MAY 10

Oh goodness, now how did I forget to mention the Ambassador’s Ball in my last post? This event took place the third last night before Hawaii. It was a formal supper and dance event that everyone has been looking forward to for a large portion of the trip, and the reason why so many people had suits and dresses made in Vietnam. The committee in charge of this worked very hard to decorate and organize for our theme: Oh, the Places We’ve Been. The menu included numerous dishes from the countries we’d just visited, like sushi for Japan and a spinach cheese dish with naan for India, and they had set up different themed areas to represent those countries for pictures. Dessert included a giant chocolate Taj Mahal. That was a great night.

That’s it for now…I’m supposed to be writing my take-home Music final. Ah, it’ll never cease to amaze me how, even without Internet and a television, there are still so many ways to procrastinate!

Lindsay

MAY 22

For anybody who is still checking this site…this will be my last post. As all of you know, I’m back at home, safe and sound. Mom and Dad came to San Diego to pick me up – let’s just say it was a good thing they brought extra bags! What can I say? They were mostly filled with presents for the family.

Thanks for reading!

Lindsay

MAY 9

AHHHH!!! Is it really almost over? Here I am sitting in my room procrastinating from studying for finals. Seriously, this semester has gone by way too fast for my liking.

This past week and a half has been spent on the ship with the exception of one day in Hawaii. Ship life is still ship life, but Hawaii was definitely a nice break. Really, it’s just another tropical island, but getting some time off from class was definitely welcomed. I started the day on the beach, and then went with a smaller group for a hike to some falls in the rain forest. Oh, and when they say rain forest, they know what they’re talking about; the walk up was beautiful, but when we got to the top it started pouring! By the time we’d walked back down, we were all completely soaked through, and my flip flops had splashed mud all up my back. When we got back to the ocean, I went swimming with my clothes on still over my bathing suit. After drying off in the sun, we went walking to pick up Selena who was coming to meet up with us, went and had supper at La Cucaracha (Mexican food), and then it was time to head back to the ship. :( I think everyone on the ship agrees that it’s become strange to be able to communicate clearly, know exactly how much we’re spending, be able to read the street signs, and pay more than 5 dollars for a meal; even in Japan where everything was expensive, if you really looked, some type of meal could be found for that cheap.

Since coming back on the ship, I’ve written my first final: geology. That went surprisingly well for only studying the two hours before – of course I chose to stay up all night talking the one night before an exam I hadn’t yet reviewed for.

What next? Well, one more study day, then my two last finals, two packing days….and then San Diego. I know I’m going to miss the ship life, all the people, and just everything else that goes along with it. I even don’t really mind my job all that much! Oh, and the best part about my job: last night I took a nap and woke up a few minutes past my scheduled work time, so I put on a sweatshirt, threw on some flip flops, and ran upstairs still in my pajamas. And did anybody care? Of course not! I don’t normally walk around in pj’s on the ship, but it’s nice to not have to worry about things like that.

I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned, but the ship is a very casual place, and it’s the not unheard of for some of the professors to show up to their 8am classes with bed-head, wearing sweats, and pillow wrinkles on their faces (okay, so this is really just one prof, but I’ll leave her name our of this). In this relaxed atmosphere it’s been really nice getting to know people, such as bosses and educators, on a more personal level. There’s no denying it, I don’t know how I’m going to go back to a normal university at a normal campus… on land! I love the rocking of the ship; I feel so at home here.

Just so you all know the plan for going back to Regina: Mom and Dad are coming to pick me up in San Diego, and we fly back to Calgary the next morning (Tuesday, May 15) for an undetermined amount of time. Really, that’s all I know of so far. I’ll probably post one more time before I get home, so I’ll see if I know more then.

Lindsay

APR 15

So, I’m realizing that what I wrote for Penang wasn’t very complete. And those three field trips, they weren’t nearly as bad as I made them sound. The first one was to a little village where I learned about rubber trees (for the second time), then went to a typical village house for lunch. It wasn’t a very busy morning, but slightly educational none the less. The second SAS trip was to learn about the healing art of Qi Gong. Qi, pronounced “chi”, is the same concept used in feng shui and other East Asian arts basically translating into “energy flow”. A master of this particular art described to us – and later demonstrated – how, when there is a free, open, and complete energy flow throughout the entire body, it is impossible for disease to settle in any body part. The third trip was to an active tin mine. Why did I go to a tin mine? Well, while this may seem like a fun field trip to some, I STILL have absolutely no interest in mines, but I needed to do this for a geology field report (a paper worth 10% of that course). It is interesting to know there are very few areas in the world that have tin, and even fewer mines still operating today. Really, that’s all there is worth telling you. And that was my expansion on Malaysia.

