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Friday
Today I got up early to try and go shopping. At breakfast, I looked around to find people to go shopping with, but everyone’s plans were an all day thing. I had something to do at 1pm, so I didn’t want to miss it. I thought I would try and call Stephanie to see what she was doing. It turned out she and Karolina were going to go the mall and had to be back early too. When we got to the shuttle outside the ship, we found out the mall doesn’t open until 10am. Steph didn’t think she would be back in time because we didn’t know how far it was away, so we decided to hang out in the piano bar for a little before going to a store right by the port. It felt so good to be in air conditioning again even after only being outside for 20 minutes. We just hung out for a little and chatted in the lounge before leaving for attempt number two. This time we just went to the glamour shop right next to the ship. We didn’t want to deal with going through customs to get outside the gate. The store was really small and mostly sold silk scarves, pillowcases, and jewelry. Everything was really beautiful though. We stayed there for a while and some other people bought things. There were already lots of SAS people there, and this one lifelong learner was looking at a beautiful bracelet. It was really nice and had a gorgeous stone on it, but it was $100, which is kind of expensive for India. After leaving the glamour shop, I just ate lunch and hung out on the ship until my orphanage trip.
The bus ride to the orphanage took so long like 2 hours. The traffic in Chennai is just so ridiculous. Along the way, we were telling each other riddles to pass the time I felt like I was in middle school science class again. We used to guess riddles everyday. They were less fun than I remembered them though and just kind of annoying if you didn’t know the answer. When we finally got to our destination, it was not what we expected at all. Instead of going to an orphanage, we went to a home for sick and dying destitute women. Almost all of the women were mentally handicapped. No one told us we weren’t going to an orphanage, so we were really confused about where the children were. We got a tour of the home, and it was just two tiny buildings with tons of beds in them. There was one bathroom with just a hole in the ground. Then, they just told us to go split up and interact with the women. We didn’t have a trip liason, so it was just really unorganized. We didn’t know what to do exactly because we just weren’t expecting this at all. The whole situation actually made us all really uncomfortable. Some people brought coloring books, so split up and colored with the women. They didn’t speak any English, so I just didn’t know how anyone felt. I couldn’t tell if we were being rude by coloring with them or if they actually liked it. The language barrier was really difficult. Eventually I found a woman who was coloring. I sat with her and colored with her the whole time. She was enjoying our company and was very proud of her picture. She kept showing it to one of her friends. She knew the thumbs up sign, so whenever she made any progress, she would give me a thumbs up. In another corner, a few people were blowing bubbles for the women. I think they really enjoyed that too. A few people didn’t really know how to interact with the women and just sat outside the whole time. It was quite sad actually. I did my best to hang out with the women in our short time there. SAS gave a donation to someone who worked at the home, and she was very grateful. We were curious as to how they choose what women stay there, and the worker said that they just find these people on the street and give them a place to stay.
On the bus ride home, I found out what had actually happened. Apparently there used to be an orphanage, but it was getting renovated, so they took us to another charity run by the same company. I had felt like we really didn’t do that much for the home, but I learned that we had really brightened the women’s days. Apparently the home is kept in silence most of the time because the people get in fights, so they really enjoyed being able to talk and have fun. They almost never get visitors. I heard they thought the bubbles were the most fascinating thing. I’m glad we made a little difference at least even though I was not expecting this. I think the trip would’ve gone over better if we were more prepared about what was going to happen. Maybe if it counted as an FDP for Global Mental Health then the people who signed up for it would enjoy this type of activity. The women there were all ranges of mentally disabled. I heard a story that two of the students went to the back room and tried to give out stickers. One of the women took the sticker and ate it. Everyone tried to stop her, but I guess before coming to the shelter she used to be a beggar on the streets and didn’t know any better. Im glad that places like this exist. The bus ride back only took half an hour, so we actually got back early. That was super exciting.
I tried to find people to go out dancing with at dinner. Lou and Valeria were going to try and go to Pasha, so I decided to join them. We had six people with us, so we split up into two groups to get rickshaws there. The rickshaw ordeal was crazy. People were all telling us different prices, and when we finally got some for a decent price, the drivers would change their minds. It was super crazy, but eventually we got one who would take us to the club, wait for us, and then take us back. It took a while to get to the club; our driver kept having to pull over for directions. He stopped at a bar that a bunch of other SAS kids were at, and we just had to keep telling him that that wasn’t where we wanted to go. Eventually we did get to Pasha though. The club was really nice, but it was really small. There were also no other SASers there, and no one was dancing. They were playing top 40 music from a couple of years ago. It seems like it could have been really fun if people were dancing. We waited a little while, and a few other SASers showed up. It didn’t seem like the club was really going to be much fun, so we decided to head over to Zara bar. I’m glad we didn’t pay to get in because it was 2000 rupees ($40) for guys. On our way out, we ran into the other half of our original group and all decided to head over to Zara. Zara was really fun! There were so many people there that the bouncer almost didn’t let us in. The whole top floor was packed with SAS kids. It was really funny because a few guys were dancing behind the bar with the bar tender. We just hung out for a little and socialized. After a little while, I went to go explore downstairs. Downstairs was really fun! It was a lot more crowded and mostly Indians. I was surprised that there were actually women there dancing and hanging out. Almost every other time people have gone to bars in India, it has been all men. We hung out down there and danced until the club closed at 11pm. They all close so early here; it is somewhat ridiculous. I wonder if the government regulates them because I know these places would be making a lot more money if they opened later. All the SAS people gathered outside and split up into different rickshaws to go home. Our rickshaw driver dropped us off pretty far away, so we walked for about 10 minutes before getting to the gate. I just showered and went to sleep when I got back. I was going to work on my blogs for a little, but I was too tired. Well, tomorrow I have another orphanage; let’s hope it is an actual orphanage this time. Haha.
