In Reflection...

I am excited to come home, but I can imagine I will miss it here a lot. Its interesting how quickly the ship becomes home to all of us. Upon seeing the ship after a grueling hike on Mount Vesuvius or my long trip in Egypt, I remember thinking “ahhh, finally, I am home!” At this point, I cannot imagine not going somewhere new each day, experiencing a culture entirely different from my own, and being utterly swept up. I was looking at the map Autumn and I hung in our room, charting our voyage as we went along, and it astounds me how little of the world we actually saw. Sure, its more traveling than most people will do in their lifetime, but its so little in the grand scheme of things. It makes the idea of global citizenship even more relevant in my mind, because we are a part of the world, not just the USA.

There are a lot of little things about the ship I will miss. For instance, I love walking around and seeing all of the different t-shirts and soccer jerseys for each of the previous ports that people wear everyday. I will miss passing Delroy at the Piano Bar and giving him a hard time for working too much. I will miss getting my mealtime calls from my friends to meet on Deck 5 (I will not miss the food!). I enjoy my ritual of walking into the dining hall and getting hand sanitizer from the strategically placed dispensers. I will miss not being able to go out on the deck and sit for hours, starring into the never ending abyss. I will miss hearing Dia come over the intercom everyday, always starting with GOOD EVENING (or AFTERNOON) VOYAGERS, giving us the latest statistics on our progress and announcing the evenings events. I will miss the little bit of satisfaction of reading the dean’s memo everyday for what movies will be playing that night.

I will really miss the environment on the ship. Everyone here is really geared towards learning. If SMU held the same optional seminars that are held on this ship, they wouldn’t have even half the number of people who show up. I thought, surely, it would die off by the end, but it didn’t! Every “Explorer Seminar” was packed. The seminars ranged from discussions on Human Rights, to architecture in Spain, to entrepreneurship, to the Hip-Hop culture in Morocco, to female circumcision and human trafficking issues the world is facing. I will miss going to pre-port before we get to a new country and trying to guess the population amongst other statistics for a bag of M&Ms, or hearing our crazy on-ship doctor talk about wearing condoms and avoiding travelers diarrhea (included but not limited to: Turkey Trot, Pharaohs Revenge, and the Moroccan Mudslide).

When this trip began, I knew exactly who I was and exactly what I believed, but it has all changed in just 67 days. I am still essentially the same person, but I have changed more than I ever expected. I understand now how important it is to reassess and seriously question your own beliefs, even if its frustrating. My thirst for knowledge has grown exponentially, especially when it comes to language. Traveling has become a need as opposed to a want. I learned how to be a traveler instead of a tourist, how to really adapt to a culture and understand that the world isn’t full of people just like me. I have been reaffirmed that the heart of life is good and that most people in this world are well-intended. I made some of the best friends I have ever had. It is hard to believe how quickly you get to know people when you travel together. I feel like I have known Sarah and Audrey my whole life and I am so excited that they live only 20 minutes from me in Dallas! Coming back to a place that is essentially the same as when I left it, I can’t help but be a little scared as to how I will fit. Don’t jump to think that I am a completely different person, its just that I have such new perspectives and have experienced so much, I can’t begin to think how I will be able to explain it to anyone. The only way I can describe it at this point is that this truly was the solitary, absolute, BEST experience I have ever had!

Its my BIRTHDAY!

August 15, 1989 may have been the greatest day in earth’s history. Why you ask? Well, isn’t it obvious? I was born on that extraordinary day 20 years ago. My birthday started off with 8 a.m. Oceanography class. I didn’t particularly want to get up for it, but I made the sacrifice as it was our last day of class. After that, I decided to relax and watch a movie. So many things started to go right from then on out. I had a hot stone massage that was absolutely incredible, followed by my philosophy class being out on the deck. Dinner that night was one of the best we have had on the ship, and my friends got me cookies that were fresh out of the oven, and we had cake! That night, we were informed that the ship’s lights would be turned off for star gazing. Sarah, Audrey, and I headed up to the starboard side of Deck 7, got yoga mats to lay on, and were amazed by the universe that hung in our reach. We are thousands of miles away from land in every direction, so I don’t know that there is any comparison to this kind of star gazing. It was one of those moments where everything makes sense, stress was instantaneously gone, and instead of feeling small and insignificant, oddly you feel full of purpose and meaning. It is so incredible to me that even when we are in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, this program can still provide us with those “once in a lifetime” experiences. Needless to say, I had a wonderful birthday!

