Yay! A Post, Finally!

February 5, 2008: Day 14

Buom gia!

First of all, today is the three year anniversary of Nicole's accident... but on a lighter note, today has thus far been soooo awesome, and it's not even close to being over. I went with Caitlin and some chick Caitlin knew, of whom I was not particularly fond. Oh well. Anyway, we latched onto this guy in my drawing class and his friend Dave, who ate breakfast with us earlier. As it turns out, we totally didn't need guys during the day—certainly it is vital to have one around at night, especially at night during Carnaval, but anyway... we went into to town to Comercio, where we were docked. As we walked to get to the street, we heard these intense drums, probably something like 15 of them, beating this awesome African rhythm, which got louder and louder and still more loud as we walked closer... it was so exciting!!! Plus, they were doing it right in front of a huge cruise ship, so that made it even louder. When we got really close that it was as loud as it could be, I must admit that tears sprang to my eyes. I thought, "I'm in Brazil! This is unbelievable!!!" I felt an intense connection with the country, at least in that moment, through the music. It was such a neat thing to experience. We got to the main part of town and went to the Mercado Modelo and bought some artwork and I got a linen dress for a special amiga of mine. It was so fun trying to communicate to people almost all on my own and negotiate prices and whatnot. I'm in a foreign country but it doesn't feel hostile or anything in the least. I had read in the book Mom got me, "Behave Yourself," which tells you the etiquette and whatnot of many countries around the world, that you should not speak in Spanish in Brazil unless you want to offend someone. Our interport lecturer, Javier, told me that that wouldn't be a problem at all, so I did it. It was interesting to see all the people walking around, many of the children dressed up in bright little costumes, and many Brazilian women wearing sports bras, basically, for tops. I love that there is such a high percentage of dark-skinned people in Salvador—it adds a nice variety and I think it's beautiful. Some things I've noticed about Brazilians: they stare... wearing a bra is not the highest on Brazilian women's lists... The men love women... Everybody—vendors, men, homeless people—want a piece of you, and will try if you stand still long enough... Don't sit outside to eat because beggars will come right up to you to ask for food... They can be quite friendly and are fun-loving, compassionate people as a general rule... Almost all taxi drivers drive as if they own the road and would make Mom's hair fall out—it's one intense ride.

Well, more later!