Vietnam is the country I just got back from, and as mentioned Mom and Dad met with me to enjoy the port experience. After meeting them on the ship, we went out for some lunch and did a bit of shopping for dress makers that afternoon. We went out for supper, returned to Mom and Dad’s hotel for some dessert, and then I went back to the ship for some sleep. The next morning came way too early…somewhere around 4:20am. Oh, yes, another SAS field trip and their infamous mid-night flights. We arrived in Hanoi early enough to do a prison tour, the tour of a temple of literature, and go for lunch. We then drove for 3.5 hours to Halong Bay, ate supper, and went to bed just beside the coast. The next morning was a boat tour of the bay, which is filled with over 2000 islands, and a walking tour inside a hollow rock. Really, this rock was really cool: because it is made of limestone, it is very susceptible to erosion and the whole inside is filled with huge caverns and caves. Very cool. That afternoon was left open for the drive back to Hanoi. Once back, we went to a water puppet show – an ancient art created out of boredom during the rainy season – and then to supper. Our last morning we went on a city tour to Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum (a general or something from one of the recent wars, whom Saigon was renamed after), and an army and history museum that highlighted the Vietnamese-US and Vietnamese-French wars. The last day for this port was spent going out to the Mekong Delta where we learned about coconut candy making and the area in general. The Mekong Delta River is a principle waterway for traffic between the different cities in Vietnam, such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. And than is Vietnam in a nutshell!

Wow, it’s hard to believe I’m already half-way between last port and next…I only have 1.5 days of class left! Talk to you after my adventures in China.

Lindsay


APR 24

Here I am, sitting in the Union for my very last diplomatic briefing. That’s kind of sad to think about – only one more ‘foreign’ port! We just docked this morning after the Japanese presented us with fireboats along the water and a brass band out on the wharf.

But I’ve skipped China! Now, this was a fun port. We first docked into Hong Kong (which is technically NOT part of China, for those who didn’t know). I was only in the city for a day and a half, but still managed to spend too much money, did a lot of walking, discovered different areas of the city, took the Star Ferry a couple of times to the mainland, and was amazed at the intricate underground pathways. Oh, I also learned I could walk quite a distance using these pathways and other interlinked buildings (mainly malls) when it randomly started to pour the one night I had there.

The second afternoon Ivan and I packed all of our things and headed on our way by train to Shenzhen, China to catch our flight to Beijing. But oh wait…plans can almost NEVER go that smoothly! After the seamless train ride to Shenzhen, we went through customs and then took a cab ride to the airport. We were in the taxi for the expected 10 minutes. And another 10. And then another. Oh, wait…it was an hour drive! Turns out we were given inaccurate information and the OLD airport was only 10 minutes from the train station, while the NEW airport was an hour away. Oops. So, that along with the unexpectedly long lines to get through customs (just so happened we traveled during a high traffic time), we missed our flight by over an hour. To add to the difficulties, my credit card didn’t want to work and we were stuck with NO cash! “Where was Ivan’s card?” you ask. Well, one of our friends had lost her card the night before and wasn’t able to go to Beijing any more because of her lack of cash, so we gave her his card. Of course, just after doing a good deed for someone else, the one card we had left stopped working. Oh, and did I mention there was a huge language barrier here (for the first time)…you know, just to add to the situation. The only good thing after all of this was how wonderfully the airline handled our missed flight situation.

We FINALLY got to Beijing by noon the next afternoon and to the hostel around 2:30. We hadn’t yet experienced the famed Peking Duck, so we went out to try some. My recommendation: try it once, and only once; I learned my lesson the first time that duck is a very fatty bird. The rest of the time we spent near our hostel. Turns out where we were staying was right in the middle of a bunch of other hostels (and everywhere we went were other SAS students) and with stores to barter in down the whole block. It was also in a very popular part of the city just a couple blocks away from Tinamen Square and the Forbidden City.

