Singapore

Singapore is a very cool city. It is the most high tech city I've ever
see. It was like stepping into the future. The architecture and even
technology was higher tech than anything in the states. Singapore is
also the cleanest city I've ever seen and probably the cleanest in the
world. It also has intense rules! You can't chew gum, litter or pick
flowers. If so, you will pay a $1000 fine! How crazy! And if you break
some laws you will be caned! Like hit with a stick! There is a death
penalty for having drugs. So yeah, Singapore is just a little intense!
Going from India and Singapore was very interesting. They were
completely opposite from one another! India was the dirtiest place
I've ever been and Singapore was the absolute cleanest. I didn't see
any signs of poverty. I was stared at by everyone in India, but in
Singapore I felt like I belonged. I didn't get any weird looks.
Everyone dressed like me. The population was all Asian, but I felt
like I fit in. We only had a day there, but we managed to do a lot in
that day.

I traveled with Andrea, Katie and Rose-Marie. We spent the first few
hours in the subway station (which was huge and was like a mall),
because we first headed to the hotel that has the infinity pool on the
47th floor, but didn't make it because we saw friends who said they
weren't letting tourists up. We headed back to where we started and
took a long time to figure out where we should go. We finally decided
on Chinatown. We didn't spend much time there, but it happened to be
Katie and Rose Marie's Dad's birthday and it was Manda (a best friend
of mine's) birthday as well! So we all go to call them and wish them a
happy birthday! That was special! I found wifi in a McDonalds and
talked to some locals who told us where we should go in Singapore. We
then headed to Little India and found some cute jewelry for really
cheap. We walked around and chatted with some more locals and took
some pictures with them. Little India was very much like India only
cleaner, and less populated and more organized. Definitely India,
Singapore style. Next we headed to a different part of the city and
walked around for a while. Singapore had a ton of tropical plants in
the middle of the city! This made me love it because what I don't like
about cities is that there is no nature and natural beauty. There were
tons of exotic plants right in the middle of the city. There were
exotic flowers that I've only seen in Hawaii. And then huge
skyscrapers all around. It was pretty unbelievable! We ate at this
cute Asian foodcourt-type place. I had chicken and rice and the most
delicious freshly squeezed fruit juice! I had Green apple juice that
they made right then and there. It was so delicious I had to get
another-but this time tried Pineapple, which was amazing as well!
After we ate it started pouring so we took cover outside at a
sheltered café. We sat down with these sweet locals. 2 were ladies,
one of whom now works in Shanghai and the other was an adorable 60-
year old man named Lawrence. We had a blast talking with them for
about an hour and a half. It was loudly thundering all throughout!

We wanted to go the Singapore flyer all day. The Singapore flyer is
the world's tallest Ferris wheel that overlooks the whole, beautiful
city. We invited Lawrence to come with us and he agreed! He had been
in Singapore his whole life and had never gone on the Ferris wheel! We
had such a special time with him! He was one of the sweetest old-ish
man I'd ever met. He was 60 but he looked and acted at least 80. He
talked about his wife a lot. He was going to meet her after we left.
He didn't have any children and Andrea asked if he had ever regretted
that or was happy with that. He said he was happy with it and that he
married his wife to have a lifelong companion, and that is what he
had. It was so freaking cute! He showed us a picture of her in his
wallet too. He was such a happy man, and you could tell it made his
day going to the Ferris Wheel and spending time with us. He tried to
get us to the Ferris wheel but had a hard time navigating. We headed
through the most beautiful malls I've seen to get there. When we got
to the flyer the rain had cleared. The area before you got to the
actual Ferris Wheel was similar to Disney world, where there are all
these details and cool things to look at before you board a ride.
There were these awesome lights and effects. Singapore goes above and
beyond with everything. Very ritzy! When we got on the Ferris Wheel,
the sun was about to set. It was this beautiful dark orange (like
India) right above the city skyline. It was such a beautiful sight. 12
of us were in one of the "cars" of the Ferris wheel. It was a half
hour ride, and too short. As we headed down, the sun had set and the
city lights came on. It was the perfect time to ride the Ferris Wheel!
Lawrence rode on the subway back with us and "dropped us off" to the
stop where our ship was near. We exchanged info with him and told us
to visit! It was so great spending half the day with him!

The subway system runs through the whole city. It's wonderful how easy
it was to travel everywhere. One thing we didn't factor in was how
truly long it takes to get to the Singapore Flyer to the ship. We
ended up sprinting from the subway to the ship. A bunch of other SAS
kids were sprinting along with us. If you're even a minute late to the
ship you have 2 hours docktime in the next port, which means you have
to be on the ship 2 hours early the last day or 2 hours late the first
day. This isn't just getting to the ship by a certain time, its
turning your passport into the Pursers desk after getting your bags
checked, walking up the stairs to the gangway and going through
security. We got there 2 minutes early, but it took 7 minutes to go
through security. Since there were so many people in the same boat
this time, they didn't give us dock time, which was wonderful!

After Singapore I went to the observation deck on the 7th deck and
watched us leave the beautiful city of Singapore. It was cool that I
was up there because interport students from Vietnam and Cambodia
happened to come up there. I talked to a girl from Cambodia for a
while, who was very sweet.

God teaches me something in every port, and on the ship. Even in one
day I managed to learn something. There were times when one of the
girls traveling with us was kind of selfish, and things got
frustrating at times. We only had one day to pack everything in, and
the ferris wheel, which was the best part, isn't what one of the girls
wanted to do. My patience was tested throughout the day, but I learned
the importance of keeping my cool, going with the flow and trusting
that everything will work out. Also when you see someone being selfish
and complain, it makes you realize that you never want to be like that
and put others in the situation where they have to deal with your
grumpiness, when they're trying to enjoy their experiences in these
beautiful countries. We ended up going to the ferris wheel and
everyone loved it. Everything worked out, and I thoroughly enjoyed my
time in the wonderful city of Singapore, and even made a friend along
the way.

