Friday, January 28th 2011- Back on ship and to classes :-(

Classes started again today… that sucks.  Went to dinner where I never have the dessert and they had apricot bread pudding, I got all pumped but they were out, and not replacing it for whatever reason….sucks even more than classes.  Then after dinner I went for toast with PB and sliced banana (my dessert every day for breakfast lunch and dinner) and found that they have no bananas… and won’t till we reach Ghana…That’s 9 days away… not a good first day back at sea.
Also, our clocks went forward another hour last night on the ship so right now it is 1937 (7:37pm) which makes it 5:37pm EST. 
Yeaahhhp.

Monday, January 24th 2011- Tupana Jungle Lodge

Unfortunately had to wake up at 8am the day after the Samba.  At least it was for a sweet 3 night Amazon trip.  One hour on a ferry from the ship, 2 hours on a bus, a ferry which carried our bus across a river, another hour on the bus and finally an hour in sketchy ass motorized canoes which leaked.  6 hours later we arrived at our Tapana Jungle lodge where we stayed.  The place was unbelievable, right on the water in the middle of the Amazon Rain forest.  Everything in the Amazon is like a big version of what we have at home.  Spiders, grasshoppers, beetles were all at least 3 to 4 times bigger than I have ever seen.  The type of stuff you see pictures of is what we were able to see every day we were there.  This trip also gave me the opportunity to meet some new people I have not spoken to yet.  The night we got there we did not really do anything because we were all so tired from traveling that day.  We played with their Wooly monkey named Cosheta who was the coolest monkey I have ever interacted with.  One which would actually play with you without biting you.  I have about 300 pictures and video of her but every time you rubbed her back she would roll over so you would rub her belly, reminded me of Schatzi.  It was really funny playing with her because she was just so smart.
The next morning we had a busy day.  Jungle hike in the morning followed by Piranha fishing followed by the alligator hunt at night.  Many pictures were taken of it all and unfortunately no one in our group was able to catch any piranha but we did see the pink dolphins in the river many times.  It was so peaceful sitting out there in the quiet fishing and watching dolphins swim by.  The kind of think you can’t take for granted because while I was sitting in that hot hot sun fishing I pictured everyone at home sitting in the cold ass buffalo weather in school.  We also did not see anything while alligator hunting because we had to go home early.  We were suddenly attacked by a swarm of wasps in the pitch black on the Amazon River in a canoe that tips way too easily.  I came out of it with 2 stings.  It was the worst.  That night we returned to our cabin to find a bat in it.  Took 20 minutes to kill it and get it out, videos to follow.  The following night which was Wednesday, January 26, we were able to sleep out in the middle of the rain forest in hammocks.  It was by far the best night there.  15 of us were hung tightly under a literally 9’X27’ roof.  We ate meat skewers cooked over the fire and right as we finished them it started to downpour.  We all rushed over to our mosquito net covered hammocks and jumped in.  It was such a cool experience to be able to do that.  Not the most comfortable thing but it was super fun.  All in all we lucked out with the weather because that is the only night it rained, and we were under a hut anyhow.  I am actually glad it did rain because it was a nice thing to fall asleep to.  Again, I thought to myself while falling asleep, “Where would I rather be on January 26th than sleeping in a hammock in the Amazon Rain Forest.”     In the morning we went back to the lodge to eat breakfast and began our trip back.  I went back to my stateroom on the ship (2040) and right to bed.  So sorry mom for not having this updated sooner but I was exhausted. We departed Manaus at 5pm and will reach the end of the Amazon River in 2 days, before starting a 7 day journey over to Takoradi, Ghana.

