plus, he played a song by Brother Iz (Israel Kamakawiwo’ole), a popular Hawaiian singer that you may know for his version of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” It was a good time.

Yikes. We have to be awake at 6am tomorrow for our customs checks. Time to crash.

Day 92 (04-19-09)

“Living in Americaaaaa…” This is how they chose to wake us up this morning. At 6:12am. Ugh. Why does this process have to start so early? Silly America. You and your security laws. Wait a minute… America? HOLY $&*# we’re back in America! I don’t like saying that one bit. But if I have to be back in the states, why not Hawaii? It’s like… BARELY the Unites States. Plus, I suppose it will be nice to see my family again. Or something.

After they made us walk through the faculty/staff lounge, hold up our passports to our faces, and then walk out again, it was only 7am. Now what?

Time for some breakfast and a look outside. Good news: It’s absolutely beautiful outside. Welcome to Oahu. We’re docked at the Aloha Tower and it’s sunny and it feels like Hawaii. Ha, go figure. The next hour is spent showering and packing some things for my family to take with them. Wait a minute… ahhhh my family is here!

I run down to the gangway somewhere around 8am and I wait. And wait. And wait. Some people are allowed off the ship, but I’m not one of them. Also, they’re letting people onboard, but only in very small groups. Oh great, more bureaucracy and red tape. I snag a cell phone from someone. They’re coming. But where? I can’t peek around the corner to look outside. Wait, there’s a head. Nope, don’t know her. That’s someone else’s mom. We must be getting close. Another 5 minutes. Another group of people. Wait! Outside! That’s a familiar face. Kelly’s here. Oh, there’s mom. Alright, that didn’t actually take too long. Soon enough, they’re all onboard and it’s time for the family moment. Sister hug. Mother hug. More mother hug. A chorus of “Awww” flows through the line of students trying to leave the ship. Mother is still holding on. Okay, seriously mom, I’ll hug you more later, let’s just get out of everyone’s way, people want to see Hawaii and we’re blocking their access. Sheesh.

The next hour or so is dedicated to a tour of the ship. My parents weren’t able to see the inside of the ship in the Bahamas, and Kelly/Grandmom had never even seen the ship before.

After showing them around and giving them some souvenirs, it was time to depart and see some of the island. We went to the car and made our way to the most important destination of the day: The Cheesecake Factory. I scouted it out before hand and dropped some oh-so-subtle hints about a possible meal here, so we made a point of stopping. Chicken and biscuits. Strawberry Lemonade. Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake. Mmmmm…. Tastes like America. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to relax for a little while. I showed off some pictures. We shared stories. It was fun.

Next up: Luau. Big pig barbeque right on the beach. Lots of Polynesian dancing. Hips shouldn’t be able to do these things. But I’m glad that they can. Spear throwing. Fire spinning. And the people sitting next to us were from Media, PA. Small world.

Unfortunately, my mother and grandmother had already been in Hawaii for several days before the MV docked this morning, so they had to fly home tonight on the red-eye. But I’ll be home again in a couple weeks, so I supposed they’ll see me again soon enough. Dad, sister and I crashed at the hotel for the night with a friend of mine from the ship, Elise. She’s spending the day with us tomorrow, so it makes sense for her to just crash with us tonight. Arghhh we have to wake up early again tomorrow. I suppose it’s bedtime. Goodnight.

Day 93 (04-20-09)

Hawaii: Part Two. 6:30am, time to wake up. Now why would I choose to wake up at 6:30am when I’m in paradise? Shouldn’t I be sleeping in? No no no. Today, we skydive. And in order to beat the rush of SAS kids to the airstrip, we have to be there by 8:30am. Let’s go.

As it turns out, Honolulu traffic isn’t nearly as bad as we though it would be. We passed by the city with no problem and made it up to Skydive Hawaii headquarters by 8am and we were surprised to see some jumpers already in the air. Apparently it was really windy yesterday and no one was able to jump. So they opened up early today to give some of yesterday’s overflow a chance to get airborne. How nice. After signing eight or nine sheets of paper that said “I acknowledge that skydiving might maim or kill me, I’m choosing to do it at my own risk, and no person but myself can be held accountable for anything that may go wrong,” we got harnessed up. I was attached to a guy named Big Jim. He was crazy. We got along. I requested to do a back flip out of the plane and then tumble around through the air for a little while so it would feel like we didn’t have control. He just laughed and told me he had little to no regard for his own life, and he didn’t really care about mine, either. Suffice it to say, our senses of humor meshed perfectly. We got up in the plane and Elise was first to jump. She screamed bloody murder as she fell out, so that was fun to witness. I went next, and we back-flipped and tumbled and flew and posed for the camera and all that nonsense. Great jump. More fun than last time. Here, they were so relaxed with everything. There was no mandatory dive training on the ground. No rules as to how we had to leave the plane or hold our posture while falling. They just let you jump and have fun with it. But out of all of us, Kelly got the most bang for her buck.

So I’m floating to the ground with Big Jim after the parachute deploys, and he points something out to me. He says, “See that parachute over there? Someone’s on a reserve chute.” I looked over at where he was pointing and there were two parachutes next to each other. One was open and holding a tandem group. The other was collapsed and looked like a deflated blue balloon, floating away with the wind. Hmm… that person is above me, so they probably jumped after me. NO WAY. Is that Kelly? I steered the chute for awhile and then we made our way to the ground. A minute or two later, Kelly landed and, sure enough, she was the one using the backup. Apparently her jumpmaster pulled the cord on the parachute, and it opened, but its lines were tangled around each other. He tried adjusting it for a minute or so, but then he gave up and cut it away. Which led to another freefall that caught my sister incredibly off guard. But the backup worked. So, ya know, that’s good.

