Just for fun, I’ll go ahead and rank all of the cities I have visited: (most likely to return)

1. Cape Town, South Africa
2. Singapore
3. Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
4. Hong Kong
5. Shanghai, China
6. Rio de Jainero, Brazil
7. Rosseau, Dominica
8. Mauritius
9. Beijing, China
10.Kerala, India
11. Takoradi, Ghana
12. Taipai, Taiwan
13.Manaus, Brazil
14. Chennai, India

Okay so China

HONG KONG-
        Day one we were in Hong Kong. All of us (colleen, maggi, kristin, and laurel) decided to go exploring for a little, so after taking about 30 mins to figure out the whole ferry system we crossed to the big island, grabbed some lunch and went shopping. The city was really cool, but packed with people all over the place. After a few hours of shopping Kristin, Laurel and I found went to a free champagne happy hour before heading back to the ship to get ready for the night. Most everyone was still in town on the first night so practically every SAS student was out at the same place. We were all told to go to some bar called Sex In the City, so we asked our cab driver to take us there. We pulled up outside this street and we got out of the cab only to find the biggest street party in Hong Kong. It was a celebration of the Hong Kong Sevens, which is the Rugby world cup or something very similar. So the streets were packed with hundreds of International rugby players all dressed up in costumes. It was so much fun, and so unexpected, but definitely a night to remember. Anyway- we all got home safe and went to sleep right away. The next day we all wandered the Kowloon pennisula looking for food, which proved to be a huge problem considering nothing opened until noon. So, Colleen Maggi and I went back near the ship and found “Dan Ryan’s Chicago Grill” which was really fun to find, and actually had great american food (something we havent had in months). After lunch I head back to the ship to take a nap and pack my bag for my trip to Beijing the following day. After my nap I woke up and decided to explore a little on my own. Luckily our port was attached to one of Hong Kong’s 1000000s of malls, so I just walked around until I found another street that led to another mall... basically malls are endless. After I did a little more shopping, I head back to the coffee shop right off the port and I was able to get some internet. Maggi and Colleen then showed up and we decided to grab dinner on the ship before Colleen and i needed to get off. The ship was leaving to meet us in Shanghai, but our flight wasn’t until the next day, so we had to get off, find a hotel and chill in Hong Kong for the night. So we quickly looked online, booked a hotel and took a cab over to the place. We decided we were too tired for another “too fun” night so we just went and got froyo and head to bed early.  On the next morning we had to check out by 11, so we got up, packed and grabbed a cab to the airport. At the airport we had about 4 hours to kill so we grabbed some magazines, and got lunch at a cool italian restaurant in the terminal. They had wifi so we were able skype our families during lunch.  Finally, hours later we boarded our plane to Beijing.

BEIJING- 
         So we arrived in Beijing and met our tour guides at the airport. All of us loaded onto our bus and drove about an hour to this little hotel. A few of us took cabs to this little lake that was surrounded by colorful christmas lights all highlighting different western restaurants. We choose the first one because it had great music and we grabbed dinner and drinks. We only stayed for about an hour because it was pretty late and we knew our wake up was at 7am. It took us another hour to track down a cab that would take us back to our hotel, none of them spoke english, and even with the hotel business card (with address in chinese) they wouldn’t take us. Finally we got a cab and made it back to the hotel. Colleen and I fell asleep right away but were both woken up at 4am by some girl screaming on her cell phone in the hallway. I poked my head out in the hallway and she got the message and was finally quite. Anyway the next day was full of stuff so ill try to brief over it.  We went to the Forbidden City, the silk market and finally to the olympic “nest” and swim cube. The day was a lot of fun and we saw a bunch of interesting things. Finally we drove 2 hours to the Great Wall. At this point we realized how much the temp had really dropped and were glad our tour guide had advised us to buy warm stuff at the market. So after dinner, the 30 of us dressed up like stuffed pandas in our fake north faces and ridiculous warm attire hiked up the 40 min path to the wall. We were the last group there... there were about 4 groups of SAS china guide people there. We got to our “campsite” on the wall, threw our gear down and grabbed some beers to “toast” to the great wall. What a memory that moment will be.  But anyway for the next few hours we had a blast, playing games, meeting new people, figuring how to stay warm and taking on the challenge of going to the bathroom on THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA.  Anyway, all was going well... until people started wandering between the groups and next thing we knew about half our group was gone. So a few of us went to do the same when we were stopped and told there was an emergency. Two girls from our group had been going to the group next to ours... (to paint a picture, it was pitched black, and all you can see is the flashlights from one group to the next) apparently the two girls didn’t notice the steep staircase below them and they missed they step falling about 15 feet down stairs to the stone below them. Anyway we rushed over to the scene and there were already a few people down there. I knew it was serious so I went down the stairs to offer some of my first aid knowledge. Luckily two students were EMTs so they pretty much took charge but the rest of us who knew what we were doing assisted with them. I found a pair of doors behind us and we unhinged them and used them as guernees. One of the girls had a serious head injury so she was the main priority. About 15 people volunteered to get her down the mountain on the gurnee and another group took the second girl, my friend lilly, who had a leg injury down.  It was really a terrifying experience for all of us, but I am so thankful that we were with enough people who could help, which ended up saving Gabby’s life.  (She was taken to an emergency room in Beijing, was in a coma for a day or so but thankfully is awake now and healing in a hospital in Hong Kong with her mother- but we all miss her a lot, and are praying for her as we finish up this journey)  Anyway- on the wall, my group went straight to sleep after the accident, we were all a little too shaken up to celebrate any longer. Anyway- we all somehow woke up around 5am, maybe because we never slept(way too cold) or subconsciously we just knew to do it... and we got to see the sun rise over the great wall- it was absolutely beautiful, another memory ill never forget.
        After cleaning up our mess we hiked back down to drop off our stuff and then turned around to hike back up and do our 2 hour hike on the wall. It was spectacular. You can read all about it in books, and see pictures, but you can never appreciate work like that until you see it. The Great Wall is truly a world wonder. As exhausting as the hike was... it was so rewarding so I’m glad I did it, and didn’t sit on the bus like half our group ended up doing.  After the hike we drove back into the city and grabbed lunch and then went to the Pearl market. After the market we saw an acrobatic show had dinner and went to the train station. At the station we bid farewell to our guides and hopped on our sleeper train to meet our ship in Shanghai.