We get to Hong Kong in about 6 hours! Vietnam was amazing, but
unfortunately I don't have time to write about it before China. Things
are getting craaazy busy now! 7 days in China, 2 days of work and
classes on the ship and then 5 days in Japan! Can't believe we're
nearing the end! In China the plan is to go to Beijing after Hong Kong
and then Shanghai!

First pictures is Rose Marie, our new friend Lawrence, me, Katie and
Andrea on the Singapore Flyer. The 2nd picture is Singapore after the
flyer. The tall building is the famous Marina Bay Sands Resort and
thats the infinity pool on the top

Sea Olympics and Talent show (Shiplife between India and Singapore)

I'm on the ship headed to China currently. I just spent the week in
Vietnam and had an incredible time. I'll write about it soon
hopefully, but I first want to talk about the fun shiplife times I had
between India and Singapore, because they were some of my favorite
ship days.

So the first day back on the ship after India was the Sea Olympics.
The ship is divided into Seas (Caribbean Sea, Agean Sea, Baltic Sea,
Red Sea, Yellow Sea (thats me), etc) based on where you live on the
ship. In the Sea Olympics, each Sea competes for the prize of being
the first to get off the ship in San Diego. The events included potato
carving, water pass, dodgeball, volleyball, lip syncing, synchronized
swimming, and fashion show. It was a lot of fun. It was a little hard
having it the day after the tiring week in India, but we pulled
through, gave it our all and had a blast. I competed in Volleyball,
lip syncing and synchronized swimming. It was funny how that worked
because it was going to be all guys, but they needed one more person
and they were like, even a girl, and I volunteered. Turned out to be a
great decision. I had a blast! I relived my 8-year old days of
choreographing synchronize swimming routines with my best friends
Jessy and Jenny in their little pool. We did a routine to 1000 miles
("making my way down town, walking fast, faces pass and I'm home
bound")..a song from middle school that we all know. The story's kind
of a love song, so a guy in our sea, Joey and I acted out a love story
on land and in the water, while the other 4 guys lifted and threw me
in the water and did other synchronized movements. I had so much fun
coming up with the routine and of course really, really getting into
the acting (which was mostly intense facial expressions and big body
movements). We put it together within an hour and were super proud of
it. We went first and it was the best we had ever done it. We had only
run it through once in the pool before that! After our performance the
crowd cheered so loud! We all gave each other big high fives
immediately after because we knew it was the best we had done it!
Everyone throughout the whole day kept saying we had the best
performance and that we should definitely win. For some reason we
didn't even place (rumor is it was because we didn't have costumes).
Who knows, but everyone was outraged, and so many people I didn't even
know came up to me and were like "I'm so mad you didn't win. This is
ridiculous. You guys were definitely the best!!!" It was so funny.
People got so into it! Oh man, I had so much fun doing that routine.
It made me realize how much I love and miss acting. The last event of
the day was lip synching. We tried to make up a routine to a mash up
of songs, but no one was really into it and no one was a dancer who
could choreograph some wonderful routine. We came up with a pathetic
routine which included some zumba moves I added and then we decided to
add our swimming routine only on land, but this time have costumes and
had signs that said "Maybe this time..." It was a good thing we added
our great swimming routine, because almost every other sea had some
elaborately choreographed routine that was incredibly entertaining and
well rehearsed. Our sea got close to last place overall but thats
ok...we still had such a blast. Everyone got so into it. Each sea had
chants and we were all decked out in our sea colors. There was so much
spirit!! We had such a fun time all day..it was probably my favorite
day on the ship.

2 days later was the talent show. Bryana and I sang a duet from Rent
"Take me baby or leave me." I had so much fun preparing for it and
performing it. I got so into it-acting wise. It's a sassy song with a
lot of attitude, so it was so much fun getting all into it! We
performed it for friends a bunch of times ahead of time. The
performance went well-though I wish it could've been nerve-free!
There's so much talent on the ship!! The talent show went on for 3
hours! People were so sweet afterwards, complimenting me! I was on
such a high from so much performing from the past 2 days. It made me
realize that's really where my passion is I guess. Traveling the
world, and realizing how big you can dream and seeing all those
opportunities out there has made me really dream lately…I've been
revisiting pursuing acting and singing more lately. Maybe I'll
audition to be a performer on cruise ships or Disney or something.
People on the ship are so supportive of this idea. Who knows...we'll
see. God has something great in store for me I know. This experience
really blows your mind and changes you in so many ways. You have time
to think and reflect, and you have all of these realizations and new
views and ideas. It really is life changing. I just can't get over it.

Here's some pictures from the synchronize swimming and lip sync -
courtesy of our shipboard photographer. the 2nd pictures is a
different sea's routine, but I wanted to show the whole crowd, and the
last picture is the lip sync synchronize swimming routine on land:

More India Pics

Bathing in the Ganga

India Pictures

Indian ladies in their beautiful sarees who were excited to take
pictures with us in front of the Taj Mahal:

Part 2 of India

Day 4 of India

So after a long day of visiting buildings and constantly being on the move we got only a few hours of shut eye and met with our group by 5:30AM to head to the Delhi airport. We took a flight to Varanasi which only took a couple hours. When we reached Varanasi we headed to our hotel on a big bus that said TOURIST on the front in huge letters. All of the big busses had huge TOURIST signs on the front. It was pretty funny. We would joke and say "We're not from around here" sarcastically. My eyes were glued out the window as we headed down the streets of Varanasi. I was in awe. Everything about Varanasi was so…different. So indescribable, once again. Varanasi was so different from the rest of India I had seen before. There were cows in the road. Everywhere. Cows are holy in the Hindu religion so they just let them roam casually around. There was trash everywhere and the cows could be found digging through the trash. The streets were complete chaos. Everyone drove everywhere and there was constant beeping. Every vehicle or bike would come extremely close to one another. I'm so amazed I didn't see any accidents. There were many families sleeping in shacks or under tent-like homes. There were so many children, filthy and by themselves on the side of the road by their "shack." Everywhere we went there were beggars, and they were mostly children, or mothers holding a baby. Sometimes small children would hold a baby and beg for money. Their parents were nowhere to be found. There were children as little as about 3 years old begging for money by themselves. It was awful. It was most prevalent whenever we'd get on our tour bus. Many little children would tap me constantly.  It was so hard..you don't know what to do and you want so badly to help but you don't know how. Varanasi was so unreal. I'm thinking back now trying to figure out how to explain it and I just can't. It's like something I couldn't even have imagined, or even have seen in a movie before. I don't know what to compare it to. The streets were just completely packed with vehicles, people, vendors, trash, food, everything. There was trash on roofs. Everywhere. Speaking of packed, India has a HUGE population. The population of India is 1.2 billion! The size of the US is only 100 million and the country geographically is a lot smaller than US. India is the 2^nd most populous country in the world!

After we checked in to our hotel we headed to lunch at this cute outdoor restaurant that had just opened. It was in the middle of these tall buildings, in rough shape, which appeared to have really tiny apartments with poor living conditions. People watched us from up above as we ate. The 32 of us and our tour guide, Konar, were the only ones eating there. We had a delicious buffet. They toned down the spiciness of the food-I was a happy camper! Our guide, Konar, and another guide who joined us for Varanasi, sat down at the table with Andrea and I we got to chat with them and learn a lot about India from them. Konar was such an adorable guy. He was always so friendly and always had such a pleasant expression! Some of the things I learned was that Arranged marriage still happens a lot. Divorce is very, very rare, and it is difficult to get a divorce. This is the case even with arranged marriages! Women rarely work and are usually in the home. The women's family must pay the new husband when they marry. Women don't have much power at all. The only women we saw working were a few in the markets and ones who did henna. It only costs $800 a year to attend college (But that is a lot of money in India).

After a great lunch we headed to a silk shop. We saw workers making intricate silk designs. It was so fascinating learning how making pictures and designs out of silk works. It takes years to come up with a certain pattern, which is translated to a punch card type-thing and then that is passed down and used over and over. So elaborate and mind blowing! We then went to the saree shop upstairs and Katie, Andrea and I got to try on some beautiful sarees. One of the workers put a red dot on my forehead, so my Indian outfit was complete.

Then comes my favorite experience of India! We headed down towards the Ganges River at an incredibly populated and packed area! The tour bus could only take us part of the way. We got out of the bus and 2-by-2 climbed into rickshaws powered by a man riding a bicycle this time instead of a motor rickshaw. The rickshaws were like mini carriages and were painted and decorated. We then rode through the streets of Varanasi towards the Ganges. I will never forget this experience. There were 2 lanes, but no room for cars. There were rickshaws, bikers and pedestrians all sharing 1 road and weaving in and out with no order. There was constant beeping, and if you didn't watch out as a pedestrian you will get hit. Everything was so close and compact. So many people! There were still cows everywhere. There were also goats and monkeys everywhere! Running wild! The streets were lined with vendors, selling anything and everything you can imagine. The cool part was that nothing was touristy or catered to tourists. Everything was catered to locals, or anyone really, and we were just about the only foreigners to be seen. We got a lot of funny looks of course, but a lot of smiles. I felt more comfortable in India than Ghana and Brazil. I felt more welcomed and I didn't feel like it was dangerous to smile at a man in India, in contrast to Ghana and Brazil. The ride was probably 20-30 minutes if I had to guess. I was so overwhelmed in awe at how completely different everything was. Everything. I couldn't find one thing that reminded me of the US. A whole new world! It was so fascinating! When we got off the rickshaws we headed for the markets and shopped around for a couple hours. We went off the main path and went through these markets that seemed to go on forever and ever. Here it was still very packed and there were very few tourists. This was such an awesome experience because we were shopping alongside locals and shopping for the same things that locals shop for. Lots of times in these countries you feel like you're wasting precious time if you're shopping, but here, it was one of the greatest cultural experiences I had in India. Most women in India wear the traditional sarees. Andrea, Katie and I went to a few shops and looked over the colorful, bright fabrics for sarees. We asked local Indian women which ones they liked. We chatted with the shopkeepers. We did a whole lot of bargaining. Every single person overcharged us, so bargaining skills were key. My friend Ryan is a film major and is filming a movie. In each country he's getting someone to say a line from Dr. Seuss's "Oh the Places You'll Go." While in the market, with people scurrying by I said a couple lines from the story in front of the camera. Indian men thought it was for a legit movie. We bought some beautiful things in the market and made our way back to the group. We then headed to the Ganges river which was right next to it and watched the Aarti ceremony. Hundreds of people flocked to this ceremony, which occurs every evening. Hindus believe that one's entire existence and all of material creation are symbolically offered to the Lord during the Aarti ceremony. It is performed and sung to develop the highest love for God. This is performed on the Ganges river, called Ganga by Hindus, who believe that bathing in the river causes the remission of sins and stops the cycle of reincarnation. People travel far and wide to come to the river and place ashes of their family in the river. At the ceremony there were men who lifted up fire and played some sort of bells. There was chanting/singing in Hindu going on the whole time. There were so many people around, watching with all of their attention. There were tons of people in boats on the river watching the ceremony as well. It was surreal. During it, a girl about 5 years old starting tapping me, and persisted for a few minutes. I walked away when it was finished and she started to follow me. It was so sad. What to do? There has to be something..

After the ceremony we walked a ways to get to the rickshaws. Now I thought walking in Manhattan was bad. OH MY. This was crazyyy! We squeezed through the streets, crossing our fingers we wouldn't get separated from our group. Everything was so tight. SO MANY PEOPLE! What an experience. We got to the rickshaws and had a nice ride back to our bus. People were constantly trying to sell us things. You have to just look away and not even respond, not even say "no" most of the time. After coming back to our hotel, we headed to a nearby hotel that had a rooftop hookah bar. This was a nice way to end the night. I sat on the edge with Andrea and we took in the atmosphere and chatted before the place closed at a ripe hour of 11PM.