January 23, 2011 Arrival in Manaus, Brazil at 0800

It has been a while since the last update but this one will cover everything that has been going on, starting with the first full day in Manaus on January 23, 2011. 
Arrival in Manaus was not exactly what you would picture.  Not the greatest looking city but it holds just so much to do.  The first day we disembarked the ship I had nothing planned and decided to walk around all the local shops in the area.  As usual they were all selling useless shit but what perplexes me is that there are no tourists in this town.  It is the local people who are buying this stuff over and over and I just did not get it.  Hundreds of tents set up selling similar souvenirs and jewelry, and it is packed with locals.  My first day in Manaus was the first time I have ever truly been presented with a language barrier.  In Spanish speaking countries I can always make my way around knowing at least some of the language but Portuguese is a different story.  And NOBODY in the city speaks English.  Not the storeowners, not the cops, and very limited English from even the people in the tourist center.  They say that if you speak Spanish you can communicate with someone who speaks Portuguese… false.  The locals had no idea what I was saying. 
5 minutes after stepping off the boat we were standing at a corner when a motorcycle pulled up to the red light.  I am the only one who noticed it but a police officer pulled up next to the motorcycle and clenched his gun as the motorcyclist lifted his shirt showing he had no weapons on him.  It does not sound at all significant but when you see something like that happen in the middle of a city it is quite shocking.  I saw this 3 other times throughout the day, one of which I happened to be capturing a video when it happened.  I want to post these videos and some photos I got but I have not had the opportunity to do so yet because we get into every country on Sunday when nothing is open, then I leave for my trip the next morning so I don’t have time.  Hopefully in 9 days when I reach Ghana I can find somewhere there, but I do not know how many internet cafes they will have there. We then ate lunch at this little restaurant called Choupana.  It was recommended to us by Luiz, who is our inter port student from Manaus (the inter port students board the ship in the port previous to where they live and then have some time to spend with students and talk with us before arriving in their home town).  The entrees are meant for 2-3 people so my friend Kim and I split a skirt steak, rice and some potatoes.  It was absolutely excellent with their local beer “Skol.”  Although the meal was a bit pricy it was worth it to experience the authentic Brazilian food.  After lunch my friend Aaron and I went to a little party outside where a bunch of local Brazilians were hanging out.  We sat out and sat for about 2 hours just watching the local people dance.  2 local women came up and pointed to my eyes because they are not used to seeing such dazzling beauties.  I took a picture with them and made their day.  Right after this is when I captured the video of the cops jumping out of the car and patting down 2 local men.  Aaron and I decided to leave after we saw that.
That night I attended one of the best parties I have ever been to.  It is a local party in Brazil that takes place on Sundays called a Samba.  There is a big drum routine and all the locals come out and dance.  Mom and dad, when you read this I thought especially of you because it reminded me so much of the Brazilian night time version of Guavate.  A few hundred Semester at Sea kids attended which made it that much better.  Everyone danced and had a fantastic time with all the locals. DDO. 

Wednesday January 19, 2010 Global studies lecture

I just sat through what was very possibly the most interesting lecture I have ever attended.  A man named Jeff Kottler came into our Global Studies class to speak to us about his experiences in the poor villages in Nepal.  He explained to us that girls were disappearing in the village and nobody was really willing to admit what was happening to them.  He found out that their parents were in terrible situations and not able to afford for the girls to go to school for less than $50 a year.  If they could not afford it, these 12 year old girls were taken away from their families and worked as sex slaves for the next few years until they died of diseases.  Mid lecture he broke down in tears speaking of these poor girls who he has saved by the foundation he started.  It was extremely emotional and eye opening for everyone to experience.  It is really shocking how much one lecture can influence you to want to do something that you never thought you would.  I grabbed a pamphlet at the end and began looking at it.  It is so hard to see the faces of these young girls and how their lives can be saved with such a small amount of money to attend school.

Tuesday January 18 2011

86 degrees and sunny on route to Brazil

Tuesday January 18, 2011

We left Dominica yesterday after 2 fantastic warm days. On Sunday we woke up early and caught a cab which took us around to a couple of the most popular sites. Our first stop was Titou Gorge where we were able to swim up a narrow waterway in between 2 rock walls. I will post pictures of the inside of it once I get to Brazil but it was absolutely incredible. Plus the freshwater was a nice change up because I hate saltwater so much. When we arrived at the Gorge, another large group of Semester at Sea kids were arriving at the same time. It was packed full of about 70 kids in that small cave all of which were screaming when they got in the cold water. After we left there, we headed over to Trafalgar falls. It was a little bit of a hike to get up to them bus so worth it after the fact. Again, I need to post the pictures to really do it justice but they were so tall and set back in a beautiful green location. It was perfect.

