South Africa

Top of Table Mountain

I think that South Africa was the country I was most excited for. After getting only 4 hours of sleep, I woke up at 5:30am to see the MV Explorer come into the Cape Town port. There was an amazing view of Table Mountain which I was going to climb later that morning. We got off the ship around 9:30 and took a taxi to Table Mountain. I've only been on one hike before and that was in Colorado last summer. I didn't think that any other hike could be harder than that one but I was wrong. Table Mountain was like climbing a million stairs. Not only that, but there was so much fog that I could barely see anything that was further than 5 feet away from me. It took my group a little less than two hours to climb, there were a few stops...finally when we got to the top of the mountain we got lunch and the fog started to clear enough for us to take pictures. 

We decided to rappel down...it is the tallest commercial abseil in the world! 

 
I was so nervous but so excited too. When we got to the edge and were about to start rappelling down, our instructors told us to take our hands off the rope for a picture...I think that was the scariest part! 

 
About half way down, there was a complete drop off so we were just hanging, slowly going down, looking at the most beautiful view of Cape Town. 
We rappelled about 150 meters down and then had to hike another 20 minutes to get to the top. Once we got there we took the cable car down, hopped in a cab and went to Cape Point to see penguins! 

That night we had dinner and went out to a bar called Mitchelle's. There was an American flag hanging at the bar with signatures from SASers from all different voyages! I signed the flag and went back to the ship because we were leaving at 1:30am for shark cage diving! Our group was supposed to leave at 4:30am but the weather in Cape Town wasn't that great and our guide wanted us to be able to shark dive. 

After driving for 5 hours, we finally made it to Mossel Bay. We had to get into wetsuits that covered us from head to toe. The water was FREEZING and we were in the cage for probably 30 minutes. The guides baited the ship and at one point a shark literally came 2 inches away from my face it was so SCARY! I couldn't believe that right in front of me was a Great White!!!!! I have the video of us shark diving! 

Later we hung around the town for a little and then headed to lunch that was about 2 hours away. I don't think I've ever been in a bus for as long as I was for this trip. It was fine though because we got to do so many things. There were about 50 people who booked this same trip so we just hung out at our hotel that night with everyone.

The third day I.......can't write about it right now but I will the next time I get internet and I don't have to send my blog posts via email! LOOK UP BLOUKSRAN ON GOOGLE! THAT'S WHAT I DID! let's just say it has to do with dropping 213 meters..... 

Our hotel was pretty close to the Aquila Safari. I've never been on a safari before and it was AWESOME. I couldn't believe how close I was to lions! Not only that, but I got to PET an elephant and fed it an orange!!! 

 
IT WAS SO AWESOME! After the safari we started to head back to the ship. Our group made a stop at Mozoli's which was the place to be on a Sunday afternoon. It was so packed that it was hard to move around. We got some lunch there but only stayed for about 30 minutes because our bus driver didn't want us to be there when the sun went down. When we got back to the ship we got ready and went to dinner in Cape Town. Unfortunately most of the places were closed by the time we go there. We went to a bar after called Caprese. It was a lot of fun! 

The next day we went sand boarding!! It was so hard to get the hang out it though. I ended up just using the sled they had to go down the dunes. 

 We lucked out with weather on the last day, it was HOT. 

After a couple of hours of sand boarding we went into town to the market. I was so tired I could barely bargain but I did get some cool stuff. We went to a grocery store because we were going to have to be on the ship for 10 days straight and lets be real the food on the ship gets really old pretty quickly. 

South Africa was amazing! I can't believe I did so many things in such a short period of time!! When am I ever going to be able to do any of those things back at home?! Just a typical weekend for a SASer I guess...I don't know how I'm going to be able to adjust to normal life when I go back to school...it sounds so boring!!

Neptune Day...Jules becomes an Emerald Shellback

The day after Ghana we celebrated Neptune Day. This crossing the equator ceremony dates back to the early 1800s when navy ships would cross the equator. Neptune Day is for people who haven't crossed the equator before (Poliwogs) to become "shellbacks" through an initiation.

All of our classes were cancelled but we were woken up at 7am. Our Dean of Students gave us a wake up call on the loudspeaker while the faulty and staff, who were dressed up, were banging on drums and cymbals in our hallways. 