The next morning we were up by 4:30AM. This time it was because we were headed back to the Ganges again, but this time for sunrise! We walked down the same packed streets when it was dark, but this time they were completely deserted. What a difference! We took a boat and road along the Ganges while the sun rose. Unforgettable.  A lot of Indians come to the river by sunrise and bathe, wash their clothes, brush their teeth and meditate. It was such a beautiful sight, with the stairs leading down to the river, the beautiful Indian natives, going through their morning rituals, unique buildings, a crematory, the beautiful old boats floating along with us, and of course my favorite-the sunrise itself. Everytime the sun rose and set in India it was a dark orange that usually turned bright red! The sun rise was so spectacular! It was a beautiful red, and was unlike any sun I had ever seen before. Pictures definitely didn't capture it-I wish!

After the beautiful riverboat ride we walked back to our bus and headed back to the hotel for breakfast-where I had 5 cups of coffee! Yippee! Ali, Andrea and I decided to walk around by ourselves for a bit after breakfast. It was interesting exploring just by ourselves-without the large group. We passed by children on the street by themselves..at their "home." We didn't see too much so headed back. We then headed to a cricket field and played cricket with locals! This was a lot of fun. Some people rode on motorcycles around the field with locals. I watched the first game, and during it, something interesting happened to me..

There was this girl, Emily who I had bonded with just this day. Andrea and I discovered how great Ali and Emily were the last day, and wish we had discovered them earlier. Throughout the trip we would occasionally get annoyed by a large group of girls on the trip who had, well, different intentions than us. They were clique-y and closed off. They talked about shallow things, and were rude to us sometimes.

Here's an example of "rudeness": I was sitting behind some of these girls talking to Emily, who is also Christian. We were talking about how great Hillsong church in South Africa was and then I was telling her how I felt closer to God than ever before on this voyage, and that I was really seeing God everywhere. The girls in front of us could hear what we were saying, as they weren't talking, and one girl rudely, and in a very mean tone says "I don't!" And all of the girls burst out into laughter..for a while. Emily and I were very taken aback. I've never felt so free to be myself than on this voyage. Most people seem to be so open to everyone, and not judging..but apparently not everyone. I went on the cricket field shortly after this, and was feeling a little down about it, and I prayed that I wouldn't let it bother me and that I wouldn't like resent this girl who said that..and all of a sudden Addison Road's song, "Always love" popped into my head. A few minutes later I realized I hadn't thought about the incident, because that song was stuck in my head. I realized also that it really shouldn't have been the first time something like that happened. Talking openly, and proudly about God is what we should do, and getting attacks like this is expected and is what the bible says will happen.

Playing cricket was fun. A bunch of cows, and even bulls would walk through our field as we were playing a lot of the time. It was hilarious! After cricket we had time to explore Varanasi ourselves. Ali, Emily, Katie, Andrea and I ended up together, and it was such a blessing. They're all great girls, and it was so refreshing to spend time with such nice girls, who were on the same page as me and who weren't like those other girls on the trip with us. We chilled at a hotel pool, had a glass of wine, I had a full body massage (really cheap in India) and we got Henna! I got a pretty design that wrapped around my upper arm. After some nice chill time we met up with the group and ate dinner at the same place we ate earlier, and had another delicious buffet! We ended up eating there 4 times, but the food was different each time and equally delicious! After dinner we had to hurry to the airport. Our guide, Konar was afraid we'd be close on time, and we did cut it kind of close! When I got on the plane I had to listen to "Always Love" because it was stuck in my head all day! After listening to it I thought to myself, I want to listen to more Addison Road..but I decided to just push next and randomly shuffle my ipod. Out of 3,000 songs what comes up next?!-an Addison Road song! (I only have 2 albums) I was like-oh hey, God Wink! But then  look at the title of the song..it was My Story. HOLY CRAP! If you read my other blog posts than you know what I'm talking about. The whole "my story" thing has been coming up a lot in my life and in a lot of God wink ways. Now I know this song and I've heard it a lot, but when I saw this title pop up I was like, "Ok I really need to listen to this song word for word." And I was blown away. It was like I wrote the song. And a lot of the song pertained to whats been going on in my head lately and my life..what I've been praying about lately. It was crazy. I just have to share the lyrics with you:

My Story-Addison Road

If this is my story, if this is my song
Then I want to be a part of something beautiful
If this is my journey, then show me your road
Wherever You lead me in this WORLD I want to go

Theres just too many times I only think of me
cuz I get so consumed by my opportunity
But when my last breath brings met to the feet of God
I want to hear Him say I lived for His glory

If this is my story, if this is my song….
Colors in the evening sky
sun is shining give a light
stars light up the atmosphere
we're the reason God came here

We are His story, we are His song
A beautiful melody that shows the world is love
When we're on this journey, when we're on this road
We are a part of the greatest story every told

 

Side note.."if this is my journey then show me your road…" I've been praying more about my future, because traveling the world makes me realize theres so much I could do out there and so many places I could go. My eyes have been opened really wide, and I realized how narrow my vision was before. And I've just seen a small part of the world! There are so many possibilities..it made me really realize lately that I can't possibly know whats best of me-only God does..and I wherever He leads me in this world I want to go! Another commentary on the song-I really do feel a lot that there are too many times I only think of me because I get consumed by all of these crazy opportunities, and its been something I've prayed about as well! And last commentary-evening sky, sun, and stars are things that most everyone enjoys, but I'm pretty sure I enjoy them more than the average person. They give me such joy! Nature just gives  me such joy and closeness to God. Anyways the tangent was necessary, because it was a big part of India for me, and such a huge God wink, a time that you're just like, WOW, hey God!