Anyway, we left the airfield and headed around the North Shore to see the other side of the island. Sandy beaches, lush tropical fauna, etc. As we rounded the Northeast corner of the island and headed south, we drove past Kaaawa Valley, an area where many scenes from Lost are filmed. Lost is filmed entirely on Oahu, and all of the scenes that take place on the inner portion of the island are shot at two locations, one of them being Kaaawa Valley. There wasn’t enough time for a tour of the area, but even just looking at the valley from the road, you could tell that the mountains and the valley looked just like the Island.

Lunchtime: California Pizza Kitchen. BBQ chicken pizza. Delicious.

Stopped by Kelly’s house to take a tour, and then went to Sea Life Park to check out where she works. She showed us around and gave us the scoop on her animals. I personally liked the penguins and sea lions. I think playing with them all day would be a sweet job. Plus one for Kelly.

Afterwards, we headed back to Kelly’s place to relax for a little while. Her beach is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. If you’re into beaches and stuff. It’s a beach for locals. So no one ever goes there. When we walked out to the water, there was one other guy on the beach, and he was doing work collecting tree branches or something. Take that Waikiki. We sat in Kelly’s house for awhile talking about SAS with her roommate Dani who was lame and didn’t skydive with us. Actually I just said that because I know she reads this… I know it wasn’t your fault. Sorry none of your plans worked out these past couple of days.

Ugh, 4pm. Time to head back towards the pier. Why don’t we have more time here? Sheesh. After a stop at the grocery store for some essentials (Pop Tarts, instant soup, and Bugles), Elise and I were back aboard the MV with 20 minutes to spare. Dinner on the ship was halfway decent though. Lots of macaroni and cheese. When the ship pulled away at 8pm, I saw my dad standing on the pier watching us leave. So I went to my cabin, called him, and grabbed the industrial strength laser pointer I got in China. Then I shined it straight up in the air. Unfortunately, he couldn’t see it… too much ambient light. So I shined it down into the water right in front of him. Judging by his reaction (and all the curious voices I heard in the background), I think I lit up the entire bay in green. So that’s pretty cool I guess.

Aloha Hawaii. I wasn’t even looking forward to your sights that much, but I was pleasantly surprised. Kthanksbyeee.

Day 94 (04-21-09)

I did absolutely nothing today. Everyone was pretty down today. I mean, it’s the first day of a 7-day stretch at sea. Plus, we just left Hawaii, which we only got to see for two days. Not nearly enough time. What’s there to be happy about? We only have two weeks left. We should be in “savor every moment” mode. But instead we just sleep and finish up homework all day. It’s sad.

Today: Slept through Global. Woke up at 12:30pm. Ate lunch. Played some games. Went to class at 4:15pm. Ate dinner. Met with a group about a project we’re presenting tomorrow. Worked on the project. Played more games. Sleep.

How useless.

Day 95 (04-22-09)

So today I had my final presentation in my Shakespeare class. That was really the most exciting thing that happened all day. Our group took MacBeth and set it in modern-day Thailand. Duncan owned a sex club. The three witches were the three “showgirls.” Lady MacBeth was the head prostitute and MacBeth was the bouncer. It sounds weird, and it is, but it worked. I think we did well.

Oh and they showed the Breakfast Club on tv tonight. Great movie. I followed it up with a nice long sit on the outside deck staring into the darkness and the water (since I don’t have very much time left to do that), and then Austin Powers 2. Solid night. Oh and we lose another hour tonight. Figures. That means that, as of tomorrow morning, we are 2 hours behind Boulder and 4 hours behind the East Coast. It was so much cooler when we were 13 hours ahead. And in the stretch between Japan and Hawaii when we crossed the International Date Line, I really felt like I was time traveling. I had no idea what time it was. We lived the same day twice. It was awesome. Now it’s just pretty much normal. And I’m not a fan of normalcy.

Day 86 (04-13-09)

Global Studies exam today. I hate taking tests in the Union. The chairs are fairly comfortable and padded and whatnot, but there aren’t any desks. So they give us trays from the cafeteria to put on our laps and lean on. It’s rather rudimentary. And distracting in a testing environment. But I think I did well enough. I suppose I’ll find out in a couple of days. More classes after the test. Dinner. Know what sounds like a terrible idea? All-nighter. Chris, do you have any fathomable reason why you’d need to pull an all-nighter? No. The answer is no. But will you do it anyway? Oh yes. Yes I will. I spent the wee hours of the morning wandering around the ship with friends. Sitting outside. Enjoying the waves. Talking with friends while they registered for classes in the computer lab. It was enjoyable. But tiring. I crashed at about 6:15am. Bad idea…

Day 87 (04-14-09)

Today, we get the day off. Sort of. It’s picture day. So we had our group photo at 8am outside on the top deck. What was I thinking sleeping for an hour? I should’ve just stayed up straight through. Whatever. Oh and of course, only about half of the students showed up. More great planning on the part of SAS. Let’s take a group picture with all 726 students at 8am on our only day off. It was doomed from the start. Afterwards, they broke us off into groups by our home universities, and we took school pictures. It was great. A photo with (60 of) the 80 Boulder kids. We sang our fight song together. It was the first time I’d sang it since Colorado last fall. Fight, Fight, FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Tonight, there was a mini career night in some of the classrooms. A few of the professors and Living Learning Coordinators got up to give some descriptions of their careers and the steps that guided them down their respective paths. I sat in on the “higher education” and “working abroad” lectures. Who knows, maybe I’ll be teaching English in Borneo someday.

