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!

Pictures from South Africa

The view from Table Mountain

South Africa! -I'll be back!

South Africa.

The most amazing place. I must go back! There are so many things to do and it is so gorgeous!

Day 1

So I decided to wake up for sunrise as we pulled into Cape Town. So glad I did that! Ugh, it was so beautiful.  I'll never forget that sight. The sun was just about to rise, the city was still asleep, and you just see this HUGE mountain called Table mountain behind this huge city.  You see big sky scrapers at the bottom of the mountain. It doesn't look real. The buildings look so misplaced! After snapping some pictures, eating breakfast and going through immigration I headed out to explore this place called Waterfront with a few girlfriends. Waterfront is awesome. It's like Disney World on the harbor without the rides (besides a beautiful ferris wheel). It's all restaurants and shops on the harbor, always with live music and little performances constantly going on.  I spent a lot time at Waterfront this week (it was conveniently very close to where we were docked.  We ate lunch (I had a croissant filled with berries and nutella :)) and met up with my friend Jackie's about to be roommate (a fellow gap year student who's going to Harvard and has an internship in Cape Town for the semester).  It was great learning about Cape Town from her.  I had an FDP (required field trip) at 2. It was for my popular music class so it was a Hip-hop trip. We went to a township (where lower class live in very close quarters). Sidenote: Cape Town has one of the largest if not the largest gap between poor and rich.  There is extreme poverty in Cape Town, but near the water where we were a lot of the time it was very upscale.  Anyways, for my FDP we went to some artist's garage, sat on crates and listened to him rap a couple songs to some background beats coming out of his laptop speakers. He told us all about life in the townships and hip-hop artists' lives.  We then went to a school/community space and watched middle school aged girls practice a dance routine on stage. They invited us to join them, so a couple of us hopped up on a stage, and tried to follow along. It was so much fun being on stage and dancing with the South Africans, who were very talented. A few other rappers performed for us impromptu, just for us, very informally.  We went back to the ship, where I found some friends.  We headed out to Long Street (a popular place with lots of restaurants and shops). I had some pizza and Hunter's (really good hard cider) and talked with friends. I then went to few different clubs along that street, met some Afrikaans (white South Africans who speak Afrikaans).  

 

Day 2

Andrea, Kendra and I went to The Old Bisquit Mill. This place is only opened on Saturdays. It was huge! There was every kind of food there you could imagine and it all looked SO delicious. I got a gyro and a Pomegranate smoothie, and the best iced coffee I've ever had.  It reminded me of the farmers market in Ithaca only wayyy bigger! There were tons of shops there too. We then hiked up Table Mountain! As we began our trek, this South African in his 30s named Brett asked if he could tag along.  He was really nice and it was great meeting a local and learning more about South Africa from him.  Hiking up Table Mountain was just incredible.  It took us a couple hours and was pretty steep and difficult, but it was very worth it.  The weather was beautiful (as was every single day! blue skies and sunny and low 80s I'd say every single day!!!) Experiencing the view as we hiked up Table Mountain was so incredible.  Indescribable!!! It was so peaceful up there too-so quiet. It was heaven like. We headed down the Cable Car and Brett took us to Cable Bay (a beach where there are a lot of cool restaurants and bars. We had some pita with hummus and I had a Spiced berry daquiri. We then headed back to the ship. I had another FDP for my music class.  This one was a Jazz Safari. We went back to a township and went into a living room of this musician who played really funky instruments. He played one-stringed instruments. A lot of the music he was playing seemed pretty strange but it was really interesting. He played the piano also.  They made us dinner-some Indian dish that was SO spicy.  He spoke of how much he adored his wife. It was so adorable. Then we headed to another musician's Aunt's house. (Zomi  Mdingi) is  a jazz singer who went to school for singing and is now competing in South African Idol! She had one of the most amazing voices I've ever heard! She had us join her in singing sometimes. I played the tambourine for a few songs. We got up and danced which was a blast!! Her uncle was dancing with me and was spinning me and such. So fun! I then headed back to the ship, and back out to Waterfront at this popular bar called Mitchells and found a bunch of friends and Brett! Finished the night off with some fries at McDonalds late at night. J

 

Day 3

I started out the day with a church service at Hillsong! 5 of us took a cab to the huge Hillsong United Church. It was such a great experience! The church is HUGE! There is one in London, Australia, South Africa and some in the states. The church had a café, place to buy books and had at least 3 levels. The church service was incredible. It looked like a rock concert. The music was loud, people were dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. I was overwhelmed. Just so awestruck. My eyes were actually wet. I was just filled with joy, astonishment happiness and comfort. They kept saying "Welcome Home." There were signs that said "Home" everywhere. I really did feel more at home than ever before. The message was awesome..delivered from this really entertaining guy from Britain.  I just loveddd being able to dance and be loud and enthusiastic with worship. It felt so right to me. Everyone was so happy to praise God and there were so many people worshipping. It was so incredible-I'll never forget that moment. I feel so blessed to be able to attend that service!