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Thursday
Today we were supposed to wake up early to see the sunrise again, but I woke up on my own at like 9am. I guess that’s not happening in India. For breakfast, Meena made us flat crepes (dosas) and puffy wheat things with different sauces. She showed us how to make them. It was neat because when you drop the wheat things in hot oil, they would instantly puff up. After breakfast, we visited Gireeshan’s factory. I didn’t know Gireeshan owned a factory; I just thought he worked in one. His factory makes a piece for a water pump from steel and rubber. Gireeshan gave us a tour of the factory. It was four stories high but not that big. The different areas were where they take the steel and melt them into different sized pieces, where they trim the edges of the pieces, where they make the rubber parts, where they trim the rubber, and where they assemble the pieces. We met a couple of the workers and then went to ask Gireeshan questions. At first we were standing in the hallway. It was so hot, and I was sweating so much that Gireeshan was making fun of me. We moved into his office, where it was air conditioning. I asked him lots of questions for my school projects. I’ll just talk about what I learned by jumping around. In his factory, it is mostly women workers because the women start working right out of high school, and then men typically go to college and get more skilled jobs. The minimum wage is 4000 rupees per month, and that is what people start at in the factory. The child labor laws are people who are over 18 are allowed to work anywhere, and you need special permission to work if you are under 18 but over 14. Gireeshan doesn’t normally hire anybody younger than 18 because it is too much work to get permission, but he sometimes makes exceptions for students over the summer. The workers get workman’s compensation run by the government that the employer contributes to. Everyone in India has health insurance, but the clinics and hospitals are really bad, so most people who can afford it go to private hospitals. The prices are really reasonable though. Open-heart surgery costs about $4000. A lot of people from Europe fly to India for medical treatment. Gireeshan’s company doesn’t use hedging per se. He does keep money in US and foreign banks though instead of constantly changing money to and from Indian rupees. His factory is not that environmentally friendly, but he does sell back the rubber and metal scraps so they can be reused. That’s basically everything I could think to ask.
When we got back to the house, we took a rest for a while while Meena made lunch. We just used the internet and laid down. Lunch was super delicious. Meena made us sooo much food. We told her that we get excited when we get macaroni and cheese sometimes, so she made us mac n cheese with spinach and corn in it. She also made tofu, chicken, salad, and rice. Omg we eat so much food in India, but it’s all so delicious. After lunch, Meena took us shopping. We first went to a clothing store. Ashley was looking to buy a really nice dress, but she didn’t find one she liked there. I bought a really nice scarf for only $2. We went to another store next where Ashley found a really pretty dress. They even altered it adding sleeves for free. Next, we went to a store that seemed like it could be a dollar general in the US. They had shampoo and soap, toys, cheap jewelry, board games, and bags. I wanted bangles, but I didn’t like any of the ones they had there, so we went to a shop across the street. I got some really pretty ones for a good price. Meena insisted on buying them for me.
After shopping, we went back to the house to wait for Mohita and rest for a while. We just chilled and talked. When Mohita got back, we had a mini photo shoot alternating different members of the family. It was really cute. I’m definitely going to miss them. We finally left to head back to the ship, but the traffic was horrible. It took so long to get to the harbor. Wow, I totally just wrote that as harbour and got really confused when spell check said that was wrong. I just got so used to seeing it written that way. Well, when we were near the port, we got really lost. Ashley and I had no clue how to get to the ship. We kept having to pull over and ask people for directions. We basically just kept driving back and forth along the same road. It was actually quite humorous. At one point, we could see the ship in the distance, but we just couldn’t figure out how to get there. Gireeshan was joking that we would just have to get out and swim there if we could never figure it out. Eventually, we did get to the ship. We were all a little worried that my family wouldn’t be able to get on the ship because their visitor’s passes expired at 8pm, and it was like 8:20pm. However, they were able to get on without a problem. We gave them a tour of the entire ship, showing them some parts I hadn’t even seen like the counseling center. They loved it and were taking tons of photos. Mohita wanted to buy a t shirt from the campus store that said Semester At Sea, but the store is closed in port. I wish I had one to give her, but I haven’t even gotten one from the store yet. When we finished the tour, we said our goodbyes as they left. We will definitely keep in touch!
When they left, it was like 10pm. I had originally wanted to go out somewhere. No one was on the ship to go out with, and everywhere closes at 11pm, so it wasn’t even worth it. I went to the 7th deck to buy a veggie burger and ran into some more people from my same homestay. We all just hung out for a little while and chatted about our times in India. I think I went to sleep around 11:30pm because I was super exhausted. Tomorrow I have a SAS trip to an orphanage, but I want to try and get some shopping in before hand.
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Wednesday
So today we were supposed to wake up for sunrise at 5:30am. When I woke up on my own at 6:30am, I realized we had missed it. According to Gireeshan, it was not a good day to see it. It had started drizzling and the skys were cloudy. I’m okay with not seeing the sunrise in order to have some extra time to sleep. Besides, we always have tomorrow. Well after getting ready, Meena made us breakfast. We had rice with a spicy sauce and coconut and tomato chutney. I love chutney so much! It is so delicious. It’s a type of condiment that usually contains spices, vegetables, sugar, and/or vinegar. I’m not used to eating rice for breakfast, so it was kind of weird. It was really, really good though. I didnt think I liked Indian food, but I love it!
After breakfast, we went to meet the rest of the group to go on a day trip. We were twenty-five minutes late to the bus, so I was a little worried. However, we were actually the first ones there. I guess everyone is going on India time here. Haha. The bus ride to Mamallapuram was super long. I was sleeping on and off most of the way there. The bus wasn’t that comfortable, but I was so tired that it didn’t really matter. Mamallapuram is an ancient port city of the Pallava kings. Apart from being a popular beach resort, it is famous for its three major sights of great architectural and artistic merit. First we saw the 1200 year old shore temple that stands alone at the edge of the shoreline. Right when we got off the bus, we got attacked by people wanting us to buy their items. We haven’t really experienced that since Morocco. In Ghana at least they tried to be our friend first. The temple was kind of small, and we didn’t go inside. It was still cool to see though. There was a little merry-go-round right by the temple, so a few people went on it. It was only 20 rupees and went really fast in a circle. It was funny to see everyone go on it because it was meant for little kids, and everyone looked ridiculous on the tiny horses.