SHANGHAI-
           Once we arrived in Shanghai we all loaded onto buses and headed for the ship. Sadly, our bus got there last so we were waiting in a 100+person line and had to wait over an hour for security to get all the way through everyone. Finally, once we got aboard we had to turn in our passports for processing and from that point couldn’t get off the ship for 2 hours until they were done.  So around noon we all headed to an Italian restaurant down town Shanghai for lunch and then head to a market. It was a little overwhelming to be in my 3rd market in over 48 hours... but i survived. Then after a while we head back to the ship to take a nap before going out. That night we found a free champagne ladies night, so we ate dinner there and had drinks.We met a bunch of Americans at the restaurant/bar who were living in Shanghai for work. They took us to the 38th floor bar on top of some hotel and we saw the most incredible view of the city and the skyline.  Our next stop was some club called MINT, which was a typical dance club, with lots of Europeans, so probably a tourist hot spot.  Anyway- we all left in separate groups at different times... overall good night.
The next day was not very adventurous. Maggi and I went back to MINT to grab my jacket that I totally forgot about in the coat check. Then we skyped our families in some internet cafe before meeting Kristin, Colleen and Laurel for lunch at a sushi bar.  We then decided to spend the rest of our Yuan on groceries and then head back to the ship pretty early. 

Then we left China.

Vietnam!

Vietnam was amazing! I will do my best to recap everything I did over my 5 days in Ho Chi Minh City.

Day One: Laurel, Kristin and I somehow were the first ones off the boat so we got a head start to our day. We started by grabbing some lunch at the sushi restaurant right outside the boat... which was delicious. After lunch we head to the Bến Thành Market, which was crazy busy. Our goal was to buy some fabrics because we wanted to have dresses made. So we did that, and after about an hour of shopping and looking for Kristin who somehow got lost in the market we found some tailors to make our dresses. At that point I had a really weird allergic reaction to something in the market and my hands swelled up like balloons. Luckily, “The Voice”(lady who makes all the announcements on the boat) walked into the tailor and had some benadryl. So we grabbed some food and drinks over the next hour while I was really out of it from the benadryl... kinda funny for laurel and kristin. We then discovered a spa and decided massages would be a great idea. I was just excited because I was drowsy and wanted to fall asleep on the massage table.  Little did I know... this massage was more like a torture. The massuse was practically a chiropractor and I thought I was going to cry. So anyway... i didn’t sleep a wink, but was definitely not drowsy anymore. After our massages we headed to this really neat bbq garden down the street. It was beautiful and have hundreds of christmas lights hanging from the treetops. We then head to the Rex hotel to meet Colleen and Maggi. We then went back to the boat to get rid of all of our shopping bags and get ready to go out for the night. We then all met up and went to a real cool live music bar called Acoustic Bar. It was seriously one of the coolest experiences ever. They were playing all American music but changed the words every once in a while to Vietnameese. It was just so exciting with all of the energy and all of the locals loved that we were there, so we were kinda bummed that we had to leave, but Kristin wasn’t feeling well. Anyway we then made our journey to the grand hotel where 2 fellow SASers were hosting some “wedding” and we wanted to crash the reception. We got there right as people were all leaving so instead we went with them to a club called Apocalypse Now. Again- lots of fun, and after a lot of dancing we head back to the ship to call it a night.

Day Two: On the second day Kristin and I left the ship with Maggi and Colleen but were hungry so we ended up spliting up right away. Kristin and I had some pizza at a little almost pizza hut like place on some random street in Siagon. After we went shopping for about 2 hours before meeting up with Maggi and Colleen again. They sat and had lunch while we browsed the internet, then they took us to this little DVD shop. We all went wild buying so many movies and tv show series. I got the Disney Classic collection (every disney movie ever!) and one tree hill, band of brothers and about 10 other dvds. We then split up again and we went towards the market for a little. we then decided to head back to the ship to take a nap before going out to dinner. We all got dressed up and head to the New York Steakhouse which was absolutely delicious. we got to choose our own knife and have like 3 courses, it was so yummy. After that we went to the backpackers district to meet people at a hookah bar called crazy buffalo. there were little kids everywhere all trying to sell us books and flowers. Laurel bought all the girls flowers... really cute of her. But we only stayed for another hour before we got too tired and head back to the ship.

Day Three: The third day had a little bit slow of a start. We didn’t end up leaving the ship until around noon. Brandon, Kristin, and I all ran around Siagon to check up on things (mainly at all the different tailors between the 3 of us). We went to a few stores on the backpackers district as well. It was really just another day of shopping as usual. It started to downpour rain on our way back, so we decided to wait till we were closer to the ship to grab dinner. Krisitn and I wanted sushi, so we went back to the Sushiya restaurant right outside the boat. Laurel came out and met us, she was on the boat all day catching up on hw. We were planning on going to see a water puppet show... but somehow we all decided that sleeping would be a better plan. So I went and worked out in the very unusually empty gym for about an hour and then decided to watch a movie before getting to bed.

Day Four: On the forth day of Vietnam I woke up at 7:15am with Maggi for our Chu Chi tunnels sas trip. We all piled on to a bus around 8am and set off on the longest day ever. Our first stop was about 2.5 hours away, the Cai Dao Temple. It was absolutely gorgeous and one of a kind. We actually got to witness a ceremony while we were there too, which was very unusual. People we dressed in either white, blue, yellow, or red according to their religion and they all chanted and bowed together throughout the whole service. After about an hour we head back to our bus which was thankfully heavily air conditioned (it could have been 95 degrees that day). Then we had about 2 more hours in the bus before we stopped at a shooting range. It was wild, we all bought sets of bullets and got to shoot them out of huge guns. I choose the AK47 which was soooo loud... i have no idea how soldier didn;t lose their hearing while shooting those bad boys. After we all had our fun we continued on until we finally reached the Chu Chi Tunnels. They were absolutely amazing. I could not believe the pure genius that was put in to making these elaborate underground living systems. It was actually really scary going through the tunnels, so I only went through 2 of the smaller ones. People were screaming about bats and manicans... two things that make me freak out, so i tried to avoid them. I actually got brave again after skipping 2 of them, only to have a bat fly at my face when a girl took a picture of it. I bolted out through the tunnels and that was the last of my attempts. I actually learned a lot about the war just going through the tunnels and looking around the forest. You could see bomb craters everywhere, it was crazy.  So by the time we left it was about 5pm, so we then head straight back to the ship. We got there at about 7:15 so I quickly showered and mags and i head to dinner. After dinner we got ready and then decided to head to the bar across the street to wait for everyone else. We had a few drinks and then the locals at the table next to us invited us to join them for a drinking game, how could we refuse? it was actually really fun, they loved us. Turned out they were actually the bar owners and managers so it was really fun to be treated like royalty by the staff. Kristin and Laurel ended up staying in so maggi and I left anyway. We went to a bar called LUSH where all of the SAS people we headed. I rode my first mototaxi there... it was crazy. Lush was pretty cool, everyone was there. After a while, Maggi got tired so my friend Jessie and I went back to the ship to take mags back, then we returned to lush for a little before heading back to the club Apocalypse Now, same as our first night.  It was a blast, and we stayed until bar close and then head back to the ship on our mototaxis.

