Loving Los Angeles

It's hard to believe May is coming to an end. This month has been crazy! I've never experienced a month quite like the month of May 2012. I got off the ship on May 2 and I've been staying with various people in California whether it was UCSD, Thousand Oaks College, Chad and Jaw's in San Diego or my new friend Amber's in San Diego. It's been an adventure. Finally on May 18 I moved into my apartment in Los Angeles, and had a place I could call home for the first time in a while. Boy did it feel good! I had a great time in San Diego with Jess, Chad, Jaw and Amber. I went to the beach a whole lot, went to the Cove and saw seals on the rocks and enjoyed the beautiful ocean views with new friends. I explored the fun nightlife in San Diego, as a fresh 21 year old, ranging from fun beach bars at Pacific beach to a karaoke hole in the wall bar in Hillcrest, to an upscale fancy club in Downtown San Diego. I've been living. I have a lot of stories from this month in California. A lot of funny, priceless, stories...

The girl I met in San Diego, Amber, brought me to my apartment in Los Angeles on May 18. I drove her car to Laguna Beach (the first time I've driven in 4 months-felt weird!). We chilled at Laguna beach for a bit and then continued on to my apartment in Burbank. I LOVE my apartment. We lucked out. We're on the third floor, which means we get a fireplace. Its currently running right now and I'm listening to Michael Buble's "The Best is Yet to Come." This could never get old. The fire is really not getting old. I constantly have it on. :) Also, we're on the corner which means we have a balcony about twice the size of the other balconies. AND we have an amazing view-something that is rare in Oakwood apartments. Most have views of other people's windows/apartments and sidewalks. AND our building is right next to the pool/hottubs/gym/convenient store. Seriously, you're gonna have to drag me out of this place come August! I LOVE IT HERE! The first night here Amber and I decided to go out in downtown LA.

BBQing with new Ithaca friends:

My view from my balcony:

SIDENOTE: literally just learned I survived my first earthquake (apparently it was an hour ago..I didn't notice..I was swimming laps in the pool.)

Anyways..Amber and I had a grand time out at some really cool clubs! We went to a place called the Edison which was sick and then went to a place called the Standard-which was on a rooftop, and we were surrounded by skyscrapers, lit up in the night sky. It was magnificent! The next day we walked around Hollywood Blvd, and met up with my really good SAS friend-Steve, who's been traveling around California and Mexico since the ship docked! Oh it was so great to see him! He ended up staying with me for about 4 days! We had a blast! We had a bbq on the grills by the pool a couple nights. So wonderful-I love BBQs :) We laid out by the pool, went on a beautiful hike, went out to a club, a karaoke bar called Dimples in walking distance of my apartments where many celebrities have gone before. I got to sing on the same stage as a bunch of celebrities, including Katy Perry!

Julianne arrived the day after I arrived. I was sooo excited to see her. It was so great reuniting! We had orientation last Tuesday. We got to see a taping of a new show that will premiere in July on TBS called Sullivan and Son.  The taping was held in Warner Brothers Studios (which is about half a mile from my apartments). Its also where Ellen DeGeneres shoots. So after going through a lot of security the 30 Ithaca kids in the ICLA program made our way into the back of the studio. Just as I was about to step in the door I look up and my eyes meet the eyes of a tall, big, familiar looking men. Before I could even process who was in front of me, a familiar voice says "What's happening" to me. I don't even know what I said because I was so taken aback that it was VINCE VAUGHN talking to me and looking me in the eye. WHAT?! Third day in LA and I "met" my first celebrity...Vince Vaughn of all people! It was very cool-hearing his booming voice in real life. Turns out he was there in the studio because he is the producer of this show. The taping was really fun. It was so cool to see a TV show being filmed, and to be part of the laughter. I laughed a whole lot-the host that talked to us when there were breaks was really funny. Afterwards we hiked to the Hollywood sign. It was beautiful up there. We were at the top for sunset, and when we were hiking down it was dark! It was so cool to see the city lights! I love how beautiful California and how much nature and beautiful sights there are. The hiking trails are so close and you can quickly be looking down at LA and be taken away by the sights. Another thing I did with Steve and a new friend (from Ithaca) was go to Venice beach. Venice beach is fun, beautiful and entertaining. People there are CRAZY. Legit, crazy. So, its pretty entertaining to walk around. You laugh quite a bit. The beach itself is gorgeous. Theres sooo much sand, and you can see the mountains in the distance. We ran into a Semester at Sea friend there! We sat down outside a bar with him and hung out with him and his gf and friend for a few hours. It was a great day! I've met a lot of really great Ithaca girls I didn't know prior to a week ago. They're so much fun! We've been having a blast going out in Hollywood! Getting free champagne service and such!

