additional thoughts on india

so, the other day, all of these other thoughts and reflections about
india came to mind, and i couldn't believe that i forgot to include
them in my first posting. but, as i sit here now, i can't for the
life of me remember what they were. that's what i get for not
writing them down.

and speaking of india, i want to thank all of you who posted comments
or sent me emails. i've been trying my hardest not to monitor my
thoughts as i blog, and most of the time it all ends up sounding like
blabbing to me. all of your comments are so nice and so touching.
part of me feels like a fake, like i've somehow tricked you into
thinking i'm a lot deeper than i am, which i know isn't the case, but
it sometimes feels that way. so, your comments make me blush and
warm my heart and make me feel so lucky to have the best friends and
family any jersey girl could ask for.

smooches to all!

more about india

so now that i've talked in depth about my first day in india, it's
time for the rest of my visit. on the second day, i left the ship at
4:45am to head out on a three day journey to the northern part of the
country to visit dehli, agra and the taj mahal.

our three day itinerary looked pretty much like this:

day one -
*fly from chennai to dehli
*have lunch at a hotel in dehli
*take a train from dehli to agra
*see the taj mahal at sunset
*have dinner and spend the night at a hotel in agra

day two-
*visit the agra fort, the "baby taj mahal," and a hindu temple
*shopping stop and lesson on the making of rugs from kashmir
*lunch at the hotel
*visit to a deserted city
*dinner at the hotel
*train back to dehli and to our hotel
(i have the names of all of these places written down, but i can't
find the paper right now, and i figured most of you will be more
interested in my personal reflections and not the proper names of
some of these sites.)

day three-
*bus tour of new dehli
*visit to the ghandi museum
*lunch at the hotel
*flight back to chennai

it was a really busy and high paced trip, but i really enjoyed the
sites that we were able to see. the taj mahal is extremely
beautiful, and maybe i'm just a hopeless romantic (stupid bleeding
heart always gets me in trouble), but it's incredible to think that
it was built out of love by one human to another. seeing it at
sunset was incredible; the only downfall was that by the time we got
inside, there was little natural light, so it was extremely dark (in
case you were wondering, there's no electricity in the taj
mahal...very unlike the taj mahal in atlantic city, whose electric
bill for one month could probably feed all of india for the same
amount of time.)

the other sites, though lesser known, were still incredibly
interesting. the agra fort is built around a number of palaces, one
of which is where the creator of the taj mahal was held prisoner
until his death by his son. to add salt to his wounds, his cell had
an amazing view of the taj. the hindu temple was extremely beautiful
and the carvings on the outside were so intricate. part of it was
still under construction (it was originally built forty years ago,
but according to our guide, it has been under construction since then
because new additions are continually being added.) there were
workers surrounding the building, carving the marble and cleaning the
panels in preparation for it being added to the temple.

unlike all of these other places that were constructed from marble,
the deserted city is made entirely of red sand stone. this city was
once used as the capital of the moghul empire, but when the water
supply ran out, the emperor moved the city back to agra. now, the
remains of this city are completely deserted except for the tourists
who come to look around.

dehli is extremely different from agra. agra is very poverty
stricken, while dehli (at least new dehli) is much more of an
affluent city. we saw a lot of the government buildings and
surrounding monuments, and it definitely had a washington, dc feel to
it. the highlight of the day was by far visiting the ghandi museum.
this museum is located in the home in which ghandi lived while in
dehli. this is also the site where he was assassinated. not only is
this museum full of such wonderful information about ghandi and his
fight for human equality, but it is also full of spectacular
interactive mutli-media displays. it was really a great museum, and
i definitely wish i had more time to wander through it.

so, that is the quick and dirty about my overall trip to the northern
part of india, but that really doesn't touch upon any of my personal
reflections and experiences. i feel a little anxious about trying to
convey what i'm feeling about my time in india because so many
thoughts and feelings have gone through my head during the past five
days that i'm not sure i can do them justice or even make sense of
them. but, as always, i'm definitely going to do my best to share
and also try to be really honest about both the goods and the bads
that i was/am feeling.

what stands out to me about my time in agra is the extreme poverty
that i saw. i also saw so many things that are so different than the
type of world i'm used to, most of which is related to the poverty,
but were definitely difficult to swallow. and on top of dealing with
my own feelings throughout this trip, i was also challenged by how
some of the students were dealing with what they were seeing. a lot
of them spent a good amount of time being really negative and
judgmental about what they were seeing, and though cognitively i know
that was their own way of dealing with culture shock, i was still
triggered (i hate that word, but it definitely seems to fit in this
case) by a lot of what they were saying.

