Day 49 (10-14-10)

…Hello Mauritius. We had a short diplomatic briefing in the Union before disembarking onto the tiny island nation. There was a water taxi station right next to the ship, so we could float right into the city instead of hailing a cab/walking through the massive port area. I don’t remember much about Mauritius from last time (because I had the flu and only got off the ship for about 3 hours), but I do remember disliking the walk through the port. We found an ATM, checked out the waterfront for a few minutes, and then hailed a taxi to Grand Baie, one of the main beach destinations of the island. A half-hour and some bargaining later, we were in a little cove filled with sailboats. First things first: lunch. I ordered some pasta with tomato/mushroom sauce and a really weak milkshake. And we all got free Dodo Bird cocktails afterward. Don’t ask what was in it because I have no idea. But it was yellow red and green and tasted like alcohol. And it was free. Hooray! Next stop: beach. Between Grand Baie and Perybere, we found a little public beach that only had a handful of European tourists. And it was perfect. Perfect water. Perfect everything. A few sailboats and catamarans floated by in the distance. The beach ended at some rocks a few hundred feet to our right and left, and it ended at perfectly clear blue-green water in front of us. It’s October 14th and I’m swimming in paradise in the Indian Ocean. I’m usually not a huge beach fan, but it’s hard to argue with this. Where else would I be right now? Fall in Boulder is pretty nice (and I’ve heard it’s actually pretty warm this year), but this time last year I was wading through 2 feet of snow to get to class. And now I’m at a beach sunbathing and my biggest worry is whether or not I’m going to cut my feet on the coral below me. Not a bad trade.

After a few hours on the beach we started walking back towards Grand Baie and stopped for some shopping. A few postcards and trinkets later (oh, and a pineapple on a stick!), and we were back in town and ready to head back to Port Louis. But taxis can be pretty expensive (not by American standards, but we’ve become excellent bargainers), so we hopped on the express bus back to the city. It was air-conditioned and only a dollar per person for an hour long ride. Next up: Dinner at Shooters. And to all of you in Boulder, it isn’t a country bar. But it is a sports bar/grille. There was eve a picture of Allen Iverson on the wall. Weird. But we had been craving Tex-Mex for a while, and the chicken fajita nachos sounded delicious. But so did the bacon burger. So I got both. And the Blue Lagoon cocktail to drink. It was just another drink that tasted like blue. Who knew drinks could taste like colors? I guess I’ve always known that actually. Grape juice tastes like purple. NyQuil tastes like green. And Blue Lagoons taste like blue. Noted. For dessert, we headed to another restaurant on the waterfront and got Death by Chocolate (disappointing) and a Swiss Cow to drink. The Swiss Cow was like chocolate/mint flavored cocktail with vanilla ice cream inside. Like a mudslide meets a thin mint. Thus, it was delicious. And so ends day one of Mauritius. This is the place for crazy parties in hotels and villas on the beach and such, but I’d rather spend my money on other things. Luckily I have some friends that feel the same way, so we headed back to the ship around 11 or midnight and crashed for the night. Uno más día en Mauritius.

Day 50 (10-15-10)

Wake up. Water taxi. Looked for stamps in town and did a little more shopping. It’s weird, I don’t particularly enjoy shopping, but it’s probably the most common thing for us to do in these countries. We checked out a place called Friends Restaurant for lunch and I got a baguette with ham chicken. Not ham and chicken…. Ham-chicken. I didn’t know there was such a thing, and the waiter’s English wasn’t good enough to explain to me what it was. But it was tasty. Since we have to be back onboard the ship this evening, it’s not worth it to explore the other side of the island (in fear that we won’t make it back on time), so we’re just staying in Port Louis for the remainder of the day. We did some more shopping and I got the most amazing pineapple juice I’ve ever had from some random street vendor. I even got it with ice (which is highly un-recommended because the water here supposedly isn’t safe to drink, but I love street food and I’ll never stop eating/drinking it), and it was refreshing and fantastic. The last of our Mauritian Rupees were spent on, you guessed it, food. We stopped for crepes with bananas and chocolate. And a milkshake. Some more relaxation on the waterfront followed, and it was time to head back to the ship to write our postcards before on-ship time. We took the water taxi back, and finished the postcards just in time for the Barbeque. Every once in awhile, SAS treats us to a barbeque up on the pool deck. Ribs, fries, mac-n-cheese, burgers, corn on the cob. It’s second only to Taco Day. But we watched the last stragglers run back to gangway by 6pm on-ship time, and saw some of them come back a little bit late. Hooray for Dock Time! For those of you that don’t know, for every 15 minutes that you are late getting back to the ship, you’re penalized 3 hours of time in the following port. So everyone that showed up at 6:02pm tonight has to be back on the ship 3 hours earlier than the rest of us in India. People that showed up at 6:16pm have to be back onboard 6 hours earlier in India. It’s a steep price to pay for being a few minutes late, and it’s been quite the deterrent for me. It’s why I’m always back onboard the ship with a couple hours to spare… you never know what the line/immigration process could look like.