 After the service I went..SKYDIVING! Probably the coolest things I've ever done. There were 11 of us that went.  There was only 1 plane going up and 3 people went at a time so it took hoursss, but it was totally worth it! I was in the first group to go up. For some strange reason I wasn't the tiniest bit nervous. I thought going up in the plane I would start to feel some nerves, and especially when they open the door and you're legs are hanging over the edge. But there was not a single butterfly in my stomach. Crazy right? I'm personally a little weirded out. Since when did I become a wild child adventurous free spirit? Maybe it has to do with my roommate-that's basically the way to describe her. I really have been as stress free and worry free as I've ever been. On this voyage you HAVE to be flexible or you're just not going to have fun or be liked. Having Julie as a roommate is really cool though. And honestly none of the people I hang out with are high strung and stressed or worried. The people that surround you really have a big impact on you. I hope I stay this way..I think I will. It's so awesome not worrying, and just going with the flow. Sometimes you have to force yourself to go with the flow, but its so worth it. You learn a lot from it. And how much better things work out that way and how much happier you are when you let yourself be ok with everything. You can only be as happy as you let yourself.

 Ok, back to skydiving. So the guy I dove with was named Blake. He was awesome. He tried to scare me but it didn't work. He's done 5,000 dives before, so that definitely helped me not freak out. I chatted with him the whole way up in this ghetto, tiny plane. 6 of us squeezed in and sat on the floor of the plane. The view was absolutely gorgeous. It was about a 20 minutes plane ride before we jumped. I was the second one to jump. For some reason I didn't even get nervous when the first girl went. I don't get it-I freak out when I give presentations in class but when I jump out of a plane 9,000 feet above ground I've never felt more comfortable. No exaggeration! I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. So when we jumped out of the plane my first thought as I was flying through the air was "I don't want this to end!!!" It was the most amazing feeling. Your stomach doesn't drop at all like in a roller coaster. It was just the coolest feeling. I can't describe it. We free fell for 35 seconds and then the parachute jerked us up, and we were floating. The first thing I said was, "I'm becoming a professional sky diver." Haha, probably not..but I have to skydive any opportunity I get if I have the money. Everyone has gotta do it. I got to steer the parachute. We landed gracefully and slowly and it was all over in a total of about 3.5 minutes. I got a video of it, so I'll have to show you all when I get home.

 That night we went to Camps Bay again and I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. We got there just in time. The sun had just set on the beach. While the rest of our crew went to the bar, Ariel, Andrea and I could not pull ourselves away from the gorgeous sunset, so we took a couple pictures, then sat on the beach until it was dark. The moon was so bright and the reflection on the water was so pretty. We then went to a nice restaurant where we had amazing pizza and wine as we watched the reflection on the moon on the water on the beach.

 Afterwards we walked around and explored a couple clubs for a bit. Our friends befriended an Italian guy who had a crazy house overlooking the city. We all went to his house, which looked like something out of a magazine. The view was ridiculous! We could see our ship docked. The guy that lived there played the guitar and got me to improvise (singing). That was pretty cool-something I'd never done before.

 One awesome day, I'll never forget!

Day 4

On Day 4 and 5 I went on a wine tour and safari. It was a blast! We got to our first winery at 10:30AM. After the first winery we went to a restaurant for lunch. We then went to two other wineries. All of the wineries were absolutely gorgeous! My neighbor, Eshley and I bonded. She's a sweetheart. It's so fun constantly getting to know wonderful people. After we finished with the wineries we drove to a hotel for the night. The drive was awesome. The sights were unreal. The mountains are just so huge and magnificent. The beautiful green wine gardens are everywhere.  At the hotel there was wifi so I got to call my parents and skype with Julianne, Manda and Hilary!!! I was so happy! It was so wonderful talking to them and hearing their voices! This was the first time I heard a voice from home and saw a face since I left in January! There was a BBQ for us and afterwards we had fun at an outdoor bar just for us for the night. The stars were beautiful that night. There were soooo many stars! So about 10 of us climbed up through the emergency exit of the roof of the bus and lay down on the roof of the bus as we stargazed.

 

Day 5

We headed to the Aquila Lodge in the morning for the Safari. I didn't know what to expect, but man was I blown away! I felt like I was in the middle of the Lion King. We're in this vehicle trucking in the middle of nature. Huge, huge mountains all around. Nothing but nature and animals. No buildings, or other vehicles. It was so awesome. And there was so much land. So much space! It was unreal! We saw elephants, rhinos, hippos, spingbok (South Africa's national animal), giraffes, zebras, ostriches, cheetahs, lions and other animals I forget the name.  My favorite was the lions! We saw 3 (1 boy and 2 girls) by a rock sleeping and then later we saw 2 others (1 boy and 1 girl)! We were so close! We were about 10 feet away from them! There wasn't a cage and our vehicle was open. The vehicle stopped for a few minutes so we could look and take pictures. They looked at us for a bit then went back to sleep. The boy lion looked at me in the eyes for a while! I got a sweet picture..I'll post it! At one point they let us get out of the vehicle where there were zebras, ostriches, and springbok. So we're chilling with them in the wild..no fences or anything! So surreal! A moment I'll never forget!