Our last day there we visited the Great Wall. We went with our hostel to a ‘secret’ location that hadn’t been restored at all. That was actually pretty cool. There were areas where the staircase was actually more of a dirt path with stones lying around, and foliage growing between those rocks. Other areas were much more intact with two full walls along the path, but still the plants and shrubs were able to grow between the cracks proving the age and history of the area we were in. The part of the wall we visited was built 2,500 years ago during the Qing Dynasty. After walking for a short while, we climbed back down the hill and ate lunch at a local villager’s house. That was actually one of the best meals we had while in China.

The flight back home was uneventful – we woke up at 4am to catch a flight that was filled with independent SAS travelers. Once back on the ship we had one last day in Qingdao before it left port. Sad to say I didn’t experience that city at all…I was exhausted from traveling! I pretty much slept that whole day. And off we were, on our way to Japan.

Lindsay


APR 28

Well, here I am writing to you all on my last night in Kobe. Wow, this is definitely a port I’ll have to come back to sometime when I have more money. Good for them and bad for us – Japan has a very strong dollar. Prices here are comparable to those in Canada and the US…but coming from countries where you could get a meal for $1 US, we weren’t ready for this!

Really, Japan is a gorgeous country. Okay, so admittedly I’m not the best person to talk to because all I really saw was downtown Kobe, but the city did a very good job at etching a good impression into my mind. To start, the people were very kind, hospitable, and patient (with trying to communicate through another language barrier, this was greatly appreciated). Secondly, the food was the best East Asian food we’d experienced, and there were many opportunities for all other sorts of cuisine as well (Spanish, Italian, Western…). Thirdly, there was not a morsel of garbage to be found on the streets…anywhere! And this was downtown! Oh, and should I add that I ended up carrying some garbage in my hand for 10 minutes as we walked down a road looking for a trash can? I really don’t know how they do it, but whatever it is, they do it well. When I have the time and resources, I’m definitely coming back here to experience so many more things than I was able to this time round.

Off for tonight!
Lindsay

(P.S. Sorry if there are weird characters or something in this last post...I`m using a Japanese keyboard and computer...that`s all I have to say about that.)

India and Malaysia

APR 5

I’ve officially had my first 3-day stretch at sea. Yep, that means I only had three days between ports!!! And, to top that, I have another three-day period starting tomorrow! What do I have to say about these really short periods at sea? Advantages: don’t have long enough to get sick of the ship food. Disadvantages: don’t have long enough to digest all the experiences from the last port and get excited about the port to come, and it’s really hard to get back into ‘the homework mode’ and get much stuff done.

So, to catch you up, everything about India is absolutely amazing, but if I had to choose just one thing to take back home with me, it would definitely be the food. Mom, when we get home, the first lunch is going to be a Cajun chicken salad with feta cheese and sundried tomatoes, the first supper is going to be your amazingly delicious salmon…with more dressing-free salad, and my second lunch and supper are going to be at the two Indian restaurants at home. Mmmm…naan and channa masala and eating that all with my fingers. :D Yes, the food tastes better that way – trust me.

Off the topic of food, what else did I do in this wonderful country either than eat absolutely delicious food? Well, the first day Ivan and I had our wonderful first experience with a rickshaw driver – we asked to go to the local market (after we’d had lunch, of course) and went everywhere but…we stopped at ~5 little stores where the driver gets tokens for brining us there (he gets everything and anything from t-shirts to gas to cash). By the time we’d gotten completely frustrated with him and FINALLY threatened not to pay him enough that he stopped taking us to these super-touristy and expensive places, we had to get back to the ship for the Welcome Reception. The reception for this country wasn’t the best, but could have been worse (not worth talking about). The next morning Ivan left for his Taj Mahal trip and I was so exhausted from the 7-day stretch of class plus all of my adventures before India that I simply slept in, sent e-mails, and did a bit of homework on the ship. That night I left for my homestay.

I knew this experience was going to be great as soon as I got on the sleeper train. Yes, I slept on a train in India, and it was surprisingly comfy. We were woken up at the ungodly hour of 5 in the morning to take a 45 minute ride out to a little farm. Okay, so little was definitely the wrong description for this house…the house itself – not including the land they own – covers ¾ of an acre! The family has been hosting SAS students for 18 years now, so they were pretty experienced in what they were doing, and it was obvious. They gave us just enough time each day to unwind and relax, gave us interesting tours around the area including a sugarcane processing factory and a coconut processing factory – they do some amazing stuff with these two plants! The hosts were really easy to talk to and we talked about everything possible. I spent two days and one night in Erode, then took the sleeper train back home.