The 7th deck was where the ceremony was go. It was total chaos. People cheering, screaming, getting slimed, kissing fish, and getting their head shaved. The initiation process started with getting green slime poured on you, jumping in the pool, kissing two fish, shaking King Neptune and Highness Amphitrite's hands, kissing King Neptune's ring, and getting salt thrown on you. King Neptune and Highness Amphitrite were two of our deans. It was hilarious seeing our Dean of Students covered in green dye with a crown on his head. 

There were 5 girls who shaved there head and probably over 50 guys. A lot of the girls on the ship shaved just a part of their head. Sorry for the disappointment but I didn't shave my head! 

We officially crossed the equator at 2:20pm. Not only am I a Shellback now, but I am a Emerald Shellback. This is a rare type of Shellback because it is only received after crossing the Equator at the Prime Meridian (0 degrees off the coast of West Africa) The ship went out of the way to cross it at the Prime Meridian. Most of the student body was out on the 6th and 7th deck hanging out and playing music until we crossed. 

More pictures from Neptune Day to come soon! 
Only 2 more days until South Africa!!

Ghana

The first day I had a field lab for my Elements of Ecology class. We went to the Shai Hills Game Reserve and the Akosombo Reservoir. It took us about 2 hours to get to the Shai Hills Game Reserve. There we saw African wildlife such as baboons, monkeys, ostriches, and bats. We hiked up a mountain (not a huge mountain thank god) and went into a cave where tribes would hide their families. We went inside a bat cave and climbed up to the top of the cave and had an amazing view of the game reserve. The bat cave was SO gross. I was crouching down 
the entire time because i was afraid one of 
the bats were going to hit my head. It smelt so bad in the cave too, just thinking about it makes me cringe. It was really interesting going to the Shai Hills Game Reserve. There were baboons literally 2 feet away from us. It was funny to watch them interact with each other and how they strut around. Our bus almost tipped over too when driving through the game reserve in the rain. Ghana has two seasons; wet and dry. It only rained once while we were in Ghana but it was still so hot. I can't even imagine how hot it is during the dry season. After the game reserve we went to a beautiful resort on a lake and had dinner. I was surprised that we actually went to a resort for lunch. We had traditional Ghanian meal and then headed over to the Aksombo Reservoir. The reservoir in Ghana is the 2nd largest man made dam in the world. We only were there for 10 minutes but it was definitely really interesting. 


The next day I signed up for a Habitat for Humanity trip with Semester at Sea. I have only done one other Habitat for Humanity trip before and it was in high school. I painted a wall and that was about it. I didn't really know what we were going to be doing or what to expect. We left the ship at 6am and took a 2 hour bus to the site. We met the representative and got to work. We were putting down the foundation of the house and built up the concrete blocks up to the window. There were about 40 other people in the group and it was very hectic. Everyone wanted to help but there weren't enough materials for everyone to have. A lot of people had to take turns lifting cement blocks and spreading the cement. There was NO breeze at all and was probably 90 degrees at 10 o'clock in the morning. We were supposed to stay until 5 o'clock at night but we cut our trip short because a few kids one our trip were feeling sick from the heat. I was a little disappointed with Habitat for Humanity, there weren't clear instructions and too many people with strong personalities. It was still a great experience though. 

My sneakers used to be white!

Outside the ship, there were a lot of vendors who set up camp at the port we were at. I walked around there and did a little shopping and was so overwhelmed. All of the vendors would come up to us and just start talking so loudly. I couldn't even think I kept on trying to walk away and the kept following us! After a while I got the hang of bargaining and was able to get a few things. That night we stayed in because we were so tired. 





The third day in Ghana I signed up for a school visit through Semester at Sea. I was so excited to visit a school! The school we visited was Morning Star, it is a private school in Accra which was about a hour away from where the ship was docked. There are kids from kindergarten to ninth grade. We walked into the school and immediately all of the kids started running up to us. All of them were so excited to see us and talk to us. Their faces lit up when I asked them questions and took pictures of them. They were the happiest kids I have ever seen and loved my hair. Most of them had shaved heads so all they wanted to do was touch my hair. I got a lot of comments like "you have a lot of hair" or "its so curly!" One of the girls, her name was Juliet, asked me if I wanted to see her classroom. After I said yes she took my hand and started skipping over to where her classroom was. She introduced me to all of her friends and wouldn't let go of my hand. I don't think I can even put into words how I felt at that moment. After we met a majority of the kids, our group played soccer against some of the students. After either team scored a goal, the whole school would cheer and jump around and the band would start playing. 