Day Five: AHHH last day in ‘nam. I decided to take the last day to myself, and just kinda do whatever I wanted to do. So I started my day my taking another mototaxi (i got addicted to the adrenaline) to the War reminants museum. It was unreal, and made me feel so disgusted to be an American. The pictures and stories of all of the protests, and worse, of the war, had my stomach in knots. The saddest exhibit was the agent orange exhibit, which showed hundreds of pictures of babies born defected from the chemical. It was so sad... but really helped me to understnad the war better from the vietnamese perspective. Anyway after the museum I really didn’t want to deal with taxis anymore so I decided to walk. I grabbed a map from the first hotel I could find and then just walked around. I saw the Notre Dame Cathedral, and went back to the dvd place to return maggis dvds. then I bought some Tiger Beer tshirts and some other gifts for people. Eventually I ended up at a place where i grabbed lunch and used their wifi to call my mom at 1am chicago time (glad she was up). Kristin sent me a text too, so i was able to meet up with her after as well. I first went to check on my dresses to make sure they’d be ready to go before on ship time. Kristin and I spent the rest of the day making last minute purchases with the rest of our Dong(vietnamese currency). Then a few hours later I went and picked up my dresses and with an hour left, we went and got manicures and pedicures for less than 10 bucks... what a steal.   Then we head back to the ship and waved good bye to vietnam.

LOVED VIETNAM... DEFINITELY MY FAVORITE PORT SO FAR.

Getting to CHina today though... so hopefully it beats our vietnam

Wow- so even though we only spent about 10 hours in Singapore, I had a blast and want to go back for sure. Singapore reminded me a lot of Chicago. Its very clean, has lots of trees, is located right on the water, and has a river running through it.  
   I started my day with a Semester at Sea field trip. I went on the Historical Churches, Temples, and Mosque tour. It was really neat, we saw a lot of the city, and so much more. I've never been in a mosque, so it was pretty neat to get to go inside of one. After the mosque we stopped at a Catholic Chuch, finally! first one I got to go in since being away.  We actually caught the tail end of the mass, but even though it was in Filipino I could kind of follow along.  After the Catholic church we went to a beautiful Anglican Cathedral. It was all white with plenty of huge stained glass windows. We then head to a really neat Chinese Temple, which I fount fascinating. The architecture was really amazing, and the entire temple was so decorated. They had a huge bookshelf of free chinese books, so I grabbed a bunch of them for my little brother who takes Chinese (tuck get excited).  Anyway, at that point Maggi, Colleen and I signed out of the trip so we could travel on our own.  We decided we had to go get the famous "Singapore Sling" at the Raffles Hotel.  We bought some tshirts as mementos, and went to Long Bar to try the drink. Although horrifically expensive ($25) we each got a drink, and they were pretty tasty, but we were glad free peanuts came with the table. 
   After our Raffles adventure, we went to Clarke Quay to meet up with Kristin and Laurel. We meet a bunch of our other friends there too, and decided going to the Singapore Hooters would be a grand idea for lunch. It really was a ton of fun, so I back up our choices. (Don't worry brothers, I got you both tshirts). After Hooters, we walked around the river front area and stopped at a little restaurant to have a few drinks. They played all of my favorite music, and I decided right then that I was really having the best day ever... like of my life maybe. Singapore just brought me to peace, maybe because of its beauty, but also maybe because it was such a refresher after India.  Either way, I loved it.  The restaurant we were at was set up next to this really cool slingshot swing thing that a few of our friends did, it was pretty neat.  After that we went to get some ice cream and met up with some different Semester At Sea-ers... and we went to this really weird bar called the clinic. We sat in gold wheel chairs and were served drinks out of IVs... really odd, but an interesting memory. After we wrote our postcards and rushed back to the ship.  We got there with minutes to spare, but a lot of people were late, so we're not sure if dock time will be given to them, but it was really unfair, because immigration took forever.

Anyway- one more day of class, then off to VIETNAM!  I'm really excited for Nam, and have nothing planned yet, but hope to see a lot of things.  After nam we have China and then TAIWAN! I'm a little bummed Japan is now officially off our itinerary, but Taiwan might be pretty cool... no it will be.

Anyway... HAPPY ST. PATTY's DAY!

love you all, and miss you dearly

k

March 15, 2011,

OKay- so we are not going to Japan anymore. It has officially been announced. Kind of a bummer since I was really looking forward to going there, but better safe than sorry. They are going to announce the new itinerary plans within the next day or two. If you want to find out before we do, your best bet is to look on the semester at sea website, because ISE updates it in U.S. time and we don't hear about it until the next day. Hoping for some extra time in Hawaii or i'm still banking on Australia...which would be super sick.
Ill update next time I know.

Me and maggi riding elephant!

Elephant hug or pickpocket?