the first eye opening experience was our train ride from dehli to
agra. we had been told by the tour guides that we were booked in a
second class non-air conditioned car. well, in case you were
wondering, india is HOT, so none of us were particularly excited
about spending three hours on a hot and crowded train car. and when
the train arrived, the heat seemed to take a back seat to other
details that were now clear about our mode of transportation.

the train car was extremely beat up and rusty, far from what any of
us would have expected by the phrase "second class." it was a
sleeper car, so the seats were bench seats that sat three people, and
the bench was actually the bottom bunk of the three beds on that
wall. the seats were dirty, and the car was infested with mosquitos
and roaches. in addition to ourselves and the other passengers,
beggars wandered up and down the aisles throughout the entire
voyage. i'm not sure that any of us had ever ridden in such
accommodations. the closest i've ever come is a bus from atlantic
city to new york, which, before this, would have probably come to
mind when second class was mentioned. while i wouldn't necessarily
jump to ride on that train again, i surprisingly was pretty fine with
it except for the heat. i just curled up on my "bed" and slept.
some of the students had a harder time than that though, especially
when they went to use the bathroom and realized they had to pee in a
hole right on to the tracks. i didn't have to use the bathroom
(fortunately...briana and public bathrooms are never friends), but
peeing in a hole in the ground reminded me of my first trip to
europe. our first day in italy, we stopped in verona for an
afternoon, and when we finally found a public restroom, we discovered
that it was nothing more than a hole in the ground. so it was kind
of fun to watch the reactions of the students who had clearly never
encountered this before and remember having that same reaction ten
years ago.

much more eye opening than any mode of transportation were all of the
other details surrounding us as we travelled. while taking the
train, we passed endless heaps of trash woven between the places that
people live their everyday lives, like their homes and shops and
fields. a student told me she couldn't understand why there was so
much garbage everywhere. she wondered if the indians just didn't
care as much about keeping things clean. i offered her the idea that
the reason our trash wasn't thrown around everywhere is because we
have government programs that pick up our garbage and take it away.

more disturbing that the endless amounts of trash was the endless
amounts of people that i saw urinating and defecating on the side of
the road. the first time i witnessed this, i thought maybe i was
seeing an isolated incident. but after the sixth or seventh person,
i was really taken aback at how common and accepted this was. how
much do i take for granted the fact that seeing someone pee or poo in
public is something that rarely happens (unless you're camping, but
how frequently do i camp?) i've spent enough time in american and
european cities that i've seen the occasional urinator or walked down
a side street that overwhelmingly smelled like urine, but this was
very different.

but the most disturbing and eye opening thing that i saw while in
agra were two dead bodies. these were two separate occasions. the
first was when we were walking down the street that leads to the taj
mahal. there were people everywhere...mainly beggars and vendors.
but as we were walking, there was a group of three people sitting on
the side of the road, and in front of them was a dead body laying on
a "gurney," covered partially with a sheet. i almost couldn't
believe what i was seeing, and fortunately or unfortunately, i didn't
have time to really process it because one of my students stopped to
take a picture. i had to grab her and move her along and try to get
her to understand why that wasn't necessarily the best choice she
could have made. the second body was later in the trip, also on the
side of the road. i don't even know if i've formed the words yet as
to how it felt to see that. again, it's clearly something that i
take for granted that i can go throughout the day without seeing any
bodies laying around town.

i'm realizing now that i really wanted to offer more of my personal
reflections about what i was seeing, but really all i've done is
retold my story. throughout all of this, i can't say that i was
really feeling anything about what i was seeing. i think i was just
seeing and was void of any emotion about it all.

the other aspect of the trip that was difficult were all of the
beggars we encountered. i've encountered this type of solicitation
in europe and in brazil, but there seemed to be a lot more of it
here. the people were very persistent, which really challenged most
of the students because they weren't able to just say no and walk
away. it became even more difficult when the beggars also had
visible physical deformities, such as elephantitis. the amount of
haggling and begging was so much that everyone was very overwhelmed
and frustrated each time we got back on the bus.