My new roomie, Paige and I above the Hollywood sign:

Steve and I at Venice Beach, and then a beautiful hike on Mt Hollywood:

Now for the serious stuff-internships! I have an internship with a wedding planner-Theresa. She is in her low 30s and has 2 daughters, one of which is 6 months. I met with her last Tuesday at a coffee shop and we chatted for 2 hours. She's so wonderful! I worked my first wedding this Sunday! It was an Indian wedding. It was fun, but a very long day. I was working from 10AM-9:30PM, and did not eat or drink for 12 hours! I was on my feet all day, and I have painful blisters! But I enjoyed the day. I spent hours alphabetizing favors/place cards. I also followed the bride and groom around while they were photographed, holding their room key and escorting the bride to her room after her pictures to get changed for the reception. It was cool and unexpected to hang out with the bride and groom a little. The bride was very friendly and talkative. :) It was so great being around Indian culture again-I really missed it. It was very hard when I had to stand by the food for about an hour and smell the AMAZING scents of the Indian food I'd missed so much and hadn't eaten in a couple weeks (after not eating for 11 hours at this point). Finally after all the guests ate I got to indulge. I don't think food has ever tasted so good!

The day before, on Saturday, we went to a really fun farmers market that is everyday, and this place called The Grove, which was so cute, with a lot of shops, a fountain, and constant old fashioned music. LOVED IT. I could spend a lot of days there..just listening to music and chilling. Then Julianne, Paige (wonderful roomie I just met here in LA last week), and another new Ithaca friend, Ellis, drove around Beverly Hills and Bel Air. It was really fascinating to see all the crazy huge, beautiful houses!

The next day was Memorial Day (yesterday). That was a nice relaxing day I spent sleeping, hanging out by the pool with the girls, taking in some Memorial Day sales with Julianne and my lovely roommate Paige and eating at Red Robin. Today I started my other internship that I got with Events2Give, a company that plans events for charities and non-profits, to help raise funds. They host big gala events, hosted by celebrities. The company is expanding to the East Coast, so when I return to Ithaca in the fall, I'll still be working with Events2Give and will work with clients in the Northeast. This internship is in Santa Monica, which is 20 miles, but more than an hour in traffic. (LA TRAFFIC IS A NIGHTMARE). I don't have a car (yet...) so my boss picked me up today for my first day. I enjoyed my first day today! I think I'm going to enjoy this internship. I'm really glad I found it. Planning events for good causes-what could be better? This evening my boss brought me to an event at a plastic surgeons office in Beverly Hills, to meet with another guy in the event industry. That was a pretty cool experience-and there were sweets and champagne. :) I came back tonight at about 8:30 with energy still, so I cooked dinner quick, headed to the gym at 9:30, and swam laps in the pool at 10:30. You can obviously tell I'm in a motivated mood today/tonight since I'm blogging!!! (espeically at 1AM).  I really have been INSANELY busy. I'm JUST starting to get a little alone time now for the first time in forever!

Tomorrow I have the day off and then Thursday I'll go back to the Events2Give office in Santa Monica. You can easily get free tickets to a lot of shows here in LA. Julianne, Paige and I have free tickets to Chelsea Lately and The Voice!

I'm really loving it out here. Everything about it! Time is already going by too quickly!

I'll blog about the rest of China, Japan and Hawaii soon! For real! :)

All my Love from LA

<3

Hong Kong! and update on Cali life

After a day at the beach and a great meal at a super chill outdoor beach bar with Jess, Chad and Owen, we're chilling out at Chad and Jaw's place and I finally have a moment to start catching up on my blogging. Update on what I've been doing the past week: I had a lot of fun on Cinco de Mayo with RoseMarie and her family.  We went to some grad parties that night, and the next day I went to church with Rheanna and spent some time on the beach with her before Bryana picked me up and we headed to Thousand Oaks (north of LA) where she goes to school. I spent a few days with her. It was a blast going out, driving around and never missing a half off happy hour Frappachino the whole time I was there. On Wednesday she dropped me off with Chad in LA and then we headed to San Diego and picked up Jess Matson who just moved here from NY. I've had a blast hanging out with Jess during the day and then everyone at night. We went to the beach the past 2 days. I'm Native American looking now hahaha. We're getting all dolled up tonight and goin out again. Can't wait. Ok now for SAS stories..lets see I left off with China!