March 11, 2011

Okay! I have a lot to write about right now.  So today is the last day in India. It has been an amazing 6 days experiencing a brand new culture. I will admit, India has been a huge adjustment, but it has really helped me to understand more about myself, at to appreciate all that I have, especially being an American.
        While in India... I feel that I really got a great taste of the country. I spent the first day with Colleen and Kristin out around the city of Chennai. First off- it smells like rotten hard boiled eggs and curry everywhere in India, so that was an interesting first adjustment, also... its absolutely dirty everywhere. The government does not look much into public sanitation, and does not provide many, if any public garbage cans, so there is trash everywhere. Anyway, we took the shuttle to the port gate where we hoped in our first Auto- rickshaw... which ended up being quite the adventure. Our drivers name was Raja, and he was pretty great... and knew english pretty well also which was a major plus.  We had him take us first off to an Indian clothing store, so I could pick out some modest indian clothes for Maggi and I (who needed them for our orphanage visit the next day). The first place was pretty expensive, but since I didn’t know any better I bought two dresses for both myself and maggi... which cost about $25 US each... which is wayyy overpriced.  The next place was much better, almost half the price so I got another dress and pants for both of us.  Lots of Semester at Sea people were at that store, and almost every girl was trying on a saree. Kristin ended up buying one there and colleen bought some dresses as well. Our next stop was lunch. Kristin thought it would be a brilliant idea to ask for the restaurant where only locals go... not tourists, because she wanted real Indian food, but in retrospect... prob not the greatest plan for a first meal in India. We had no idea what to order, so we guessed, and it didn’t turn out too bad, but it was way too spicy for Colleen and I. The hardest part for me was watching their table manors, which are very, very different from what I was used to. Our driver ate with his hands, chewed with his mouth open, reached across the table, had his arms completely on the table, and burped really loudly. It was difficult for me to watch, but I eventually got over it. Anyway after lunch our driver took us around to like 4 different shops that he told us would give his children free tshirts if we went in and looked around for a while... so we did that for him.  One of the shops was a jewelry store, so Kristin had the guy show her all of the loose stones, something that I had no idea about before then.  I ended up buying a necklace, and then we drove around a little more before heading back to the ship.  I didn’t do much else that night, just went to bed early because Maggi and I had a very early flight to catch.
        We woke up at 5:30 am, got ready and headed for the airport. It was an hour drive, but somehow our crazy cab driver got us there in only 30 mins. We ended up being at the airport for the next 4 hours, because on top of being early, our flight got delayed. Finally though, around 1 we landed in Kerala, and met Sunni who was there waiting for us with a sign that read “Maggi”. So Sunni took us to Malayarla (the town of the Mercy Home) and we stopped to get some groceries and head to the mercy home. The mercy home was actually really nice, compared to most of the buildings in India.  Sunni introduced us to the three women who worked at the orphanage, who didn’t speak any english- but ended up being the three sweetest ladies ever.  He showed us our room, which was really nice. Two twin beds, and our own sink and bathroom.  We took a nap until around 6, where we ended up going on a spider killing rampage... litterally 6 within an hour- which lead to ants marching throughout the room eating all the dead spiders... really gross. This particular mercy home had  27 boys age 5-14 who lived all lived together in a big room with a ton of bunk beds.  To make this blog a little more brief, instead of a journal i’ll try to just get to the gist of things.  So everyday the boys woke up at 5:30 am (which Maggi and I decided we would be a part of as well). They woke up for a devotion, which we ended up being a huge part of for the 2 mornings we were there. During the morning devotional, along with the night time devotional Maggi and I had to lead a sermon for the boys, about the bible, which Sunni and Das (the manager of that particular home) would translate for us.  So this was easily right up Maggi’s alley (she loves talking about the bible) but it was even new for her to whip up some kind of bible teaching. FOR ME... wow, not my thing. For those who don’t know me... I was raised Catholic, and have never really been big into reading much of the bible, or praying outloud... so this was very new to me.  I had to pretend like I was some born again Christian, bible reading... something- which im not.  But because I do pray and go to church, i’m sure it could have been much worse if I was someone else.  Overall, it really was a rewarding experience being around something completely different from what I am used to. Other exciting things that happened while we were there... we took a day trip to see the backwaters, we rode ELEPHANTS!!!! (sooo cool), we drank wayyy too much coconut water (with huge smiles on our faces... but would dump it out when no one was watching), we ate local food(which came in a variety of yumminess.... really grosss eggs to really good chicken). Back to the elephants... so cool, we danced with them, they put their trunks on our heads... then we rode one of them. On our last day, Sunni and the boys presented each of us with beautiful wooden rosemary elephants... which was a great gift, being an elephant collector myself... something ill keep forever
        The last 24 hours, we spent at Sunni’s home, with his family.  It was probably my favorite day of all of them, because his wife and daughter were absolutely fantastic. His 6 year old daughter, Linda, spoke better English than most of the adults in India, and she was just adorable. She was very talkative, and so friendly. She spent about 2 hours playing with my hair because she isn’t aloud to have long hair herself. We played with her kitchen set and she told me all about her friends and family. His wife, Minni... was fantastic. She told maggi and I all about being a women in India and I was amazed and learned so much from her. She told us how the women have no freedom and her opinion doesn’t matter to anyone. She cooks 4 meals a day, no matter if she is ill, or tired. She is the most patient and kind person ever. The day we left, we stopped at a park and then went to the beach with them. I played in the waves with Linda, and spent time talking with Minnie about Indian life. She truly helped me to appreciate how amazing it is to be a women from America. I really wish I could have taken her with us on the boat, and back to the US.
        Finally, we left Kerela for Chennai again, and back to the boat...after a 2.5 hour hell cab ride back. It was really nice to get back to the boat and take a real shower.  We had been doing the bucket bath thing for the 4 days before. Suprisingly... bucket bathing (big bucket with little bucket) is really efficient, and refreshing...so maybe ill switch methods back in the states. I passed out from being sooo tired, but we woke up really early for our last day in India.
        Colleen, Maggi and I woke up for 8am breakfast... then head out to go spend the rest of our rupees. We ended up being out wayy too early before the shops even opened... so we walked around Chennai for a little before heading to the shops. We bought some scarves, henna, and some cool pants- most of which are gifts for people. We decided to head back to the ship after that to get back early so we could avoid the lines, and get back for lunch.

UPDATE: We got back to the ship and we heard of the Japan earthquake and tsunami warnings. So the whole night we have been broadcasting the news over the televisions. Its really sad to hear about the devastation going on... so we are all hoping it isn’t too horrible. As of now... we don’t know if we will be able to get to Japan, or even across the Pacific. Our journey won’t be affected through Singapore and Vietnam... but China, Japan, and Hawaii are still up in the air.  I’ll update as soon as I can. But we are safe... India is farther away from Japan than the US- so we are safe for now.

India reflection:  Great experience- because it contrasts so much from America.  Its absolutely filthy, its smelly, the food is yukky, and the manors are poor, the traffic is horrendous and the air is polluted. The people are beautiful, the environment is like a gift from God (so many beautiful trees, and the beaches were gorgeous), the people were very friendly, and so eager to learn from us Americans. I do plan to return someday to maybe see the taj, go to mumbai, or see more of the north.