And for tonight… the end of Criminal Minds. Since we’re done with the season now, I guess it’s time to find something new between now and India. We’ll make it work. Goodnight all… 5 countries down, 5 to go (plus Hawaii)! I don’t like the way that sounds.


WARNING: Upcoming blog posts may be sparse. I forgot to take notes on the days at sea between Mauritius and India, so I’m not entirely sure what I did each day. Apologies.

Day 51 (10-16-10)

We’re approaching the halfway point of the voyage… not possible. It’s amazing how quickly time can pass.

Today was a downer of a day. Disappointing lunch. 2 classes. Nap. Disappointing dinner. It’s crazy how drained I am after each port. Mauritius was only a 36ish hour stop between Cape Town and Chennai, but it still wore me out. And you can always see it on the ship, too. Whenever we get back on board, the following day is dead. Meals are quiet because people are sleeping through them. Classes are quiet because the professors are as exhausted as we are… and half the students are sleeping through them. It’s a bizarre atmosphere.

But we had an Explorer’s Seminar on Civil Disobedience tonight, and that was a fun experience. Several staff members and one student shared their stories of civil disobedience with the community, and spoke about the issues that were important to them/why their methods of disobedience were effective. From camping on public property in Boston to get a law passed to hopping over a fence at a military complex to protest the draft, these people seemed to run the gamut of issues and means of protesting them. I was fortunate enough to sit next to Archbishop Desmond Tutu for the event, and we spoke briefly afterward about what we had heard and what he had personally done in the past. He hadn’t done much… just won a Nobel Peace Prize for his acts of civil disobedience and efforts that helped to end the system of Apartheid in South Africa. Nothing too big or anything.

What a night.

Day 52 (10-17-10)

I had a midterm today in Environmental Science class. Nothing too exciting or even anything to worry about. And I bought a Club sandwich/ice cream on pool deck after dinner. That was probably the highlight of the day. Seriously, since when do they have club sandwiches at the pool bar? Awesome. Then we watched the movie Kick-Ass to end the night. It was based off of some comic/graphic novel that I’ve never heard of and it was really kind of bizarre. Funny, but pretty twisted. As many recent Nicolas Cage films tend to be.

Day 53 (10-18-10)

Drumroll please… Taco Day! I think we’ve officially had more taco days this voyage than we did all Spring ’09. I’m loving it. Tonight, we had a Sea Olympics pep rally. The Sea Olympics are shaping up to be much different than last year. The planning committee chose to announce the events and stipulations for the Olympics just 3 days before the events are scheduled to occur. Apparently they felt like it would be better to surprise everyone and would level the playing field if people didn’t know about everything beforehand. By this point last year, we already had our events planned, t-shirts made, a cheer established, and a mascot picked out. Now, we have to select our team members on very short notice, and coordinate lip syncs/synchronized swimming on 2-3 days notice. I’m not particularly fond of the new system, but we’ll see how it works out. The pep rally basically consisted of everyone sitting in the Union wearing their sea colors (Mediterranean Sea = Light Blue) and screaming at everyone else while the organizers told us what events to prepare for. And then we left. Anti-climactic.

Day 54 (10-19-10)

Tonight: Family dinner. My on-ship grandparents hosted us in their cabin tonight for another photo contest. This time, we brought our best pictures from South Africa and let our extended family vote on the winner. An aerial picture of Cape Town taken from a helicopter by my Canadian brother Mike was the winner. He was rewarded with a SAS flashlight for his efforts… pretty handy. Afterwards, we all trekked down the hallway to the pool bar where our grandparents treated us to whatever we wanted for dinner (Gene is a self-proclaimed “big spender,” so he doesn’t mind shelling out the dough for his extended family). Plus… it included dessert! Cheeseburger, Gatorade, AND ice cream? Can’t beat that. Plus, we got to share our experiences from South Africa and Mauritius, and we talked about our plans for India. Since Gene and Nikey have done SAS 10 times before, they’re wonderful resources for us.