Hong Kong:
So when we arrived in Hong Kong I woke up, looked out the window and looking back at me was the Hong Kong skyline. UNREAL. It was at that moment that I was kind of like, this is too weird that this is our life. This is normal now. Wake up and you see Hong Kong out your window. Just a day in the life...I realized that all good things must come to an end because then you don't appreciate them as much the longer they go on. Waking up in different countries became so normal and natural. CRAZY! So the first day in Hong Kong I went with Katie and Kyle to book train tickets from Beijing to Shanghai. After that we walked around and went into a couple shops. That night we got all dolled up for a night on the town in Hong Kong. Very exciting! The Hong Kong Skyline is so beautiful! Then I had dinner with some great friends and afterwards we took the ferry to a street with lots of clubs. I had a great chat with Rose Marie, as we looked at our ship and enjoyed some drinks. Going out that night was a lot of fun. We spent a lot of time out on the street (cars didn't go on this certain street) between the clubs. There were tons of SAS kids there. Afterwards we stopped at McDonalds for a snack before heading back to the ship and to bed.

Day 2
The next day I got to spend with one of my favorite ladies on the ship-my very own roomie, Julie. A few others joined us as we took on the city of Hong Kong..mostly walking around and just exploring. We went to an art museum and tried some good Chinese food. I packed up my bags for Beijing, and Katie, Kyle and I walked around Hong Kong at night. We went shopping at this night market and ate a hole in the wall restaurant where no one spoke English. I enjoyed some of the many dumplings I consumed in China. Hong Kong is so bright at night! It was a cool experience being on those streets with all the lights, and seeing everything so lively so late, on a week day. We found a hostel after midnight, and went to sleep for a couple hours. The next morning we made our way to the airport, and flew off to Beijing! The airport was HUGE-with 580 gates! The flight by the way was wonderful-since it was international we got food and a great movie selection. :) I forced myself to stay awake and watch a movie because I was just so excited to actually watch a newish movie! The things you take for granted!

Some observations about Hong Kong: bigggg city! Its here where I realized most cities look about the same-all over the world. There was more English speakers here and signs and menus in English than the rest of China (well Hong Kong isn't technically China). This is due to the fact that Hong Kong is very international. A lot of businesses in Hong Kong, and a lot of models come to Hong Kong. There were a whole lot of McDonalds and they had a huge selection of fancy desserts! Alright thats all I have time for now..time to be social and get ready for tonight. It's going to be a great night in San Diego!

Happy Cinco de Mayo-from San Diego!

Here I am, in a McDonalds in San Diego, waiting for RoseMarie, my friend from Semester at Sea. It’s Cinco de Mayo, which means I’ve been off the ship for a few days now. I’m going to spend the day with RoseMarie, and then the night and tomorrow with my friend from SAS, Rheanna and meet up with Julie too! I’m so excited. I miss the ship and everyone on it and everything about it (well except the food ;)) sooo much.  I wish I had time to blog about my feelings leaving, and my summary of the whole semester, what I’ve learned, and how I’ve changed, but things have been crazy. Dad and Uncle Al picked me up from the ship. I was one of the last people off, and was grateful for it. I cried a lot that morning. I wasn’t expecting to be so upset. It was really really sad. Just knowing that it was all over, we wouldn’t be going back after a summer vacation like normal college, and we wouldn’t ever get to be with everyone in the same place, at the same time ever again. So sad!! It’s the first time I’ve gone through something like this. When you leave High School you know you’ll see your friends all together for many more times to come..and college hasn’t ended yet. It was such a weird, morbid feeling. Like someone had died almost. It was just so sad. I’ve really been missing everything about it. It’s such a weird feeling. I was in a car for the first time, where I actually knew the driver..for the first time in 4 months.Weird things like that catch you off gurad..like WHOA..what is this?!