We went to meet with the principle of the school after. She told us about the history of Morning Star and how her mother started it. Her mother started the school in their house at the kitchen table. That then turned into a room in their house and they started building the school. She said that even though it is a private school, they still give scholarships to a majority of the students. They even take students from the orphanage down the street and give them all the materials they need for school along with a free lunch. What was really cool about Morning Star is that students from NYU who are studying abroad in Ghana do an internship with the school. The women said that the only students who visit Morning Star are from Semester at Sea or NYU. There are 3 NYU students studying in Ghana right now. 
We went through the school and walked into each of the classrooms and talked to all of the students. They were learning about all different subjects like English, French, Computer Science, Visual Art, Baking, and other classes. I was really shocked by the variety of classes they were taking. The students at Morning Star were learning four different languages! When we walked into the classrooms all of the students would stand up and say "Good morning Mr/Mrs _____ and visitors" the teacher would then say "How are you doing today?" the class would respond "I'm fine, thank you. How are you?" They would stand until the teacher told them to sit down. They were the most well behaved kids I have ever met. When we were walking around the school all the kids that we met at the beginning would say hi to us and all of them remembered our names! 

One thing that really stuck out to me was when a kid from SAS tried to start a pen pal with his cousin. He asked one of the girls to write her a letter and what she wrote was "Hello, I am humble but not very happy. I hope you are doing well." It was sad to read that, the girl seemed so happy and was always smiling but was so unhappy inside. I really just can't put into words how I felt when that happened. When we were finishing our tour, it was lunch time for the students so they were all outside their classrooms. All the SASers were mobbed by all the students. I had about 5 girls attached to me by either holding my hands or grabbing onto my arms. They just wanted to be around us. After we had lunch we gave the students books, pens, pencils, and other materials. It was sad to leave the school and say bye to all of the students. They probably won't remember me in a week but I'm going to remember this experience for the rest of my life. All of the kids I met don't know how much of an impact they had on me.

The last day we had in Ghana we went to Accra which had a big market. I was a little nervous about going to Accra because of how overwhelmed I was outside the ship. We got to Accra and were, yet again, bombarded by vendors asking what our names were and showing us all of their paintings. Everyone in Ghana has a phone and is on Facebook! All of the vendors wanted our phone numbers and wanted to be friends with us on Facebook. We were only in Accra for a little more than 2 hours and by the end all of us just wanted to go back to the ship. Don't get me wrong, all of the vendors were so nice but the atmosphere was hectic. Well....most of the vendors were nice. 

Ghana was amazing and an eye-opening experience. I'm so happy Semester at Sea chose to include it on the itinerary.     
  

SPAIN/CANARY ISLANDS

Spain was the most amazing experience I've ever had. I don't know why but when I thought about Spain before coming on SAS I wasn't really that excited about seeing it. Since our trip to Morocco was cancelled, we had 2 extra days in Spain and we used them well.

The MV Explorer docked in Cadiz, right when we got off the ship we took a bus ride to Sevilla. In Sevilla we walked around and saw a few of the churches and the statue of Christopher Columbus. Later, we went to a BULL FIGHT! Normally I wouldn't have agreed to go to a bullfight but for Spain it is a tradition and there is a lot of history behind it. This bullfight was one of the last ones of the season. If you don't know that much about bullfighting there are 6 rounds...each round a bull dies. I could only stay for a few rounds since it started to make me feel a little uneasy.    Before the bullfight....

After the bullfight, we had dinner and then hung out on the roof of our hostel which had an amazing view of Sevilla. It was a Sunday night so not much was going on.  We went to a bar for a little while then got home early to get ready for a big day of traveling coming up.