as i was traveling through india, i kept thinking back to my tour
guide in venezuela and what he said when a student (who also happened
to be on my india trip) made a comment about how poor the people of
coche island were. his response to her was, "these people aren't
poor, they just live simple lives." it made me really think about
what standards of life we assign to the way others live. a lot of
the students made comments about how being in india made them realize
how much less they need to live and how much unnecessary crap they
have. what i found ironic though was that once the bus came back to
the hotel, everyone immediately swarmed toward the shops to spend money.

on our first day back on the ship, the professor who teaches global
studies offered some of his own reflections from his time in india,
and he said, "i am left wondering whether i actually sympathize with
these people or if i just want to sympathize with them." i had to
wonder the same question for myself.

i now know what it means...

...to be culture shocked. among many other things, my visit to india has taught me that.

india has probably been the country that i've had the most apprehension about visiting. everything that i knew about india and everything that others on the voyage told me about india led me to believe that it was going to be the most unlike any other place i've visited or known. it turned out that i was right, but i was impacted by india more than i ever imagined.

we arrived to india on the morning of wednesday, october 19. the immigration process was a bit more complicated for india, so all of the RDs had to assist with distributing passports, landing cards and customs forms. so by the time we were finished with that and the ship was cleared for disembarkation, it was around 12 noon. karen, megan and i made a plan to head out into chennai to have some lunch, get a feel for the city and do some shopping. so we covered our bodies in bug spray, exchanged our dollars into rupees and headed for the gangway.

a very common way to travel through the cities and large towns of india is by rickshaw. a rickshaw is a three wheel vehicle that is either similar to a bicycle or a motor scooter, depending on whether or not it is motorized. motorized rickshaws are extremely common in india and are a popular way to travel, even more so than taxis. there are no meters and no set prices, so it is important to bargain and agree upon a fare before you accept a ride. wanting to get the full experience, we accepted the offer of a $3 fare and the three of us piled into the back seat of a rickshaw and we were off. and boy, what a ride it was.

we were warned that driving rules are really more of a suggestion in chennai than a rule, but it really isn't possible to be prepared for this until you experience it. our rickshaw driver took off away from the port, and we immediately knew this was going to be our first cultural experience of the day. things we learned: lanes don't exist. cars, rickshaws, bicyclists and pedestrians all wander through the streets at top speed, swerving in and out of each other, honking their horns (all of which sound more like a bicycle horn than anything else) and zooming through intersections. there are very few traffic lights in the city, so the only way you know that it's your turn to go through the intersection is when you realize that the sound of your horn has stopped all of the other traffic. at times, the other cars and rickshaws and bicyclists are so close to you, that you could easily reach out and touch the people or kick the cars. rickshaws only have enough seats for two passengers, but the drivers are more than happy to carry as many people as you're willing to cram in and pay for, so while i'm experiencing this new driving situation, i was also sitting on megan's lap.

the other thing that makes driving through the streets of india challenging is that in addition to all of the people in the streets, there are a myriad of animals wandering. now the stray dogs and goats aren't as much of a hassle because drivers seem more than willing to just run them over if need be, but the sacred cows cause much more of a traffic jam. you see, cows are considered holy and wander freely through cities and towns, much like squirrels or cats. so if a cow is in the street, cars stop or at least slow down to avoid it.

now, i will admit, that as a tourist, getting to where you want to go in chennai is much more difficult than you would think, but this actually has nothing to do with the traffic. whether you want to or not, the drivers take you to shops where they receive a commission from the shop owners. at the first shop, we decided we'd appease him and get out and look around. inside, there were already at least 50 semester at sea students. so, we spent approximately two minutes inside and then walked out and told him we were ready to go. we thought that by at least looking around, we could get to our desired destination faster. well, we were wrong. soon after this first stop, we stopped at another shop. this time, we didn't get out of the rickshaw. our driver kept urging us to look around and telling us what good quality products were inside. we kept assuring him that we believed the products were good, but we weren't interested because we wanted to go somewhere else. after a couple of minutes of disagreeing, he gave up, got back in and drove off. ahhh, on our way at last. oh, no. just kidding. one more shop! again, we refused to get out of the vehicle, and he tried his hardest to get us to look around. he again gave in and finally took us to our desired destination.

