A Few Things I Miss....

Even though I am only 20% into this trip I am already thankful for so many things that I used to take advantage of. Washing machines, these devices make life so much easier. I just spent an hour hand washing 4 pairs of pants, 6 t-shirts, 2 long sleeve shirts, 2 sweatshirts, and a few pairs of socks. Then I had to rig up clothes lines all over my room. The ship does have laundry service but it costs $6 per bag and it only comes to my hall once every two weeks. My hands are now pruney and I get slapped in the face by wet clothes when I walk around my room. I am grateful for the invention of the washing machine.
It is 12:13 a.m. and in 6 hours I will be in Cape Town, South Africa. I can’t believe I am already this far into my journey. It feels like I just walked on the ship yesterday for the first time. I am so fortunate.
Another thing I am thankful for are microwaves. I have not been able to pop something into a microwave for over a month. Those things are amazing, wish I could use one... even though I wouldn’t have anything to warm up. Oh if only I could have macaroni and cheese, or cold pizza, or a grilled cheese sandwich. The food on the ship is getting worse and worse. I am going to pick up some spices in Africa.
The internet! I am oh so grateful for high speed internet. I mentioned this a while ago, but I will again. We only get 2 hours of free internet for the whole 3 and a half months on the ship. Although we do get free email, it is very slow and some days its does not work at all. I do have the option of going to internet cafes in port but do I really want to spend precious time staring at a computer screen when I could be exploring? I am going to feel so spoiled when I return home and can get on the net within seconds.
Trying to workout on the ship is difficult. First off there are only 2 treadmills to share between 720 students. There are signup sheets which get filled up 5 minutes after they are put on the desk. When I do actually remember to sign up it is always at a really random time. Second, trying to actually run is quite a task. The ship is constantly rocking which obviously makes the treadmills move from under my feet. I slipped once, which is pretty good. I have seen others take a bad tumble. Overall it is just not enjoyable to try and keep my balance at the same time as running as well as trying to spacing out and not constantly think about staying in the middle of the treadmill. Most of the time I try and think of running as a challenge, and see how long I can keep my balance for before having to reach for the side bars for support. Speaking of balance, yoga, ha, forget it. It is usually at 4 p.m. outside on the 7th deck. Between the wind and waves there is no way to fully get a good yoga session in. Overall it is hard to concentrate on anything on this ship!
I want everyone at home to take a step back and look at all of the things that you have access to, things that you don’t appreciate and abuse on a daily basis. For example, a clean glass of water, a vehicle, air conditioning/heat, soap, and food-when ever you get hungry, even when you are not but just have a craving for a certain taste. Just be thankful.

Landfall in Namibia

The MV Explorer (the name of my ship) is now leaving the port in Namibia. The past five days have been extremely enjoyable. We arrived last Friday in the port of Walvis Bay which is Namibia’s only port. We are the first Semester at Sea participants to journey into Namibia. Not one person on our entire ship of over one thousand people has ever been to Namibia before. This was definitely not a tourist stop. Many of the locals have never been exposed to so many foreigners before. It was about a mile walk from where the boat was docked to the closest sign of civilization. On Friday I walked around Walvis Bay where there were only a few small shops that mainly sold western style clothes. There was not much difference in these stores from the ones at home , based on few that I saw. It was a very quiet town although during our diplomatic briefing we were told the crime rate went down from critical to high. I felt more safe in Namibia than I did in Salvador. The night life was a lot of fun, although the restaurant service was very slow. At one restaurant called Crazy Mama’s it took 3 hours until my meal was brought out. It was not a bad thing, just a different way of life. All the taxi drivers played American music as well as did the dance clubs. It’s crazy to think how influential American pop culture influences so much of the world.
A few locals asked where we were from and we said America and they all seemed to envy us. It is still hard for me to understand why different cultures think America is so great. Well I mean I know why, I am just not used to being respected so much just because of where I am from. Saturday I went to Swakopmund which is a German town about a half hour away from Walvis Bay. There was a little market there where I managed to haggle for a wooden bowl with a giraffe sticking out of it. The guy wanted 180 NAD but I only wanted to give him 40 NAD. It took me about 25 minutes to talk this guy down. It was very entertaining and no one believed I got if for so cheap of a price. 40 NAD is like 5 US dollars.
I stayed over night in Swakopmund from Monday to Tuesday. The hotel we stayed at was called Deutsches Haus. It was very quaint. Many German tourists come to this town which was interesting to see the mix of Germans and Afrikaans. The German food was delicious. One meal I had Schnitzel and sauerkraut, which was 10 times better than any I have tasted in the U.S. Tuesday was the most fun. I went quad biking in the desert. For two hours I was basically on a roller coaster. We would just ride around the huge sand dunes going up really steep inclines then cutting the edge real fast to go down again. I do not know how I did not fall off. It felt like the 4-wheeler was going to roll on me quite a few times. The pictures are amazing, I wish I had enough internet time to upload them.
We arrive in Cape Town, South Africa on Friday! I have to go do school work now for the first time in over a week. I does not feel like I am in school because my classes actually interest me and I do not really have to do a lot of work, so I am basically on a 3 month vacation around the world. If there is anyone out there who would be interested in doing this please feel free to email me at jmwinters@semesteratsea.net
I want to thank everyone who has been emailing me, I really appreciate it!