So we flew back to Delhi and I was feeling pretty chipper because of the whole God-wink experience, so I chilled with Ryan and my new friend (and roomie throughout this trip), Ali, who I actually met the first morning in the Bahamas, but hadn't hung out and gotten to know her until now. We hung out in the lobby. Once again, theres not much to do at night in India, especially anything safe for women.

The next morning was our last of many flights! We woke up really early again! We were out of the door by 6AM and flew back to Cochin by noon. When we got back to Cochin we had just a couple hours, so we chilled at this really nice hotel right next to our beach and had lunch and enjoyed our last hours in India.

India is a wonderful place. I loved the bright colors, sparkles, smiling faces, food, the gorgeous architecture, spirituality, sunrises and sunsets, and of course, God-winks. I learned so much about the culture, and was in awe of everything I saw. Everything was like nothing I had ever seen before, or even close. I'll never forget that wonderful place, nor the feelings I had of awe and wonder when seeing everything for the first time.

 

 

 

Part 1 of India

I had quite a time in India! India is quite a country! It was probably
the biggest culture shock I've experienced so far. Everything there is
SO incredibly different. We docked in Cochin, which is in the South of
India. The first day I had a field trip for my theater class. We went
to a King's temple, a Jewish Synagogue, an Anglican church, a spice
market, and a very interesting and different performance. This actor
dressed as a woman and with crazy make up and costumes (including a
large hoop dress) sat on stage and moved his eyes around in circles to
the beat of a drum. Then he acted out different emotions, just with
his face. It was very different, that's for sure! Afterwards I
explored that part of the city with a few friends. We shopped around
outdoor vendors. I fell in love with everything Indian. There are no
price tags on anything. Bargaining is the way of life in the world of
shopping. As whites we are seen as wealthy and ignorant. Every vendor
I encountered would first ask a price that was twice or 3 times the
amount (even more sometimes) that they would usually sell their item
for. For example, large tapestries with beautiful fabrics and sequins
they would try to charge you about $100 (in America it would probably
be $200-$300) and you could talk them down to $4.00. Yeah. Crazyyy!
They know that we will pay a lot and are ignorant, so they try to way
overcharge us. It gets annoying, but at the same time, who can blame
them? Everyone on this ship is like a millionare compared to most of
the people in India. The poverty is ridiculous there. But I'll get to
that later. So I was in heaven with all the sequins and bright colors
and beautiful designs! (and ridiculously cheap prices!) I bought a few
beautiful long skirts for $6 a piece for my rest of the time in India.
It's polite to cover your shoulders and knees in India. People do not
look highly on people who don't..even if we are tourists and it is not
how we normally dress. We went to a restaurant on the shore and had
some traditional Indian food. I had chicken curry, and asked for it
very mild. It was still too hot for me, but I managed with a bunch of
water. The food in India is all really hot, so I was a little
skeptical of how I would make out since I'm such a wimp when it comes
to hot food. We got around on a vehicle called a Rickshaw. These
things were the coolest taxis I've ever ridden on. It's like a three-
wheeled taxi, where the driver is in the front and there's a love seat
in the back for 2 or 3 people. There's a little roof but the rest is
opened. After eating we went to a couple other shops. In one shop I
was talking with Indian shop owners and one mentioned that another guy
sang. I told him I'd sing if he sang. He started singing a traditional
Indian song. I then sang A Whole New World. Then he told me to sing
backstreet boys and then Titantic, so we sang My heart will go on and
on together. After that shop we rode the rickshaw back to the ship,
and stayed in that night and packed for the 4-day trip up north. The
nightlife at India isn't very common. We didn't go out at all the
whole time. It also isn't a very good idea for women to go out in
India. It was also VERY hot in Cochin. Even at night I was constantly
sweating.

The next morning I left for the North with 31 other students. We flew
to Delhi in the morning. It was funny being in the airport and the
plane, because it felt so much more like the US. We got to Delhi in
the afternoon. It was so funny being in Delhi and seeing all the Delhi
signs. It never got old! Too bad it's not pronounced Del-hi but, Deli.
As soon as we got off the plane we toured around Delhi. Delhi's the
capital of India so we visited monuments and the president's house. It
reminded me of Washington D.C. They were all beautiful, and we saw the
sunset by the president's house. It was a dark orange. Everytime we
saw the sunset or rise it was like I had never seen it before. It was
dark orange and red even one time. SO BEAUTIFUL! I think the sun
appeared that way because of the haze. That day was a tiring one
because we traveled all day and then looked at monuments and buildings
all day. This trip we were on was completely organized for us, so the
next few days were completely mapped out for us. The first day we
really wanted some free time to explore. We weren't used to being able
to do what we please. After the fact we were appreciative of the first
day, because we got a lot of freetime for exploration later on in our
trip. We had dinner at a restaurant that night. We had our first of
many buffets. Once again, the food was really hot to me, but it was
good. I have twin friends that were on the trip with us and they
turned 21 that night. There wasn't really anywhere to go out so we
went to this room in the basement of the hotel we were staying at and
all 32 of us just chilled in the room while the boys tried to drink
like 21 year olds haha. The place ran out of beer so they had to go
out and get more.