That night everybody had pretty much the same plan. Go to the ship and eat dinner, then the nearest bar to start their drinking. Without going into too much detail, it was quite a show seeing a boat full of college kids having their first 10 drinks after being cooped up for a week. I saw some pretty wild things including the ships sign language interpreter spinning upside down on the stripper pole. She was not half bad at it either, and this was about 15 minutes into the night. The night proceeded as you would imagine.

The next morning I woke up at about 7am again to get an early start on the day. Unfortunately when you are trying to organize a group of college kids, you don’t always get the start you intend. We ended up getting off the ship at about 10 and headed to the beach for the day….Oh and one more thing about Monday night; it was raining all night and some dumb broad was sprinting on the wooden dock back to the ship and completely bit it. She started crying. I boarded and went to sleep… But anyways this beach we went to was ridiculous. I have always heard of them, but seeing a black sand beach for the first time is so weird. I have been to so many Caribbean beaches and never seen anything like it. I could not get over how soft the sand was and how much it was just like a regular sand beach, but completely black from the volcanic lava. Crazy. After getting some pollo con arroz y habichuelas we headed back to port where I bought the Dominican flag. The second flag in my collection. Just before getting on the boat a few of my friends and I went swimming off of the pier next to the ship. I dove down and picked up a sea urchin and brought it back to the dock for everyone to hold. I then saw one of the big black ones with the long spines. Never attempt to pick one of those up. I watched a black shot of venom shoot up my finger the moment I touched it. My finger still kills. Mental note that white sea urchins are good, the black ones are bad.

Now that we are back at sea again classes started back up. It is by far the rockiest day we have had so far and countless kids have puked. It is really funny to see everyone attempt to walk around the halls. For the first time ever, I had a class which was cut short due to “big waves.” You can’t do justice trying to explain what it feels like through this blog, but this is by far the rockiest I have ever felt a cruise ship. It is easy to take a serious spill and I’m sure it will happen at least a few times before the end of the trip. Although we have 6 days at sea ahead of us(which means 6 days of classes), in just 3 days we will enter the Amazon River. I can imagine it will be soooooooooo cool to be in class and look out the window at the dense Amazon rain forest on either side of us. Updates to come.

Friday January 14, 2011 2nd full day at sea

This is ridiculous. I still can’t believe it is finally here.

Today is my second full day at sea. We departed at 2200 hours on Wednesday and it was pretty emotional on the ship. A ton of parents were standing with huge signs and screaming up at us from the dock. Many pictures were taken and I witnessed some tears as the ship started to inch away very slowly. The ships horn blew 3 times to symbolize the start of the journey around the world. We will be arriving in Dominica on Sunday so everybody is pretty excited for that.

The first thing I was pretty worried about was meeting my roommate. A little worried he might be weird or the chance I don’t get along with him. But thank god he is normal. His name is Charlie DeMar from Chicago but attends U of Arizona. We get along really well and I’m sure we will be doing a few field practica in the countries together. I am one of only 2 or 3 kids on the ship from WNY which sucks. Seems like everybody is from San Diego, Arizona and PA.

After exploring our ship (the MV Explorer), I am very surprised to see how nice it actually is. Everything seems so new and modern and much better than I pictured. I have been on cruise ships which were not as nice as this one. The stateroom my roommate Charlie and I have has plenty of room to store everything we brought along. It is on second deck outside (room 2040) and contains a porthole so we have a great view low on the ocean.

Classes started this morning and I already attended my Food and Culture class. It is a little bit of a joke but extremely cool at the same time. I will have the opportunity to try so many new foods and to write about them. Most of our assignments consist of taking pictures of the foods we try as we travel. I also have International Business and International Marketing later today. As much as I looked forward to going to school on a ship, I never imagined it would actually be this sick. I literally am sitting in a class of 70% women and look out the window at the wide open ocean. It is JANUARY and I am walking along an outside deck to class in short sleeves, sunglasses and shorts, feeling the rocking of the waves. I promise it gets no better than this. Marv Levy, “where would you rather be?”

Too esited to seep

Leave in the morning. 4 days away from departure and True Life: "I am Addicted to Porn" is on. Terrible combo for trying to fall asleep...
I will be staying at the Towne hotel in Nassau for the next 3 nights. Thrilling to have a few days to look around before leaving for Dominica.