Just for the hell of it, I decided to shave my head again tonight. I got some clippers from someone on the ship and my friend Sara shaved me down, bald as Neptune Day. My hair had been growing in differently than it ever had before. I didn’t like it. Maybe it’ll fix itself? One can only hope.

Day 88 (04-15-09)

Yet another lazy day here on the MV Explorer. Slept. Ate food. I had a friend of mine shave my head with a straight razor today. Just to get it down to the bare minimum. My head is very white. And smooth. It’s different. Sunburn, here I come. Oh, and I kept the sideburns. So I have no beard. No hair. But I have big mutton chops. It’s pretty ridiculous.

Oh, I finally took the Bridge Tour today. Every day, the crew gives a tour of the ship’s Bridge, where the captains steer the ship and do all the captain-y things that captains do. I loved the new perspective. Seeing the open waters in front of us from the bow of the ship, sitting in the captain’s chair. Fantastic. And there are these guys. That stand in the Bridge in shifts. 4 hours on, 8 hours off. And their sole job is to stare out the window and look for stuff. They point out any irregularities or pieces of debris that are in the water and the ship’s systems might not detect. It’s not really an interesting job, but I thought the concept was simple and neat.

We sailed through a little storm today at about dinnertime. Nothing big or life altering. But it yielded the best rainbow I’ve ever seen. It was a perfect arc. Touched the water on both sides and reflected in the waves. And it was clear and thick and bright. And, sadly, short-lived. We passed through the storm and the clouds broke a little bit, leaving our rainbow as a 5-minute memory. But we saw it. And it was one of those things that just brought us all together, if only for a few minutes. We all just stood at the railing, shoulder-to-shoulder, realizing in that brief moment how lucky we are and how we’ll never be a part of something like this again.

The first performance of the on-ship play was tonight. It’s The Persians by Aeschylus. Pretty dark and dramatic. And it would have made much more sense had we actually went to Turkey. Since it followed the fall of Darius after a battle with the Greeks. But it’s no big deal. I enjoyed it.

Test results are in. B on the Global Studies exam. Solid.

Alright, well enough of this rambling. Bedtime. Hasta la bye-bye. 

Day 85 (04-12-09)

Happy Easter!

So it’s Easter Sunday. Not a big deal, we still have class. And in case you think this is a typo, think again. We’re crossing the international dateline. Our incessant loss of an hour’s worth of sleep most nights at sea has been avenged by the gaining of a day. It just happens to fall on Easter. And they’ve been playing Groundhog Day on our TVs for the past two days. Cute. So from now on, I’ll be behind you all in time instead of ahead. It’s probably a simple enough concept, but it’s taken me (and several others, I’m not the only slow one) a lot of time to try and figure it all out. And it wouldn’t matter to me in the slightest, except that the time/day change happened right at the time I’m supposed to register for next semester’s classes at Boulder. So I didn’t know if I was supposed to register yesterday, or this morning, or tomorrow, or what. But I got it figured out. I was on the internet at 4am sorting through it. But I’m registered. Hallelujah. Anyway.

We have an exam tomorrow. And the ship is rocking all over the place making people seasick. And we lose another hour of time tonight. Great planning, Semester at Sea. Give us a test the morning after we lose an hour of sleep. Thanks for your help. Everyone is busy working and studying. The ship hasn’t been this dead since… well the night before our last Global Studies exam. Go figure. It’ll be over soon though. And we have an auction tomorrow night. Picture day is the 14th. The play is on the 15th and 17th. The talent show is the 16th. We have plenty of stuff to keep us occupied. But the trivial things like exams interrupt our social schedule every once in awhile. How trite.

Day 84 (04-12-09)

Happy Easter!

So it’s Easter Sunday. Not a big deal, we still have class. The boat started rocking again today. It’s a familiar feeling, but one that we haven’t encountered since we left South Africa at the end of February. South Africa was in February? Oh man. People keep seeing whales in the water (where else would they see them?), but I haven’t seen any yet. I’m thinking after 9 days of ship food, a meal at the Cheesecake Factory might be necessary in Hawaii. To whom it may concern, there’s a Cheesecake Factory at Waikiki. And reservations would probably be a good idea for a group of 5 or 6 of us. Just saying.

On one of the random TVs we have on the ship, they’ve been showing the Voyage Videos from previous SAS semesters. It’s making me pretty excited for the video we’ll be getting in a few months. Our videographer is a really cool guy and I think a video with some familiar faces and places will be just what I need when I’m in travel withdrawal this summer. May 6th, you’re approaching too quickly.

Day 78 (04-06-09)

Today: Kobe. A city by the sea. A city of beauty. A city of sake and beef. Mmm, Kobe Beef. Now it’s time for a realization: we aren’t in Southeast Asia anymore. Holy wow stuff is expensive here. I mean, it’s probably comparable to the US, but that’s sill really expensive compared to what we’re used to at this point. Two dollars for a 6-minute train ride on the subway? Inconceivable.