So when Dad and Uncle Al picked me up we went to Coronado Island and went to the famous hotel. I ran into a couple of my friends on the beach-it was so great to see them, since it was a pretty depressing feeling leaving, then headed to my Great Aunt and Uncle’s Bed and Breakfast on the beach in San Diego. There I spent the night in a room by myself for the first time in 4 months-also really weird. I read a map that I had all of my friends sign before leaving. That made me miss them even more, but was so great to read. The next day we headed to LA to check out the apartments I will be living in starting May 2^nd. They’re beautiful! I can’t wait. I then talked to a wedding planner I’m 90% sure I’m interning with this summer-she sounds great and fun and I can’t wait! Its going to be a blast! Then we went to Hollywood Blvd and the famous wax musem. The fake celebrities looked INSANELYreal! It was so weird. Lots of times I couldn’t tell if figures were real or not! Then we headed to a hotel on the way to San Diego, and then yesterday headed to San Clemente, where we stayed the night. We went to the beach there yesterday. Its so beautiful in California. I walked out onto the pier and looked at the ocean, and it reminded me so much of being out in the ocean..my former home. Ugh, it made me miss it so much. This is such a weird adjustment. It’s hard. I want to go back so bad. Now I’m meeting up with Rose Marie..it will be so great to spend time with her and Rheanna and Julie, and try to ignore the fact that SAS is over! We're going to a festival today and continuing to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at night! I’m going to a church in La Jolla tomorrow with Rheanna-one that Seth Nenstiel, my friend from Ithaca told me about like a year and a half ago. After that I think I’m going near LA with another friend from SAS, Bryana, and spending a few days with her at her school. Then I’ll be heading back to San Diego, and staying with my friend Chad from home for a few days..then finally visiting my SAS friend Katie, in Orange, before making my way to LA. So it will be a fun, adventure these next 2 weeks. A lot of thing unknown and unplanned-but I’m excited for the unexpected.

I hope to be able to blog about China, Japan, Hawaii, life on the ship at the end, and my conclusion of the semester as soon as I can-as well as an update on how Cali life is going!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Tomorrow: Final Day of the voyage

Tomorrow is day 105. It's the final day of this epic voyage. It's so
hard to believe. I never thought it would be possible to experience
and achieve all I did in 105 days. It's overwhelming. Since Japan I've
been distracted with finals and schoolwork. As of yesterday at noon, I
completed my last final. I am done with junior year. Next time I'm in
school I'll be a senior. WHAT! Enough of that crazy talk. Can't think
about that quite yet.

So its 10:20 PM over here, our bags have to be packed by noon
tomorrow. Have I started packing? Nope. Whoops. Tonight's going to be
a long night. Everyone on the ship is walking around with maps, asking
friends to sign on an image so familiar to us but means so much more
to us than it ever had before. We just circumnavigated the world. We
did it. In one day we will be in California. In the USA. It's a hard
thing to digest. There have been seminars and talks going on in the
union all day about how to adjust back home, how to deal with reverse
culture shock, how to deal with the frustrations of everyone being so
consumed by technology once again when we spent 3 and a half months
with almost none, and were able to feel more connected than ever
because of that.

What an adjustment it will be. Going from this crazy, unreal, insanely
unique life to going back to life back home. I'm fortunate I get to
ease into it/kind of skip it. I'm going to have an internship in Los
Angeles from May 19-July 29 and I'll be chilling in California from
May 2 until my internship begins. My Dad and Uncle are coming May 2nd,
to see us pull into dock! I'm so excited to see my Dad! They'll be
sticking around San Diego until May 5. After that I don't have plans.
I'll be exploring San Diego/California for a couple weeks. I'm so
excited! I have no plans! A lot of SAS kids are doing the same thing
and are sticking around California for a bit. I met quite a people who
live in California as well, so I'll be hanging out with a bunch of
different people. I'm excited that I get to have what I call a next
port. Life in California will be extremely different from upstate NY
life, so it'll almost be like a different country in some aspects. One
of my best friends, Julianne, is going to be living with me in LA and
will have an internship as well. I'm so excited to have many
adventures with her and to live with her for the first time since
freshmen year! A lot of exciting things ahead, even though this
voyage is coming to an end.

My thoughts about this voyage ending are summed up pretty well in a
Dr. Seuss quote that I love and was in the Dean's Memo (daily email we
get) today. It goes like this: Don't be sad its over, be happy it
happened. That's how I feel mostly! It definitely is incredibly
bittersweet, but to focus on the sadness of it being over is not
right. This was 3 and a half months-so long! And its such a blessing
and privilege to have such a long time to travel and explore the
world! If it was longer, I wouldn't be able to appreciate it as much.
It was already becoming too normal to wake up, look out my window and
say "Oh hey there Hong Kong." Such a crazy life! It's sad to leave
friends, but I'll see a lot of them in San Diego for a week, and a lot
of them live in California so I'll be able to visit during the summer.
I also would say that for the most part I did not make as crazy close
connections with individuals on the ship as I did back at Ithaca and
back home. A lot of this has to do with being on a ship with 600
people, where it makes individual bonding difficult, as everything is
really a group hangout. I'm relieved I didn't make friendships with
people that tore me apart to leave, like I think I would feel like if
I met some of my Ithaca friends on the ship and they left forever. So
anyways, I would say I have just about the perfect attitude about the
voyage coming to end. I feel that it is very bittersweet, but I knew
it would be that way, and I was prepared for it, so I'm not going
through shock..at least yet. I feel so grateful for every single
amazing moment I had on this voyage, and I think it was exactly the
perfect length. I have no regrets, and I just feel so blessed with how
everything worked out, how I changed, the lessons I learned, the
people who touched my life, and the roller-coasters I went through,
that made me who I am today.