so, where were we trying to go? we were headed for an area of town called mylapore, where the interport students had suggested we look for good fabrics, scarves, pashminas and more. megan was on a mission to find fabric because she had enlisted her mom to assist her in making pillow covers and curtains for her and michael's new home (michael and megan are two of the rds. they are married and are moving to phoenix when this voyage is over.) we were very glad to finally be where we wanted to be, and as we got out of the rickshaw, our driver assured us that he would wait for us. we told him that he needn't wait because we didn't know how long we'd be, and he said he'd wait for three hours. it was our turn to give in to his persistence, so inside the store we went knowing that our devoted driver was waiting.

this was definitely a successful shopping trip. silk and cashmere are extremely common in india, so it was crazy to see such high quality items at such inexpensive prices. it's such a red flag as to how the US hikes up prices on...well, probably everything. we were definitely in the shop for a long time and only really left because we were extremely hungry.

we also had a recommendation for a place to eat, so that's where we headed. i'm not the hugest fan of indian food, and i'm even less of a fan of traveler's diarrhea, fondly referred to as "delhi belly," so i was pretty apprehensive about dining in india. this meal was quite the experience, and not so much because of the food (i had vegetable noodles and vegetable nan), but more so because of the cultural factors.

the first challenge was avoiding eating with my left hand. actually, this had been a challenge throughout the whole day. in india, it is offensive to hand things to people, accept things, eat with or generally use your left hand because this is the hand that is used to wipe yourself after pooing. this is something that i've always heard of before, but i always assumed that that meant that's the hand that was used to grab and use the toilet paper with. apparently, i was wrong. what i've now learned is that toilet paper is not used, so it is literally your left hand that is used to wipe yourself. so, all of you who know me well know that i struggle with germ issues anyway (i see aj and kate rolling their eyes and laughing at me right now while thinking about my obsessive post-bathroom hand washing), so the thought of the actual hand being used in this manner was a difficult one for me to not focus on. of course, as a lefty, it is very difficult for me not to use my left hand to do things. it's my natural tendency. so, sitting in this restaurant, i was trying desperately not to use my left hand and also trying desperately not to think about why.

also, we learned that it is distasteful to put your mouth up to any drinking vessel, whether it be a cup or a bottle. so i bet it was an amusing sight to see karen, megan and i attempting to drink our water without putting our lips to our cups. megan and i seemed to have a better grasp on it, and karen decided she was giving up and just drinking from the cup. that is, until she witnessed a waiter take four cups from one table who had just finished and left, turn around and put those same cups on a new table with new customers. megan and i didn't see this, but karen all of the sudden said, "do you guys think they wash the silverware?" (she was asking about the silverware because most indians eat with their hands, so we were really the only people in the place using silverware.) i didn't know why she was asking, but i told her it was best if she just didn't think about it. she seemed to be in a bit of shock, so we asked her what was wrong and learned about what she saw with the cups. when we were finished with our meal (which, in total, cost $4.50 for all three of us), we followed the crowd to the back of the restaurant to the hand washing line, and then left (where our rickshaw driver was loyally waiting for us). our way of life is so different in western culture, particularly north american culture, so this meal was definitely a good challenge for us.

after lunch, we had another exciting rickshaw ride to more shops. we saw lots of good fabrics and lots of traditional indian clothing. i even bought some pretty green fabric that my mother has graciously agreed to make a duvet cover out of for me. in addition to experience the crazy driving on the streets of chennai, our rides around the city also gave us a general orientation to the city.

in terms of buildings and infrastructure, chennai is not a very tall city. most of the buildings were no larger than two or three stories. most of the shops were either on the ground floor of these buildings or in small little, for lack of a better description, open-faced shacks, kind of like a market. the streets were full of a lot of trash and the smell of urine was semi-common. though it had some similarities, it had a different feel from the run down areas of cities in the US or london that i've seen.

we returned back to the ship fairly early, since all three of us were leading trips that left for the north at 4:45am the next day. we wanted to make sure we were packed early enough to get some sleep.

i fell asleep thinking about my own issues with germs and dirt, and how that related to the poverty i witnessed and my comfort level with class issues. i was curious as to how the rest of my time in india would be.

olympic fun

so, it's been brought to my attention that it's been a while since i
posted. that's definitely true. i was sick and the last crossing
was pretty busy with work and the olympics. what i thought was a
cold turned out to be a sinus infection, which explains why it lasted
so long. but since this crossing is only one day, i'm committed to
getting a couple of blogs up.