The next day we took a taxi to the airport to fly to Barcelona. From Barcelona we were going to fly to Ibiza. We flew via RyanAir and it was the WORST airline I have ever been on. You have to stuff all of your belongings into ONE bag. You can't even have a small purse on the outside, you have to fit it all into one. If it doesn't fit, you have to check it and pay a 100 euro fine. Luckily, we all packed our stuff into our one bag and we were on our way to Barcelona. From Barcelona we got on our plane for Ibiza.
Ibiza was so much fun! It was definitely not what I expected at all. A group of people on the ship rented a house so we crashed there for the night. It was an amazing house with a beautiful view of Ibiza and the sunset/sunrise. We went to this club called Pacha where Tiesto was playing. I was literally right in front of Tiesto the whole entire time!!! We stayed out for a while but towards the end of the night all we were all exhausted so we went back to the house.
We left the house around 10 and went to the beach. It was so hot and unbearable it was hard to stay out there for more than 30 minutes. The beaches were beautiful though and the water is so blue. It's hilarious because even though it was the morning there were still clubs blaring house music on the beach. I guess no one sleeps in Ibiza.
From Ibiza we stayed in Barcelona for 2 nights. Barcelona was probably my favorite part of my Spain trip. Its just so beautiful! My dad was in Spain when he was around my age so he gave me a few tips of where to go. We went to La Sagrada Familia and la boqueria which was an awesome and huge market. La Sagrada Familia was SO beautiful. It was not what I was expecting at all. There was so much detail put into every single inch of the church. It would have been amazing to see a Mass in there. The line was so long, luckily we bought tickets before so we got right in. While my friends and I were having lunch I saw one of my friends parents walking down the street! I went up to them after and said hi and had a nice chat but still, how random to run into someone that you know in Barcelona?! The first night we had a great dinner on the harbor. I had the paella which was so delicious. We went out for a little but we were so tired we ended up going back to our hotel relatively early. 

Madrid was a really amazing city. We dropped our stuff off at our hotel and went exploring. It was FREEZING in Madrid! Okay, not freezing but definitely a lot colder than Barcelona. We went to so many places in just one short day. We went to Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, and Mercado de San Miguel. That night we had dinner in the Plaza Mayor and met up with my friend who is studying abroad at Puerta de Sol. We went to two different nightclubs Joy and Kapital. Kapital had 7 different floors! Each floor was a different theme! So awesome.

The next day we took a train to Cadiz where the boat was docked. It was our last day in Spain which was bittersweet. I didn't want to leave Spain but I am so excited for the other countries to come...like Ghana and South Africa. I feel like Spain was such a different experience for me than any other port. We did do a lot of sightseeing but I feel like I was able to take in the culture a lot more because we weren't rushing around so much. It was nice to be able to just relax for a little bit and take in the scenery.

We went to the Canary Islands next which was cool but I'm still upset about Morocco. There wasn't much to do there but go to the beach. We were only in the Canary Islands for 2 days. The first day was beautiful but every 30 minutes it would start to drizzle while we were on the beach...which wasn't that bad but it would last for about 10 minutes. The beaches were taken over by SAS kids. Nighttime was fun but there wasn't that much to do because it was a Sunday. The next day was much nicer and much warmer. One of the locals told me yesterday was the first time it had rained in the Canary Islands in a year. I guess we brought the rain with us!

 We are now on the ship for 6 days before we dock in Ghana. It's the longest we are going to be on the boat since the first trek to Ireland. It's definitely going to be a huge adjustment especially since I have my first test in a few days! The honeymoon period is over!

Belgium/Amsterdam/Holland

Sorry for the late post about this one but there was so much to write about!

The MV Explorer was docked in Belgium for 5 days. SAS let students travel independently to the countries that surrounded Belgium like France, Germany, the Netherlands. Over the summer I booked a trip with SAS to travel to Amsterdam and Holland. I thought that it would be easiest to travel with SAS when going to different countries, especially because I didn't know the language. 