So finals ended yesterday and we celebrated our voyage by having an
Alumni Ball. We all got dressed up and watched a movie that Ryan, a
student made. I got to say a line in India in the movie. The ship
photographer also made a slideshow. It was wonderful and emotional to
watch both. We then headed into the dining hall which was transformed
and was decorated beautifully. We were served a delicious dinner and I
had such an amazing time, reminiscing about our favorite moments, and
when we first met each other. We then had a dessert buffet and then
headed up to the 7th deck for a dance party! We danced as the wind
blew through our hair and sang our hearts out for one last time on the
ship. It was a wonderful night.

I didn't get a chance to write about China, Japan or Hawaii yet. They
were all amazing, and I will write about them when I get time in
California. Tomorrow is convocation. It will be quite an emotional
day. The following day we leave the ship and greet our parents! It's
going to be a crazy next couple of days, with little sleep and lots of
emotion!

Feel free to call or text or facebook me as of May 2nd! I will finally
be able to be contacted in other ways than email once again!

California, here I come!

Vietnam Pictures

Magic in Vietnam

Day 1

I spent the first day in Vietnam with Allie, Andrea, Katie and Mica. Our first stop was a cute coffee shop in Ho Chi Minh City. We climbed up a spiral staircase, got a window seat and enjoyed some iced coffee. After that we searched for a place to get a massage, mani and pedi. A spa day is a must in Vietnam because it's incredibly cheap. We found a place that gave us a full body w/oil 1 hour massage, mani and pedi for $17. After getting pampered, we headed for some food and found this Vietnamese healthy restaurant and had some Phu (viatnemese soup), and some delicious freshly squeezed fruit juices. I can't get enough of that here in Asia so far. About 10 or so senior citizens from France came in the restaurant. We started singing "Freira jacqua (totally butchered the spelling)" and as if it were rehearsed they all started singing along with us within 2 seconds. And they sang their hearts out! It was so funny! After that we found a fro-yo place and then headed to find a tailor. The other thing to do in Vietnam is find a tailor and get a custom-made dress because they do it for crazy cheap. Andrea, Katie and I bought fabric for cheap in India and wanted to get a dress made out of that fabric here in Vietnam. We didn't have much luck for a lot of the day but found shops to browse in. We stumbled upon this gorgeous restaurant with tons of Christmas tree lights draped from trees outside. We were sold by the beautiful ambiance so we headed in. It was a bbq place where they served you your food raw and you cooked your food on the table you were eating at where there was a grill. I had a great time with the girls! The food was great, and the atmosphere was amazing. We headed back by 12 or so and stumbled upon a hopping club right near the ship on our way back. The walkway to the club had tons and tons of Christmas lights. Inside was insane. I've never been in such a cool club. It was like it was out of a movie. It was huge, the lights were insane, there were booths with tables, tons of workers, dancers on this huge stage in the middle, and insanely loud music. We left after a few minutes though because we had to get up at 3:30 to head to the airport.

Day 2

We started our day crazy early and spent a lot of the 2^nd day traveling. Katie, Andrea, Mica and I flew to Hanoi. Mica was on a flight that arrived later than ours, and while we were waiting we stumbled into Gabby and Kyle (girls from the ship that I knew, but not very well). They ended up traveling with us the rest of the time. Kyle wanted to travel by herself, but Gabby wanted the very opposite, so for both of them, it worked out great that they ran into us. We took a 50 minute taxi to the bus station and then took 2 different busses for a total of 4 hours. Then we took a ferry to Cat Ba Island (less touristy part of Ha Long Bay) and finally arrived by 4PM. We found a nice place to eat on the 2^nd floor on a balcony overlooking the shore. We enjoyed lunch and then talked to the workers of the tour company within the restaurant/hotel we were eating at. The main guy graduated from Cornell! Small world! We had to change our flight, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to spend the night on a junk boat. Thankfully it was easy to change the flight and we booked a junk boat for the next day and night. We found a hotel nearby for that night that only cost $4 for a night! A really nice room too! Everything is just so cheap in Vietnam. We met a really sweet couple from Australia who were on their honeymoon.  We talked to them for a while and bought real pearls off the street for really cheap. Then we went back to the hotel/restaurant where we ate and booked our stuff earlier and met a guy from California and one from Australia and chatted with them for a while. One of the guys we met from Germany took us to the roof of the building and we looked over the pretty lights of small Cat Ba, reflecting on the lake before heading back to our hotel for the night.