Ok and now for the good stuff. The drinks in Namibia are really cheap, about one U.S. dollar. At one of the German restaurants we got 3 liter beers. I could not even lift the thing when it was full, we had to tilt it haha! I also had cider there which is similar to a white wine but a lot smoother. Oh and I had a shanty which is beer and lemonade mixed. All of the bars were packed with semester at sea kids and the bartenders were very overwhelmed to say the least. The first night, last Friday, we went to a bar called The Raft which was a restaurant/bar in the middle of the water. After drinking all we could there, everyone went to Champs, which was a dance club. A lot of people continued to drink there but I just danced the rest of the night. Saturday night we stayed in and watched a movie to recover from the night before. Sunday night we went to Crazy Mama’s, had 2 bottles of wine there and then told the taxi driver to take us somewhere fun. So we ended up at this brothel. Haha it was hilarious, some of the SAS guys would dance with local women and then the women would ask them for money. It was very entertaining. Monday night was the 3 liter beer night at the German restaurant. After that we went to Rafters where I danced all night until we went to another club which had little balconies where we could dance on. From there we walked back to our hotel singing at the top of our lungs in the middle of the street. Don’t worry I am always with a large group of people. Good times in Namibia!

Emotions

Thus far all my blogs have been mostly factual and not many of my opinions and/or feelings have been expressed. It takes a lot of effort and control to find a quiet space to focus on my thoughts. It is a lot easier to just hangout with my friends and chat all night. After only visiting one country so far I have realized more than I expected. After visiting the villages in the middle of the Amazon and seeing the sparse living conditions they deal with everyday, I still can not fully understand how they do it. “Seeing is believing” but even so, I can not believe there are people in this world who live such poor lives. And yet they seem like the happiest people in the world.
I am worried about my return home. I am nervous for two reasons. People are not going to understand me, understand everything that I’ve seen, understand the way I think because of the experiences I have gone through. I just really hope it will be a smooth transition and people will try and accept my stories. I am also concerned about going back to school and my fellow students not giving me the time of day to explain certain things about the world. What if no one cares?
I miss all my friends and family, it is hard not being able to communicate with everyone as I please. If I am still in your thoughts please send me emails: jmwinters@semesteratsea.net it would be greatly appreciated. I can’t wait to go home again and see how big my nephews are getting, to see my newly born second cousin, and of course to see all of my family. PSU friends- I’ll see you in January : ) and home friends- I get back mid December, I have a month to hangout! But first I must travel the world and bring back something that will help me influence many lives in the future.
The food selection is starting to turn my stomach some days. It’s the same thing every meal: salad, pasta, potatoes, meat, and vegetables. But it all tastes the same, there is no seasoning. I can’t wait for Namibia so I can eat decent tasting food again, hopefully.

Life back on the boat

Between Salvador and Namibia we have to advance our clocks 5 hours. With only 7 days to do this in, we are all acting a little wacky. Before Brazil we advance one hour so as of Tuesday, September 16th I am 5 hours ahead of time at home, with one more hour to advance before Namibia. I am starting to get a little stir crazy and wish I could just go out and take a walk on a street or lay in the grass and gaze at the stars.
Monday evening was pretty eventful. I had dinner with the Ambassadors Ball committee where we got a lot accomplished. The menu is coming along as well are the favors. After the meeting I went salsa dancing for the first time, we learned a few basic moves and just danced around the pool deck for an hour. Dancing is a lot of fun for me, it’s a great way to relieve stress. I then went to a documentary about acid victims in Cambodia. I can not give any details because the film is not going to be released to the public until 2009 and because of safety issues regarding the families involved in the documentary. The only reason we go to preview it is because one of our professor’s was a co-producer of the film. It was an extremely moving film and I can not wait for the world to acknowledge this problem and to help resolve the issue which is facing more countries than you think. I wish I could project how much the documentary affected me and many of the other students who viewed the film.
The days are going by fast but time is melting together. It is hard to remember what I did which day. This whole trip feels like one long day. We arrive in Namibia on Friday and will leave next Tuesday. If you have any questions or want me to write about anything in particular please feel free to email me at jmwinters@semesteratsea.net I can not see any of the comments you are making for each blog entry so please email me any requests for information.