You Shouldn't Drink and Drive Camels

In the nights leading up to our final port, we had a shipboard auction to help raise money for the scholarship fund. Everyone had number paddles and only four had stars on the back, which meant you got a free prize. I was one of those four! Woohoo, the prize was small, a thermos from Greece, but still awesome! Also, we had movie nights where Casablanca played. I watched it three times! I love that movie, and we were right around the corner from porting in Casablanca. Again, our first morning I woke up early and headed to the starboard side of the fifth deck dining room to get on my SAS trip. I had a lot of friends going on the trip so I was very excited. The morning was horrendously unplanned though and it took about four hours to finally get on the busses. There were 7 tour guides for 200 students, spread throughout 16 minibuses. My bus had a lot of the same people from my Egypt trip, so I was excited to hang out with them again. We spent 4 hours driving to Marrakech and stopped about 3 times along the way, each stop lasted a minimum of 30 minutes. It was kind of frustrating. After we finally got to Marrakech we had lunch in the main square and then had free time to go shopping. I got a sweet awesome CD of Arabic and French hip hop that I have been listening to religiously. That night we went to a Horse Fantasia which was fun, but kind of disappointing. The cool part lasted about 20 minutes of the 4 hour experience and was the riding tricks the horse riders did. They did handstands, jumped from one side to the other while the horses were galloping, it was crazy!

The next morning we had a 6 a.m. wake up call to drive to Zagora. Zagora was 8 hours away, not including stops. My bus leaders could possibly have been the most annoying couple I have ever met. The woman in particular was rude and fulfilled the typical Asian stereotype. I didn’t let this stop me from having a good time, it just made it more difficult. When we finally reached Zagora, we were informed that the nomads didn’t have enough camels for all of us, so we could only trek half way and then switch with people walking. Let me just say, it is the Sahara, walking in sand is difficult, especially in 130 degree heat. We finally reached the Nomad village after about 45 minutes and riding the camel was awesome! Walking really wasn’t all that bad. The village was so cool, and the Nomads immediately welcomed us with folklore dancing and singing. I got to dance with them multiple times! At 9 p.m. we had a delicious nomad dinner that resembled pot roast. It was scrumptious! Dessert was fresh watermelon that was incredible. After eating, Audrey and I laid out on the carpets around the campfire, and looked at the stars. I have never seen so many. It was so cool since we were away from all life forms and lights for hundreds of miles. The tents were very nice, each with 7 mattresses, which I was not expecting. Around 1 a.m. things started to go downhill. I was rudely awakened by a group of about 15 “SASholes” who were extremely drunk and running around, screaming, like idiots. Long story short, they were incredibly rude, offended the nomads so much that they actually left their tents and went and slept out in the dessert, a fight broke out, and eventually broke a tent beyond repair. It was so embarrassing for me and everyone affiliated with SAS because of them.

The next day we had a camel trek back to the busses. Let me just say, camels are much higher up than you think and they are like riding a really rocky horse. It was so much fun! I named mine Lila. When we made it back to Marrakech we were all excited to get off of the bus. Audrey and I went back to the market and bought some awesome souvenirs and presents. It was our last night in a foreign country, so we were a little bummed and still excited to come home. It was definitely an interesting trip, and although there were a lot of negatives out of my control, I loved Morocco! I would go back without a second thought. 

The next morning we went to the grocery story and stocked up for our 9 day trek across the Atlantic, back to America. It is really bittersweet, but I will wrap it all up soon! We made it back safely and now its time to head home!

Walk Like Egyptian

Alas we hit EGYPT! Porting in Alexandria, I woke up early to meet in the deck 5 dining room for my first real SAS trip. As 120 of us piled into the starboard side of the dining room, professors began to call out names and distribute passports. After what might have been the most inefficient process of handing out passports, we got on our busses and headed for Cairo! Little did we know, the bus we picked was to be our group throughout the entire trip. With none of my friends joining me on my trip, I was excited to meet new people. I really lucked out with the bus I got on because there were no “SASholes,” otherwise known as pompous, shallow voyagers. Our tour guide, Mohammad soon after named us “Crocodiles” which proved to be annoying by the end of the trip. After an hour drive, we had a delicious lunch at a hotel and then headed for the pyramids! I can not describe the overwhelming excitement you experience when you see this great wonder of the world. I honestly never truly thought I would be standing arms length from the Pyramids of Giza, but I was and I was in the moment! When we first got off of our bus we were surrounded by Egyptian men trying to sell us head coverings, papyrus, and cat statues. It was the most harassed I had been so far and I almost punched a few people. They would just put things on your head, and grab you by the arm, it was not pleasant. They would also say, “no charge”, give you something (even if you refused) and then ask you for money. Even when my friend Benjamin and I got pictures taken by a guard, he asked us for money. Luckily, we hadn’t hit an ATM so there was nothing we could do. Once we outran the beggars and camel owners, we were able to really take in the greatness of the pyramids. Once we had taken far too many pictures, we headed for our hotel. It was by far the nicest place I have stayed at on this voyage. It was just below Ritz Carlton status. My roommate and I got along, especially after we discovered our mutual love for Dave Matthews and Chelsea Handler. That night, we went back to the pyramids for the sound and light show. As cool as this sounds, it was not what I would have picked out to do. It should have been called, “creepy history lesson with laser beam show.” Exhausted, we headed back to the hotel.