Michelle

February 9, 2008: Day 18

Ok. Carnaval... The biggest street party in the world, and I was a part of it on the last night—Fat Tuesday. Michael, the guy I was going to go with (girls should never go without a guy), was too tired to go, so I desperately wandered around looking for people to go with. I first wanted to go with Melissa, but it sounded like they wouldn't be coming back until the wee hours of the morning, which I couldn't do because I had to leave for the airport to go to the Amazon by 11 pm. So, I found Brady, and he let me go with his group of about 30 people. I might as well have not gone because our group was so huge that it was hardly enjoyable, for these reasons: I didn't know everyone quite as well, and I don't dance unless it's someone awesome like Jess who makes it tons of fun and gets me to dance, too. And I love dancing, I'm just really shy about it, especially with relative strangers. So, it was great watching the festivities, but I really wanted to join in. also, it was awful being in a huge group because at one point someone would go off to get a drink or go to the bathroom, and then come back, and then other people would leave again, and we had to stay where we were so they wouldn't get lost and therefore killed or what-have-you, so I was very annoyed at having to stand around in a crowd of nothing going on for 45 minutes... I've learned that it is absolutely best if I stay in much smaller groups when I travel, otherwise I get annoyed at all the different wants and needs of so many people and things don't get resolved for hours it seems... Anyway, I'm glad I got to see things going on, and to learn that at the time I went, it wasn't dangerous hardly at all (probably because it was so early on, and fewer people were drunk). SAS definitely scared us much more than they had to, but I think it's for a very good reason; I'm sure there were people who still treated it cavalierly even after all that talk about safety. So don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got to do it, but now I know that next time I go, I need to have my best friends there with me for a good time, and I want to go to Rio de Janeiro. I'm learning more about myself and this is a good thing. So after the very tame festivities, part of the group went back to the ship together because we were all leaving together for our flight to the Amazon. We jammed 5 people into a very small taxi and zoomed off into the night, Brazilian music blasting in the cool night's air... that was one crazy taxi ride—it was quite an adventure! Anyway, we got there safely (thank God) and checked in. Four connections and one or two stops later, we arrived in Manaus at 11 am. Luckily, our flights worked out just fine and nothing got delayed (told you, Mom! :-P), and we met Carlos, the company owner of Amazon Tours Brazil. Nice guy. He took us by air-conditioned motorcoach (that smelled like sewage... urgh) to our riverboat, which was more rustic than I think we all expected it to be. Plus, it was raining, so I could tell that everyone was like oh god, this is going to be miserable... We had a sandwich of cheese, too, and we were scared we were going to die of starvation, and the cashew juice (yes, from the nut) was, in all honesty, kind of disgusting. Nonetheless, we sailed off and got to see the Meeting of the Waters, where the Rio Negro (the one we stayed on the whole time) and the Rio Solimoes (sp?), which turns into the Amazon River. The former looked like a murky brown, and the latter looked like, as one girl said, coffee with lots of milk in it. The two rivers flow alongside each other for a long ways without mixing because of differences in density, velocity, and temperature, so there is a defined line between the two. It's really neat to see. Then, we went to a hang out place further down the river (yay... Aqueous Transmission!) and went off to fish for piranhas (pronounced peer-ahn-yas)... some people caught catfish, but only our guide caught a piranha. It looked mean. What you do is you hook meat to your... hook... lol and then you smack the top of the water with your pole to attract those mean lookin' little fishies... So, after that, we waited until dark to go caiman (small alligator type animals) hunting. What the guide does is he shines a very bright light into the shallows and banks of the river, and if he sees what basically looks like cat's eyes when light is shined into them, there's a caiman there, and he uses his mad reflexes to scoop the caiman out of the water. The caiman we got was so cute and little, and he/she just hung out in our hands. I was very excited to hold it, and got pictures of me "kissing" it. Fun times. We went back to the boat and got some dinner, and some people began racking up their alcohol bills. One guy, whose name I will not mention because I have plenty of bitter things to say about him, was one of those people and he harassed me the whole trip... he was so rude and I cannot stand him. I hope and pray that this trip will change him and he will become a much, much better person who is not quite so immature and disrespectful. Punch him in the face, world! Anyway, we woke up bright and early the next morning to go on a jungle hike, which basically was four hours of walking around amongst plants with really cool botanical properties... we didn't see any animals :-( but we did see a monkey and a parrot later... Anyway, we saw the giant lily pads, which was cool as well, and that night we had a barbeque with the other American group that was doing the same tour as us. They are Vietnamese-Americans from California and they were all about 25—very nice people, and fun to hang out with. The barbeque was unbelievably delicious... I got really excited, though, because one of the guys from the other tour is a wedding photographer and I did an informal interview with him to see what he thought of the industry, how much he charges, etc. He just started about 6 months ago, so he only charges $1,000 for labor, which is ridiculously cheap. Anyway, that was awesome. We also went swimming in the river, which was wonderfully refreshing (we were all quite disgusting from not having showered in over 24 hours in such a humid climate) and jumped off the back of the boat. It was tons of fun. The next day—the final day—was by far my most favorite. This was yesterday. We went to a village in the Amazon, and the children were bathing in the river when we arrived. They were so precious and I got tons of awesome photos of them. We "toured" their village and it was interesting to see how they lived—it felt authentic, but not, because they wore Havianas (relatively expensive flip-flops) but lived in huts for houses... After that, we went to another village and saw an authentic Native American dance performance: the Indians (as they prefer to be called) were painted up and the women only wore a grass skirt. The men wore what basically looked like speedos and were all decorated. The chief was wonderful to listen to—he switched to Portuguese from his native language and it was so nice to hear how beautiful the language is. These people seem so nice and it was such a wonderful experience to have. At the end of the performance, they invited some people to come up and join in, and I got chosen!!!! It was so meaningful to be a part of it—it made me want to come and live with them for about a month. The funny thing is that they live on the cliffs and they can see Manaus from where they live. Interesting, no? Anyway, the Amazon actually felt a whole lot like home: the humidity was there but it was also kind of cool, like Georgia in the fall... the bugs and frogs sounded similar to the ones I used to hear at night... the jungle was much lusher than the woods in my backyard, but felt very similar nonetheless. It was neat to feel a kind of connection with the place, and I look forward to coming back in a smaller group and with people I know and love. It was interesting how cool it was there, though—we were 3 degrees south of the Equator and yet I was freezing at night. This is because we were there during the rainy season, which is basically their winter. So while everyone in Salvador was sweating their butts off, we were chilled, and we were closer to the Equator than they were! Crazy, huh? Well, I think we're going to have a girls' night tonight, so I want to hurry up and post this before we leave for South Africa, yay!!!! Much love to you all,

Michelle

February 10, 2008: Day 19... On Our Way to South Africa!