The Amazon Adventure

I was to report to the Union at 4:50 a.m., as you know the previous night I got back to the ship around midnight. At that point I thought to myself what is the point of sleeping for only 4 hours? So a few of us just stayed up all night and talked. I was in Group B which consisted of 60 people. We had to split up into 2 groups and then we walked to the buses which were waiting for us outside the boat ramp. The bus ride to the airport was about 45 minutes long. The flight was at 6:40 and we had a layover in Brasilia with a flight at 9:10 which took us to Manaus. Once we arrived in Manaus around noon we took another bus ride to a boat dock which was about 30 minutes away. There were many fishermen standing around the boat docks and watched as 60 Americans were rushed onto boats decorated with red white and blue balloons. This area was also very dirty; I had to walk over a dead cat and had to walk around little children in ragged clothes with no shoes. In order to get onto the boat I had to walk up this very unsteady ramp which crossed water filled with garbage and again smelled like urine. At first the boat was cute, and I looked forward to spending the next 3 days on it. (we were called the Anacondas and the other part of the B group were Jaguars) There were dancers who welcomed us with hats and necklaces. Everyone then proceeded to the second deck where we found hammocks stowed across the roof planks. This is where we would all be sleeping. We then walked back down the steep stairs and ate pineapple and watermelon as we watched the boat leave the dock. The boat tugged down the river where we would see the Meeting of the Waters, where the black waters of the Rio Negro meet the brown waters of the Solimoes. It was interesting to see the color of the water change at a certain point. I have never seen water that did not mix, that just stays totally different colors due to its density (just learned this in Oceanography). After that we visited the giant Victoria Regia water lilies. They we so big a small alligator could lay on them, which we saw happen. On that short hike I spotted a monkey, a sloth, a colorful caterpillar, and a woodpecker. We then hopped into motorized canoes and went fishing. No one caught anything exciting, just a few sardine fish and some other small fish that I can not recall the name of. It then got dark and mosquito’s swarmed our skin. Yes I had 100% deet on but apparently I missed my ankles and lower back. But that is why I am on Malaria medicine. After we had enough of the bugs our guide, Ennie, wanted to catch a jacares (alligator). We putted down the river along the edges in search of alligators. It was then that it finally hit me, “I am in the Amazon,” I thought to myself how awesome this is to be floating along the Rio Negro in search of alligators! Ennie finally spotted one and jumped off the canoe to catch it. He then let us all hold it and take pictures. By the time we got back to the boat everyone was tired. It had been a long day. I passed out in my hammock around 9:30.
Everyone woke up with the sun and attempted to get out of the hammocks. This was no easy task. My knees had locked up because you can only really lay in one position in the hammock- straight and on your back. I never sleep like this and so my knees locked up and it took me a few minutes to be able to bend them. Other people’s backs and necks were in pain. The hammocks were so close I had one person’s head on my hip all night and someone else’s feet right next to my ear. Everyone ate breakfast and then hopped onto the motorized canoes again and went for a trek in the forest. The only wildlife I saw was a huge grasshopper which some people thought was a scorpion... And I only saw 2 flowers that were pink, everything else was green shrubbery. It was 30 students stomping through so I’m sure if there were animals, they were all scared away. We walked 5 feet and stop for 15 minutes while our guide would explain something and then walk another 5 feet and stop. We were only there for 2 hours and then left for lunch. I was disappointed about the degree of difficulty involved with the trek. I was ready to hike 5 miles and see crazy animals but that did not happen. We were supposed to go on another hike the next day but a bunch of people complained about the bugs and sweating so we didn’t go. After lunch we visited the Terra Preta community where we learned about their lifestyle. The men would go into the forest for 18 hours at a time collecting wood and producing rubber products out of them. We got to visit the school which looked new compared to all the shacks surrounding it. One of the classrooms had a huge flat screen television which they used for satellite classes. The government funds all the school programs and tries very hard to get as many children involved as possible. We then proceeded to the arena where SAS students played soccer with the locals. They were extremely skilled and fast. It’s pretty cool that I can say I played soccer with Brazilian people. The games lasted all afternoon, almost until dark. We got back in the canoes and Ennie told us we were going to have a surprise. We arrived at a beach with fireworks going off and Brazilian dance music playing. We had an amazing cookout on the beach followed by musical chairs and tug-o-war games.
We again woke up with the sun the next morning. The sunrise was amazing, wish you all could have seen it. That morning we visited a manioc-producing community and observed the people as they prepared Indian pancakes. Manioc is a root which looks like a potato, from this they make flour which is used in most of the foods. We got to sample the Indian pancakes and acai which I mentioned in my Salvador blog. I could tell this acai was much fresher than what I had in the town of Salvador. At the village they added tapioca which made it have more texture. It’s delicious and I am going to want it back home but it is very hard to find and is expensive. It is hard to embrace the idea of people actually living like the people do in these small villages. They live very simple lives consisting of preparing food, playing soccer, making crafts to sell to tourists, and some how making enough profit to stay alive. I wish my life were that simple sometimes. After saying goodbye to the village family we went piranha fishing. Only one person on our boat caught one, it was not that exciting. After lunch on the boat a few of us jumped into the middle of the river. This was very exhilarating because I spotted a dolphin a few feet away and there was a possibility that piranha’s were swimming around. The water was really warm in some spots and cold in others. When I floated and only a thin layer of water covered me, it looked like I was swimming in iced tea. The color was an orangey brown, not too appealing. Later I learned the toilets flushed right into the river. Either way at least I can say I swam in the Amazon! We got to lounge on a beach for a while and then the boat started heading back down the river. At this time most people took naps. That night was the most fun. We docked at a really nice resort where a show was put on for us. Probably the coolest thing I have ever seen. The locals dressed in native attire- feathers and fruit- and danced around the stage. There were fire breathers and just outrageous costumes. After the first hour and a half they invited people on stage to dance so of course I was one of the first people to jump up and dance in the front row like a fool. I had the time of my life, danced the whole night away with the locals. It went downhill from there. We left for the airport at 11 p.m. and we did not arrive to Salvador until noon the next day. Many people got very sick and it was just a miserable time.
It is nice to be back around English speaking people. While in the Amazon and in the airports the locals all spoke Portuguese and I always wanted to know what they were talking about. They probably felt the same way about us and speaking English. It’s just frustrating when you can not easily communicate with people.
Overall the trip to the Amazon was a success, just a bit disappointed about the hiking part, but pleasantly surprised about the beach cookout and dancing. This adventure will forever be on my mind.