MISS YOU ALL MORE THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. SEND ME MORE EMAILS!!!!!
love,
keira

PS. HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY TO MY DEAREST SISTER MCCALL. WISH I COULD BE THERE TO CELEBRATE, BUT I’M STUCK ON A BOAT IN THE INDIAN OCEAN.  HAVE FUN, LOVE YOU!

ALSO, someone tell ANNIE McCarthy I wish her a happy 20th as well!

kristin, laurel, me  at sunset on ship

Cheers to America (red/blue drink)

me and maggi on safari in South Africa

group bday picture-   thanks for the cake!

Thanks Mom!

March 3, 2011

So it’s been another stretch of class before we get to India on Sunday. Not much has really been going on over here (ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD!). We are actually exactly half way through our journey... and are literally half way around the world.  We just changed our clocks yet again today and are currently 11:30 hours ahead of Central time! Ya, there was an announcement over the PA today letting us know that we were part of a very small portion of the worlds population who have been at 0° Longitude and 0° Latitude at the same time, AND changed their clocks only 30 mins for a time zone. But besides that exciting news... its test taking time. Everyone is studying again, and the ship gets pretty quiet when its test time. I’m currently working overtime on our Global Studies powerpoint presentation which is due the day after India- so I can’t wait to have that over with. On a more exciting note... we’ve had a few fun things going on on the ship... well for one thing, our water currently tastes like the oceans, maggi and I spotted a bunch of dolphins swimming alongside our ship today (as we were supposed to be paying attention in World Religions class), last night we had “The Ultimate SASer” competition which was pretty hilarious, and today we had star gazing. The captain shut off all of the ship lights, and we were able to see the most gorgeous night sky- second best I’ve ever seen in my life (best was when I went crocodile hunting on the Amazon).

I guess that is my update for now.  I might be missing a bunch of stuff, but I can’t remember when I last updated... so ill check and get back to whoever still reads this.

Also- seriously, those of you who still write me emails... you are great, so THANKS!

peace out

Keira

So, on Sunday the 27th we were in Mauritius. Sadly it was only a quick stop for fuel, so we only had about 10 hours on the island. As soon as we all got off, we all headed for a little marina about 40 mins away, to get to the Catamarans. There were about 6 Catamarans all together, each with at least 25 people on them. All of the Catamarans were headed for a little island (made of rock/cliff) where we tied them all together and went snorkeling. It was a really fun day- lots of craziness, and lots of bad sunburns for most of us. Overall, I would definitely need to come back again to really give Mauritius the time it deserves. It was a beautiful place, and the water was as blue as blue gets.

February 26, 2011

Okay- so yesterday was my 20th Birthday! woo hoo. Thanks to all of you for all of the bday wishes and emails. The past two nights have been horrible, with the huge waves outside the ship... i haven’t slept a wink. Anyway it was really nice to get up to a handful of emails from my family and friends. After my workout Maggi and Colleen brought me breakfast from the pool deck (which is better than normal breakfast for those of you not on the ship). Throughout the day the two of them actually handed me “Why we love Keira” slips every hour on the dot. They had 20 reasons all together- most of which were hilarious. At one I got to have an hour long massage, compliments of my momma (thanks kath), which was really relaxing. I returned to my room to find a giant bday card from Kristin and Meghan, and my room completely covered in toilet paper thanks to Maggi and Colleen. We all hung out on the pool deck for a while (oh, we had the day off of classes) before I went and took a nap. The nap only lasted about 30 mins before Maggi walked in... and freaked out because she found a huge beetle on her backpack. We spent about 30 mins trying to capture and flush the beetle down the toilet...after many failed attempts.
        For dinner, all my friends and I had food up at the pool deck... which is the new special occasion dining area. We then head down to deck 6 to have birthday cake (again, thanks mom). It was a massive cake, so all of the people sitting around up lucked out because I ended up handing pieces to everyone in the room practically. After cake, we headed to deck 5 for some dinner wine before we all went to Kristin and Laurel’s room to hang out.  There was no pub night last night, but instead we had square dancing on the pool deck... which was hysterical. Just imagine people trying to square and line dance on a moving ship. Anyway... we had to move the clocks ahead, again! so I went to bed earlier than normal in attempts to sleep.
Sadly it was a huge fail... I slept all of about 1 hour last night.  I think I might go invest in some earplugs if the store sells them... I’m in desperate need of sleep. 

I’ll put up bday pictures soon. 

Again, Thanks everyone!