The first day we were docked in Antwerp I had a field lab for my Leadership Development class. For my field lab we traveled to NATO and the European Parliament. At NATO we met with two representatives, Daniele Riggio and Jonathan Parish. Daniele Riggio is the Information Officer for Afghanistan, Central Asian Republics, Iraq, and Mongolia. His presentation was about NATO's commitment in Afghanistan. Jonathan Parish is the Senior Planning Officer and Speechwriter. Mr. Parish's speech was about NATO's New Strategic Concept. It was really interesting to hear how NATO operates and the process the organization goes through to pass a decision. All of the information both Mr. Riggio and Mr. Parish said was so informative. I didn't know that much about NATO and I was able to learn a lot about what is going on in Afghanistan and the changes that are being made in the organization as well. After we went to the European Parliament, which is located in the same city as NATO. I liked the NATO presentations better than the European Parliaments. Probably because NATOs was more relevant to me.

That night we had dinner in the city of Antwerp where the boat was docked and went to a few different places. Almost everything was closed since it was a Monday and Antwerp was kind of a small town.

My SAS trip started the next day. Our first stop was to Delft, which was a little 17th century city. In Delft we went to the Royal Delft factory. It was so amazing to see and learn a lot about the process it takes to create Delft porcelain. Did you know it takes almost 10 years just to perfect the practice?

After we made a stop at a beach in Holland and made our way to our hotel in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam was NOT what I was expecting at all. All you really hear about Amsterdam is the red light district but you don't hear about all the amazing museums and buildings there are. That night a few of us went out and met a professional drag street racer! It was awesome to hang out with him! 

The next day we went on a walking tour of the city. We saw the Baroque-style Royal Palace where the Queen stays when she visits the city. We also saw the New Church, Mint Tower, and the central railway station. The railway station was really cool because it was constructed on an artificial island of wooden piles. We also went into the Rijkmuseum which was really amazing. After we took a canal boat tour!! So awesome! There are so many canals in Amsterdam. It was nice to see the city while sitting down because I was so tired!

We had lunch at this really cool place called the Three Flies....Walt Disney ate there and drew Alice from Alice in Wonderland in their guestbook...a year before it came out!! After we saw a flower market and headed over to the Anne Frank House! We went into the Anne Frank house and toured all of the rooms. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. It was an amazing experience and I couldn't believe that at the end of the tour they showed us her original journal. A lot of people were so emotional while walking through the rooms. It's hard to believe that something like that happened not too long ago. 

We had some free time in the city after...we went shopping and looked around the town a little more. A few of my friends who weren't on the SAS trip came to Amsterdam so we hung out with them that night. 

The next day we went to a small town called Marken which was a little fishing village on the banks of 'Zuider Zee' The houses were made in the early 1900s. After we went to a town called Volendam.

 

In Volendam we had lunch on the water and walked around the little shops that were filled with clogs. I've never seen so many clogs in my life.

We went to a clog and cheese factory after lunch which was so cool. It used to take almost a day to make just ONE clog. Now with different machinery it takes about 10 minutes. I bought myself a tiny pair of clogs with my name on them.

We then went to a windmill factory in Zaandam which was called Zaanse Schans. (I know these names are ridiculous). I made a new friend too.

 

It was the most amazing view from the top of a windmill. Later we headed back to where the ship was docked. My friends and I had dinner in the city of Antwerp and then went to a few different places. It was a Thursday so some of the bars had student night.

 

 The next day my friend Raquel and I went to Brugge to meet up with some of our other friends. Brugge is such a beautiful town. We went on a boat tour of the city. 

 

After we started walking around we came across a bar that was blaring music...we went inside to figure out what the occasion was and they said "it's Friday." I always forget what day it is since we are on the ship and are traveling so much! That was kind of embarrassing... It's amazing how different every culture is. The drinking age isn't 21 in Europe (obviously) so all the kids had their school backpacks on them when they were walking into the bar at 4pm.  In the corner of the dance floor sat a pile of school backpacks. We got some chocolate to go and went to the train to go to Antwerp. 

 

We had dinner in town and then went to a few bars. I think it might have been the first Friday we've been in port since Ireland. A lot of the people from SAS were at the same bars because, yet again, Antwerp is a small town. It was fun to hang out with all of the SASers not on the ship.

The next day my friends and I explored Antwerp. We walked down the main shopping street and saw a few of the historical buildings. 

Right before we got on the ship we got Belgium Waffles (obviously). They were the most delicious waffles I've ever had! (sorry mom)