Savador,Brazil

On Sunday September 6th the MV Explorer arrived in Salvador, Brazil. A big group of us ventured out into the town of Salvador. This was quite an experience; we had to walk down this street that smelled like urine to get to the first market. As we were walking, all of the locals stopped and starred as these frightened Americans paraded down the street. Once we arrived at the market we were met by capoeira dancers, which is like a graceful fighting type of dance. So we watched for a little while but when we tried to walk away they got angry because we did not give them money. It seemed like if we were to even glance at a local they wanted money. We quickly learned our presence was an easy target and from then on we walked quickly and did not look at anyone. The market was similar to any flea market found in the U.S., every stall basically had the same merchandise which you could haggle for. One real is equivalent to about $1.70 U.S. dollars. After the market we went to the upper city. In order to get there we had to take an elevator that was about 3 or 4 stories high and it cost five centavos ($0.05). We then went to lunch at a quant little café where we had Acai. This is a famous dish in Salvador. It consists of the fruit acai which is only found in the Amazon, the consistency of the dish is like a smoothie. There was also banana slices, raisins, and granola mixed in. Delicious! I also had a crepe with ham and cheese which was also very good. After lunch we continued to walk around the sketchy upper city. Somehow we took a wrong turn and an older couple was yelling at us in Portuguese. We later found out that they were saying “danger, danger! Put your camera’s away and walk fast” Apparently we put ourselves in a dangerous situation and were very lucky nothing happened. (At the end of the week I found out that a few people got mugged, one guy had a gun pulled on him, and another a razorblade pulled.) We eventually found our way back to the lower city and walked through the market again. During this time one of the guys had a little boy following him asking for a coke. So the guy finally gave in and went over to a drink stand. Well they didn’t have coke, but they had plenty of other drinks. The boy would not take any other drink and he would not leave the guy alone so the guy had to walk to a few other drink stands to find the boy a coke. I thought beggars can’t be choosers...? I guess not in Salvador. We walked back to the ship around 3:00 and went back out for dinner around 7:00. We went to a Brazilian BBQ (Churrascaria) called Sala e Brasa. This restaurant was amazing! About 23 SAS students sat at one big table. It is set up like a buffet and then they have guys walking around with huge prongs of meat. This was some of the best meat I have ever tasted. I am not sure what some of it was but the flavor was just delightful. I know I ate a chicken heart which was pretty good. We were there for about 4 hours, and the check was 1,159.00 reals. The biggest bill I have ever seen. The buffet was $40.00 alone and then drinks were extra. Some people wanted to go to a dance club afterwards but most of us had excursions starting really early the next day and decided to just go back to the ship. Overall the day in Salvador was a success, just different from anything I have ever been exposed to.