After the temple, we drove for a little while to see the five rathas (chariots). They are large stone edifices sculptured and shaped into temple prototypes. They were cool to see. It must have been really hard work to chisel away the stone and make it look so good. Again, we didn’t go inside the fenced off area, but we could see perfectly fine from the outside. Some people paid to go inside, and they said it wasn’t that different. We looked at the sculptures for a while and then went to check out the market that was right by the bus. There were lots of shops, and everything was super cheap. Everyone would hassle you to check out their shops, which got kind of annoying after a while. I was going to buy this purse that was yellow with elephants on it, but the shop owner wouldn’t budge on the price. I don’t know if I would really use it in real life anyway. After shopping, it felt so nice to get back on the bus. It is soooooo hot here. I was like dripping sweat and felt like I was melting.
After that, we went to another temple. I think it’s called Arjuna’s Penance, which portrays the descent of the Ganges River from Siva’s locks and other fables from the Panchatantra. It was just a piece of stone that had different carvings all over it. There were a few shops nearby, but they only seemed to sell hats and snacks. We were only supposed to have 15 minutes at the stop, so I went back to the bus. There were only four people on the bus, and we waited there a while. I guess the other people had gone to see a big boulder.
We had lunch at a nearby restaurant. For lunch, we all got plates with wheat crepe things and different dipping sauces. I really liked a few of the sauces. The sauces were vegatables mashed up with spice. Some of them had vegetables with yogurt on them. Apparently Indians really like putting yogurt on everything. I’ve had “salads” that consist of fruits and veggies cut up with yogurt on it. One of the sauces was really good and I wanted some more, but that was the only one they ran out of. Desert was yogurt (surprise surprise) and a ball of sweet rice with sugar syrup on it.
After lunch, we stopped at an antique store for a few minutes. Everything there was really nice but more expensive than my taste, so I went to the coffee shop next door. I ordered some black coffee. It’s odd because black coffee here is espresso with hot water. It was good though-definitely better than the ship, and I really needed a pepper upper. Next, we went to a crocodile sanctuary. It was more like a zoo mixed with an aquarium. There were areas that had crocodiles, turtles, fish, and snakes. The crocodiles were so odd. There were so many in a caged off area, and all of them would just sit still. They would just be lying all over; we were convinced that some of them must be stone. The crocodiles in different cages were different sizes. At one point, they told us they were going to feed them, so we all crowded around. The guy shook the bucket that they use to feed them, and the crocs finally started moving towards the area. I was surprised though that some of them didnt move at all and weren’t interested in food. The worker never did feed them though. After seeing all the crocodiles, we all went to the snake area. They had four or five different types of poisonous snakes, and they would keep them all in pots. They would irritate the cobras, and they would rise up, hiss, and then attack a cloth sheet. It was cool. They also showed us the baby snakes, which were really tiny. The worker held like six in his hand at once. They demonstrated extracting the venom from them for us. The workers were sandals and had bare hands. I thought that was kind of odd because a snake bite can be fatal without proper treatment. After the crocodile sanctuary, we took the bus back to meet our families.
We were going to go home and change, but we didn’t have time and instead went straight to another rotary meeting. The rotary meeting was a special one celebrating senior citizens. It was a lot smaller than the one the night before. Ashley and I were the only students there. We just went to this meeting because it’s the one Gireeshan normally goes to. He is the secretary of this rotary. One of the speakers did this thing where he wrote a speech using the alphabet. He would name problems for older people for each letter. Like for A, he said “arthritis”. Some of them were really funny though. He said “libido” for L, “worry” for W, and “zest” for z. Ashley gave a short speech basically just explaining what SAS was and where we were going. It was surprisingly good for making it up on the spot. When the rotary meeting was over, they gave Ashley and I each a bouquet of roses. It was so sweet and unexpected!
It felt so good to shower when we got home. I get so sweaty and disgusting whenever I step outside in India. After a lovely shower, we went to someone’s house who had invited the SAS people to come. It was really convenient because it was right down the street; it only took five minutes walking to get there. The house was decorated with Christmas lights on the outside. It was so pretty! I realized I am going to miss most of the Christmas lights in America. :( When we got to the doorway, there were little dolls and figurines everywhere. The woman who lived there explained every single doll. Basically, they depicted gods and religious situations and different daily situations. When we got inside, I was expecting it to be a normal house. Instead there were tons more dolls. They turned off the lights, and there was a little show of the differences between the past and today. Different areas would light up, and it would look like the people were talking. Basically they just said that today people rely on technology more, and in the past, people used to socialize more. The next little show was of people (figurines) dancing to Indian music. Another little show took place in a really cold room. It was supposed to be the Himalayas, so that is why they made it cold. It was neat. After seeing all of downstairs, we went up to the terrace. There were a few SAS people there and a bunch of Indians. When we got up there, the SAS people were all singing for the guests. They were all singing Christmas carols and other well-known songs. We ate some more traditional Indian dishes for dinner. One thing that was really good with a flat rice thing that had coconut in it. I love that Indians love coconut as much as I do. After eating, everyone was getting together to take pictures. It was so funny because I felt like I was a model. People were urging us all to get in the shot and wouldn’t let us leave. After that, everyone started heading out. We weren’t there that long, but I guess everyone else had been there for hours.
When we got back to the house, the whole family sat at the dining room table. We all just chatted and hung out. Meena and Gireeshan gave us little presents, so we decided to give them our gifts. All I had for them was a necklace and a little change purse, which definitely did not feel like enough for all they did for me. After chatting, Mohita did some henna for us. Ashley went first, and I got ready for bed. In the bathroom, I noticed there was a little lizard. I told Meena about it, and we went on a mission to get rid of it. Meena was trying to chase it out the window without it getting in my room. It would not go in the right direction though, so we closed the door to avoid it leaving the bathroom. Soon we realized we were basically trapped in the bathroom because we couldn’t open the door. It was really funny! Eventually we decided to use a bucket to trap it. It was definitely a process and took like 15 minutes. It was really fun though. When I walked back to the dining room, it was my turn for henna. Mohita drew this really cool peacock on my foot and then drew the mirror image of it on my other foot. It was funny because she accidentally drew one of them bigger, so we joked that I could never keep my feet together in front of other people. Ashley and I tried to draw henna on a napkin, and it is soooo much harder than I thought. I couldn’t even form legible letters. We hung out for a while more and then went to bed.