After the safar,i which lasted about 3 hours, we stopped at a fast food place, I stocked up on snacks for the ship (you starve, because they only serve you 3 meals and you have to buy all snacks), and we headed back to the ship.

I then headed out to Waterfront again with Cale (from Saratoga Springs!), and Natasha, both whom I met on the safari, and we had dinner at this fancy restaurant! Everything is cheap in Cape Town..so the price of drinks and dinner and appetizers at this fancy restaurant is about the same price as an Applebees dinner at home!) I had an espresso martini at the bar while we waited for our table. I had one of the best dinners I've ever had. I had a springbok! –what I saw earlier on the safari! It was better than steak! We enjoyed our dinner with wine, overlooking the harbor and ferris wheel while the sun set..it was just perfect! Then we headed to Mitchells (bar) and met some locals. We headed over to Caprice (club) on Camps Bay beach again, where the cab driver was playing gospel music J Then we went back to Mitchells, and finally headed back to the ship. Very sad to see the last night in Cape Town come to an end!

Day 6

I signed up for a Semester at Sea trip called Operation Hunger. Operation Hunger is an organization that works towards helping children with hunger and nutrition.  There we helped a few ladies cook dinner for the children (possibly their only meal of the day). The women cook everyday for these children. I cut and peeled potatoes for an hour with them in a tiny kitchen. Later on the kids came with their bowls, plates, tuperware, anything they had. We weighed the children, measured their height and the circumference of their upperarms. Then they were fed the meal we made. We contributed money to their meal, so as a special treat they got chicken that day. We had to leave after only spending a couple minutes with the kids, which bummed me out because I wanted to play with them. A couple 12/13ish year old girls asked what my name was and started talking with me but then we had to go. Driving through these townships was really sad. The biggest houses are the size of my room at school. A lot of the houses are built out of tin pieces and are incredibly small. I don't know what they do in the winter. These shacks were everywhere. When we left with our huge bus, all of the children along the streets waved to us. The children's faces would light up and they would all have the biggest smiles. They would start running after the bus sometimes. One of my favorite parts was waving to everyone that I passed, young and old. They all returned a smile and a wave.

Then we boarded the ship to leave Cape Town. I was so sad to leave Cape Town. This was the most sad I've ever been leaving a port! I fell in love with Cape Town-we all did! It's so so so beautiful and just so fun. So much to do! I really want to go back someday! 

I went on the upper decks and watched us pull away from port. It's such a beautiful city, as it's surrounded by mountains. I couldn't pull myself away. I did a toast with friends and then headed down to the 5^th deck (I think my favorite place on the ship). And watched us sail away from Cape Town for about an hour and a half, by myself, spending time with God and reflecting on the blessed week I just had in the beautiful country of South Africa. Table Mountain was lit up, and other mountains away from the city could be seen against the night sky. The sky was so clear, you could see all of the stars, and the moon was so bright, reflecting beautifully on the ocean. This is a sight I'll always remember and cherish. It was hard to pull myself away from it after 2 hours, but I had never been so sleep deprived in my life! I slept for 14 hours that night! I realized that the accumulation of sleep I had the week in Cape Town wasn't much more than 14!

Since I've been back on the ship the waters have been so rough! I can't be in my room unless I'm sleeping or I'll get seasick. Of course we all had a midterm today-good timing! And I have midterms the next 2 days too! Today was the first day that it's been cloudy since I can remember. It had to have been at least 3 weeks or so. We were so fortunate to have the most amazing weather in South Africa. Not a cloud in the sky the whole time! There's a big storm brewing coming down between Madagascar and Africa that could turn into a typhoon I guess (at least the rumors say). We're going slower because of it (and its still crazy rocky) and they made a sad announcement today. They announced that we wouldn't be able to go to Mauritius because we won't make it there in time and would then be late to India.  We're all pretty bummed. We were supposed to arrive the day after tomorrow and we were only going to be in Mauritius for one day. Now we stop in Mauritius for gas and get to look at it from the ship. Bummer! We'll be on the ship for 11 days straight now. Hopefully the rocky seas get better-it makes studying difficult, especially when you can't find a quiet place. My room is ridiculous-The waves are so intense that half the time huge gushes of water splash across my window, and you feel like you're airborne in your bed a lot of the time. Once in a while there will be a huge THUD when you crash onto a big wave. Makes life nothing but boring! 

Really can't complain! I keep thinking about South Africa, and it makes me so happy. It was one wonderful, wonderful week. I feel so very blessed! Can't wait to go back someday!