Girls' night last night didn't really go down—everyone was tired and left early, but we did hang out and paint our toenails (I painted mine red and did a horrible job of it, lol)... Caitlin and Kelly from the Amazon trip came over. I went to bed after reading some Emerson until my eyes could stay open no longer, woke up today, had breakfast alone as usual (doesn't really bug me anymore because I'm so tired that I don't feel like talking anyway), and went to Global Studies alone, but found Alex and Michael and sat with them. The speakers ALWAYS talk way too fast and never write the names of the people they mention in their powerpoints, which is ridiculous, because not all of us are auditory learners. Next time I see Tatjana or Sir Rich (as he likes to be called), I shall let them know that I don't like it. We have our first test in two days... urgh. I constantly have things I need and want to do throughout the day—each day flies by and I don't even have time to do leisure reading or crosswords or whatever else I want to do that doesn't directly involve SAS stuff because I have so much academic junk to do. I have my first paper due in a week, and I have chosen Stonehenge as my subject—should be easy, but it's a paper nonetheless and that's more that I have to do on top of what I do already lol. I've adjusted to stress on board the ship, though, which is fantastic—thus far (I hope I'm not judging too soon), I have been juggling things quite satisfactorily. Teneya two doors down and in my a cappella group invited me to be her date for the Party Animals party on the 13^th, which is awesome—it's going to be fun! I'm going to be a butterfly, and hopefully Tricia will let me use her construction paper :-)... Today I took a nap and I feel so guilty sleeping (which is ridiculous... I shouldn't have to feel guilty about being tired) because I have so much homework and things to do. It's like sleep gets in the way of all the things I have to do. Half of the things I need to do are things like academics, and the other half is literally social stuff (like blogging or writing in my journal or meetings etc) or housekeeping things like sink laundry and figuring out payment and SAS-related stuff like arrival and departure cards, etc. They sure know how to keep us busy. Then, I went to my Transcendentalism class, which I really enjoy because all the things discussed I agree with and believe in, and it's always, always awesome to have a small class in which all we do is discuss! I just submitted some of my photos for the yearbook from Brazil, and I sincerely hope that during this voyage, they choose at least one photo of mine to be put into the yearbook. I went to dinner with Caitlin, and Caitlin told me that she's starting to feel nervous about shaving her head, and I can't blame her... But, she pointed out that it will be a good opportunity to accept herself as she is, and not just what she looks like, and that sounds like something I myself need to do—I think I still need more confidence because I am insecure sometimes about the way I look, and I think this would maybe change that. So, I'm back to thinking about shaving my head again. For those of you who don't know, Neptune Day is occurring on February 14^th this time around, and it happens when we cross the Equator for the first time: everyone gets dumped with fish guts, jumps into the pool, and, if they so desire, shave their heads. It's an initiation process from a pollywog (one who has never sailed over the Equator before) to a whatever you're called when you are a veteran. It's weird, I know, but google or wikipedia it and it will describe it in better detail and why it exists in the first place. We actually already crossed the Equator—I think they're doing it later to help us bear the awfulness of being at sea for 10 straight days. I went over to Michael and Alex's room next door because I heard Alex playing his new guitar and wanted to listen, and I drew in my travel journal (I have to have four drawings per week and it's hard to keep that up with that quota when I already have so many other things to do), which was enjoyable. They helped me figure out one of Ben's riddles, and the answer to "what is it that was given to you, belongs only to you, and yet your friends use it more than you do?" and it's your name! I'm god-awful at riddles because I always go to the most complicated solutions, rather than recognizing