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Tuesday
So today was pretty incredible. I feel so blessed to have this amazing
opportunity. Well this morning I woke up early to eat breakfast, pack,
and work on my class schedule some more. Registration was not working
for me for some reason, so I have been emailing my advisors in hopes
that they can correct the issue. I also had to answer some questions
to try and be an ABC (Alternative Break Corps) site leader. I didn’t
think I would be able to because I will be gone until December, but
they said I might still be able to. I finished everything just in time
to leave for my homestay at 11am. The bus ride didn’t take too long to
the meeting area, and when we got there, our host families were
eagerly awaiting our arrival. We first drove to their house. Oh my
gosh! Driving is so crazy here! It might even be worse than Morocco.
They don’t really have lanes. Mostly cars and motorcycles just try to
fit as many as possible on one side of the street. People use their
horns every five seconds and just drive whenever they think there is
room even if the light is red. I wonder if lots of people get into car
accidents here. Well after a good half hour drive, we made it to our
family’s home. I am staying here with another girl named Ashley. Wow!
My family’s home is beautiful! I was definitely not expecting this. We
each have our own room with queen size beds. There is air
conditioning, and the bathrooms are gorgeous! The shower has so many
knobs and faucets; it is definitely way classier than I am used to.
My host mom’s name is Meena and my host dad’s name is Gireeshan.
After hanging out at the house for a little while, our family took us
to lunch. The place we ate was a cool healthy vegetarian restaurant.
It was a really neat experience. I felt like I was in LA or something.
We first got brought out 5 different shots to drink. They were things
like rice milk, vegetable juice, mint, and some other different
things. They are supposed to be good for the body. After that, we had
our main meal kind of. We didn’t have plates. Instead we had a large
leaf. We got served all different types of cooked and raw vegetables.
I don’t even know what half the stuff was. We also had rice with
different sauces. It was all pretty good! For dessert we had some hot
sweet thing that tasted kind of like oatmeal and then a spoonful of
honey. Traditionally everything is eaten with your hands, but Ashley
and I found that kind of difficult, so we got some forks. At the end
of the meal, we ate a leaf wrapped around some fruit thing to finish.
It was interesting, but not that bad. After lunch, we stopped by a
bakery to buy some food for later and then came back to the house for
a few hours. I went on the internet, which was exciting, and took a short nap.
Next, it was time to go to the rotary meeting. The Rotarian club is
putting on this whole homestay thing. We had a little time before the
meeting, so we stopped by the beach for a while. Our family’s daughter
Mohita joined us on our way to the beach. The beach has the second
longest coastline in the world second only to Miami beach. We just
walked by the water for a little while and took pictures. We talked
about the tsunami that came and destroyed part of the village in
Chennai. As we were leaving, the water came up really high and got
everyone’s feet wet. I managed to run away in time, and my family
joked that I survived the tsunami, which come to think of it was
probably a bad joke. Well after the beach, we went to the rotary
meeting, which happened to be the same hotel we hung out at the night
before. They served us high tea, which consisted of snacks, coffee,
and tea. One of the people who worked there was nice enough to make me
some black coffee in the kitchen. The other SAS people were there, so
we just all talked about our days.
The meeting was really cool. Prem and Swathi, the interport lecturers,
talked about their experiences on the ship. I was surprised how much
they enjoyed the experience. Both of them said it was life-changing
even though it was such a short period of time. I can only imagine how
much this experience will impact my life when it is over. A few of the
SAS kids talked about their experiences throughout SAS and in India so
far. It was enjoyable to hear all different stories from the same
overall experience. After the meeting was over, our family took us to
another vegetarian restaurant for dinner. Here it was a more casual
atmosphere. We had sandwiches and pizza to eat. It was interesting to
see India’s take on these typical American items. Both food items had
spices in them. They were really delicious though! I could easily eat
that every day. I think the sandwich had cheese, something made from
soy, tomatoes, and two other Indian things on it. We hung out at the
restaurant for a long time learning different things about one
another. It was a really enjoyable experience.
When we finally arrived home, we went to the terrace on the roof for a
little while. It was really peaceful and nice up there. It was a full
moon, so that was really pretty. There were no visible stars in the
sky except for one. My family told me it was called light pollution.
I’ve never heard that term before. We chatted for a while on the
terrace. Gireeshan was telling us all about how he does yoga at 5 in the
morning everyday. We were practicing yoga poses together, and we
decided to try and get up to see the sunrise. That would be really
beautiful. Also, did you know that the moon can set? I had no clue
that happened. I thought it just faded with the light of the sun. Well
after hanging on the terrace, I took an amazing shower, went on
facebook for a while, worked on my blogs, and then went to bed. I have
to be up in 4 hours! That will not be so fun.