My last day in India was another great day. We went shopping for gifts for people and ate some more great food. Oh, but I have some bad news: after an amazing supper at this 5-star restaurant we had called for us the only rickshaw driver in India who did not know where not only the ‘student ship’ was, but also the Chennai Port! Umm… it took us 45 minutes for a 15 minute ride…this extra half-hour is how late we were for on-ship time. For anyone who knows the system on the ship, this gave us 8 hours of dock time!!!! What’s dock time? When you have to stay on the ship for the number of hours allocated to you based on how many minutes you were late. I was late 23 minutes….I checked the student handbook and that was only supposed to be 4 hours. I definitely got the number of dock time hours changed.

Penang, Malaysia was a pretty cool place. I went on three SAS trips…parts of them were kinda a waste of time, but I didn’t really know what else to do before I got here, so they were okay. With the rest of my time I ate some more good food, some okay food, and some great food. And when I wasn’t eating I was at the mall shopping. Yes, I spent much of my time at a mall in Malaysia, but Ivan and I got some much needed groceries (I’m sorry, but the same fruit mix and buttery salted scrambled eggs for breakfast EVERY morning cannot be healthy) and a few more gifts. In total we weren’t at the mall for very long at all, just long enough to waste some time. Because one of our trips was first thing when we got to Malaysia we had to serve our dock time at the end…so I’m on the ship right now wasting time just after supper.

Well, that’s the summary of what happened. Sorry it’s not very detailed this time. Post next when I have more time. Right now I’m off to Vietnam to meet with Mom and Dad!

Lindsay

APR 7

Happy Early Easter! Passover supper tonight, and mass with Archbishop Desmond Tutu tomorrow morning – bright and early.

Lindsay.

P.S. We get to move our clocks BACK an hour tonight!!!! Yay!!!

Mauritius and at Sea

MAR 24

Well hello there! Long time no talk! Okay, so I realize that’s because it’s been a while since I’ve written anything at all. So, what’s been happening? Umm…well, I’ve been to Mauritius, sailed for another six days, and we arrive in India tomorrow morning. Oh, and the whole country knows we’re going to be there…one of the inter-port lecturers informed us that our date of arrival was announced on prime time television…EVERYBODY knows we’re going to be there! Also, Chennai isn’t one of the main cruise ship ports and since they know we come every year…we’re pretty much expected.

And what about Mauritius? I had an amazing time while there. No, I didn’t really do a whole lot…but that is what was so great about it! All three days (but really it was only two and a half because we got into port at noon rather than 8am…and then had to wait for the ship to be cleared) Ivan and I just wandered around the waterfront and downtown. Being so simple, this was definitely my cheapest port: <$100 including all trips. (Alright, Puerto Rico was pretty cheap as well…but from now on…every other place will be over that for certain because of presents…man, I won’t have room for my clothes on the way back!) We ate out for every meal – this one restaurant downtown looked kinda questionable…but the food was good – and every other place was on the waterfront. Actually, that place downtown wasn’t really all that bad in comparison to this French restaurant: so while there I spoke French as much as possible, and when ordering my dish I asked for the chicken salad, but to exchange the chicken liver (they have it ALL over in Mauritius!) for grilled chicken. The waiter guy said okay. So, they bring me my dish… ½ was the salad I ordered without any chicken, and the other ½ was grilled vegetables with chicken liver!!! Mom, you’ll be proud of me…I ate it. I justified it as a cultural experience…but that was a one-time thing never to be repeated. Ever.

So, back to this speaking French thing…that was an interesting experience as well. So, I spoke as little English as possible while there, but was forced to sometimes. I guess my anglicized Quebec French accent was a little difficult for some of them to understand… and they were also confused about where I came from. They were pretty excited to hear I was Canadian, and then all too glad to talk about Celine Dion. Ummm…I’ll just leave that one alone. Oh! And speaking of being a few years behind…they clothing fashion was from the 90’s! Sorry to inform you Breanna and Chelsea, but I DIDN’T get you any shirts from there…seriously, you guys are missing out.