The next morning we woke up at 4:30AM-rough! We took a train to Agra.
What an experience, being in that train station. Everywhere you go in
India people look at you like you have 3 heads..but in more of a
fascinated kind of way. People were constantly taking pictures of us
with their phones and not even trying to hide it. My friend Katie and
I walked by Indians in the first airport and there were about 5 people
taking pictures with their phones. All throughout our time in India
guys were asking to take pictures with us. If we agreed they would
have a photoshoot and would insist on having an indiviual picture with
each one of us. It was seriously like being a celebrity! At first we
didn't really like when people were taking pictures of us when we
walked by. We asked our tourguide, why they have such a fascination of
us. There are few white people around, but still-why are we such a
skeptical? He said that they see us in movies and such and to them
white skin is beautiful. In fact they try to make their skin lighter
and the lighter skin Indian women end up with wealthier Indian men.
Every single ad and movie we saw had Indians with extremely light
skin. The weird part is that it was rare to see Indians with such
light skin around. Most had the same skin tone which was much darker.
In airports I saw so many ads for lightening your skin. So strange. So
anyways our guide, said that we are looked at as celebrities or
models, just because of our skin. It was crazy. Back to the train-when
we got there it was still dark, and there were tons of people sleeping
on the ground. They had a thin sheet or blanket over them and just
laid on the bare ground. It was so sad. The train ride was great. I
sat next to an Indian who was helping out with our group. I watched
the sunrise on the train ride. It was once a gain a beautiful deep
orange beaming through the haze, over a field with trees here and
there. So much natural beauty..but then all of a sudden there would be
a "town" of extreme poverty. There were shacks packed closely together
and trash literally everywhere. Every square inch there was trash.
There were a lot of people crouched down squatting in the middle of
the trash next to the train tracks. I don't know what they were doing.
It was so sad. I also saw a lot of people, men and women going to the
bathroom outside-just on the ground, right in the open. Toilets in
India are downright DISGUSTING and hard to come by. They toilets they
do have are mostly Indian toilets-which is literally a whole in the
ground and a place to put your feet. Back to the train-it was so sad
seeing the extreme "towns" of such poverty and trash and filth. These
places were in between such pristine, untouched natural beauty. It was
so strange to see such a change. And seeing an atmosphere of Peace,
beauty, nature, tranquility, fog and then to impoverished towns of
sadness, hopelessness, dirtiness, darkness, dullness and anguish.

We arrived in Agra and our first stop was the Taj Mahal! It was so
incredibly beautiful. The Taj Mahal was built because an emperor's
wife had 3 wishes that would prove his love to her: that he would
never marry again, that he would watch over their 14 children and that
he would build a monument that would be globally recognized. He
fulfilled that wish to her with flying colors! Everything about the
Taj Mahal was perfectly symmetrical. He even built a building on
either side of it. There was so much detail in the Taj. It was made of
beautiful marble and had intricate colorful pieces of marble making up
beautiful flowers and designs. There hasn't been a drop of water
that's touched the marble floor of the Taj, and its been around since
1632. We spent some time looking in awe at the Taj and snapping a fair
amount of pictures. We took some pictures with these girls in
beautiful sarees (the "dresses" made of 6meters of cloth that most
Indians wear). The girls were so excited to take pictures with us. We
probably took pictures for about 15 minutes. After the Taj Mahal we
had a delicious buffet lunch, which to my surprise didn't contain a
lot of hot food! One of the common dishes we had at every single meal
was Naan, which was kind of like a thick tortialla that was sometimes
stuffed with cheese, garlic or plain. We ate that at every meal and
had a whole lot of it. After lunch we went to a Marble place that
created tables, stands, coasters, chess sets and other things out of
marble. They made beautiful and intricate flowers and designs out of
different colored marble. There were incredibly beautiful and insanely
expensive! Some tables took many years to create, when worked on 6
hours a day. Next we proceeded to Agra Fort, which was built to shield
the city, and was also very beautiful and had amazing architecture. We
then headed to the back of the Taj Mahal to watch it during sunset.
There I rode a camel with Andrea! It was a fun, bumpy ride! We went
back to the same restaurant for dinner and had another amazing buffet.
I really stuffed myself! Then we headed to the train station and took
a 2 hour train back to Delhi. There was an older Indian lady on the
other side of the aisle next to Katie and I who sat forward so she
could look at both of us, and stared us for a really long time. It was
really weird. It's one thing that's hard to get used to. We'd look at
her and she still would stare. By this point at night we were
extremely exhausted. We didn't get more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep per
night, and were up at either 4:30, 5, or 5:30 every single morning!

I'm going to stop here for tonight. It's 1:30AM and Singapore is
tomorrow! I'm getting up for the sunrise too, so I need some beauty
sleep! I'm craving more time..things have been so busy, but fun here
on the ship. The first day on the ship back from India we had Sea
Olympics, which I will explain later. It involved a synchronized
swimming routine to "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton, in which I
was the main person and acted out a love story with another guy. It
was so great-more details to come! And last night was a 3 hour talent
show where I performed "Take me or leave me" from Rent with my friend
Bryana! So its been too eventful-which hasn't allowed me to blog! I'm
only halfway through my journey in India! The best is yet to come!
Varanasi was my favorite and most culture-shocking place that I've
been so far! After Singapore tomorrow there are only 2 days until
Vietnam! After Vietnam there is only one day of travel until China,
and then there are only 2 days on the ship between China and Japan.
WHOA! Everything's going to fly even more! That's all for now. I have
a lot more to say about India, and Sea Olympics and the Talent show,
and Singapore is tomorrow! Shout out to Manda McAtee who turns 21
today! Love you and miss you so much girl! Hope you have the best
birthday ever and I wish I could celebrate with you! <3

Lovin and missin you all from Singapore!

Performer:

More pictures

In the bridge, wearing the Captain's hat:

Mauritius pictures

This is the rainbow I woke up to in Mauritius!

Mauritius and Mind-blowing Moments

It's way too late for me to start blogging, but I have so much on my
mind now and so much to share! I think its worth sacrificing a little
sleep. We set our clocks ahead again tonight but this time only a half
hour (weird right?) So it's 2:30AM now. Crazy that I'm so far ahead of
you all back home. Its only 4 in the afternoon over in NY. I'm on to
the next day already!