Our main goal for the day: Find a Sake Brewery and do some tasting. After taking a few trains and walking down some sketchy back alleys, we finally found the place we were looking for: The Shu-Shin-Kan Brewery. Here, a little Japanese guy gave us the rundown on Sake production and its several stages. Afterwards, we tried sampled of seven or eight different sakes that the brewery makes. Most of it kind of just tasted like wine to me… I don’t know if that’s normal or not. But oh well.

After the sake, it was time for lunch. We found a local sushi place and had some authentic Japanese raw fish. It was one of those neat places that have the conveyor belt of food going past your table. So you just pick up whichever dish you’d like to eat. Then you eat it. Scrumptious. In the afternoon, we headed over to Mount Rokko. I mean if there’s a mountain within view of the port, why not go? They’re fun to climb and, you know, look at. I found a Wendy’s for the first time this entire voyage. But I restrained myself. I only got a frosty. But it was such a good frosty. That night, we went back to the ship for dinner before heading back into Kobe for a night of good old-fashioned non-alcoholic fun: Karaoke. It was invented in Kobe, and it still thrives here. And if you’ve never been to Japan, I don’t think you understand. There are establishments that are 100% dedicated to karaoke. You walk in, and the guy behind the counter takes your group somewhere in the building to one of several dozen soundproof booths. Once inside, you have as long as you’re willing to pay for with your microphones and television. Then you sing. It’s ridiculous. Why don’t places like this exist in the US? Granted, a four-story building filled with karaoke booths probably wouldn’t make too much money stateside, but it should. Long day, longer night. Bedtime.

Day 79 (04-07-09)

Lazy day. Slept in a little bit. Wandered around Kobe some more by myself. Made a point of getting Kobe Beef at a local buffet. It’s usually unbelievably expensive ($50 a plate at a cheap restaurant), but since I went to a buffet, they had lots of other choices, and the Kobe beef was put out as a specialty dish in little three-bite portions. But man, were those bites tasty. Jerry, the on-ship videographer saw me wandering the streets and stopped me for an interview. Who knows, maybe I’ll show up in the SAS video now. Later in the afternoon, I was feeling pretty lethargic, so I went to the movie theater near the train station and saw Watchmen. I had been excited to see that movie since I read the book in a class last semester, and we were in India with SAS when it came out in March. So this was probably my last chance to see it on the big screen. Afterwards, I hopped on the train back to the ship with an hour to spare before on-ship time (curfew, essentially). I’ll be sailing with the ship tomorrow between Kobe and Yokohama, which was not my original intention at all. There’s a tourist Rail Pass that you can only buy outside of Japan for use of the Japanese JR and Shinkansen (Bullet Train) rail systems. I was planning on buying it in Thailand. And then Vietnam. And then China. But it never happened. And it was $285 for a weeklong ticket. Which would’ve been worth it, but everything is so expensive here that adding the price of a train ticket to hotel stays and extra food and all the little sightseeing things in Kyoto, Osaka, Hiroshima, etc, would have left me with literally no money when I got back to Florida. So, in an effort to act financially responsible for the first time in my life, I sacrificed a crazy five-day tour of Japan for a more mundane 4-day stay. Oh well.

Day 80 (04-08-09)

Wow. The people who stayed on the ship in between Hong Kong and Shanghai got gourmet, five-course meals at dinner. They played games and won prizes, including free massages. You know what we got for staying on the ship in between Kobe and Yokohama. Nothing. The same terrible, buffet-style meals we get every day. Nothing extra to do. They showed the Bourne Trilogy on the screen in the Union. Wahoo. What a bummer. I was hoping for a good meal. Oh well. Today was the ultimate boring, lazy day. Some people didn’t emerge from their rooms other than to eat. I played some Pictionary and Sorry. That’s about it. Hopefully I’ll have lots of energy for tomorrow though. I’m going to need it.

Day 81 (04-09-09)

Today is my adventure day. If you know me, you should’ve seen this coming. As soon as the ship was cleared this morning, I made my way to Tokyo. From there, I hopped on another subway line to go to Tokyo Dome City. It’s the area around the Tokyo Dome, which is the world’s largest indoor baseball field. The Tokyo Giants weren’t playing today, but that’s not the reason I went to this part of the city. You know what else is at Tokyo Dome City? Amusement Park. That’s right, I got my roller coaster fix today. There are 3 roller coasters here: a small spinning wild mouse-type deal, the world’s first Impulse Coaster (like Voodoo at Dorney, but without the twisting), and Thunder Dolphin. That’s right, Thunder Dolphin. It might not sound very intimidating, but it’s awesome. 262 feet tall. 80+mph. I’m back in my element. But I got here at 10:30am. And I was done by 11:15am. You know what that means? I can make it to Tokyo Disney by noon. Hell. Yes.