the blog below is what i wrote during the last crossing. i think
originally i was going to have more to say, but now that it is sunday
afternoon, and i have just spent four days in india, i have so much
to process and so much to say that it seems silly to go back and
figure out what things i was babbling about last week. so, i'm just
posting this now, prefacing it so you know when i wrote it.

enjoy:

what a crossing! the past six days, since we left mauritius, have
been so busy! i can't believe that in two days i'll be in india.

the major theme for me over this crossing has been my head cold. do
you remember sitting in your pediatrician's office and looking at the
poster of the kids who were sick? their eyes were glassed over and
they were all breathing from their mouths. one kid was wiping his
nose with the palm of his hand, forcing this nose into the piggy
position. well, that's pretty much how i've felt. my head has been
so congested that every time i hear myself speak, it sounds like i'm
talking inside of a bubble. and i know that a typical head cold
lasts about two weeks, but good grief! two weeks seems FOREVER when
you are on a ship. i definitely have spent a good amount of my time
at sea between mauritius and india blowing my nose and sleeping.

the major theme for the rest of the ship during this crossing has
been the olympics. one of the biggest traditions of each voyage is
the sea olympics. all eight student seas, plus one additional sea
made up of the faculty/staff (sans the rds)/children/family, compete
in a variety of events throughout one day. a lot of the seas were so
into it that you could hear them practicing their chants all hours of
the day.

so, why is it that i always have the staff or group of students who
are impossible to rally around events like this? i'm always working
with the group who isn't interested in practicing or planning or
chanting or any of that madness that's involved with competing. i'm
such a believer in the trickle down theory that it makes me wonder
what message i'm sending out to my groups. i mean, clearly, i'm
always working with the coolest and best looking group of students (i
can hear molls right now agreeing with me, saying "clearly!"), but
never is it combined with the group of students who NEED to be number
one! don't get me wrong...i'm not complaining. it's just always
stressful for me to get the group to at least have some interest in
the events. once they do, everyone has a good time, but it's just
getting the group there that takes all of my energy.

so these olympics were no different than that. the baltic sea, who
deemed themselves the baltic sea ballers, were definitely a rough
group to rally, particularly because i wanted it to come from them,
so i left it up to the olympic committee, who were just frustrated
with the apathy. well, the long story short is that thanks to some
last minute excitement and the enthusiasm of a smaller group within
the larger group (i have 75 residents), it all came together, and
everyone seemed to have a good time. there was even some good
yelling, screaming and chanting for the ballers (who, by the way, had
been assigned the color blue for the olympics, so, yes, we were the
blue ballers. and at one point, they even began chanting "blue
balls" to show their spirit. oh, i was so proud!)

overall, we came in fifth, which was extremely exciting, especially
given the group storming that went on before the games. we also had
a few moments of "being ripped off," particularly during the
scavenger hunt and monopoly, but it was all fun and games, so it was
fairly easy to let it roll off our backs (well, in all fairness, the
scavenger hunt team was pretty mad, i'm just hoping that their
bitterness has passed by now.) some of the highlights of the
olympics for the ballers were coming in first place in musical chairs
and the mash potato sculpture contest. we also came in third place
for the synchronized swimming competition (which was definitely
funny). it was a great day, and i had a lot of fun spending it with
my sea. because of their classes and my work, we don't get a lot of
time to just spent with students, so i really enjoyed it. but, i was
definitely EXHAUSTED at the end of the day, especially since i was
still fighting my cold.

a beautiful escape

i've often thought about writing a blog entry about all of the ways
my life isn't amazing right now, just to provide some perspective on
my experience and some perspective on the fact that nothing is
perfect and everything has its ups and downs. this is not saying
that i'm not having a good time, it's just that i get so many emails
about how everyone is jealous of my perfect trip, and i figured it
might be worth letting people in on some of the realities of my
position. of course, i haven't ever written this entry, so you don't
really know to what i'm referring, but trust me when i say that
mauritius provided a perfect escape from ship life and ship duties.

this was the first port that when i got off of the ship on the
morning of our arrival, i didn't come back until six minutes before i
was supposed to be there to assist with embarkation. we arrived in
mauritius on sunday, and the only plans i had was to spend time with
krista, karen and yas. (you've probably all figured out by now that
these are my girls...my traveling pals...my circle of friendship and
support on the ship). so our plan was to head out, find a place
hidden away and spend time in the sun, relaxing. and considering how
small the island is and considering that 700 american college
students were just set free, we accomplished our plan as much as we
could.

