MobileMe Gallery – Check (1 item)

MobileMe Gallery – Check (1 item)

Moving West

This is my first entry in a while and will probably be my last for this adventure. I'm sorry I did not write for Turkey but with finals and everything I just didn't have time to write it all down. For those of you who sent me birthday wishes yesterday, thank you. Everyone on the ship was wonderful and my roommate even surprised me with treats! I felt thoroughly loved and happily began my 22nd year of life. Unfortunately that means that today is April 17th and we have only about a day and half still on board. The ocean is waving us goodbye with some serious rocking, which seems only fitting. We have rounded southwest Europe and are heading in close to the French shore. Packing is driving everyone crazy and my room, which has remained rather clean throughout the journey, looks as if it exploded. I must admit I am at a loss. This experience use been unlike anything I could have dreamed. It has been challenging and exciting. It has required me to look at myself and the world in which I live and draw real conclusions. I could never regret choosing to come on TSS. It wasn't always easy but will remain as one of the best decisions I could have made. I am reminded of an e.e. cummings poem

i carry your heart with me by E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

From the people I have met to the places I have been each is part of me and never can they be separated. I don't think I will fully comprehend the significance of such an event until I return home, expecting to find everything the same when it will really all be different simply because I am different. Although every second I am growing more and more nostalgic I must admit that I am excited to go home, to see my family, and my friends. And I know it sounds corny but to tell the stories from this journey. It's been a beautiful voyage and like they keep telling us... the journey is only beginning. I feel quite privileged to be one of the 350 students in the world who knows what its like to be on TSS. Being part of the first year has been great and I know it will only improve from here. It's time for me to go. Tomorrow is my last day here on the ship and I want to be able to wake up and take it all in.

Sick in Spain

My days here in Spain have been predominantly spent wandering around the beautiful city in a stupor. Unfortunately, I have been sick for most of my time here, making it difficult for me to really get a feel for this culturally rich metropolis. We arrived on Good Friday to find most of the city quiet with the holiday weekend. After meandering down Las Ramblas, a main tourist street near the port, we set our sights on Segrada Familia and Park Guell. Bumming around Barcelona is extremely easy once you get the metro system down. It's quite clean and very quiet compared to Chicago's. Unfortunately, were not able to go up to the top of Segrada Familia, however, the unfinished cathedral certainly made its mark in my mind. In fact, I was having flashbacks of walking around the melted looking structure during my last visit seven years ago. It was amazing to see the difference between new and old and the efforts they were taking to restore and complete one of Gaudi's masterpieces. The outside reminded me of bones while the clean finished inside with bright stain glass windows was quite ethereal. My favorite part was seeing the comparison of the building's structure with the natural elements that inspired Gaudi.

Too Many Days at Sea

They have done a good job at keeping us busy but no matter how you fill the time 14 days on a boat is A LOT! A week ago we had a beautiful wedding on board the ship. It was all pretty exciting and everyone needed the little break. The bride was beautiful in her pink, orange, and yellow traditional Thai dress, and the groom was dressed in a coordinating orange Indian dress shirt and pants. Everything worked out wonderfully. Other than that we have been plugging away. I have been working with Yas, a career counselor on the ship, who has helped me revamp my resume and cover letters to look for internships for the summer. School is certainly piling up and the stress level is beginning to heighten. Our day in Cape Verde was very much appreciated but after 8 hours we had to be back on the ship until Barcelona. I haven't made too many plans for Spain but I don't have an AFP so I will have a entire week to figure everything out. Unfortunately, I will have to spend a day or two to do research for my projects. So much to do and so little time. Everything feels as if it is ending and even though we have a month left people keep looking ahead trying to plan their next steps. I'm sorry I haven't written much but with all the final projects and papers to do I have little time and when I do my words don't seem to come our right.

Cape Town and Beyond

After being the organizer of the first three days I was happy to relinquish all control on the fourth day in Cape Town. We picked up our rented car Ryan and I made our way to pick up one of his friends who had been living in Cape Town working in a program called Africa Jam which provides a safe interactive space for teens living in the townships to be creative through dance, art, music, theatre, etc. The three of us headed off to Stellenbosch and then Parrl to meet up with other friends of Ryan's (he's been here a number of times) and go wine tasting. i have never been wine tasting but it Boschendall seemed like the idyllic place for a first timer. As we sat under the huge oak tree sipping our varieties of wine the mountains rose in the distance beyond the rows of leafy green grape vines. It truly was picturesque.
For dinner we had a Gatsby, and if you ever go to Cape Town you must try it! This sandwich was the largest thing I have ever seen. It looks like a large sub-sandwich however it is filled with pulled chicken, lettuce, tomato, some sauce they call Portuguese sauce, french fries and who knows what else. It was absolutely glorious and I am drooling now just thinking of it! From the sophistication of wine tasting to yummy greasy food I enjoyed every second.