The Tokyo Disney complex has two parks: DisneyLand and DisneySea. Clever. There wasn’t a ticket that includes both parks, but there was a discounted ticket when you visited the park after 6pm. So I decided to buy a normal day pass for DisneyLand, and then hop over to DisneySea after 6pm. It actually worked out very well. And I had so much fun. I had forgotten how much I love DisneyWorld. Most of the rides were exactly the same, only in Japanese. It’s A Small World in Japanese… hilarious. But I had my hopes raised and dashed in a matter of seconds when I first entered the park. There were advertisements leading up to park entrance for the new ride: Monsters, Inc: Ride and Go Seek. I was pumped. Monsters Inc is my favorite Pixar movie. Do you go inside the Laugh Factory? Does the ride mimic the door chase? Can I go on an adventure with Mike, Sully, and Boo? Sadly, the answers to those questions are “I don’t know, I don’t know, and No,” respectively. Today is April 9th. The ride opens to the public on April 14th. So I walk through the front gate, and the first ride that I encounter on the path is Monsters, Inc: Ride and Go Seek. And the doors are open! And people are walking inside! Oh man, it opened early! This is awesome; I can’t believe this timing! Wait, why are you holding your arm out across the entrance? Silly language barrier, I thought getting in line was universal. What are you pointing at? No there’s nothing on my chest. What’s around your neck? A VIP tag that says “PRESS” on it. No, I don’t have one of those. Wait, why are all the people in line wearing the same Monsters, Inc t-shirt? Why are they all holding cameras and microphones? Why d…. OH MAN. No. Of all the luck, I show up on press release day. Today was the soft opening for the press to preview the ride and get the word out to everyone about how cool it is. Stupid media. They have all the fun.

Anyway, I wandered around DisneyLand for about 5 hours. Got all the major stuff out of the way. Space Mountain. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Haunted Mansion. Star Tours. Pirates. Not Splash Mountain though… not feeling the water ride today. So I did everything I wanted to do. Well, everything that was open anyway. Stupid Disney people. Why couldn’t their opening day coincide with the MV Explorer’s arrival in Yokohama? Whatever.

Next up: DisneySea. I didn’t really know what to expect from this park, but it’s really cool. It’s set up kind of like Universal Islands of Adventure in Florida in that it has different themed sections in a giant circle around a lake. And this park is massive. It has fewer rides than DisneyLand, but total area has to be much higher. Tower of Terror was a little lame in comparison to Florida, but still good. There’s a really neat Indiana Jones ride that opened at the same time as the most recent movie. But I think my favorite ride was Journey to the Center of the Earth. There’s a Mysterious Island section of the park that’s all Jules Verne themed. There’s a lake inside a giant volcano and different futuristic, time machine-like things are scattered around. And the two rides in the area are Journey and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. They aren’t the most exciting in the world, but they’re different and they’re fun. Anyway. The big Tokyo Disney 25th Anniversary Finale Fireworks Spectacular whatever it’s called was cancelled due to high winds, so we left a little bit early and headed back to Yokohama. But the amusement park junkie got his high today, and it was a great time. Hooray Tokyo. I’m beat. It’s bedtime.

Day 82 (04-10-09)

Last day in Japan. That means we only have 2 ports left. Hawaii and Guatemala. With 16 days at sea in between. This is not good. Each day, we begin to realize more and more how little time is actually remaining. It’s sinking in. And I don’t like it. Not one bit. No offense or anything, but I’m not ready to be home yet. I mean, I like you all and everything. You guys are the rays of sunshine that make my flowers grow (or something), but I’m having too much fun to come home now. Oh well.

Today was another lazy-ish day. I think the weight of the past month finally just hit me in the face today. I was planning on getting up early, heading back into Tokyo, and wandering around today. But it was just too much. I only saw a small portion of the city, but it’s one of those places that I figure I can go back to fairly easily. I hope. But I hadn’t seen any of Yokohama yet, so this was the last chance to do it. It’s really a great little city. Very clean. Very quiet. Home of Japan’s tallest building, the Landmark Tower. We wandered around the streets for a few hours just to take it all in. We got some Starbucks. Walked to a park on the waterfront. Looked out at our ship sitting in the harbor. It was nice. Oh, and I forgot to mention before: It’s cherry blossom season. So throughout Kobe and Yokohama, the trees are in bloom and they’re gorgeous. I would’ve loved to see the area around Mt. Fuji, but my ongoing time dilemma still stands. Still haven’t been able to stop time yet. It’s on the to-do list.

After the longest customs/immigration process we’ve ever had to go through, we made it back to the ship and crashed for the evening. Another day gone. Another country gone. Another night of blogging, trying to write down every detail I can remember. And failing. I always remember more things that I should’ve said, after the fact. Maybe I can give you more details in person sometime. We’ll see.

New development: Two of the bartenders on the ship were fired in the past 48 hours, and they’re now off the ship. They were two of my three favorite crewmembers. Rumors are swirling all over the place regarding their dismissals. I just hope they make it home (to South Africa and Jamaica, respectively) in a safe and timely manner. Farewell. You are missed. Gone but not forgotten. All that cliché good stuff.

Also: nuclear winter never came. We were all wondering in the days leading up to Japan if North Korea was going to launch. And then they did. And it was the most anti-climactic ending I could imagine. The first two stages of it fell into the water. Nothing happened with the third stage. Japan didn’t do anything. And that’s the end of it. Where’s the excitement? Where’s the worldwide panic, with us hapless tourists stuck in the middle? Where’s the Hollywood action and drama? Man, World War Three was boring.

Day 83 (04-11-09)

Aw nuts. We have to like… study again. Apparently classes pick up while we’re at sea or something. So we have to, you know, do work stuff. What a drag. And there’s a test in global studies coming up? I think? Who knows. I don’t know how far away it is though. It’s not that I don’t pay attention, we just have Easter Sunday twice, so I don’t know how far away things are. The test is on the 13th. So that means it isn’t tomorrow, the 12th. Or two days from now, the 12th. It’s in three days. Got it. Alright. Maybe I’ll go, like, study or something. Meh.