Day 3

We got on our junkboat early the next morning. When we were about to head out to it, the nice guy from Cornell said that they could build us a fire on a private beach as long as we gave them a good recommendation on trip advisor. The night before, Andrea was kind of jokingly saying "Can we have a fire on a beach." We were totally not expecting him to take it seriously, but to our great surprise, he did. That doesn't ever happen, and we also asked to go on a hike, and they found a place for us to hike on our journey, and to save us money they said we could sleep on the day boat instead of the night boat with rooms and beds. Sleeping in the day boat meant that we would sleep on the roof of the junkboat. We thought that sounded like a great adventure, so we happily agreed! The junkboat was beautiful. It was dark wood, the inside had about 6 tables and booths, and there were benches on the roof. The six of us shared the junkboat with about 8 others. We met 2 guys from Greece, Nikolas and Kostas. They both went to MIT for engineering and are now in San Francisco and New York, one of who is teaching. I had a nice time chatting with Nikolas. We exchanged info at the end of the trip, so now I have a place to stay in Greece when I visit someday.

Ha Long Bay is gorgeous. We were cruising in between hundreds of these tall, steep islands. It's nothing but us and nature. At first we passed fishing villages along the water. It was so mysterious and beautiful. It was cloudy and a little misty the whole time, but it made it magical and mysterious. They dropped us off at Cat Ba National Park, where we hiked to a village. The village was really tiny and had one tiny little "store" and otherwise just houses. No cars passed along through as we hiked through. Residents were sitting on the floors of their houses eating lunch. There were puppies all around! Apparently its common to eat dogs in Vietnam..I was hoping those puppies were not for dinner! On the hike back Andrea and I caught a ride on a motorbike with 2 Vietnamese ladies, so there were four of us on one motorbike. It was a blast! The 2 ladies then went back and gave our friends a ride. We then hopped back onto the junkboat and traveled a little further into beautiful Cat Ba and continued to be blown away by the beautiful, enchanting islands. Then came one of my favorite moments. They threw the anchor down in the middle of the a dreamlike scene, and we climbed into kayaks. Gabby and I then took off and explored what seemed like heaven. Its so hard to explain this experience, other than to say it was magical. We explored edges of the islands and went under arches. That was just..MAGICAL. It really was. We were just exploring, with nothing around besides other kayakers. We would get up close to the steep, rocky islands, and would go underneath what was something like caves.  When we were exploring up close we found some sand, and some light that came down on the sand. It appeared that there was a little area of land underneath an arch/hole that was only big enough to crawl under. I said, lets see whats on the other side! So we got out of our canoes and hunched over to get under the arch and on the other side was this small little area of sand and shells that was surrounded by the rocky island and trees and nature. It was an unbelievable, ecstatic feeling to discover this beautiful little place that was so untouched. We felt like we discovered it. I collected a bunch of sea shells from this special place, and we headed back into our canoe to explore some more. We went to a beautiful, private tiny beach that we discovered before it was time to go back to the junk boat. I could've spent hours kayaking and exploring. It was so amazing!! It was incredible to be in nature with nothing else around and no distractions. It was just nature and me and there was so much beauty to explore!

The junkboat headed back to drop off everyone on the junkboat besides Andrea, Katie, Kyle, Mica, Gabby and I, because everyone else was doing a dayboat tour, but we were spending the night on it. We talked one of the workers from Germany, Daniel, into coming back to our junkboat for the night and hanging out with us and Lee, the other worker. We headed back into the middle of paradise, surrounded by the majestic islands and threw an anchor down while dinner was made for us. The dinner was so delicious! I ate squid for the first time! I've become more daring when it comes to food than I ever thought I would be. One of the workers on our junkboat, Chung, who he told us to call him Cocoa, was the tallest Vietnamese guy I've ever seen. He was about 6'6 or so and spoke decent English. He was sooo funny. He made us laugh a whole lot, just being himself. After dinner, the workers on the boat made our "beds" upstairs on the roof. They put a tarp over the beds, and put down pads and flowery bedspreads that looked like they bought for us just that day! We were so appreciative, and felt so grateful and they were just so kind and adorable that we wanted to thank them in some way. They did not speak English, so we had to get creative. Someone got the idea to sing the song L.O.V.E. "L is for the way you look at me…" and spell out the letters with our arms. So we very enthusiastically sang and performed for them. They loved it!