winelands

skydiving!
meghan, me, colleen

Map of our 24 hour detour off of cape town

February 20, 2011

So today is day 3 in Cape Town.  It really should be day 4, but unfortunately we had to wait over 24 hours to dock here because of the weather and the huge waves. Because of the weather we had to cancel our shark diving trip for friday because the boat wouldn't take us out. But thinks worked out anyway.  Colleen, Meghan and I got off the boat around noon to meet up with Meghan's mom who was visiting. Once we met her, we were trying to figure out something to do, when we walked past a tourist center. He asked us what we wanted to do and Meghan suggested we skydive, and just our luck... there was a group leaving 20 mins from then to go. We went to an ATM right away and met the group to go skydiving. The jump zone was only 35 mins away... so the whole process was only a few hours.  Neither Colleen, myself or mrs. Hines really wanted to spend 700R on a videographer, so we all went up together. The plane was super tiny... and it was definitely a struggle fitting all 6 of us (with our tandem jumpers). Mrs. Hines was the most terrified, so she jumped first, and only 3 seconds later... I was out, followed by Colleen.  Honestly one of the coolest feelings ever... nothing can compare to the view of Cape Town by free fall. They actually let me take my own camera up with me so I have a cool video of me falling in the sky. After we all jumped... we headed back to the waterfront (which is what they call the area around our ship). We decided to wait before getting back on the boat and instead went to the mall for a little shopping and dinner.  After, we head back to the ship and got ready for the night.  Maggi, Colleen and I went to the bar down the street called Mitchell's which was a cool little pub across from the ferris wheel.  After an hour we headed over to Long street in search of a bar that we didn't really know the name of. All in all... we got pretty lost, and ended up having two locals help us find the place.  Once we got there none of us were really feeling it so we walked back to the ship... which we could see in the distance.
     We had an early wake up call on Saturday for our Winelands  tour.  Colleen, Meghan, Kyle, Malachi, Mrs. Hines, and I were all going together with Cape Zebra Tours (who were awesome). We went to 4 different wine estates and did around 30 tastings. It was a really fun experience learning about wines, and being in the countryside. We got back around 6 or so... and we all got ready before heading out again for Mitchell's (which had turned into the SAS spot).  Maggi came out with Colleen and I, and we met up with Duncan, Maggi's tour guide from earlier that day. He was really cool- took us to a bar on long street called "The Waiting Room". Eventually we ended up at the hotel next to the ship where we searched for free wifi... which never worked out. But I did learn how to say a few things in Africans (language in S Africa)- courtesy of the bell man. After, Colleen went back to the ship and Maggi and I went back to Mitchells. I met up with Laurel and we stayed their until the bar closed. There was an American flag hanging from the ceiling, and they let us sign it- which was neat.   After (circa 330 am) we went back to the boat... and decided it would be a brilliant idea to change into pants and sweatshirts and come back out to watch the seals on the dock. It actually ended up being really cool because the security gaurds let us go down the ramp and be within feet of the seals.  Anyway eventually I went to bed.... but only to get like 1 hour of sleep before our 630 am wake up for the safari.
        The safari was this morning... we had to meet at 7am so it was a little brutal. The ride to park we were going to was about 3 hours. While there we (meghan, colleen, maggi, lily, lauren, and I) saw water buffalo, lion, zebra, springbach, hippo, giraffe, and chettah. We never found the rhino... so hopefully that can be my excuse to go on another safari. It was really neat, and although it was rough without any sleep... I loved seeing the animals. 
After we got back... maggi, colleen, myself and maggis friend duncan grabbed dinner at some seafood restaurant. I tried my first prawn... which was delicious (not as good as shrimp though). After we found some wifi... cool that no one at home answered their phones btw.  
        I decided im going to stay in tonight... for recovery purposes.  I need to be well rested for my day full of exploring tomorrow.

ANYWAY---- to all of you who have no idea where to study abroad. GO TO CAPE TOWN!
its unreal.

Crossing the Prime Meridian and Equator

Habitat for Humanity house

outside castles

inside slave dungeon @ Cape Coast Castle

THUMBS UP FOR CROSSING THE ATLANTIC!

THUMBS UP FOR CROSSING THE ATLANTIC! - my new favorite picture

@ Krazy Coconut in Dominica (Laurel, Meghan, Me, Colleen)

Cab Ride in Dominica  (Me, Colleen, Meghan, Kyle)

February 10, 2011 2:53 GMT

Hey Everyone!
So, today is our last day in Ghana. We are departing for South Africa in a few hours... and should get there in 6 days. I am sad to say good bye to this amazing country, and will miss the people here very much. Since my last post I have been pretty busy exploring Ghana. On tuesday, Meghan and I were signed up for Habitat for Humanity, which was amazing. I am so glad I signed up for this trip because it was a really great experience to be able to compare the two habitat projects from the US- which i've done previously and now Ghana.  We woke up for the 7am trip time and had about a 3 hour trip to the little town we were working in. The traveling, although long, was not too painful; somehow Meghan and I were able to sleep through the majority of the drive.  Once we got to the site, we were split into four groups.  My group actually got the most excited job...in my opinion I guess. We spackled a cement/mortar/mudlike substance on the interior walls of a house. It was not as easy as it sounded, because it was very hard to get the mud to stay on the wall- you had to throw the mud stuff at the wall really fast in order for it to stay. For some reason (maybe because construction and house work runs in my blood) I picked it up really fast and my wall looked pretty good- Mom and Griffin, you'd be proud. After about 2 and a half hours of work... and being covered in dirt and mud we took a break for lunch and bought the cool Ghana Habitat shirts. It ended up being pretty late before we finished lunch, so we weren't able to help out anymore... so we ended up walking back to the bus. Although, I think it was the hottest day I've ever experienced outside... I couldn't have been happier to have helped out that day. We took the bus back and 3 hours later arrived back at the ship. Luckily- we were able to take showers right before the shut off the water for 24 hours (a lot of people who didn't make it back from their trips on time... couldn't shower- ship was a gross mess of sweaty people). That night, we went to the little bar across from the ship and I went with a bunch of people later to a local bar in town called Ocean Bar. It was an interesting place to say the least. I'm pretty sure it is the local's whore house or something because their were some real interestingly dressed women and some old white men... yaaa. odd.  
        Anyway that night ended shortly because I still hadn't exchanged my money (this is day 3 in ghana- I know... fail) and they wouldnt take my american cash.  I went back with a few people pretty early which was probably for the best. On wednesday- yesterday me and meghan went into the town with a few other girls to explore and shop a bit. We bought some stamps at the post office and finally exchange our money. The currency here is about 1: 1.4 (CDs or Cities- something along those lines). We went to the circle market in the center of town because the other girls wanted to buy fabric to have dresses made.  I bought a bible off a street vender- because I wanted one with gold pages. Anyway in the circle market... i thought i was going to have an anxiety attack because litterally everyone yells at you to buy their bracelets and worse- bush meat. It smelled soooooo horrible too and I have a dog like sense of smell so I thought I was going to get sick... and then some women takes her bush meat (which i believe was a smoked squirel) and she hits me on the arm with it and i think I just about lost it. So I had to get out of their ASAP.  We finally decided it wasn't the place for us tourists and we decided to go find some kind of craft market.  We met this guy named Cofi and he showed us where to go.  He told me something really interesting about the names of people in Ghana.  People are named based on what day they are born. Sooo all people born on a Friday are named Cofi... and each day of the week is different. I asked him what his teachers called him in school and he told me all the teachers use their last names as well.
        We departed Cofi and Meghan and I walked back to the ship. We did a little shopping at the market outside of the ship and I bought a few wooden carvings and some tshirts.  We then went back to the boat for lunch and met up people and decided to check out the beach. We went to the beach called Africa- which was perfect. The water was amazing and the weather was perfect. After a few hours 3 of us went to the hotel next to the beach and used their wifi to get on the internet. We then head back to the ship for dinner and took naps before we headed next door again to hang out for a little.  Maggi came back around 1am from her trip... so after she got back I fell asleep.
        Today I haven't done very much.  Pretty much just shopped for more nick nacks and now I'm journaling and about to take another nap before we depart.  I know lame last day.... but i needed a day.