Repent, the End is nigh!

It's raining missiles! It's raining missiles! Don't let them fool you! It wasn't a satellite! Let the apocalypse begin! The North Koreans are coming! The invasion is here! Tokyo will fall! Kim Jong-Il will prevail! Hit the deck! Hide under your desks! Flash!

World War 3 has begun, And I'm right in the thick of it.

Finally

Sorry it's been a little while. China got in the way.

Day 70 (03-29-09)

Rainy day. No bueno. It’s pretty foggy this morning. But outside of the ship’s windows, we have the most amazing view of the Hong Kong skyline. We couldn’t be docked in a more perfect location. It’s crazy. I looked out the window and the first thing I saw was the building Batman jumps off of in The Dark Knight. It was exciting.

Random fact: our ship is docked at a shopping mall. Like… we walk off the ship in an airport style gangway, and the other end of the hallway dumps us out into the 4th floor of an upscale shopping mall. It’s so random. So now when we get back onto the ship at night, we’ll be walking into a mall with very low lighting, no open stores, and only a few security guards to keep us company. When a bizarre place to have a port terminal.

After getting off the ship, my friend Mandy and I set off for the Star Ferry that goes from the Kowloon side of the city to the downtown Hong Kong side. From there, we walked to the ferry terminal for the hour-long trip to Macau. Brief geography lesson: Hong Kong and Macau are both Special Administrative Regions of China. They operate within the constructs of the People’s Republic of China under a “One Country, Two Systems” initiative. When China regained control of the two cities (from the UK and Portugal, respectively), the government allowed them to retain their own administrative systems to ease their transition back into Chinese rule. As such, both Regions still issue their own passports and run their own governments. Both are very capitalistic, and they differ from mainland China greatly in these respects.

Anyway, since these two cities are their own separate entities, we had to go through customs when we left Hong Kong and entered Macau, and now an entire page of my passport is dedicated to a day’s worth of stamps from the two cities. It’s pretty cool. Why go to Macau in the first place? Bungy jumping. The world’s tallest bungy jump is located on top of Macau Tower. 760 feet. And it isn’t your typical bungy jump. Usually, you jump off of a bridge or some kind of cantilevered platform that allows you to swing underneath it. Not here. The tower looks like a mini version of Stratosphere in Vegas. So when you jump off of the observation deck, you’re heading down towards the Earth just a few meters away from the tower as you fall. You can see the structure whipping past your eyes as you plummet downwards, giving you an unbelievably clear idea of how fast you’re actually moving. Clearly, I loved it. And so did Mandy. She’s afraid of heights, and I’ve been talking this up so much in the past few weeks that she decided she had to come and face her fear. It was a milestone day, I suppose.

Afterwards, we wandered around Macau for a little while. It’s essentially China’s version of Las Vegas. There are casinos everywhere (including an MGM Grand, a Wynn, a Sands, and a Venetian), and it’s heavily under construction with more. The economic crisis deal kind of made it hit a snag, but it’s still growing.

Another hour-long ferry ride later, we got back to Hong Kong just after sunset. The championship game of the Rugby Sevens was in town tonight (it’s the final game of the world’s biggest rugby tournament of the year), and tourists from all over the globe were in town to see it. The streets were filled with people. It was nuts. I imagine this is what it felt like to be in Germany during the France/Italy World Cup match in ’06. Maybe to a slightly lesser extent, but it was still a sight to behold. If only we were able to have more time here. The city seems incredible after walking around it for a few hours. But our flight to Beijing leaves tomorrow, and we have to make it to the airport in the morning. I’d love to come back here someday, though. Hong Kong is the first BIG city we’ve been to this entire voyage. And I love the feel of a big city. Bangkok was big, but it was sprawling, and there was no defined skyline. Walking around it, I didn’t feel like I was in a downtown area of a big city. But Hong Kong definitely felt that way. It could have been Manhattan. Only the streets were much cleaner and less narrow. It was refreshing.

After some more wandering, we headed back near the ship to grab some internet for a couple calls home. Hooray. Mainland China tomorrow. Bring on the Commies.

Day 71 (03-30-09)

Wake up. Pack. Terminal. Meeting. Crowds. Hangovers. Sucks for them. Bus. Airport. Chinese food. Crazy Airport. Huge Airport. Escalator. Another. Another. Tram. Walkway. Where the hell is gate 49? Moving sidewalks. End of the terminal. Boarding. Takeoff. Naptime. Landing. Are we all here? Let’s go. Bus ride. Hotel. Crash.

Ever have one of those days where everything kind of runs together? It’s just a giant blur of events that passes by without you noticing where the time went. Today was that day. After checking in at the hotel, we wandered up the street to find some dinner. Authentic Chinese food. Guess what: it’s pretty much the same as ours. Only the portions and the plates are smaller. We ordered a bunch of meals, and they came out family style. There was a smaller rotating glass table on top of our actual table, and we just spun it around to take portions of the food that we wanted. Chicken. Beef. Vegetables. Rice. More rice. Dumplings. All of it. After 3 hours of eating an talking, we went back to the hotel to prepare for our upcoming adventures in Beijing. What have we gotten ourselves into this time?