Sunday morning was a lazy one, hanging around the waterfront enjoying the day. However, that afternoon I, along with Brooke and Michelle, trekked up Table Mountain. If you Google image search "Cape Town" I am sure one of the first views you will see is that of this beautifully plateaued mountain in the center of the city. We couldn't have picked a more perfect day. Most days the clouds come pouring over the mountain appearing to be its tablecloth; however, on Sunday, none were in site. We wanted to make it in time for sunset but we had to time it just right because sunset is around 7:20pm and the last cable car down is at 7:30pm. The hike was aw-inspiring and both the view and difficulty took my breath away. In all honesty, it wasn't too difficult but something you certainly don't want to rush. We reached the top just in time to hear the announcement that the ticket office would be closing in 5 minuets, watched the sun go down, and were down the mountain by 7:35pm.

Monday and most of Tuesday were spent on SAFARI! We gathered on the bus and drove the 2 1/2 hours to Aquila Game Reserve. I, not getting must sleep the night before, slept the entire way! You come to find, after traveling around for bit, that when you sit down on the bus or in a car, you take the time to doze because you don't know when you will get another chance. The reserve consisted of a number of large gates, thatch covered small buildings, and a breath-taking view. We had lunch, settled into our rooms, and reclined by the pool waiting for our 5pm game drive. Between the Monday night ride and the 6am ride the next morning we saw everything: giraffe, lions, springbuck, buffalo, zebra, wildebeast, hippos, rhinos, and even elephants - along with a number of animals I could not identify. Aquila is a small reserve that just made its start 7 years ago. They are working to get more and more animals and hoping they will mate in the reserve. Because of a lot of the settlement in Cape Town many of the animals were forced north and have not returned so the reserve is trying to bring back animals that were once native to the area. In fact, while on the reserve I saw a rhino that the guide referred to as a baby, which I didn't entirely understand because he was so large! However, apparently he is the first white rhino to be born in the Western Cape in nearly 300 years!!!

We return to Cape Town with a couple of hours to grab the necessities and jump on the ship. Due to high winds we were advised to stay docked until the port authority determined it safe to leave the harbor. I must admit, I was quite sad to leave Cape Town. It was a beautiful city and one I hope to return to. I met the friendlies people and fell in love with everything that i did.

Getting back on the ship has been a new experience. We are more than halfway now and officially only have a month left of school. Everything is just flying by. Most of the time, when you talk to people who have studied abroad they feel obligated to say it is the most amazing time of their lives, which is true in my case as well, but that doesn't discount the fact that it can be difficult. Day in and day out on the ship can be monotonous and I miss the simply pleasure of taking a walk, or going out to lunch, or even sitting in a park with my book. This will be the longest stretch we are onboard and know by the time we hit Spain everyone will be ready for a break. However, they are keeping up quite busy. Things have really started to pick up in school and we are getting down to the wire with papers, tests, and projects. In two days there will actually be a wedding on the ship! One of my professors is marrying her longtime partner. It's pretty cute and we are all pitching in to help out with the big day. Then we will have a 12 hour stint in Cape Verde, where I hope to try surfing again and then back to the classroom and off to Spain.

We pass the time by studying, or pretending to study, and religiously checking our emails. So if you get bored and have a few tid-bits to share, I would love to hear how everyone is doing. To whomever reads this and wherever it reaches you I hope this finds to healthy and happy.

Falling in Love

I have fallen in love and I don't care who knows it. Cape Town is amazing! My days here have been packed full and each event has been worth while. We arrived on Wednesday, February 27 and although there was a bit of fog that delayed are docking (seems like that damn fog follows us everywhere) we were able to get off the ship by 10am. My first day was spent wandering around the V&A Waterfront and planning the rest of the week. My dad set me up with Anton, the son of a man he knows through business, who couldn't have been lovelier. He helped us plan the rest of our week and has been a wonderful asset hooking us up with guides and places to go. Following our meeting with Anton we head to the Slave Lodge, which is the oldest building in Cape Town. It has since been turned into a museum, however, in its day the building housed and sold all the slaves that were brought through the cape. After which we scurried back to the ship, changed for hiking and were off to Lion's Head for sunset. The hike is only about 40 minutes to an hour and we reached the top just in time to see the sun go down. Luckily we brought flashlights or else we would have never made it all the way to the bottom.