Anyway, I haven’t really been talking about anything informational about any of these ports… so I thought I’d just add a little blurb in here about Mauritius as a country. For those who don’t know, it’s a little volcanic island to the east of Madagascar, and part of the African continent (oh, I had to memorize all the African countries for Global Studies). This used to be a popular place for pirates, and before the first people landed, the only mammals on the island were bats - that means there are no indigenous people to the island. Today the island is inhabited by mainly Africans, Indians and Chinese because of the slave-trade and from this being a major stop-over for trade (mainly textiles). Long story short…there are many different cultures, ethnicities, religions, etc. there and all are very accepting of each other. Their political and voting system ensures all are well represented (over 10% saved for minorities who aren’t actually voted in)….it’s a really complicated system and I don’t really remember much of how it was structured…it’s kinda like what we have in Canada with how we vote for seats in parliament…okay, so I’ll stop trying to explain it, I’m failing miserably.

Our first day back on the ship we had Sea Olympics…basically our halls are divided into Seas (I’m part of the Caribbean) based on what deck and port or starboard, aft or forward. We could sign up for different activities…so I went for the relay race and ended up with Orange Pass. What’s Orange Pass…well, in a group of 7 we had to pass an orange between us using only our necks. Yeah, Ivan took some pictures.

Oh! And speaking of pictures…I’ve posted some on another site…but of course I can’t remember what that is right now! I’ll have to look it up when I have Internet connection later tonight (when I’ll be posting this). I’ll probably have that added as a post script, or maybe in a message of its own.

Anyway…so that’s basically what I did that day for Sea Olympics, that and homework.

Last night while at work (aka behind the desk of the library) it was announced that Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be holding a mass for Passover and Easter morning! I was really disappointed because I didn’t get the opportunity to go to mass for Lent, Holy Thursday, Good Friday…or anything of the like. I haven’t even really had the opportunity for a mass at all because of the wonky schedule on the ship! (We don’t go by days of the week, so I really don’t even know what day it is today.)

Well, I’m off to explore India soon. I’ll let you know how my travels turn out. Take care all at home…and I’ll see you in 50 days! Yes, that’s right…I’m at the halfway point of my voyage – so hard to believe!

Muah!
Lindsay

Just before Mauritius

MAR 14

Okay, so I WOULD be totally pumped about arriving in Mauritius tomorrow morning, but right now I’m sitting in my Women’s Studies class just about to write an open book exam. Okay, so open book isn’t that bad, but we just found out that it was going to open book this morning after another professor looked at her test and told her there was no way we could write the test unless it was open book!!! AHHHH!! This is already my least favourite class…even below economics.

Oh, and speaking of macroeconomics, I wrote my exam for that class two days ago; I think it went pretty well. I have to admit, could have done better if I’d actually studied a little more, but after learning that same material three times, I felt pretty confident walking into the midterm.

After the exam:

Wow, I just found out that due to rough seas we won’t be docking into Port Louis until ~4 pm tomorrow. Basically, this means we lose one of our three days in port. I’m lucky in that I didn’t make any plans…no tours, no expectations, no having to decide between activities, no disappointment. Why such unexpected waves? I guess there’s some big storm quite a distance away, but we still feel some of the effects. No, nothing major – actually these are just like the conditions from our ‘roughest day at sea’. I feel bad for those plagued with seasickness, but I’m quite fortunate in that I have yet to experience the slightest upset.

Now that’s out there…back to the exam I’ve just written. I think I did surprisingly well! I mean, not that I don’t expect to do well on tests I write, but the whole reason for it being open book scared me just a smidgen. Even though I hadn’t prepared much for lack of knowing what to study, I did what I could and that seems to have been enough since I didn’t even really NEED my texts. Actually, the test was unnervingly easy…either the professors seriously underestimate our test-writing abilities, I’m really smart, or I completely missed the point on the three essay questions and failed the test.

And since I’m on the topic of exams, I just wrote our second Global Studies test yesterday and got an 84%. This isn’t as good as the 94% from the first one, but an average of 88% in the class rumored to be the hardest I’ll ever take in my undergrad career…I’m pretty okay with it! (It might help to know the format for each of these four Core tests is 50 multiple choice questions – m/c and I are generally NOT friends. At all.)

In case you haven’t been able to tell with the lightheartedness and positivity of what I’ve written post-exam, I’m in a really good mood right now. I have a pretty good feeling that has something to do with getting those three major tests and a major paper out of the way, as well as knowing my weekend starts tomorrow…or after my next class that will end in just under two hours (3:30pm). :D

FYI: I’m currently in the GMT +4 time zone…this makes me 10 hours ahead of everyone in Regina. So…when I finish my class, it will only be 5:30am at home!

Really, that’s all there is to tell for now. I’ll try to keep what I tell you guys to the more interesting facts…just so happens school has been my life for the past 6 days and that’s really the most interesting bit of information to tell you.