Day 72 (03-31-09)

After a nice breakfast our group of 140 students divided itself into 5 smaller groups. Mine had 26 members and our tour guide was a little Chinese guy named Tony. Several Tony the Tiger jokes ensued. First stop: modern Beijing. You know what I’m talking about. Bird’s Nest. Water Cube. Olympic City ’08. World Records. Phelps. Bolt. You know what’s happened since then? Nothing. The stadiums are only being used as a draw for tourists. The Olympics are over. The Bird’s Nest is being used for one event in 2009. One. A 423 million dollar stadium. Is being used. Once. In the calendar year after it opened. Once. Are you kidding me, China? What are you thinking? And it’s lack of use and upkeep is showing already. The sidewalks outside are being overgrown. The underground entrance plaza has doors that hang crooked off of their hinges. It’s blocked off for visitors, they have to walk in through a smaller gate on the ground level. We didn’t have enough time to go inside the stadiums, but they look just like every other stadium once you’re inside, anyway. No big deal. The Water Cube still looks decent. So that’s good. Oh, and they aren’t lit up at night anymore, either. I suppose it makes sense, as there would be no use having fluorescent lights flowing over empty stadiums, wasting energy by the minute. But these venues don’t have any glory anymore. They’re just hollow shells of their former selves. Waiting to rot away into obscurity. Such a shame.

Our afternoon continued with a visit to the Ming Tombs. Here, the 3rd-5th and the 7th-13th emperors of the Ming Dynasty are enshrined. We went down into the underground tomb of the 13th emperor, as his is the only one that’s been excavated. It was 9 stories underground, separated into different sections representing the Earth and the Heavens. Craziness.

Lunch. Szechuan-style Chinese food. Spicier that normal. But very good. And still in that rotating table-style setting. How enjoyable.

A 3-hour nap/bus ride later, we arrived at the Great Wall of China. The 2nd of the New 7 Wonders of the World that I’ve seen on this voyage. We hiked up a section of the wall and watched the sunset over the mountains and the Wall. Surreal is probably the only word to do this situation justice. I’m whipping through this blog pretty quickly, but I think this moment deserves a little bit of a pause. Today, I got off of a bus and walked onto the Great Wall. Of China. THE Wall. The one that runs over 4,000 miles across the country. And then, we weren’t even rushed. We had over an hour before the sunset. So we sat back and enjoyed it. Time almost seemed to go at a normal pace here, instead of the Houdini-like time travel we always end up dealing with. I’m standing on the Great Wall of China watching the sunset with some of my best friends. How…? Nevermind. There’s no way to even fathom this situation myself, and I’m the one that’s actually here. So I’m not going to try and pose any questions to anyone else. Nothing I say can aptly describe these circumstances, and I’d like to avoid sounding like a pretentious little snob. But it was beautiful and unreal and I still don’t believe it. Anyway.

We walked back to the buses, got some dinner, and then we hiked up onto a different section of the wall. It’s dark. It’s 25 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re layered. We’re cold. But you know what? It doesn’t matter. Because we’re sleeping on the Great Wall tonight. We got up to our terrace/watchtower and laid out our sleeping bags. Then we explored. Without a guide. Without a guard. Just a small group of students. Feeling like Indiana Jones or something. We had flashlights and water. And we started walking away from the camp, further out along the wall. It was incredible. There’s no light. No railings. No signs. Just a wall to walk along. And this section of the wall is authentic to the Ming Dynasty, and hasn’t been rebuilt or restored in the past 600 years. It’s creepy. After about a half-mile of walking, we stopped in a watchtower to take it in, and a few other people from our group started walking up the path behind us. I crept into the shadows, turned off my flashlight, crouched down onto the ground, and I waited. That poor girl. She never saw it coming. As she entered the watchtower with her friends, shining the light around, there was no way she could have known that I was behind the pillar. But I was. And I jumped out and yelled with perfect timing. Her scream was so shrill and genuine. It was beautiful. I’m a creep and I’m mean, but it was so worth it.

Okay, here’s the tricky part. We have to sleep on the wall tonight. It’s 25 degrees outside. I was hoping it would snow, but to no avail. But yeah… umm. It’s really freaking cold out here guys. This was a pretty miserable night’s sleep for us all. I had to put my shoes on inside the sleeping bag at one point during the night because I had lost feeling in my toes. But the rest of me was alright temperature-wise. I just lacked a pillow and a mattress. Both would have helped exponentially. Oh well, we survived the night. Which leads us to morning…

Day 73 (04-01-09)

I woke up this morning on the Great Wall of China. How did you start your day?

Well, we’re awake… now what? The Hike begins. Six miles of hiking along an authentic portion of the wall between JinShanLing and Simatai. Up. Down. Stairs. Ruins. Rubble. Dirt. Gravel. Great. Wall. Of China.

Life goals added whilst on Semester at Sea:
1) Climb Kilimanjaro
2) Solve World Hunger
3) Backpack Myanmar/Thailand/Laos
4) Live in Cape Town
5) Hike Great Wall End-to-End
I’ll see how that works out for me.

After the hikes and lunch, we drove back to the hotel from our first night in Beijing, and stopped for showers and such. Then we headed out to the Silk Market for some cheap knockoffs. I’m not much of a shopper, so I called it an early night and went to bed early after that. The hike was pretty draining today, and we’ve got more touring tomorrow.