Anyway thats all for now.  Hope you are all doing well as always

Miss you all... and hope winter isn't gettiing the best of you

Ciao....
Keira

Memorial plaque at Cape Coast Castle

Picture of the Slave Dungeons at Cape Coast Castle

Cape Coast with Lily, Me and Meghan

Lifejacket safety drill- Day 1

Me with Caiman in the Amazon

February 7th, 2011  (7:48 pm- GMT)

OKAYYY- so Africa is amazing. It is my second day here, and so far I love it. It is definitely a change of environment from the states/brazil. Our ship is docked in Takoradi, and the town is not very westernized by any means. The ship didn't clear customs until around 9:30 am, which an hour and a half later than it should've been. Anyway, Meghan and I had an SAS trip yesterday morning, so we were scheduled to leave around 10- so we had to rush in line to get off the ship in time. We had a 2 hour bus ride to Cape Coast, where we saw the Cape Coast Castle. It was really interesting and literally unbelievable. If you have never heard of the cape coast castle, it is where the slave dungeons were located, right on the coast, and where they held the slaves, before taking them through the middle passage to the Americas. It was really intense seeing the conditions that the slaves had been held... and really made me wonder how it could ever have happened.  Our tour guide was really amazing and helped us all to understand the whole concept of the castles. After Cape Coast we went to a little beach resort and had lunch, which was actually really good. After lunch we went to another slave castle, called Elmina Castle.. which was actually beautiful, until you heard the stories and saw the dungeons. Elmina was where they had all the slaves that eventually went over to Brazil.
        We got back from the castles around 5pm, and I took a nap before a few of us went over the the little bar across from the ship where everyone was drinking before the superbowl game.  I only stayed there until around 11, when the game started and then head over to the ship with a few people where we watched the game in the union (somehow the ship managed to broadcast the game over the internet).  I was cheering for the steelers, because as a bears fan... no chance I wanted to Packers to win. But, I only made it through half time before I went to bed (around 1 am our time).  
        This morning Maggi and Collen left for their homestay at 4am and Laurel and I had our FDP today at 7:30. We went with our Human Origin class to the Kakum National Park where we went on a Canopy walk (which was very high up in the trees!), but it was a blast.  We then went to lunch at some restaurant which was pretty good, and then went out to see a bamboo orchestra and dance. It was really fun... although we were all dying in the humidity, but we got to dance with the performers which was a lot of fun.  
        We just got back to the ship around 5 or so... and then we had some dinner and are trying to plan out our next few days.   Meghan and I, and a guy we just met named Dan are all getting up at 7am to go on a Habitat for Humanity trip, all day. We think we might head out to Accra tomorrow night (but its 4 hours away). Or we might wait it out until Wed. and spend the day at the beach instead.  I guess it will be a last minute call, but either way it should be fun.

Okay- going to the gym before they shut off the water (which apparently we have to do from 10pm-6am every night in Ghana to preserve water).

Hope everyone is doing great back in the US.  Congrats kinda to all my friends who are packers fans... and I hope you all had fun celebrating.   

Hopefully I'll get real internet on Wed and be able to call some of you.  MISSS YOU ALLLLL

peace.

February 2, 2011

Hey Everyone,
Happy February, and Happy Snow Day for everyone in Madtown, and whoever else is really lucky right now. Although I am jealous I'm missing out, we have like 10 "Reading Days" throughout the semester which are basically snow days but without the snow, and instead with really great weather... so, sorry.  Haha, anyway the main purpose of my blog today is to convince you all to support a non-profit that one of my teachers on ship had started a few years back. It is called Empower Nepali Girls, and it basically gives scholarships to young girls in Nepali, so that they can afford the costs necessary to go to school each year and to prevent them from being sold into the sex slave market. It was a really moving presentation that we heard on one of the first days of class and has really stuck with me ever since. I encourage any and all of you to look into this organization and to donate if you feel compelled. I promise this org is legit and you will help save a girls life with every penny. Another thing, which encouraged me to write this blog was something I leaned in my Global Ethics class yesterday. We learned about world poverty and read a chapter form Singer's One World book called One Community which discussed the necessary means for our world to eliminate poverty.  We learned that in order for this to happen, the world's richest nations need to give 0.7% of the GNP to countries of need. We also learned that the United States only gives .1%, and this only increases to .14% if we were to include private donations. We learned that the richest 225 people in the world have more money than 48% of the entire world, and that 4% of their assets could pay for basic medical needs and education for EVERY single person on Earth. That is really something.  But what really motivated me was the facts that all we really need is for every person to just donate 1 cent for every dollar that they make... that is .1% of your yearly income. So I encourage you to do this for one year, and see how it makes you feel knowing that you could save multiple children's lives (costs ~ $200 to save a child's life).

Here are some places that I know could use your help

Empower Nepali Girls (empowernepaligirls.org)
 Ghimire Foundation/ 220 9th Street/ Huntington Beach, CA/ 92648
 Questions: jkottler@fullerton.edu (my professor)

UNICEF (don't have contact info without internet)



Just remember, we have a lot more than we need to survive, and many children all over the world don't even have clean water, or education... SO donate!!


Thanks. Keira

January 24, 2011

First off.. i'd like to wish a Happy 22nd Birthday to my amazing older brother Griffin- i tried to call you, but wifi apparently doesn't exist in Manaus, Brazil.   Hope all is well at home and I miss you all.  I just got back today from the first leg of my Amazon & Rio SAS trip.  We started off by meeting at 0930 yesterday morning and separating into our groups. I was on boat #2 with the coolest guides ever. We got on our litter river boats (by little i mean double decker, so maybe not so little, but compared to our ship) and traveled one hour down the Rio de Negro to a place where we saw lily pads 6 feet in diameter. On the way there we passed "the meetting of the waters" where the Amazon meets with the Rio de Negro and looks real cool (google it). After, we had a 5 hour trip to this small lake, upstream and we were all miserably bored because we didn't know it would be that long- until a girl on our ship, who conveniently is a certified yoga instructor, decided to give us a lesson on the front of our boat. It was really cool, and helped the time go by. Once we finally got to our destination it was dark out, and the sky was plastered in the most amazing display of the stars i've ever seen. We hoped on little motorized canoes and went crocodile hunting... which was so freaky- but so cool. I got to hold one of the little ones that our guide caught (pictures to come) and it made my day. Once we got back to the ship we had dinner then head to bed- on our hammocks.  If you know me, you're probably aware that I am the lightest sleeper/ need a fan/ need to sleep on my stomach.... so this was brutal. I ended up untying my hammock and sleeping on top of it on the floor- best idea...even though my shirt was stained my the bug spray residue all over the deck.   We were woken up at 5:30 am- leaving me only 4 hours of sleep- to go pirana fishing!  Ha i caught nothing- just my luck, but got to hold a pirana anyway. After fishing we had breakfast, then headed to a plantation in the jungle where a family produced their own tapioka. We got to try some, and also got to taste real acai berries, straight from the treat, and a few other native fruits.  After the visit we took an hour hike  treking through the amazon jungle and learning about survival and all that jazz. Finally, we head back to our boat for lunch, and some of us went diving into the river....scary, but soooo refreshing after 2 days in the Amazon.  Once we got back to port, my friend Jess and I explored Manaus together which wasn't too exciting to be honest- so we're glad to be heading to Rio.  We met up with a bunch of people at the port side bar who are also waiting for the 1am flight to RIo, which was a lot of fun. Now I'm about 20 mins away from the next leg, which I'm very excited for.  I'll keep you all updated if your following.