so, mauritius. what can i tell you about his place. the island is
smaller than the big island of hawaii. the people and culture are a
mixture of french, indian and african. there are two official
languages: french and english; but creole is also widely spoken.
there are two inactive volcanoes on the island; in fact, the whole
island is part of a chain of volcanoes that are now underwater.

on our first day in mauritius, we took a taxi to tamarin, which is a
little surf town on the west side of the island. krista, who is an
avid surfer, was eager to see this town. our original intention was
to have some lunch, walk around and then head elsewhere. well, due
to some challenges in conversation with our taxi driver, none of that
happened. we were dropped off in front of the tamarin hotel. our
taxi driver didn't understand us when we tried to ask if there was a
town center where we could go and grab some lunch. so we decided to
wander in to the hotel and inquire within. turns out, the restaurant
attached to this establishment was serving lunch and the price was
extremely reasonable. in fact, all of the prices were reasonable.
we ended up getting two rooms, with breakfast and dinner included,
for $60 each. unbelievable! the hotel had a pool and was across the
street from the beach. so we had some lunch, changed in to our
bathing suits and started our lounging. the only thing that broke up
my time lounging by the pool was a short break to cross the street
and jump in to the indian ocean. it was really warm, and VERY salty.

before dinner, we lounged by the band and drank wine. the food was
great, and afterwards we headed back to listen to the band for a
while. both the restaurant and the band were all outside, because
that's the type of place that mauritius is. you can be outside all
of the time.

the next day, we sat so long at the table for breakfast talking that
before we knew it, it was time for lunch. as we were talking, dan
and jill, two other staff members from sas, walked in. dan, who is
also a big fan of surfing, was eager to check out the surf in
tamarin. after talking for a while, we all decided to head over to
the beach. krista and dan rented surf boards and spent the afternoon
with huge smiles on their faces as they enjoyed each other's and the
waves' company. even i took a turn on the surf board! but i didn't
even bother to try and pop up, figuring just starting by balancing my
body on the board and riding a couple of waves in was a good enough
first try. it was a great day, and after the surfing, we packed up
and hopped in a cab and headed to flic en flaq, another town slightly
further north on the west side of the island. dan and jill had
glimpsed at a hotel the day before that they had seen mentioned in
the lonely planet book, so we decided we'd check it out. what a find!

the klondike hotel is located at the end of a street, slightly
removed from the town. like the tamarin hotel, there is an outdoors
restaurant and live music. the pool at the klondike is an infinity
pool, which means it looks like it extends right into the
ocean...because, oh yeah, the hotel sits ON the beach. it's own
private beach. and with your stay, in addition to breakfast and
dinner, you also have free snorkeling, kayaking and a glass-bottom
boat ride. again, for about $60 each. crazy. we had such a nice
time. after dinner that night, we walked out on the jetty and sat
and talked for a while. and in the morning, we laid on the beach all
day, taking breaks to go to the swim up bar, go kayaking and take a
boat ride. we enjoyed our time so much that we only barely made it
back to the ship before we were supposed to.

the only downfall to my time in mauritius is that the cold i was
fighting during our last sailing only got worse. so now, i have a
full blown head cold and am a lot snottier than usual. but i had an
amazing time on a beautiful island that i fear i may never visit
again. but if any of you find yourselves in the neighborhood (you
know, on your frequent swims across the indian ocean), you should
definitely stop and enjoy some time in a mauritian hotel.

sailing to mauritius

mark twain once wrote about mauritius, "you get the feeling that god
created mauritius and then heaven, and that heaven was modeled after
mauritius." i don't know if that is true, but i will soon!

so far, this has been a very uneventful sailing. the mood on the
ship is much more calm. i think the students who were hell bent on
breaking rules are now aware that sas is not kidding when they say
you will be sent home if you violate policy frequently enough. i
think students are also bogged down with work. it's been a hard
transition for most of them to figure out their time management when
they have no weekends to catch up. and with the second global
studies exam taking place tomorrow (saturday, oct. 8), most are
scrambling to get their reading done and brush up on their notes.