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Monday
Today was okay, and tonight was pretty amazing. I didn’t get any pictures of anything though, which sucks. Well, today I was planning on sleeping in till about 11am because I didn’t have a trip until 12:30pm, but I was called to go collect my passport at like 8:30am. After getting my passport, I managed to fall asleep at like 10:45am until 11:45am. We were allowed to leave the ship at 10ish, but I didn’t think I would have time to do anything getting back on time once I got through security. Lunch today was amazing though! It was stirfry vegetables with tofu and delicious pasta. I barely had time to eat before my trip at 12:30pm. I had an FDP, which is like a field trip, to Tata Consulting Services. It took so long to get there because the traffic was terrible. It probably took an hour and a half. When we got there, we went into an office, and they told us all about the company. Basically, the Tata Group owns a piece of everything. They do everything from cars to coffee to steel to Internet. The presentation was kind of boring, and I didn’t really enjoy it. After the presentation, though, we got refreshments. I wasn’t really that hungry, but I wanted to try some of the food. It was all pretty good but really spicy. They also had excellent coffee. It’s so weird here that they all drink their coffee where it’s like half coffee and half cream. I had to ask specifically for black coffee. After refreshments, we got a mini tour of the place. This was the one redeeming quality about the trip. The building was like the coolest thing ever! It was huge and looked like a stadium with office buildings in a neat design. It is really hard to describe. Basically there were tiered metal offices with balconies and cool concrete twisted columns holding them up. I really wish I could have taken pictures, but they wouldn’t let us bring any cameras or electronics with us. We went to the top of one of the buildings and saw a great view of the area. They were building a pond and already have a golf course and shops in the complex. Over 18,000 people work in this facility. I definitely give props to the architect. The ride back took so long! It took probably around 2 hours due to traffic. On the way we passed a fishing village against the water that had been torn apart from a monsoon. It was sad to see the people living in little shacks that they had visited.
On our way back, I decided to go to the Welcome Reception. I thought I wasn’t going to make it in time because our trip was over an hour late, but the busses were waiting for us. I had to go to the bathroom, so I ran onto the ship to pee before getting on the busses. I thought the price was around $20, but it was $33. I decided I might as well just go for it. When we got to the reception, it was in an outside enclosed field. We got neclaces made out of real flowers and bindis (I think that’s how you spell the dot on your forehead.) There was someone playing the drums. I got some henna and then went to go get food. It was really hard eating the Indian food with one hand, so I wouldn’t mess up my henna. It was pretty good though but really spicy. After a little while, some people did a traditional Indian dance for us on stage. It was cool, but I just felt like I was at any other Indian party like I went to in high school. I could totally envision Noopur or Maya up on stage. I thought we were going to be dancing at the party because someone told me it was dinner and dancing. I tried to wear a saree, but it just wasn’t staying on me. After a little while, I went to go get some coffee. I had to ask for black coffee again, but it was so good! I even went back for a second cup. Too soon, the dance presentation ended, and it was time to go. I think we were only there like an hour total, so I don’t think it was worth it. I had a good time, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. I found a couple of people who wanted to go out some more with me, so I asked an Indian person at the party where we could go out. Almost all the bars and clubs close at 11pm, and it was like 9:30pm at the time. The Indian guy I talked to told me there was a club at a hotel right around the corner that stayed open until midnight. On our way there, we saw another hotel that looked nice. We all decided to just go and hang out there for a while. The club was closed, so we chilled at the lounge. It was so nice! They had cool bamboo everywhere and neat lighting. We all just chilled at a table for a while. I didn’t know most of the people I was with, but we all got to know each other really well. I really enjoyed the conversations I had. These two girls Claire and Diana were both super sweet and easy to hold a conversation with. I hope I see them again soon on the ship. It was funny because the only guy with us, Marc, spent most of the time at the lounge hanging out outside smoking a cigarette with other Indians. The lounge closed at 11pm, so we all decided to get auto rickshaws back to the ship. An auto rickshaw is a type of taxi thing with 3 wheels that goes a maxium speed of 30 kilometers per hour. It is completely open and holds 2-5 people total. We paid 150 rupees for 5 people in each rickshaw, which is like 60 cents each. The rickshaw ride was really fun too. We had a good time listening to music from our driver’s phone. Our driver was kind of confused about where the port was, but we got there eventually. I really enjoyed tonight and was not expecting to like India this much. Well, I have a homestay tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes.
I cant find this post. I’ll get it up later out of order.
Saturday
Today I had to wake up early for Global Studies. I woke up before that when Brooke was getting ready and decided to go to breakfast for once. They had grits today, so I was excited about that. I went back to sleep after breakfast before class but didn’t really start falling asleep until like 15 minutes before class, which was annoying. Class was more interesting than normal. The interport lecturer from India talked about the GDP of India, population, and growth rates of the economy. After GS, I had my midterm for Ethics. It was a lot harder than I expected because it was really tricky. Almost every question was like six statements that asked which ones are true. The answers were a random assortment of the statements including none of the above and all of the above. I thought the answers would be way more obvious for an ethics class. I thought this class was an easy A class. It also included an essay question even though he explicitly told us there wouldn’t be an essay. We’ll see how I do.
After class, sometime told me it was really nice out, so I went to go check it out for myself. It was beautiful! It was really sunny and not nearly as windy as it has been lately. I laid out and listened to music for a long time. After a while, I got really hot, so I went into the pool. It was funny because Alexis and Lulu were playing games that you typically play when you are a little kid. They were diving for coins on the bottom of the pool, swimming through people’s legs, and having breath-holding contests. It was fun though, and the water felt really nice! I talked to Cole for a little while and suggested that for the talent show he sing something from Jersey Boys. I’ve been hearing him practice in the piano bar with some other boys and that is definitely their type of music. I don’t think he’s that into it though. After swimming, I laid out for a little longer until it got cloudy. I decided to sit by the pool and write my diversity blogs. We have to write blogs for the diversity scholarship. I’ll include them at the end of this if you want to read them.
After that, I got ready for family dinner. We had a pizza night courtesy of Peter, our dad, in honor of Vicki’s birthday tomorrow. It was so fun! We definitely have the best family on the ship. He even bought Vicki a cake too. The whole family came including our new adoptee, Sunny. We all just talked about our experiences in Mauritius and gossiped a little about people on the ship. Jordan showed us her skydiving video, which was pretty hilarious. We talked about movies and tv shows for a while too because Chelsea has over 200 movies on her harddrive. I’ll definitely be hitting her up for them sometime soon. We gave Vicki her gifts, and she was super excited about them. Jordan and I got her a spa pedicure with paraffin wax, Peter got her ping pong balls and a scarf, Paul, Connor, and Chelsea got her a 55 minute massage with an extra 20 minutes free, and Sunny got her a Ghanaian mask. It was so cute how happy she was! Vicki and Peter had gotten us gifts too from Mauritius. They gave the boys bracelets made out of real elephant hair and the girls beautiful necklaces with a Flip Flop on it (similar to what Aunt Suzi got us, Mandy). That was so nice! We were going to play games at dinner, but we ended up just talking the whole time until preport.