Miss everyone, having a blast though.

Keira

January 21, 2011,

        So I just realized all of my latest blog posts have been sent to the wrong email address and haven’t been posted, so sorry this one is really long.  Today is day 2 of being on the Amazon River! Although brown water may not be considered the most luxurious of things, the scenery is absolutely beautiful. Being in Brazil has been great so far, and we haven’t even touched land yet. I have been busy with classes over the past few days but we don’t have class tomorrow, we have a “reading day” which I guess is supposed to be used to catch up on classes, which I may have to take advantage of. I am actually hoping for sun because its been pretty cloudy and rainy the past 2 days, which actually worked out nicely because I needed my sunburn to heal in time (apparently I underestimated the sun’s strength at the equator). Another fun fact, Maggi and I missed laundry day (which apparently only occurs once in a blue moon) because our cabin was ignored and no body posted signs to let us know.  Anyway… our room has turned into a gigantic drying rack for hanging all of our hand washed (in sink) clothes which we are desparate to have dried in time for Manaus on our arrive on Sunday.  Tonight we have an open mic night as well as “club union”- which is supposed to be a dance party. Considering they limit us to only 3 drinks a night, we’ll have to see how hoppin’ it becomes.  Anyway, I’ll try to get these blogs posted right away. 

Ps. Real sorry for all the midwesterners suffering the -15 degree weather. 

Keira


January 18, 2011

    So today marks day 6 of my Semester at Sea journey. We are currently headed towards the Amazon away from Dominica. Dominca was an amazing two days. On Sunday, when we arrived in Roseau, a group of about 20 of us went on a tour around Dominica. We started with a four hour hike up a mountain to visit this amazing waterfall, Middleham Falls, which we were able to swim in and jump off cliffs around. It was definitely a good workout, and most of us are still feeling sore muscles two days later. Our tour guide Cynthia was the best. She told us all about the island (not the same a the Dominican Republic, check a map) and the history, and all about her life and family. After going to Middleham we headed to Trafali falls to see the "mother" and "father" waterfalls which each came from different sources, but merged together at that one point. Lastly we went to Mama tia's hot sulfer baths, which we very relaxing. We were supposed to snokel at champagne reef, but the owner tried to scam us, so we got some money back and gave it all to our awesome tour guides. On the way back to the ship we stopped at a roadside "bar" and tried rum punch and the local kabuli beer... which started an impromptu dance party led by non other than our awesome guide Cynthia. After the tour we all went out to the local hole in the wall bar, J.R's. After about an hour we head to the dance club, Krazy Coconuts... which was a massive semester at sea party.
    On Monday, Maggi and I signed up for the SAS Whale and Dolphin Safari... we saw absolutely nothing! The group that went on sunday saw about 20 whales... and we got nada. After that we wandered the town and went to the markets and then to post office to send out some postcards. Cynthia met up with us at the cafe and we met her daughter and hung out with her for a while before getting back on the ship.
   Last night, after taking off from Dominica we hit rough seas, so for the past 24 hours this boat has been nothing but a sea saw. I didn't sleep at all, and was convinced we were going down like the titanic. Since our room is so far forward in the ship, and so low... I could hear every wave hit the side of the ship right next to the wall of my bed... it was like a thunderstorm. My professor this morning advised us that we need to learn to trust the ship... so tonight, i'll work on that, along with plugging in my headphones.  Hopefully I'll be able to keep better up to date on this blog. We should be hitting the mouth of the Amazon in the few days and I cannot wait for Brazil!

Hope everyone is staying warm and having fun back in the states. Miss you all,
Keira

January 14, 2011

Today I spent the day going to my two classes and laying out on the deck tanning with Colleen (Colleen Connely). I wish I could say I'll be working very hard this semester, but I have a good feeling this may feel more like a vacation than anything. We are actually stopped in Puerto Rico right now gassin' up the ship, which apparently takes about 6 hours. Good thing about being stopped even though we can't get off the ship is that we have phone service, because we are in US territory, AND the boat isn't rocking nearly as much. Had a girl vom this morning 10 mins into my 10:35 class from sea sickness. It is not really considered gross to throw up on ship... it has become completely acceptable and normal. Luckily I escaped sea sickness entirely, with only a small head ache and some drowsiness. Well, I'm off to go read for Global Ethics and enjoy the beautiful stars.

Keira

January 12, 2011 (Nassau, Bahamas)

Officially, today marks day one of Semester at Sea. I am currently aboard the MV Explorer sitting in room 3302, which is conveniently located as far from possible from any staircase or elevator, and sits right up next to the boiler room (loud).  Since Maggi (roomy) and I are in “economy” we have THE tiniest room ever, which sizes around 1/3 of my freshman dorm’s size. Plus side: we have our own bathroom along with all the other rooms, but it’s still pretty nice to have our own.
        Checked in around 10:30 am, about 30 mins before Maggi, because I somehow managed to find a way to cut half the line without realizing. Anyway, check-in went pretty smoothly, so no issues there. Since then I have met a bunch of people around the boat. We don’t have many neighbors down here, but I officially plan to spend minimal amounts of time down in this cave. We just had our greeting message from the VP of Students, followed by a painfully long lifejacket and lifeboat drill.  I’ll try to post videos from the day at the next possible WiFi opportunity.

Hoping everyone back in the US is doing well, and good luck to everyone starting second semester!

Keira