that it's just looking for a simple answer. I like pondering them nonetheless, however. We're losing yet another hour tonight and by the time we reach South Africa, we will have lost a total of 5 hours... ick. And Caitlin and I are going to get up for the sunrise when we arrive in port—even more ick! Caitlin and I figure that we can, for the sake of this trip, sleep when we're dead because sleeping gets in the way of seeing really cool stuff... I'm going to be mentally and physically and emotionally drained by the time I get home. Tricia's sister only wanted to sleep by the end of it, and I imagine that I will want to do the same for a few days as well... I have a cappella tomorrow, so that should be fun. It's weird that Max will be leaving in Cape Town—so soon already! It will be even weirder to have a different academic dean... As it turns out, it's relatively costly to send postcards and I spent about $19 this time on 9 postcards plus a package :-(... And I want to send a bazillion every port! Sadness. Oh—one especially important downside to shaving my head would be that I might have trouble getting a job when I get back, because there are people who would judge that negatively, especially in the service business, which is what I want to do—be a server. This makes me very sad and I absolutely MUST have a good paying job when I get back to get myself out of debt, so it's a bit of a risk, so I am very unsure about what I should do about it. I also just want to see if my hair will grow back differently. Oh, as far as friends go and how I feel about being here on this ship—things are getting better, slowly but surely. I hang out mostly with Caitlin, who is really nice and quite fun, and a handful of other people as well, which makes being away from home bearable. I think I'm going to sell my Cape Winelands SAS trip and do it indy with Caitlin, which would be tons of fun. Apparently she's in my safari, which is awesome! Brittany's 21^st birthday is also in South Africa, and she wants to find a jazz club, which would be beyond amazing, so I'm going to go with her to celebrate! :-D I still miss home and you guys will always be #1 in my book, but at least I'm not getting anxiety anymore and I've finally adjusted to my surroundings enough to feel decently comfortable here. Whew! It's a good feeling. Anyway, something I liked about the Amazon trip was that I could separate from the group (wasn't much a part of it, anyway—most people weren't much like me) and do things alongside people but not actually with them (as in, I didn't really have friends on this trip, so I just kind of tagged along), doing my own thing but not feeling left out. It was great to not feel like I HAD to be with a friend constantly because I just floated throughout the group, I guess you could say, because I almost always feel like I need to have someone with me as a friend when I do things, otherwise I feel really self-conscious and upset and I feel like I look like a loner :-( but not this time. But, I feel like these experiences I've been having—all of them—would be much more meaningful to me if I had someone who really meant something to me (a friend, family member, my boyfriend Alex), which is why I feel kind of bad about not being happy about Carnaval because I lacked my friends. I'm just not the type of person who can be satisfied with just seeing something—I have to be able to share it with someone, otherwise its value is not as great as it could be. Perhaps that is not a good trait, but I don't care—it's me and that's too bad if someone thinks that's stupid of me not to be able to enjoy something to its full extent without friends. I know I will want to come back to these places to have an even better experience with the people I love—be prepared for that, oh friends of mine! :-P I hope you guys have money so we can go travel together because I'm going to want to do it constantly. I'm already dreaming of going to Morocco, Egypt, Greece, Spain... haha. I have debt I need to get rid of, but why not enjoy what money I have left over before doing that? You only live once, I firmly believe. Ok, I'm super tired... off to bed for me! I love you all mucho... please send me letters!!! Go here for instructions on how to do so: www.semesteratsea.org/stayintouch .... I would love you guys forever if you did it. Please, please do it—it makes me feel loved, which I need! All the best,