Then came one of the most amazing, magical experiences for me. Cheng brought us over to the edge of the boat and took an oar and splashed it around in the water. The water lit up and glowed! There was phytoplankton in the water which causes particles in the water to glow when hit. We were AMAZED by this! It was like there were fire flies in the water. It was really bright lights. Apparently it was rare to see them this clear too. We got lucky because it was a dark night. I couldn't stop splashing the water and watching the magic! It really felt like magic. I'd never heard of this or seen anything like it! It was like Tinker Bell swimming around in the water, spreading her pixy dust wherever you touched the water.

 Lee and Daniel, the German workers rode out to our junkboat on a little motorboat at about midnight. We took this little boat, driven by a Vietnamese guy they apparently just found to drive them, to a private beach! Once again..so magical. The moon was shining down on us at this private beach in the middle of beautiful Cat Ba. You can see the beautiful islands outlined, even though it was dark out. I ran to the water and splashed the water with my feet, kicking the water and throwing rocks in the water. I did this for a long time..I was so mesmerized by the magical water!! I couldn't get enough of it! Cheng made the fire for us and we all gathered around it and chatted and hung out. It was beautiful. A moment I'll never forget. After a while we headed back to our junkboat. You could still see the outline and shadows of the beautiful islands. I watched them in awe for a while in our "beds" on the roof of the junkboat, before falling asleep. 

Day 4

I don't think I've woken up in a more beautiful place in my life. Wow. I wish I could describe the feeling. It's like you think you must be dreaming still. Matt, Daniel and Cheng came up and chatted with us on the roof about last night as we headed back. Daniel said "It was definitely the top 5 best days of my life!" When we got back, we got breakfast, and then decided to rent motorbikes for the day! None of us had driven a motorbike before! Mica opted to find someone to drive her around because she didn't trust herself. Gabby was pretty scared, but tried it. I was a little apprehensive, but felt daring. It cost like a couple dollars to rent them for the day. Gabby had a rough time with it. When completely stopped and trying to put her foot down, the motorbike fell on her..twice. A lot of the time there was no one in sight, just me, on a motorbike, in the middle of Vietnam..driving through crowded streets, driving by school kids, passing by busses, driving through beautiful nature, up mountains with amazing views of luscious greenery. This was definitely risky. There are like no laws…I mean they just handed us motorbikes, with no instruction really. They didn't ask to see a license or anything. We'd never driven one before and they just let us ride around their community. There is like no organization when it comes to vehicles. There aren't like dotted lines to pass..you just beep your horn when you want to pass and then do it. We rode around the beautiful countryside for two hours. It was so much fun! On our way back, Gabby and I took the wrong turn and lost the others who were no where in sight. Luckily we figured out the way back. It's crazy..not having a phone..almost no one speaking English. God was with us that day!

 When we got back it was time to catch a bus to begin our journey to the airport and back to Ho Chi Minh. Kyle and I are out of money but every ATM was broken! Luckily the Greek guys we met the day before were on the same bus and lent us money. The bus was so crowded the left the door open and had 2 guys standing in the doorway. Beeps are heard constantly in Vietnam. There's not really order, so everyone just beeps. When we got to the bus stop we ate at a hole in the wall type place again where we ate on our way to Cat Ba. We felt really grateful for the lady putting up with us and being difficult, not speaking English. To show our gratitude we sang and performed L.O.V.E. for her.

 We smushed 6 of us into a little cab to the airport, after bargaining for ever with many cab drivers trying to get our business. When we got to Ho Chi Minh we needed a cab to the ship. We performed yet again L.O.V.E., this time in hopes of reducing a cab fare! When we got back, we went out to the fancy, huge club we stumbled upon the first night in Ho Chi Minh. A lot of SAS kids were there. I danced a while and then headed back to the ship for the night.

Day 5

The final Day, Katie, Kyle and I went to get the dresses we had tailor made. They came out pretty well. Mine is bright pink, with gold embroidery, and goes to the floor with a plunging front and back. It was cool to design a dress and see it come out pretty well! For the rest of the day we shopped around, and ate a restaurant and had delicious rice inside of a pineapple.