Cultural preport was super boring today for some reason that I just spent the whole time playing games on my Ipod touch. It actually died as I was playing, so I had to leave the preport a little early to charge it in time for Ipod dance party. We waited around a little at the 7th deck for people to show up for the ipod dance party before deciding to just start with ourselves. There were not nearly as many people this time than last time. There were probably 10 of us total, but we had fun dancing around on the deck. The mix had things like 90’s pop music and thriller in it in addition to dupstep. We danced throughout the ship, and I would always start cracking up when people looked at us weirdly. We decided to end a little early, and when we were talking about the music, we realized that our group was listening to two different mixes. It was confusing because both the mixes were called 10-8-11. It’s kind of funny though that we didn’t even realize it because we couldn’t hear each other’s music. After the Ipod dance party, I headed over to the union to catch the end of the Bollywood dance party. It sucks that they were at the same time so I couldn’t go to the whole thing. There was like no one left there, but I just joined in with the people left and started dancing. I’m not really sure how to dance to Indian music, but I did my best. After a little bit, they started playing regular music, and we all just danced around. Nate and Liz showed up and started doing some ridiculous interpretive dance with lifts and everything. It was really, really funny to watch. They even played Waka Waka, which was like our theme song for Africa. We all danced along and changed where they said “This time for Africa” to “This time for India.” They played Don’t Stop Believing and we all sang along obnoxiously loudly. At 11pm, they stopped playing music, and we were all sad.
A bunch of us moved to the piano lounge to play games. We played this game called Mau, which was so much fun! It’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game on the ship. The game is basically like Uno where you make up new rules each round and don’t tell anyone. Everyone has to figure them out or continue to be penalized. Brian made a rule where if you smiled or laughed, you had to jump up in your seat and say “I’m a star.” We were literally jumping up every 30 seconds because it was just so ridiculous and funny. Every time Lousie and I looked at each other, we would start cracking up. Other rules included putting your chin on the table (so all 7ish of us had our faces right next to each other on this little table), high fiving everyone if you have a watch on, and shouting “All hail the king” whenever a king came up. We played with Prem, who is an interport lecturer. He is a student in Chennai and came aboard the ship in Mauritius. He is just supposed to be a resource for us. It was cute though that he wanted to play with us. We played for a long time until around 2am when we decided we should go to bed. Today was probably the best day I’ve ever had on the ship besides Sea Olympics. It was just so much fun and made me really happy. I love dancing and playing games. I remember when I used to just like dancing “In the dark, at Homecoming”, but now I love dancing all the time everywhere!
Random Thoughts (this is just for you Mandy)
Laundry: Laundry is super annoying to do on the boat. There are no washers and dryer available for us to use. We have to give our stuff to our cabin stewards in a little bag for them to do. Each baby bag costs $6, and we only get a laundry day once every few weeks. We only get one bag at a time, but I have been super impressed with how much stuff I can fit in there. It’s so weird rolling my dirty clothes before putting them in a laundry bag, but I can fit so much more stuff that way. It’s annoying though that they dry everything. I normally hang up almost all my stuff at home. I discovered though that you can ask your steward not to dry some of your items, and you will just get these back wet. I put up a clothing line in my room, so I hang them up on there. If you want to do laundry in between laundry days, then you can do it in your baby sink. It takes so long soaking in detergent for my clothes to actually smell good doing them by hand. Plus, when I get them out, they are super wet and take forever to dry. One time I tried washing my cardigan by hand, and it actually started molding because it was taking so long to dry.
No desks: Our classrooms don’t have desks in them. They just have chairs to sit in and maybe like 3 baby tables throughout the whole classroom. It’s normally not that big an issue because I’ll just take notes in my notebook on my lap, but on test days it is super annoying. For my one class, I managed to secure myself a table to write an essay. The table is lower than the chairs, so I was like hunched over the whole class writing, and that was not comfortable at all. For my other class, three people were sharing a table that size. It was hard because we all had two papers, one test packet and one bubble sheet. There was like no room to do anything, and when it was time to write an essay, our papers were all on top of each other.
Here are the Diversity Blogs I promised:
Morocco- In Morocco, I spent half a day in Casablanca, two days in Marrakesh, one day in Rabat, and one day in Volubilis. I definitely experienced culture shock. Interacting with the locals was one of the most rewarding experiences. I did not expect to gain as much as I did from the four days I was there. One story that stood out to me was about marriage proposals. A Berber woman told us that in her culture marriage proposals are either accepted or rejected through the use of mint tea. Once a man asks for a woman’s hand, she communicates her decision by giving the man mint tea. If the tea is really sweet, then the woman accepts the proposal, and the two will be wed. If the tea only has a little sugar in it, then the woman needs time to think about the offer. If the tea is extremely bitter and has not been sweetened, then the woman rejects the offer. Mint tea is an extremely important part of the culture in general as well. After every meal and all throughout the day, Moroccans drink mint tea. It’s way to socialize and enjoy each other’s company. It appears to be just as common as water throughout Morocco.
Aggression was something else I noticed was prevalent throughout the Moroccan culture. Driving in Morocco is absolutely insane. I am not sure if there is just no such thing as a right of way or if people just choose not to follow it. Basically people would just honk and inch up into incoming traffic until they could go. I was not used to idea that motorcycles could just drive down side streets for walking. They would honk and expect pedestrians to move out of the way for them. Also, the taxi drivers were really aggressive. They would frequently hassle my group and then ask for ridiculous amount of money to take us somewhere. People on the streets would force you to participate in their activity whether it be wearing a hat or holding a snake or putting henna on you without your asking. Then they would expect money from you. I think Americans tend to be more passive, so the Moroccans could get away with these behaviors without consequences.