Oh! There IS something else. Have I ever told you guys about birthdays on the ship? For a surprisingly appropriate price we can order cakes from the kitchen so we can celebrate people’s birthdays. Yesterday was Angela’s birthday (friend), so I had some pistachio ice cream cake. Mmmm. And four days ago was Ericka’s birthday (coworker in the library)…more ice cream cake. And sometime between Puerto Rico and Brazil was Erika’s birthday (the 2nd of three work study students…this one also in the library), and for this one we had some layered jam cake. (Mom: this is the vegetarian Erika who loves Indian food and was at the Towne Hotel).

Salut!
Lindsay

P.S. Update at 10pm: we’re to arrive in Port Louis tomorrow at noon with the help of improved waters.



MAR 15

Just thought I'd say hi before I post...I'm sooo excited to speak French with everyone in just a couple of hours!!!!

A dimanche!
Lindsay

South Africa

MAR 1

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already March AND I’ve already been on the ship for 26 days…this is the ¼ mark! When I think about it, yeah, I’ve already done quite a bit of stuff…but there’s still so much to do! Something tells me this voyage is going to end before I’m ready to go home.

About a half hour ago, we got the most amazing message from The Voice (the person who speaks over the intercom): we DON’T have to change our clocks tonight!!! Wohoo!!! Having 23 hour days definitely makes life just that much more different while on the ship; right now, we’re in the GMT +1 time zone along with Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome and Stockholm. That means I’m 8 hours later than everyone back home in Regina. (I’ve kept my computer on ‘home time’, which is showing 5:37am on March 1…here it’s 1:37pm, same day).

Tomorrow we arrive in Cape Town…I have SO much planned for this upcoming week and definitely not enough time to do it all. Tomorrow morning I’m getting off the ship as soon as I can along with 10 other students to fly to Johannesburg. Don’t worry – no, I’m not staying there very long (you probably don’t want to know this Mom and Dad…but in case you didn’t know, Jo’burg is the crime capital of the world). We’ll be there for just one night in a highly rated hostel…that’s why it costs the grand total of $12 US for one night.  The 3rd we will be picked up from said hostel in the wee hours of the morning to start our day with a 6 hour car/van ride over to Kruger National Park. I’ll have to fill you in on the specifics of this wonderfully cheap safari costing a meager $300 US (once again highly rated…so I’ll just have to see what ‘highly rated’ in South Africa actually means). Actually, everyone seems to be envious of the good prices I found for everything…even my round trip flight is only $70 US!! So, because I planned this trip on my own rather than letting SAS do the work, I’m saving ~$1000 US (more or less depending on what safari I would have chosen). Anyway…back to the itinerary, on Monday the 5th we’ll be taking a scenic route on our way back to Jo’burg (adding an hour or two to the drive), then flying back to Cape Town expecting to arrive back at the ship around 11pm local time.

The only other concrete plan I have for this stay is to go sandboarding on the 6th. I’m not really certain how much of my day this will take. And sometime within my remaining two days I hope to climb Table Mountain, visit Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner), walk along Long Street (the main drag), do a township tour, see some gardens (supposedly quite beautiful), bike to the wine lands….and there’s more that I can’t think of at the moment. I have already cut out bungee jumping, sky diving and cage diving from my list of activities. Something tells me I’m going to want to come back here at some point in my life and spend a couple of weeks checking out more places.

Oh! And speaking of Nelson Mandela…that reminds me: Archbishop Tutu spoke to us yesterday and today for our Global Studies class (which has definitely become my favourite class). Wow, he is definitely very insightful and has some great things to say. Really, he talked about everything and anything from current situations in South Africa to past situations in SA to situations in other countries. He talked about childhood experiences and experiences of his own children. He’s a cute old man.

I would say ‘farewell’ or ‘goodbye’ in Africa’s language…but I’d just be saying ‘farewell’ or ‘goodbye’ - English is one of 12 official languages! And the 12th was just recently added: sign language!

Talk to you all later!

Lindsay

P.S. Heather, you’ll be happy to know I’ve had no side effects from my Malarone…and no, I have not been trading pills with anyone.



MAR 6

Hello! So, I’m back from the safari and I STILL have three days to just relax! I could definitely get used to this 7 day weekend thing – sure, the 7 days of class gets pretty tiring, but the time off is so worth it!