as for me, i've been busy with student organizations. my collateral
assignment on the ship is to advise the programming board and work
with student organizations. this is much more challenging than it is
on a land-based campus because: 1. we have a lack of resources that
programming boards are used to having; 2. living with faculty means
adjusting to what faculty want as well. they're not used to seeing
students NOT studying, and they blame activities that take place
outside of class time. what they don't seem to realize is that
whether or not there are programs, students are going to study only
when they want to study. so, advising this group has been extremely
challenging. i feel like i spend most of my time telling them what
they can't do rather than helping them accomplish what they want to
do. over this sailing, i have had at least two student group
meetings a day, all of which has been draining as we've tried to
figure out how to make things happen on the ship.

over this sailing, i also hosted a baltic sea dinner (the baltic sea
is the name of my "floor"). a good number of students attended,
which made me happy. over the next sailing, we have the ship
olympics and our sea social in the faculty/staff lounge, so we are
having a meeting tonight to discuss these events.

so, really, this sailing can be classified as student meetings,
student meetings and more student meetings. we arrive in mauritius
in two days, and my hope is to find an isolated place on the beach
where i can sit for three days, read a book and go snorkeling. i'm
also hoping i feel better by then. people have been sick recently,
and i think it has finally caught up with me. though i've been run
down and experienced some form of sea sickness, i've been fortunate
enough not to have an illness. well, i'm not so lucky anymore. i
spent most of last night coughing, and today my voice sounds a bit
strained. so i'm hoping this will pass quickly, but even if it
doesn't, i just hope it doesn't get in the way of my relaxing on an
island in the middle of the indian ocean.

reaching the point

sunday. last day in cape town. i was woken around 8:30 by michael
pulju (fellow rd and programming buddy. his last name is pronounced
"pull you" the opposite of "push me"). it felt REALLY early after
having been out late the night before, but i was secretly glad to
make the most out of this last day. the plan was to do our own thing
in the morning and then to meet up at 1pm to take our hired driver
down to the cape of good hope.

i met up with karen, and she and i headed out to breakfast. at
breakfast, we ran in to lisa (the director of student life) and
melissa, and lisa had big news for us. as we were sitting there,
three students from the voyage were being told that due to their
violations of the code of student conduct, they were being dismissed
from the semester. all three students were students who had been
repeat offenders, so it wasn't really a surprise that they were being
sent home, but it was a surprise because it seemed to happen so
suddenly. i kept trying to put myself in their shoes, imagining what
it would feel like to be packing my bags and realizing that the ship
was going to sail without me. it was really something i could
fathom, and fortunately, i won't have to experience it either.

after breakfast, we wandered around the flea market that is set up
every sunday at the green point stadium (different than the green
market square). as you've probably figured out, walking through
street markets was a large part of my time in south africa. before
we were there too long, it was time to meet michael, michael and
megan (all rds) to go down to the cape point.

our driver's name was dan, and he is a taxi driver that michael p.
had met earlier in the week. michael had negotiated a good price for
the day, which is how we were able to afford to hire a driver for the
day. on our way down to the cape, we stopped at simon's town, which
is home to hundreds and hundreds of penguins. in addition to
spending some time with the penguins, we made a couple of stops along
the way to take pictures of the beautiful landscape and coastline.

when we reached the point, dan pointed out a white spot in the middle
of the oceans. this is the location of a reef that causes the waves
to break in the middle of the water, but dan also said that it is
considered the meeting point of the two oceans. karen, michael and i
walked out to the end of the point. cape point is popularly
perceived to be the meeting point of the two oceans, but in
geographical actuality, the meeting point is at a cape (whose name is
currently escaping me) slightly to the east of cape point. even
still, it was very cool to be standing on the edge of africa looking
out at a blend of the indian and atlantic oceans.

as we headed back to cape town, we took chapman's drive. this is a
coastal road that is so beautiful (rivaling the coastal highway in
california), and it is frequently used in car commercials. you know
those commercials that show their cars whipping around that curvy
road, with cliffs to one side and water to the other? well, that's
chapman drive. beautiful.

when back on the pier, we only had an hour and a half until we had to
be back on the ship to assist with embarking the students. karen,
michael and i had dinner at the mexican restaurant on the pier and
watched the students sitting outside drinking large bowls (literally)
of alcohol. among those students were the three who had been
dismissed. at that point, they were already officially off the
ship. we had been told earlier by the administration that the
students were in shock when they were told. none of them thought
they would ever actually be dismissed from the program. as they were
standing outside of the mexican restaurant, gulping down alcohol with
their former shipmates, they didn't look shocked. i think they were
all mustering up some bravado to save face in front of their peers.
between the loss of credits, the semester, money for the trip and
money for future trips for which they had signed up, these students
easily lost $20,000 due to their behavior. none of them chose to
call their families, and instead the executive dean had to do it.
their families were embarrassed and disappointed, and all three of
the students were terrified of facing their families upon their
return to the states.