When we rode camels in Marrakesh, the person leading the camels for us was a little boy named Abdul. Abdul was the sweetest, most adorable little kid. He was probably around ten years old. He was quite smart too! He knew English as well as the local language and was eager to talk to us and learn about us. He was thrilled when we tipped him in US dollars. We were there on a Sunday, so we just assumed leading camels was Abdul’s weekend job. Later we learned that Abdul is actually an orphan and does not go to school. All he has is his camel job where I am sure he does not make enough to save up or anything. I am not sure if the government has any type of aid for children like Abdul, but if Morocco is going to become more modernized, then something needs to be done to help educate children.
Ghana- In Ghana, one of the most rewarding activities I participated in was visiting a local school. It was actually the only school in the village. We were told we were going to teach the children for a little while and then play games with them. We were not very prepared for what was going to happen. Basically we all split up into different classrooms with children of different age groups. Tivoli and I were in a classroom with children who were around eight years old. The children did not speak much English, and we obviously did not speak the local language. At first, I found the language barrier to intimidating. There was no teacher in the classroom with us, and all I could see in my surroundings were beady eyes staring back at me looking for some direction. After a few minutes of deciding what to do, we taught the children an old camp song called “The Princess Pat”. The song was a repeat song with lots of hand movements, so the children could follow along easily. I could tell the children really enjoyed singing the song and learning something new. A few other SAS students came into our classroom, and we sang some more songs with the children. A little while later, our tour guide asked if Jimmy and I would move into a different classroom with younger children. Here the kids were around two to three years old and spoke no English at all. Luckily the teacher was with us to give us some direction. I expected to just start singing and dancing with the children like I had previously done in the other classroom. To my surprise, the young children actually started singing and dancing for us. I was impressed that such young children were able to memorize a song and dance moves. Once they were finished singing, Jimmy and I taught the children the hokey pokey, and they loved it. We spent the next few hours singing with the children, playing games in the field, and spending one on one time with a few of the them.
The children I spent time with were very smart. Even though some of them did not know English, I could tell that they were intelligent. They were well-behaved, quick to catch onto songs and dances, and most importantly, excited to learn. One of the main issues I noticed was the lack of teachers available. I learned that there were teachers in each classroom for the younger children, but that the teachers would have to float between classrooms for the older children. A quality education is an important part of increasing standards of living in these developing societies.
South Africa- I spent most of my time in South Africa doing the touristy things like going to the incredible Table Mountain or seeing Camps Bay and the Cape of Good Hope, but like before, some of my most rewarding experiences came from interacting with the locals. It was interesting to see the apartheid issue first hand. I definitely noticed difference viewpoints on the progress of South Africa, and these views changed depending on the color of the skin of the person I was talking to. The first two days I went to a music festival. Almost everyone at the music festival was a local; we were the only foreigners. Also, almost everyone at the music festival was white. When I was talking to these people about visiting a township at some point during my six days, they looked at me like I was crazy. They told me that it was unnecessary for me to do that, and that that area is the scary part of town with the most crime. They told me it wasn’t even worth a visit and that I should just hang out with them and spend my time in the good part of town. I went against their advice and decided to check out a township for myself. I went to a restaurant called Mizoli’s Meat in a historically black township. Here I experienced some of the nicest people I have ever met. My group all split up and sat at different tables with locals. The people treated me like one of their own insisting they split their meal with me. We talked all about their lives and my trip. One of the people told me he wished I could have met him on Friday when I got to Cape Town because he would have shown me around and taken me to a braii (BBQ) with him. I felt like when I was at the township, no one saw color. They just treated everyone with friendliness and respect.
Mauritius- With only one day in Mauritius, I decided to spend my time relaxing on the beach and snorkeling. It was absolutely stunning and definitely a day in paradise. I wish I could have gotten to see more of the island and meet more of the people. From what I hear of Mauritius, it is an exceptional place to live. There is very low crime rate, less inequality than in other parts of Africa, and a higher standard of living. The only people I really got to interact with were foreigners on holiday from Europe. For a little while, I went with two girls to meet people on a neighboring catamaran. The first few people I spoke with were from Germany and did not know very much English. We only talked for a few minutes because the language barrier was an issue. After that, I chatted with this girl from England. She was so sweet, and we discussed all aspects of our lives for a long time. She was surprised that we had even heard of Mauritius because it is a very typical vacation spot for Europeans, but almost no one comes there from America. We talked all about my trip, and she said that travelling is a great way to gain new perspectives about people. I have definitely experienced this thus far, and I hope that my views on globalization will continue to develop as travel to each new country.
Friday
Today I woke up around 11:30am. It felt really nice to sleep in, and I was actually not tired at all. I realized I forgot to do my take-home quiz for finance, so I went to the library to check out my textbook to do it. I have an old edition of the book, and the problem numbers are different. I didn’t mean to buy the old edition, but I am glad I did because the new edition was over $100 and the old edition only cost me $8. The chapters have all the same information. At lunch, Sunny, Jordan, and I talked about possibly travelling in Japan together. I’m not really sure what I want to do, but I think I want to go to Tokyo. In Finance class, we talked about interest rate parity, purchasing price parity, and the Fisher relationship. Most of it was confusing, but I actually remembered the Fisher relationship from my macro class. Yay for actually learning things! In Sustainable Development, we had our midterm exam. It was open book and open note, so I thought it might be a little tricky and more analysis. It wasn’t actually that bad, and I even finished early! After class, I did the treadmill for a little while before dinner. The food at dinner was so terrible that some people went to go buy hamburgers upstairs at the grill. We sat outside though, and it was probably the most gorgeous it’s ever been. The sun was setting in the clouds making a really cool purple color. You could also tell that it was raining in the distance, which just added to the overall color effect. I just realized why it has never rained on the ship. I was confused about how we could go this long without rain, but I bet the captain steers the ship away from rain. That makes so much sense now that it just seems ridiculously obvious. Well aside from my revelation, we just spent a long time outside watching the sky until it was dark.