So we got to go to Mauritius for 4 hours! We pulled in, and I woke up
for sunrise and the start of immigration at 6. The sun had already
come up by then but it was cloudy. I opened the door and right there
in front of me was a beautiful bright rainbow! Within 10 seconds it
was gone. What a blessing and way to start my day in Mauritius!
Immigration went fast so we were able to get off an hour early-at 7AM.
Mauritius is beaaaautiful! So much green and beauty! Most of Semester
at Sea students went to Flic n Flac beach and that was our original
plan, but a native told us it would take an hour in traffic. We ended
up going to a beach that was only 20 min away called Grand Bay. This
beach was beautiful! It was pretty secluded and only 5 or so Semester
at Sea kids were there, most of whom I was friends with, and it was
one of the guy's birthday. One of the girls I hadn't met yet at the
beach is from Albany and goes to school at SUCO! That was pretty cool
to talk to her! So we stayed on the beach for a couple hours and swam
in the nice warm water. The weather was perfect! The sand was the
softest sand I'd ever felt. I bonded with the girls I was with and we
took so many pictures. It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

We got back to the ship and stood in line and unfortunately we saw a
few girls stumbling, completely wasted. We'd been in Mauritius for 4
hours and it was only 11:30AM. Yeah. Sad. There were thirty something
people drunk tanked, which means they were put in a room and
supervised because they were visibly dangerously drunk. It was
embarrassing. They're representing all of us. Also, deans and other
staff pulled serious strings and went to a lot of effort and spent
more money on fuel to get us to Mauritius for 4 hours, and then kids
don't even appreciate it. It's a slap in the face to the people who
worked hard to get us there. So sad.

Today we had a huge reflection and discussion about it. I even spoke!
I spoke about how a lot of people on this ship seem to me like they've
never even tried drinking like an adult. They only know drinking to
get wasted. It's getting wasted or nothing to a lot of kids. And I
urged them to just try having a couple drinks and try drinking like an
adult, because adults don't get wasted because they're boring or lame.
They don't get wasted because they're smart and they've learned and
realized that having a couple drinks is way more fun than getting
completely plastered. A lot of people were so upset and embarrassed at
how so many students acted so irresponsibly and immature in Mauritius.

Anyways, back to the day at Mauritius. It was wonderful, and I had
great conversations with people on the pool deck all day when we got
back on the ship. For dinner, an older couple sat down with us. I was
talking with them for a while. They said they were interport guests
that were traveling with us from Capetown back to the US. When they
got up to get more food a girl sitting at the table with me told me
that the guy was a former senator in Virginia and his wife is Lyndon B
Johnson's (former president!!) granddaughter!!! How cool?! They were
very sweet, and I talked to them a lot! The other 2 girls at the table
didn't say anything. So that was pretty awesome..I knew they would be
joining us on the ship, but didn't realize I was eating with them at
first!

That night I went up to the observation deck by myself and looked at
the beautiful sky, with the bright, almost full moon, beautiful stars
and ocean that was lit up by the moon, for a long time and spent time
with God and thought about how incredibly blessed I am. We're half way
through our itinerary now and I started thinking how much I don't want
this voyage to be over. I love everything about it so much. I've
loved everything from the beginning. I've had uncomfortable moments
and I've missed friends from home so much..but I've always loved
everything. Now I'm comfortable. I'm so comfortable..more than
comfortable. I love all the people here. I love having conversations
with so many different people-constantly..and learning SO much from
them. Two quotes that my incredible, incredible friend, Rheanna said
to me today:

1.When you travel, everyone you talk to is a teacher.

2. Be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

The first one...I can't believe how much I've changed. How much I've
learned. How much I've grown. It blows my mind. 2 nights ago when I
was spending time with God and just feeling overwhelmed with
blessings, a guy I had talked to just once way back in the bahamas,
Bob came up to the observation deck after a while and we started
talking. We had a long convo at how mind blowing this experience is.
He named the observation deck the "Mind blowing deck." I mean you're
standing at the top deck..in the very front of the ship, by yourself,
at night, with the big bright moon shining down on you, stars in the
sky, clouds lit up by the moon, reflections on the water, on your way
to INDIA in the Indian Ocean. Reality hits at times like these. And
I've just learned so so much from people. I've learned so much about
myself. I've become INDEPENDENT. I didn't realize how dependent I was
prior to this voyage. I think I thought I needed people around me to
feel happy and to be having conversations with people to have fun. I
can't tell you how many times I wander off by myself on the ship, or
just take things in by myself in these countries. I always had the
mentality back home-well I need to have my best friends around me to
having the absolute best time. Almost like I couldn't function without
them. This is part of the reason I felt so uncomfortable when I didn't
have that close group of friends in the beginning. But I've changed!
I've grown! I've become so independent on this trip! I still don't
have that group of friends that I was 100% expecting on this trip. But
you know what...praise God! I've learned and grown so much because of
it. I've met so many more people and had so many more conversations
and been so much more open to everyone than I would've if I made a few
best friends that I did everything with! I travel with different
people all the time, eat with different people, sit with different
people. Everyone is beautiful and I get to see that! There's so many
cool people on this ship and I'm getting to know so many more than I
would've if I had a "clique". A big reason why I found being
independent and alone time so great once in a while is because
they'res so much more quiet time here and time to think than at home.
I'm always plugged in at home or always listening to music. Once you
take a moment to be silent you learn so much, you think more, you
reflect-which is such a great thing. There will definitely be some
lifestyle changes made when I get back. I'm going to spend way more
time in nature-I freaking love it. Its my favorite thing-ever. I have
to pry myself away from beautiful sunsets, or the moon and stars-
especially when I'm by myself. I'm realizing how valuable quiet time
and time to be independent is. I was talking with Rheanna tonight
about how seeing how God has certain things happen in your life for a
reason..and at the time you may not understand and be very upset, but
later you understand and see that it was all a part of God's plan and
that you wouldn't be who you are if it wasn't for those experiences!
Thats totally what I'm feeling right now. Its so beautiful to be able
to recognize those blessings and those moments that God used to shape
you.