MAR 9/10

Okay, so I totally got disturbed while writing my last blog…it’s nearly impossible to find a block of time where I’m completely alone! People know where I work, where I live, where I eat…and everywhere else is ALWAYS filled with other people. Actually, Ivan and I did find a hallway with an Internet connection that nobody knows about, with the exception of the faculty living down that hall, so we sometimes go there to finish assignments. I think that’s half of what makes getting work done so much harder in this environment – there are people everywhere you go, and you’ll know the name of at least 1/3 of them (yes, we even know the faculty in the hallway…but there are much fewer of them, especially at 2am).

And now for the wonderfully AMAZING safari that I am soooo happy I booked! It turns out that being cheap doesn’t necessarily have to mean lesser quality; I was pretty certain of that already, hence the fact I went with a cheaper tour. To start off, we had no problems getting cleared off the ship, rounding up people, and making it to our flight with ample time to eat some lunch and wait in long lines before boarding the plane. We flew with Mango airlines and I just had to include that because of the wonderfully orange everything…the orange plane, the orange safety instructions, the orange menus, the orange tickets, the orange things that go on the seat behind your head, and the orange shirts everyone wore. Actually, the only thing just as amusing is how the uniforms of the stewards and stewardesses matched the chairs – grey for the pants/skirt and blazer with a bright orange top. On this orange infested plane were two really nice stewards – Tee-Kay and another local name – who gave us a free bag of the local beef jerky, or biltong, because we’d never had any before. Maria, Wendi and I took a picture with them just as we were leaving the plane. This first bit of the trip got me totally pumped…seriously, how can this safari go wrong when it starts of sooo good?

In Johannesburg we waited a while to get our free pickup from the Mufasa Backpackers people…we weren’t about to complain about something that was free. When we got out to the hostel…wow, it was so amazing! The only people staying there were the 11 of us – myself, Wendy, Ivan, Eric, An, Jessy, Dorothy, Dana, Ally, Jackie, and Maria – Charlie from England who was celebrating her 22nd birthday that night, and some other guy from Montreal who spoke a little French with me. :D Tawynee and he husband – the owners – made us all a traditional Africaan supper that was really, really good (especially after eating ship food for so long!). On a side note…no, I didn’t spell Africaan wrong, they are the descendants from the Dutch who colonized Africa (aka the Boers) along with the British. Anyway, yeah, we had a really good time there, all for only ~$13 pp.

The next morning was our (free) pickup by Safari Rangers. There were two vans, so we divided into a group of 5 who went with Sam, and group of 6 with Gavin. I was with Gavin, the three boys, Maria and Wendy, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way! We were a great group to be together (the more tranquil half). We started with a long drive to Kruger National Park that took from 8am until supper. Why so long? Well, it was a fair distance, but we also stopped every hour or so to stretch our legs, buy some snacks, go to the washroom, refuel, and/or eat. Really wasn’t that bad of a drive…we slept a bit, but mostly talked about everything and anything and the scenery around us.

That night was the official start to our Safari experience. Have to admit, wasn’t the best kick-start this part of the trip, but we did see a beautiful sunset and moonrise on the night drive to make up for the lack of animals. When we got back to the camp (which we’d set up ourselves, tents and all), there was a delicious supper waiting for us, prepared by none other than Gavin. That man, he has many talents hidden up his sleeves! I definitely ate way too much of the steamed-with-no-butter vegetables and chicken. Once stuffed beyond belief, we sat around the campfire and waited for the lunar eclipse to start…and then to finish (well, I only waited up for the full eclipse and not the removal of it because it was already past 1am, but crazy Maria, Ivan and Gavin all waited for the end).

The next morning we woke up and went on a morning drive. To sum it up so I don’t have to tell you guys this about every drive…overall we saw many elephants, giraffes, zebras, wildebeest, duiker, antelope, and impala, and a few buffalo, baboons, crocodile, warthogs, vultures dwarf mongoose, hyenas, bush babies, waterbuck, eagle owls and hippos…and that’s all I can think of. After this drive we got back to the camp, showered, packed up our tents, ate brunch (mmmm, so good!), then drove off to go to another part of Kruger. I really don’t remember how long this drive was, but we stopped along the way and saw some more animals again, so there was no complaining from any of us. As soon as we got to the location for our second night, we were offered an astronomy safari for $16 US that was originally something like $40 US, so we took it! We went to the top of this mountain and looked through a telescope at some cool start clusters, Saturn (you can ACTUALLY see the rings around it!), the moon (almost blinded us), and some cloud of dust that looks like a star from far away. Okay, so that sounds a little geeky, but it was fun! AND this included drinks (the only wine I had it South Africa, and it unfortunately wasn’t all that good), and some snacks (those, however, were quite excellent). Then we finished the night with another game drive (part of the same package). When we got to the camp, they had once again prepared an amazing supper, this time of some soybean something, steamed-with-no-butter broccoli and cauliflower with feta cheese, and little squash cut in half with a little corn and melted cheese on top. There were some other things, but that’s pretty much what I remember…the important part is that it was REALLY good. Oh, and then we made smores. We were too lazy to put out our tents again that night, so instead we slept under the stars we’d just studied.