once the rest of the student body was back on the ship, it was time
for us to depart south africa. it was sad to watch us pull away from
the dock, a berth that had been our home for seven days. just as
when we left brazil, everyone was raving about how much fun they had
and how much they loved cape town. it is definitely a place that
everyone wants to visit again.

cap 100: the winelands and beyond

it's safe to say that most of us staff members (if not all) are
pretty burned out on doing sas-sponsored trips because being
surrounded by the students all of the time can get a little taxing.
sometimes we just want to be out on our own with no responsibilities
to the students. this is what brought us to planning cap 100: the
winelands and beyond.

with the help of the local tourist desk, i gathered ten of my closest
friends and booked a trip to the winelands of south africa. south
africa is known for its wine, and within a two hour drive of cape
town, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of vineyards just
waiting to be visited. so friday morning, we met our tour guide,
deon, outside of the tourist agency on the wharf and took off for a
day of visiting six vineyards before being dropped off in the town of
stellenboesch for a relaxing night in a villa.

the we of this trip was me, yas, karen, melissa (three other rds),
jason (who works in the book store), chris (the shipboard
photographer), beth (the administrative assistant to the dean), amy
(who runs the computer lab), krista (who works in the field office),
and jason and byron (two of the global nomads). all sas-sponsored
trips have rules that must be gone over at the beginning of each
trip, so, as the unofficial trip leader for our little excursion, i
came up with a few rules of my own to go over with the group,
including "no talking about work. there must be something more
interesting about you than what you do on the ship" and "what happens
in the winelands stays in the winelands." there was a lot of
laughing from the beginning of our trip, and we were all very excited
to be getting away from the ship and getting away from the students
for a little while. we almost felt guilty about how much fun we were
going to have.

the wine tasting was great. some of the vineyards we visited were
constantia, clos malverne, zevewacht and sylvanvale. i haven't done
an official wine tasting since liz, kevin, jen and i drop up the
coast of california and stopped at the bonnie doone vineyard near
santa clara. i learned a good amount about wine and wine making
during these tastings. it really is amazing what a science it is.
(i was proud of myself because the following evening, when we were
back in cape town and all went out to celebrate krista's and lisa's
birthdays, i tasted a wine and knew that it was a shiraz because of
its peppery taste!)

not only was the wine tasting good, but the area is gorgeous. there
are rolling hills covered in grape vines, with beautiful mountains in
the background. it just added to my belief that south africa must be
one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

that evening, we stayed in the caledon villa, a small bed and
breakfast owned by a german man named johan. it was such a quaint
place. there are two houses with a joint backyard with a pool. all
of our rooms were in the second house. it was great because not only
were we near each other, we also had a living room in which we could
hang out and talk in the evening, which is exactly what we did after
returning home from dinner.

in the morning, when melissa, karen and i (who were sharing a two
bedroom little suite) arrived at breakfast, johan and his staff had
set up a separate dining room for our group. the table was
completely made with a true continental breakfast spread, and they
were also taking our orders for eggs with fresh vegetables. it was
so yummy. after breakfast, everyone wandered in to town to explore
the street market and the shops. we knew our van was picking us up
at 1:30pm at the villa, so we didn't have to worry about sticking in
a large group. it was so nice to just meander through the streets of
stellenboesch with no agenda.

after returning back to cape town, i continued to wander aimlessly
and take some time to myself. i took a walk through the wharf,
glancing in shops and enjoying not having to keep up a conversation.
i returned back to the ship with just enough time to get ready for
the birthday dinner out. that day (oct. 1) was both krista's and
lisa's birthdays, and a group of almost 20 of us went to a
traditional african restaurant that was recommended to us. i had
grilled calamari (surprise, surprise) and pap, which is a traditional
african food that is similar to mashed potatoes, except instead of
being made from potatoes, it is made from maize. after dinner, a
smaller group of us stayed out and went to a pub on long street,
which is the "happening" area of cape town. it was a good time and
a nice way to spend our final night in south africa.