My roommate told me the other day she wants me to tell her everything
about christianity someday..I'm pumped about this! I was telling
Rheanna that I hope I say the right things and such and she told me my
personal stories are important to share and show God the most and best
way for me as an ordinary girl..crazy thing is after this long,
awesome conversation, I checked my email and I got one from Janie-our
bible study leader, who randomly sent a chapter of a book her friend
sent her. It went along EXACTLY with the conversation I had with
Rheanna!! Talk about a Godwink. So, so, so cool. Here's a taste of it:

In one of my favorite Tyler James songs, he says "my life's not a
story about me." My life is not a story about me. And your life's not
a story about you. My life is a story about who God is and what he
does in a human heart. My story is about the people on my street, the
things i read, the way we raise our child, the things I've done and
the things that have been done to me. A story is never about one
person. It has a full cast of characters, connected by blood or love
or jealousy.

Please let me know if you'd like to read the whole chapter! I'll
gladly email it to you! I couldn't believe my eyes when I read
it...how much it coincided with the convo I just had!

And the 2nd quote-Being comfortable with the uncomfortable is such a
great way to describe this experience. Its so great to. It's so
wonderful to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. This is how you
learn and change and blossom!

So yeah..my mind's been going crazy lately-in a wonderful way. This
experience is just so mind blowing. Mostly mind blowing in how much
you see yourself change. I'm so comfortable here now. I'm probably
leaving important things out, but its 3:15AM over here now, so I'm
going to have to call it good. We get to India in 2 days! I'm going to
Agra and seeing the Taj Mahal, Veranassi the Holy City and Delhi. I'm
doing a whole lot of flying. I can't wait..I have no idea what to
expect in India..but I've heard great things.

Events of today before I sign off: interesting thing I did today-the
videographer on the ship is from Ithaca..so he got me to be in a
safety/emergency video. Another girl and I were in a video today where
we were "roommates" and put on our life jackets and demonstrated what
to do in an emergency. They even used a fog machine in one scene to
make "smoke" and turned the lights off in the hallway, and we had to
crouch down. It was fun! A cool opportunity! They'll be showing it
next voyage when the new SAS kids board the ship.

Another cool thing I did yesterday was go on a Bridge tour. That is
where they steer and control the ship! It was so interesting, and so
cool to be there and see all the controls and learn so many
interesting facts. The ships on auto pilot most of the time!

Also there is a talent show when we return from India. My friend
Bryana and I are singing a duet. We audition for the talent show
tomorrow! We're singing "Take Me Baby or Leave me" from Rent. Can't
wait! I'm trying to learn the song quickly!

There was one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen tonight
after Zumba and during dinner. Tonight I went outside again by myself
and spent time with God and watched the beautiful lit up night sky. I
even saw some birds fly by..even though we're in the middle of the
Indian Ocean? I'm feeling so blessed! I can't get over this
experience. So. incredible.

Those are my deep thoughts for the afternoon/night/morning..whatever
it is for you!

<3 Love from the Indian Sea

Updates and Good News!

Greetings from Mauritius! It's 12:30AM right now and we're docked in
Mauritius. Because of the tropical storm and cyclone we were trying to
avoid, we had to slow down and as a result arrived to Mauritius at
10PM instead of 6AM like planned. Because of this we were not going to
be able to go to Mauritius (well get off the ship) because it was
important we arrived to India on time. We were all bummed, and they
planned a bunch of events today for us to make us feel better I guess.
Last night there was a dance party on the 7th deck (pool deck!) It was
so much fun!!! The professors and Deans were even dancing with us. It
was great. We even got to dance in the rain! It was such a blast. :)
Today we didn't have classes and had a Maurit-ish day-haha. We had
brunch, instead of ending the yummy breakfast (only good meal on the
ship) at 8:30 like usual. Then there was a special Zumba class (its
usually only on B days). Zumba was a BLAST. The instructor from Brazil
is AMAZING and the dances are so much fun and the songs are so good!
So many people crowd in the union for it. Its a dance party really. SO
MUCH FUN! and its been SO rocky, which makes it so much more fun,
because you almost fall over as you're dancing and you laugh and
laugh. When you jump up as the ship rocks up you go really high and it
feels like you're jumping on a trampoline. They made an announcement
right before Zumba making the class even more exciting-They announced
that they were letting us go to Mauritius tomorrow! From 8AM-12PM. Not
very much time, but those 4 hours meant the world to us because we
thought we weren't going to see any of Mauritius at all. We were all
so happy! PS, for those of you who don't know where Mauritius is (like
me a few months ago)..its an island on the west of Africa, to the east
of the island of Madagascar. It's also pronounced More-ish-iss.
Apparently its a honeymoon island and is just gorgeous! Can't see much
now at night-but it looks like nice mountains and a bunch of palm
trees! The plan is to go to the beach for a few hours since theres not
much time to do anything else.

Back to today-after Zumba today we all lounged on the pool deck and
soaked up the sun (like any other day :)) Then there was a special BBQ
on the pool deck. There was such good food! (so much better than the
food we get for lunch and dinner usually). Then some of us stayed up
there til 8 and listened and sang along to country music. This was
great-I don't hear much music and especially not country on the ship.
It felt like home. The moon is almost full and was beautiful. I was
looking up at the beautiful moon, stars, and enjoying the perfect
weather-slight breeze, while singing along to my favorite country
songs. Ugh, such a perfect night. Then there was pre-port where they
tell us about the country and things we need to know, and then there
was karaoke! Karaoke was a blast!!! I sung a couple Shania Twain songs
with some friends! Then we headed up to the observation deck to check
out Mauritius since we just pulled in.

Today was probably my favorite day on the ship so far. What a great
way to celebrate the end of midterms. Midterms went well by the way!
Feels great for them to be over. We're all so giddy and excited to be
able to go to Mauritius now-even just for a few hours! I'm getting up
for sunrise tomorrow. Can't wait to see beautiful Mauritius in the
morning!

I'll update you about my time in Mauritius soon, and about some
reflection-things about life, and me I have to share.

All my love from Mauritius, Africa!

<3

Here's the sunset from last night!:

Safari pics!

Camps Bay and Winery pictures

Camps Bay!