I studied for my Ethics exam for a little while and chatted with people in the piano bar. I got some music from Geraldin. Score! I never knew it was so easy to exchange music from Itunes. All you do is drag and drop to a harddrive or flashdrive. I thought Itunes had some restrictions or something, but I guess not. After studying, it was the time for the highlight of my day. It was the first Texas Hold Em Poker Tournament. Oh my gosh! It was so much fun! I was really bad because I haven’t played poker in years and have never really played Texas Hold Em. I learned all the rules though and think I got the concepts down for next time. At one point, I was sure I was going to get out, but then the last card was flipped and I had gotten triple queens. I lasted for longer than I thought after that and was the last girl out. I hope we do play again soon. We are not normally allowed to play poker or anything because gambling is not allowed on the ship, but the tournament was set up through SAS. The prize was something from the campus store, a jacket or something. After the tournament, I watched The Hills with Connie in my room for a while. She’s never seen The Hills before and was surprised about how dumb Heidi really was. We don’t lose an hour tonight! Yay!
Sunday
Today I got to sleep in. I was really tired because I went to sleep late last night and I woke up early this morning for a little while Brooke was getting ready. It’s annoying not having my own room. Pretty much everyday I am awake for half an hour early in the morning because Brooke always gets up before me. It’s so opposite of living in London when Sarah used to wake up two minutes before class.I woke up around 11:30am, but it felt like 11am because we had set our clocks 30 minutes ahead. Isn’t that weird that it’s not a full hour? It’s because India is in three time zones, so they just decided to kind of make their own time zone. Well after I got up, I worked on my Sustainable Development project on the Winery FDP with Nichole and Ramya for a little while before finance class. We pretty much got it all sorted out. In finance, we discussed the homework problem a little and some more about interest rate parity. In Sus Dev, we talked about different companies who have become more sustainable. After class, I worked on my class schedule for Spring semester. I was trying to rework it to see if there was any way I could not have all my classes back to back. I didn’t make much progress because I had plans to play monopoly at 4:30pm. Monopoly was so much fun! I was so unlucky though that when all the properties were sold, I only had 5. It was a really fast game. KMail got out first, and Caroline ended up winning. I’m usually really good at monopoly, but today was just not my day. After we finished our game, Caroline and I went to go say goodbye to Professor Castaldi. We wished him well, and he told us to keep in touch.
Dinner was pretty terrible today. They made Indian food in honor of our port tomorrow, but I didn’t like any of it. The line for PB&J was longer than I’ve ever seen it before. I wonder how I am going to like the food in India. I guess I will manage. After dinner, I worked on my class schedule and fixed it! I didn’t think I was going to find a solution, but I did. It’s a lot of different things in one day like a little of class and two of my jobs. I think it will be a nice variety though, and it will be a lot better to not have all four classes in a row. Next it was time for logistical preport. It was actually really enjoyable though because two of the speakers were really funny. One of our deans, Laurie Casteen, has such a dry sense of humor. She would say things and just continue on without making any hint that it was a joke. The field office guy is so funny too. He would just crack jokes all throughout his talk and the whole room would just be dying of laughter. I did learn a few things though. It’s really crowded in India, and they have a completely different sense of personal space than we do. I also learned all about how to avoid traveler’s diarrhea and diseases from bugs and rabid animals. This is going to be the first port where we are required to take shuttles to the gate because it is a very dangerous working port. I miss the shopping port in South Africa!
It’s really weird because I’m not excited for India at all. I have no clue why I feel this way, but I can’t help it. Even countries like Ghana or Morocco, where I had no clue how they would be, I was more excited for. I think maybe it is because everyone else has elaborate plans to go to the Taj Mahal, and I’m just staying in Chennai. Honestly, though, I have no desire to pay $900 to see the Taj. Well, we’ll see how things go! Maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I’m doing a school trip to Tata Consulting Services, a homestay in Chennai, and two orphanage visits.
Thursday
Today I had to get up early for Global Studies. Dean Mamta talked about Hinduism and different Indian festivals. Apparently we’re going right in the middle of two festivals. I wish we could have been there for Diwali. That would have been really cool, but Mamta assured us that there would still be decorations up for it when we got there. In ethics, we found out our professor is leaving. It’s so sad because I really liked him. He was hoping his shoulder fracture would heal on its own in a sling for 8 weeks, but he found out he needed surgery. He decided to fly back home to get it done because he wanted to make sure he gets the proper rehabilitation for it. We mostly just talked about him leaving all throughout class. The plan is to get one of the professors already on board the ship to take over our class following the same syllabus we’ve been using. After class, I went to lunch. It was the like the best meal they have ever had on the ship. They had baked macaroni and cheese, garlic mashed potatoes, tomato soup, and some Mexican dish. They were all really tasty!
After lunch, I decided to lay out because it was really sunny out. It was super windy, so I went down to deck 5 where I hoped it would be less windy. I was going to study for my test, but it was just so nice out that I decided to just lie there and listen to music. It was kind of hot, but the wind would blow the water from the ocean onto me. It felt really nice. I stayed there for like 3.5 hours before deciding I should probably do something productive. Plus the clouds were starting to come out. The comfy couch was free, so I sat there for a long time working on my blogs and emailing different people. After dinner, we all got together to throw a little party for Janu. It was his 21st birthday today. About 20 of us got together in a classroom and hung up pictures of Janu that were in the public folder. Some people had ordered him a cake and cookies, and other people made “cakes” out of bread and jam because Janu doesn’t like peanut butter. Janu was so surprised that we had done all this for him. We all just hung out in the classroom for a while and listened to music. Charles had made a really funny video of Janu dancing, so we all watched that on the big screen a few times. It was just so funny that we were laughing out loud. You could even see me on the side of the video trying to Cat Daddy (sp?), which was ridiculous. We stayed in the classroom for a few hours before the party broke up. I decided I should probably study for my Sustainable Development midterm, so I did that while watching Clueless with Connie. I went to sleep around midnight, which sounds like a decent hour, but it was actually 1am because we have to move our clocks forwards again. Boo.