Day 74 (04-02-09)

We got to sleep in a little bit today. Our bus didn’t leave until 8:30am. Woo hoo. First up: Tiananmen Square. Oh, here’s a fun little experiment. Google Tiananmen Square at home. Browse the results. See what information you can find about the massacre that occurred in 1989. Now, go to mainland China. Google Tiananmen Square. You know what you’ll find? A nice description of the Square and its relevance in modern Chinese society. A few nice pictures of the area. Some sites about the Forbidden City, the National Museum, and Chairman Mao. But nothing regarding the “incident.” Our tour guide, a 27 year-old man, still didn’t really know what happened there. He just told us not to mention the “incident” while we’re in the Square, as the area is monitored and Chinese officials have been known to hassle and hush those that are vocal about such things. The censorship here is unreal.

We wandered around the Square for a bit and went into the Mausoleum of Chairman Mao. He’s been dead since 1979, but he elected to have himself frozen and put on display. You know, like most people. So every day, he’s elevated from his freezer, and put on display in his crystal coffin while citizens and tourists alike file past. He’s been dead for 30 years. And I saw his corpse. It’s creepy. Apparently I could’ve done the same thing in Vietnam; Ho Chi Minh is on display somewhere. And Lenin in Russia did the same. But that’s just weird.

Next up, passing through the Red Gate, we entered into the Forbidden City. See, I always thought the Forbidden City was just near Beijing, but separated from it somehow. Maybe in some dense forest, surrounded by trees, shrouded in secrecy somewhere. Silly me. The Forbidden City is in the heart of Beijing. And there are actually no trees anywhere near the main section of the city for security purposes. I guess that shows what I know.

Next up: Lunch. This one is important. Dad, this is for you. You remember when we were talking on the phone in Hong Kong, and you were a smartass and asked about finding a Chinatown in Beijing? Well GUESS WHAT. We ate in Chinatown in Beijing. It exists. The Chinatown Restaurant. Almost within sight of the Bird’s Nest. It’s there. We ate inside it. It was delicious. We got McDonald’s milkshakes afterwards. It was a great time. And I completed your task in the process. Chinatown. Check.

A quick stop at the Pearl market gave way to the end of our Beijing adventure. We went to the train station and boarded our overnight sleeper train to Shanghai. I had never been on a sleeper train before. I felt like I was in a Harry Potter story or something. It was cool, but the pillow wasn’t comfortable. And a good pillow is the key to a good night’s rest. Maybe that’s just me, I don’t know. But we had some fun on the train and then slept until our rude awakening the next morning…

Day 75 (04-03-09)

Some Chinese lady unlocks the cabin door at 6:40am, yells something about the trashcan, takes the garbage away, and then leaves without shutting our door. Good morning to you too, sunshine. We got off of the train at 7:15am and made our way to the bus that brought us back to the ship. Ah, the MV Explorer. Home, sweet home. Some breakfast and a quick shower were the only stops this morning though, as today is the only time we have to explore Shanghai. We grabbed a taxi to Pudong and went to the world’s second tallest building, the Shanghai World Financial Center. The only building officially taller than it is the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan, but that includes the antennas and such on the roof. As far as strict building height goes, from ground level to roof: the World Financial Center is the tallest in the world. And it has the world’s tallest observation deck. Which I went to. It was pretty foggy again, like in Macau, but it was still a great view. Shanghai has 3 of the world’s tallest buildings, so it was interesting to see the other 2 buildings look small while I was standing above their peaks. After descending back down to the basement level, we found a Cold Stone and decided it was necessary to get ice cream. I mean, come on, it’s Cold Stone. We walked around the city a little more, and actually discovered that there’s another building under construction right now that’s going to dwarf the Shanghai World Financial Center in height, so I don’t even know what they have planned over here. This city is booming. It’s under massive amounts of construction, more than I’ve seen anywhere else in the world. I was not expecting that from Shanghai. I think it might even rival Dubai for the amount of development that’s going on right now. Who knows.

We made it to a mall for some lunch and some shopping (I was with girls, it happens), and I got the rest of the clothing I need to finish out the suit I had made in Vietnam. Vest and skinny tie: check. We hopped a cab back to the ship and relaxed for awhile as the rest of our shipmates filed back onboard. The Shanghai skyline looks incredible, especially at night, and we have a perfect parking spot just like in Hong Kong. I don't know who plans this stuff, but our location couldn't be any better. Crazy day. Crazy week. Crazy life. Goodnight everyone.

Day 76 (04-04-09)

My napping was rudely interrupted by class today. How sad. Some giggly Japanese girls gave a presentation about tea ceremonies and other mildly relevant Japanese things at our cultural pre-port this evening. And then I didn’t go to sleep until 3:30am. Silly rabbit. I don’t know where time goes or why I lose track of it so often. And yet, here I am. At least I’m consistent.

Day 77 (04-05-09)

They weren’t kidding. As soon as we hit Thailand, time just sped up completely. Five days on, two days off. Five on, two off. Six on, two off. What are we doing here? Not to sound like a broken record, but there really isn’t any time to process all of this. Maybe that nine-day stretch between Japan and Hawaii will give me some time to make sense of it all. But whatever. I’ll be in Japan tomorrow I guess. Just another country to try and digest in far too little time. Not that I’m complaining by any means. This voyage is amazing and I’m not taking any of it for granted. But now that I’ve gotten a taste of so many places, I want to go back for more. I just hope I get that chance. Goodnight all.