After dinner, I emailed my mom about India and had her book my plane tickets for me. Sadly, I won’t be able to make it to Kashmir. Everyone seems to be relieved by this; it’s like traveling to a tenuously guarded war-zone isn’t recommended or something. Weird. But instead, I will be spending 2 days in Mumbai and a day in Hyderabad. Along with 3 days in our port city of Chennai. Pretty exciting stuff. Now I just need to book my hotels… hmm. One day at a time.

Day 55 (10-20-10)

At dinner tonight, I was pleasantly surprised with a cake! Apparently my mom ordered me a cake to celebrate the fact that we’ve survived the first half of the voyage. As such, the text on the cake read, “Happy Halfway There.” Thanks, mom! Ice cream cake is the best.

But wait… we’re halfway there?! The voyage is half over?! Ruh roh.

Cultural Pre-port tonight. Basically… you can and will see just about anything and everything in India. There are so many different people of different cultures in one place, and the 1.3 billion people are just trying to get by. There are no fewer than 23 national languages, and the food is spicy. Got it.

Our final sea meeting for the Sea Olympics is tonight. I only signed up to be a part of 2 events because I’ve already done with before and I didn’t want to take away from anyone that might not get a chance to do something. As it turns out, we have a very active and interested group of kids in our sea: Every event filled to capacity, and I didn’t even get into the one event that I was still signed up for (the other was cancelled). As such, it looks like I’ll be playing cheerleader tomorrow for the festivities. Sounds good to me. Plus, the meeting had chips/salsa/cookies, so it wasn’t a total bust. I love free food; it’s the best kind.

Day 56 (10-21-10)

Sea Olympics today! After an early lunch, each sea crammed into the Union to show off their Sea chant during the opening ceremonies. The following several hours were devoted to individual trials, so people broke off and participated in their respective events. I made a point of sticking around to watch the group events (Lip Syncing and Synchronized Swimming), both of which were hilarious and lots of fun. Another good event to observe: Dean David Says. Much like Simon Says, this consisted of our Academic Dean standing on the stage in the Union and barking out orders at students trying to trip them up. It took quite a while to eliminate all but one, but it was a fun process. After dinner, the closing ceremonies revealed that the Caribbean Sea had taken first place with the Aegean Sea earning a close second and the Nomer Sea in 3rd. Never heard of the Nomer Sea? It’s made up of the faculty/staff/lifelong learners/dependent children, and it’s not actually a real place. Figure it out yet? It’s a play on words. Nomer Sea = No Mercy. Clever, I know. But despite a valiant (maybe) effort, my Mediterranean Sea could only muster and 8th place finish. Out of 10. Fail. Oh well, we had fun doing it.

Taking a step back, I forgot to mention the best part of dinner. Giggles decided a few days ago that she loves ice cream cake and wanted to get one just for the sake of getting one. So we went online and filled out the order form, and I told her to put “Livin’ On A Prayer” as the text on the cake. With this logic, we’d have a cake at the halfway point in the voyage (when we’re, ohhhhhhhh halfway there) that says Livin’ On A Prayer. Original, I know. And if you didn’t get that Bon Jovi reference, shame on you. Funny thing… right after we placed that order, I got a note on my door saying that my mom had gotten me a cake for the same occasion. Apparently great minds really DO think alike. But it’s not a problem, because we just had her cake tonight instead of last night, and it’s double the ice creamy goodness. Well done, everyone. I’m pleased.

Logistical Pre-port happened tonight. More technical information on India and such. And like any good Bollywood film, this pre-port included a random dance number. In a surprise for the shipboard community, a group of 15-20 students and staff members learned a section of the Jai Ho dance (from the closing sequence of Slumdog Millionaire) and performed it at random on the Union floor during the middle of pre-port. We thought the A/V booth had just made a mistake and started playing a piece of music by accident, but then the stage was flooded with people and they were all dancing in unison. It was pretty great.

But now that means that we’re in India tomorrow. What? When did THAT happen? Oh man. I better start taking some deep breaths now… this place is nuts. Plus, I won’t want to take deep breaths while I’m there, due to the grossness of the air and whatnot. Yeah… The adventure continues… tomorrow!