Some observations I made in Vietnam

-No police. I didn't see police anywhere. There aren't really laws that are enforced I guess. I mean they just let a bunch of American girls who don't know what they're doing ride motorbikes. A realization we had in Vietnam was that America is so socially loose (women's rights, homosexuality) but we're so politically strict (laws such as driving and drinking). The opposite was the case for almost every country I went to

-Everyone rides motorbikes. Everyone! Babies are on them, whole families are on them, four people on at once. The highways are packed with them.

Vietnam was amazing. I've had that "I can't believe this real," overwhelmingly happy, blessed and joyful feeling in most ports, and that for me was the MAGICAL day and night in gorgeous Cat Ba. With traveling comes obstacles though, and there were some on our great journey. Through traveling I've learned that the smaller the group THE BETTER. 6 was a lot, and it means a lot less quiet time. I've realized how important it is to really absorb and take in what you're seeing and experiencing, and you can't do that while talking to another, about some random topic that doesn't apply to the moment you're in and the place you're in and most likely will never be in again. I learned a lot from traveling with this group. There was some venting and complaining about one of the girls. At one point people kept agreeing and kept complaining and complaining and saying basically the same thing over and over again but in different ways. When I observed this, it made me realize how this was actually pretty unnecessary and that there was all this negative energy and thoughts going on in the middle of this BEAUTIFUL place, that was just not worth it! I've learned so much about being positive, and how valuable it is. Yes, venting is necessary time and can be healthy. But when it turns into gossiping, and cattiness…it is just not good!

In Vietnam I learned a lot about by myself by being around others. I learned what I value, and why I value it. I was always big on positivity, but here I started seeing HOW important it was. How negative talk and thoughts just are not worth it. I realized how important it was to soak up this beautiful blessing that was giving to me as much as possible, and to do that you have to be quiet sometimes and let your senses take over. I feel so blessed to have experienced all of the magic in Cat Ba! I couldn't believe how everything worked out-how God blessed so, and kept us safe and together on the motorbikes, Gabby and Kyle would've been alone and things would've been bad if it was just the 2 of them but Mica had to take a different flight so we were waiting for her and ran into Kyle and Gabby, and everything worked out with the flight back, and the magical day in Cat Ba. God was everywhere! This was our first experience traveling far independently. With it came challenges-we changed our flight-and everything worked out. If we hadn't, I wouldn't have had the magical day I did. I feel so blessed to experience that magic, and to learn all I did, through people, and to be able to see the positive in any negatives. One of the biggest ways I saw God in Vietnam was that He had a plan, a perfect plan. It was so evident that everything happened for a reason!

Literally the Longest Year of my life :)

So this is the longest year of my life! Why? Because on the ship there
are 2 April 20ths! We're 15 hours ahead from the east coast now and
its currently April 20th. Tomorrow we go ahead another hour, but have
a second April 20th. So tomorrow we'll be behind the east coast
instead of ahead. Anyways this is also a leap year so I'm living the
longest year I'll probably ever live. :)

I've been on the ship for 6 days since Japan. Hard to believe-it
really has flown by! Its been super busy here on the ship. We didn't
have classes for 3 weeks straight just about(while we were traveling
in Vietnam, China and Japan), so now we're drowning in work and
responsibilities, and finals are within a week. On top of the school
work, I've had to deal with registering with classes, finding places
to intern this summer, and I just finished up sending out e-mails to 7
event planning companies. Fingers crossed!

Anyways, with all these big girl responsibilities, I'm left with no
time for blogging about the past MONTH! Oh so much has happened.
Luckily I've jotted some things down in journal along the way to jog
my memory when I can finally blog! Hopefully I can bang out Vietnam in
the next couple days despite all the school work (and hopefully sunny
days) coming my way.

Speaking of sunny days, today it was sunny and warm and beautiful and
boy was I a happy girl. Up until about mid-Vietnam or China there were
only a couple cloudy days that we experienced this whole semester.
East Asia was very NY-springtime-ish, and therefore there was a lot of
rain and lack of sun. Since we got on the ship in Japan it has been
cloudy every day! It was a different lifestyle completely! Every other
day on the ship prior to the past 5 days I'd spend at least a few
hours outside, but the past 5 days consisted of me taking at least an
hour nap every day and spending a lot more time in my little cabin. I
was really itching for the sun, and today there was not a cloud in the
sky! We enjoyed it by hitting a volleyball around in the pool for
about an hour! So much fun!

So I've got a couple days to write some essays and finish up work and
then I'm in Hilo, Hawaii for a day! (April 25th) Then I'm headed home!
I'll be in San Diego in 12 days. Can't believe it! I'll give my
thoughts about coming home and leaving this dream after I write about
Asia.

Oh so much to write about, so little time!