Neptune Day and more...

“You are a human being not a human doing” these are the words spoken by a new friend who was sitting in my room as I was complaining about how much reading had already built up after only 5 days of classes and how I would have to stay in my room for the next two days and have to constantly read. He made me realize that I need to take a step back and just live this whole experience and not worry so much about my classes. Of course I will still get all my work done, but I will not let it get to me and ruin my experience.
Tonight we crossed the equator and had a big celebration. Everyone went out to the back deck to proclaim our joy of crossing into the southern hemisphere. Many of us have never been this far south and are very exciting for the near future. We cheered as the camera man raced through the huge crowd of us to capture the exhilarating moment. Tomorrow is Neptune Day which is a celebration of crossing the equator. I will give more details after.
Today after my Oceanography class I went to the pool deck and laid out reading about Zen as the wind from the speeding ship whipped through my hair. I gazed out into the wide expanse of ocean surrounding me and thought how amazing this opportunity has been so far. It is difficult to put into words how I am feeling.
On the second day at sea in one of the meetings we had a snowball fight. Everyone had to write 3 emotions down on a piece of paper of what they were feeling at the moment and then throw them to the center of the room. My three words were elated, anxious, and hopeful. I am elated about meeting new people and seeing the world. Anxious about what I am going to see in all the different countries and hopeful of the future.
Neptune Day: I was rudely awakened at 7:30 by the sound of drums and loud voices. A group of crew members were marching down each corridor to wake everyone up and start the celebration of crossing the equator. Everyone stumbled up to the dinning halls and ate a quick breakfast and then went out to the pool deck. This is where all the action happened. All the professors were dressed up in bed sheets and ridiculous head dresses while all the students surrounded them and watched as participants got their heads shaved. 80 students went through with this and a few professors also joined in the fun. While all these people were getting their hair cut off, the rest of us made a long line and pranced around the pool as “fish guts” were poured over our heads. The substance was just orange liquid that smelled like fish... most likely just fish oil. Then we jumped in the tiny pool and kissed a fish. This whole ceremony was done by 10 and we all wondered why they woke us up so early. The rest of the day I sat outside with a bunch of friends and had a nice leisurely day.
The next night a bunch of us slept outside and woke up with the sun as we pulled into the port of Salvador. Before we were allowed to get off the ship we had to sit through a diplomatic briefing where we were told what to look out for and informed us of the latest news in the Salvador area. Once that was done we had to claim our passports and off we went into town.

Schedules

It is day number five at sea. Everyone is pretty much settled in and daily schedules are forming. We have A days and B days, I might have mentioned this before but I will go into more detail now. On A days I have Oceanography at 8 a.m. so I wake up at 7:30 and eat a quick breakfast before class. Then I usually read until lunch at 11:30 and then either take a nap, lay out on the deck by the pool, or read more. Then I have Zen class at 3:45; classes are and hour and fifteen minutes long. After Zen I wait around in the dining hall until dinner is served at 5:30. Every night is different; there are usually activities going on or friends who want to hangout at the piano bar or more reading to be done. Tonight, Wednesday September 3, I had an Ambassador’s Ball meeting. This is the big shindig at the end of our trip where we celebrate our travels. The meeting was for people who want to be involved in planning it. I am in charge of the entertainment. There are two dinner sitting because there is not one big room large enough for all the students so one sitting is from 6-7 and the other is 7-8. Well when people are not eating dinner they will be in the Union enjoying music and entertainment which I will be putting together. I am quite exciting about seeking out people on the ship with musical talent and asking them if they would like to perform at the Ball. Back to my schedule, On B days I have my Global Studies class at 9:20 so I have to eat breakfast by 8:30 or else I have to wait until lunch time to eat. Right after Global Studies I have International Business which ends at 12. I then eat lunch and then either read or lay out by the pool. Oh life is good. Dinner is served from 5:30 to 7:30 but I am usually starving by 5:30 so that is usually when I eat.
I am finally getting used to the constant motion of the ship. A few nights ago I felt like I was on a carnival ride and could not get off- not a pleasant feeling. The food choices each meal are already becoming repetitive and I do not think I will want to eat potatoes ever again after this voyage.
We will reach Salvador, Brazil on Sunday!