Day two we hooked up with Gavin from Xtreme Adventure who organized for us to go surfing! Being from the Midwest there isn't a huge opportunity to learn to surf so I was pretty amazed when I got up on my second wave. Of course the waves were not very large and we were learning on an 8 foot foam board but still I'm pretty pumped about it and could have continued all day. The rest of our day consisted of driving around the beautiful Cape Peninsula where we visited Cape Point, a nature reserve, ostrich farm, and saw the penguins at Boulder Beach. A few things to remember when dealing with wild animals... never get too close. Apparently ostriches will eat anything and everything, in fact one lunged at my camera as I tried to take its picture.

My third day was spent wandering through the townships with a local guide, Thabang. For those unfamiliar, the townships in Cape Town were established during Apartheid as undeveloped areas designated as "non-white" communities. Today the neighborhoods of Cape Town are still divided predominantly based on color but more specifically on social class. There is of course the white areas then in the townships are the colored and black. Being from the US the term "colored" has been one I have had to get used to, however, here it refers to people of mix origins or those who are not black and not white. During segregation, if a white person were to married a non-white they would be "demoted" to colored status.

Our visit began in Khayelistsha at a pre-school and kindergarten and a co-op started by the neighborhood. The children were beautiful and so excited to see us. They sang us songs, posed for pictures and played games with us. I am convinced that no matter what you do you will generally reflect that attitude of the children you meet. After relishing in the grinning faces of children ages 4 to 7 we walked across the street to a co-op where local goods and art projects were on display. Khayelistsha is one of the black townships and one of the better off of the tin-housed neighborhoods. We later visited Vikki's B&B, which boasts to be the smallest hotel in South Africa. Here we met the owner and manager Vikki. She has turned her home into a two bedroom bed and breakfast that brings tourists into the neighborhood. She has had visitors from all over the world each contributing to the area in their own way. Anyone is welcome to come stay with Vikki as she encourages foreigners to live daily life in the townships. She explained to us that in the beginning her neighbors did not understand what she was trying to accomplish and were angry that she wanted to bring "outsiders" into their lives. However, after speaking with her I have understood that because of these travelers the community has been able to finance a number of small businesses, a preschool, and a skills school that teaches things such as sewing to the girls in the neighborhood so they might have a marketable trade in order to get a job.

Following Khayelistsha we visited Langa, the oldest and most populated of the townships. Here we met with locals and visited a local medicine man. His dark, musty garage of a storefront housed plants, dried fruits and vegetables, roots, animals and lord knows what else. A man standing only a few inches taller than myself wearing the pelt of some animal on his head the a belt of wood and bones to ward off illness enlightened us on the many ways to cure aliments ranging from a headache to making someone fall in love with you.

After the township visit, as I walked through the renowned District Six Museum, I realized how peaceful the entire day had been. Not that I expected violence by any means however, my guide and the museum didn't touch on it at all. The displacement of the non-whites during the late 1950s and early 60s was not exactly peaceful nor was the way in which the government kept order during the Apartheid movement. However, when asking Thabang he said that Nelson Mandela taught them to forgive and move on from the hatred. Although I believe that to be their hope, to one day evolve past the pain of Apartheid, it is not yet a reality. But there is certainly reason for hope.

The Channel of Mozambique

Our break in the beautiful Seychelles was wonderful but far too short. We spent the two days wandering the small main island of Mahe traveling from one white sandy beach to another. Now, back on the boat, school has hit me full force. Traveling to Cape Town has been an adventure in itself. Originally the ship was supposed to cruise around the western coast of Madagascar, however, due to cyclones in the area we took a turn toward more protected waters, passing between Madagascar and the coast of eastern Africa. However, we still caught a decent amount of backlash from the storms. Last night we all stood out on the back deck watching an electrical storm light up the sky. Shortly there after it began to downpour and the back deck became a slip n' slide! Watching a storm at sea is beautiful, however, seasickness is certainly one of the drawbacks to studying on a ship. Although I haven't been sick it certainly isn't a natural feeling to constantly pitch and roll with the waves, not to mention trying to read, pay attention in class, and take tests while it is going on.