A few hours later, we woke up to our 3:30 a.m. wake up call, got breakfast in boxes, and went to the airport for our flight to Luxor. By 9:00 a.m. we were visiting the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is a huge excavation site where the tombs of Ramses II, Tutankhamen, and other famous pharaohs can be found. The tombs were insanely cool. The hieroglyphics on the walls were so well preserved and still held their original color. I was stoked for our next stop, the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut! The first time I learned of Egyptian history was when I played “Where in Time is Carmen SanDiego?” One level shows Queen Hatshepsut in front of her temple and you have to help her do a bunch of stuff so that she will help you find Carmen SanDiego. It was really surreal for me to see the temple I had first seen on a computer screen 10 year prior. As  if that isn’t enough, Queen Hatshepsut rocked! She was the first, and only woman pharaoh of Egypt. Next we went and saw the Colossi of Memnon (two giant statues of pharaohs) that was awesome. Finally we ate lunch at our hotel and had about an hour to rest. We then went to Karnak and Luxor temples. They were both filled with history and just too cool. We then had the rest of the night to recoup at our hotel before our 6:30 a.m. wake up call.

Once we arrived in Aswan, we immediately hopped on a bus and visited Philae Temple and the High Dam. On our way, most of the bus napped, and then was woken up to the sound of Mohammed saying “Crocodiles! Wake up crocodiles!” The High Dam was quite disappointing as I was expecting it to be like the Hoover Dam… lets just say, it was bout 1/16 the size of the Hoover Dam. Also, I forgot to mention that before we got off our bus at each site, Mohammed would say “Crocodiles, ready? ATTACK!” Its kind of fun. Anyways, we then headed to our hotel which was on an island in the middle of the Nile… SO COOL! Subsequent to our lunch, we had a Felucca ride down the Nile! It was awesome! The Nubian people who owned the Felucca had us up dancing to and singing traditional Nubian songs. I have video of the epicness. That night, we went to the bazaar by horse drawn carriage. I got saffron, presents, and postcards. On the way back, the carriage driver let me drive. It was both exciting and scary. I didn’t realize how fast the horses were going until I got up front. I mean, I thought they were trotting, it was a full on canter. Exhausted yet again, I immediately went to sleep when we got back to the hotel.

After a 7:00 a.m. wakeup call, we headed to the airport again for our flight to Abu Simble. Abu Simble is a huge temple that was actually carved out of a mountain. When it was discovered, it was completely submerged in water and the entire mountain had to be moved. How do you move a mountain? I do not know. The flight was well worth it even though it was incredibly hot, hotter than Luxor (where it was about 125 degrees F). Abu Simble is only 15 km from Sudan, so needless to say, we were about as far down as we could get in Egypt. After visiting the temple, we hopped back on a plane to Aswan where we had free time to rest at the hotel. The best experience yet happened after dinner. We had the option to pay $15 to got to a Nubian village. I, of course, quickly agreed! Let me first explain about Nubians. Nubians are a group of people who have their own language, culture, and no formal papers. To the government, they don’t actually exist and there are upwards of 200,000 of them. This means they do not have any form of health care options within Egypt, nor do rules really apply to them. They do, however, have their own form of government and are self-sufficient. Following our incredible boat ride down Nile, we got to the village. Going to the village was a lot more like being in stereotypical Africa as opposed to Egypt. The buildings were brightly colored and they had tons of camels. When we first arrived, we had a lesson in Arabic by one of the professors of the village. We then went to a home where they welcomed us with some of the most delicious tea I have ever had. They also served us bread with three different dipping sauces, one sweet, one salty, and the other an in-between… delicious! After eating and drinking, we were able to hold the typical Nubian pet… a real crocodile! It was really weird feeling, like somewhere between a dog and a snake. We then got henna tattoos by one of the girls who lived in the house. When we left, it was night time. The boat we came on had a roof, so we all decided to climb on top and star gaze while we rode on the Nile back to our hotel. I can honestly not describe how incredible that experience was. It was one of those moments that is both indescribable and impossible to capture with any type of media. When we arrived back at our hotel, we went to our last dinner in Egypt. There was a show of cultural dance and music and I was pulled up three times to dance in front of the whole restaurant. AWESOME!

The next morning we went back to the airport for our final flight to Cairo and visited the Egyptian Archeological Museum. Even though I tend to hate museums, this one was pretty cool. It had all of King Tutankhamen’s jewelry, coffin, and possessions. Reluctantly, we drove back to Alexandria, got on the ship, and set sail to Morocco.

Bulgaria...

Bulgaria sucked. It was like being at Myrtle Beach, but trashier. Wait for an update on Egypt because it was incredible. It may be a few blogs worth.