Michelle <3

February 11, 2008: Day 20

So, I'm sitting here, avoiding properly studying for the Global Studies test tomorrow—I read through the notes, but not quite thoroughly... luckily, I can study last minute and I usually do quite well, so I'll probably just study at breakfast tomorrow. I just can't get motivated to study, and I've been giving myself breaks and whatnot. It's funny that I work like this and yet every semester I make the Dean's List at the least every semester. Anyway, today was just another day... went to breakfast and Global Studies: they showed us a video of the bushmen doing their healing ritual and it was actually kind of scary/creepy to watch... Caitlin and I were mildly disturbed by it. We also learned part of the South African nation anthem, which is in four different languages, and the first part that we learned today is really beautiful. I can't wait to hear the rest of it. After Global Studies, I took a short nap that wasn't as restful as I would have liked it to be... Then, I took care of some drawings and necessities, as usual, and went to lunch last-minute (again, as usual, lol) before my drawing class. Today's class was the most fun we've had yet and what we did is we would draw a shape but not by drawing the outline of it: we'd start off with a dot in the middle of the paper and, using charcoal, we'd draw it as we went, from the inside out. Then, we drew with a heavy pencil the outline of the shape (first, a shoe... I'm so sick of drawing shoes... then, a figurine) and we took our hands and wiped off the charcoal and we could see the shape. It was wonderfully messy (if you've ever worked with charcoal you can imagine how black our hands were), and I gave myself some war paint on my face with it. I really wanted to make like the matchmaker in Mulan and give myself a beard, haha, but I refrained, sadly... Then, I did more homework and took care of ship business, and printed out some articles on Stonehenge for my paper, which is due in less than a week and I haven't started on it yet :-(... Then, I went to dinner with Brittany, her roommate Maggie, and Caitlin, and showed them my Amazon pictures. I also had three pieces of chocolate cake (that had orange filling! Yum!), haha... So healthy. I also hung out shortly with Teneya on the 7^th deck in the sunshine, and we put our feet in the pool, which felt good. Caitlin and I think everyone will think we're lesbians if we both shave our heads because we hang out so much... It's annoying that people change their conception of you if you do something like that—Caitlin's come across a lot of jerk guys who haven't been nice to her when they hear her say she's going to do it... so lame. We're all about looks in this society. Anyway, I'm really excited about Valentine's Day because a. it's Valentine's Day :-D b. it's also Neptune Day=no classes c. Teneya is having a Single's Awareness "meeting" in her room, and she's getting cake and cookies from the dining hall and we're going to watch movies and play Truth or Dare. I'm obviously not single, but I'm going because it's going to be all girls anyway, and it will be lots of fun. I've been dying to play Truth or Dare, and Teneya and I have been meaning to do it for a while. I also really, really want to play Hide-And-Seek... I haven't played that in FOREVER and this ship is 100% perfect for that kind of thing!!! I really want to do it. Also, Teneya, Caitlin, and I are going to do the 3 on 3 tournament for soccer and we're all going to be on a team together! How fun! The ship moves so much, though, that half the time the soccer ball would move of its own accord, haha, so I have no idea how effective it would be. But, it would be fun nonetheless. Tomorrow the Adriatic Sea has an ice cream social, so that will be lots of fun (and who doesn't like ice cream?! Yummy!!!). The party animals party/dance thing is coming up, and I've already made my antennae for my butterfly outfit—they're so pretty! Joseph, my cabin steward, is going to get me some cardboard for my wings, too, which is awesome!!! :-D It's going to be so much fun! I love college, minus the tests and studying (I love the learning part, though!). I've decided that I'm just going to see what a girl's shaved head looks like before I do it myself, because I want to do it but not... oh well. Anyway, that's all for now! Much love to you all!!!

Michelle <3

February 12, 2008: Day 21

The Global Studies test went quite well—I studied enough to have gotten an A for sure. I noticed that I'm getting some bacne! Not good! But, it's probably due to the fact that I ate 3—yes, 3—pieces of chocolate cake last night. Dang it. I won't do that anymore. I was just so hungry! Anyway, I had so much fun last night—Caitlin, Teneya, and I came up with a team name for soccer, but I will not tell you what it is, exactly, because to me it is a naughty name and I don't want it as our name at all (it makes for awkward conversation), but I am overruled. I will tell you the events leading up to it, though, and I'll let you figure it out on your own. Caitlin tried to think of a marine animal, so Teneya was like, "A platypus!," and I was like, "Platypi!" for plural platypusses... and then, Caitlin said our name... *sigh* I laughed until I cried and my face turned sooo red—I haven't laughed like that in a long time, but I didn't want it as our name! We went up for a snack, and whenever I laugh like that it usually releases some serious feel-good hormones and I'm so happy that I'm basically high on life and everyone probably thought I had some alcohol in me, but I didn't... I had such a good time just sitting with them and Michael and Ben and some other people I didn't know. It was great! We're going to play Hide-and-Seek tomorrow after the dance, and I'm super excited about that—it was my idea. Sweetness. Transcendentalism was today... I love learning about that stuff—Alex, you should totally look into it. It's so interesting, and has a wonderful spiritual aspect about it that might interest you. I wish I could explain how it works to you all, but it's so complex that the only way to discuss it is if you've read the materials... But, should you all choose to read it, read his essay the Oversoul or Nature, and I must warn that it's as hard as reading Shakespeare, so be sure there are no distractions whatsoever when reading it—the crazy thing is that he uses modern language and it's just as hard as Shakes. I'm listening to L-O-V-E by Nat King Cole, and I just listened to "Let There Be Love," and I would absolutely LOVE to waltz/ballroom dance with Alex right now to Nat King Cole... that would be so sweet :-) Well, I have a quiz I haven't studied for in 10 minutes—it's a good thing I can easily absorb information last-minute! Love to you all,

Michelle :-D