We woke up at 4:45 for the second morning in a row, packed up, and then hit the road. This morning was different, however, because we were on our way home. We stopped about an hour down the road for some breakfast (I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated granola and yogurt so much) and then hit the road again. We searched for animals for the last time on our ~3.5 hour drive out of the park as we headed toward some beautiful sights. The first area was Three Rondavels, a gorgeous canyon where a battle for ownership of the land took place. The next was Lisbon Falls, a set of beautifully quaint waterfalls with rocks and pools at the top and lush greenery alongside the river at the bottom. Our final stop was at God’s Window, a cliff that overlooks the countryside. Okay, so really my descriptions don’t do these sites justice….I’m in the process of loading some pictures so you can hopefully see them all soon. :) We ended the Safari with a crazy ride back to the airport (we drove a 6.5 hour drive in only 4.5 hours…don’t worry Mom and Dad, he was a very good and safe driver) to get us there in time to catch our 8:30 flight. When we got home, I went straight to bed – I was tired after 4 hour sleeps with very little napping.

The rest of my time in Cape Town was really fun…but I won’t be going into nearly as much detail. I spent most of my time with Ivan since we wanted to do the same things. We went to the market a couple of times (I wish I would have bought more presents there…but I’d already spent sooo much money in this port!), ate a lot of really good food (story to come), hiked Table Mountain our last morning, visited a township (where the blacks were forced into during the apartheid).

Okay, I just have to add a little side note once again and let you all know that right now, as I type, we are just entering the Indian Ocean and we are going through the roughest waters expected on this voyage…I LOVE IT! So many people have gotten sick already this morning, but I find this crashing over waves really fun. And to top off the experience, I’m sitting in the Union right now, at the front of the ship where it’s rockiest and someone is playing the piano in here…totally amazing! This is a great morning so far. Oh, and I guess I should add that I’m in here because we don’t have classes today. Why not? Your guess is as good as mine, and I’m not about to complain about it. So, my plan for the day is to study for the three tests I have before Mauritius and start on some of the 4 papers I have due before then – we have 6 days until our next port.

So, about this food story: one of the nights Ivan and I went out for supper to this African restaurant. We decided to try some local food, so I got this curry chicken pancake…little did I know it was really a crepe wrapped around chicken curry with syrup over top! Surprisingly it tasted pretty good - the curry wasn’t very strong and something tells me if you add sugar to anything it will taste okay. After we’d eaten we decided to get some dessert, except that this restaurant only had ice cream, so we headed over to this Italian restaurant nearby. We walked in and right in front of us was this really tasty looking chocolate cake, so we sat down and got our menus. First of all, we sat down and the people beside us just got this really tasty looking bread basket filled with different breads, so we held on to our menus until after they gave us ours. Then we ordered two desserts: one gelato (because I’ve never had any) and something else that was really good (some sort of vanilla and chocolate layered light pudding-ish thing…okay, so it’s hard to describe). After we’d eaten those, we remembered about the chocolate cake at the entrance that wasn’t on the menu…so I asked the waiter “Ummm, there is this really tasty looking chocolate cake near the entrance, could we get a slice of that as well?” And the 60 year old man beside us leaned over just after we ordered “You know, I’ve always wanted to do that.” That comment made my night. We got our cake, and ate it – it tasted just as good as it looked…maybe even better. We sat and had a lovely conversation with the older couple sitting beside us for a while, and then headed back to the ship. That was a great night.

So, I really don’t know what else to say! If you have questions…just leave them in a comment.

Oh, and Kate is still winning with the mail competition…I’ve only received mail from her so far. Thank you Kate!

Well, I’d better post this and start on some homework…this is going to be a very busy stretch of classes!

Bye!
Lindsay