Bree's Travels

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2006-04-26T17:04:00.000-05:00

Only two more days left on this ship that I’ve called home for the past 100 days. I am such a mix of emotions that I don’t even know what I’m feeling most of the time. On one hand, I am super excited to come home and see everyone that I’ve been missing, but on the other hand, I’m gonna be really sad to leave this ship.

As I was talking to Mer the other day she asked me, “What are you gonna say to people when they ask, ‘How was your trip?’” I thought about it for a moment and realized that I had no idea. There’s absolutely nothing I can say that will sum up all the experiences, memories, and lessons of this trip. Words, photographs, souvenirs; nothing can explain it.

I can try. And I will try. I will do my best to tell you all I’ve learned about the world, myself, people, culture, and everything else. But understand that my stories will not come out all at once—there is simply too much that is all too overwhelming in my head right now. Over time, they will come out—a smell, a sight, a taste, a noise, or a clip of a conversation may spark my memory into a great story. So please don’t be disappointed when I come home and don’t have a speech prepared for you. Please understand that when you ask and I simply say, “It was great.” that it wasn’t JUST great- it was so much more than that, but I have no words to explain it.

I overheard this one girl talking to a friend yesterday, and she was saying that they only way to explain this Semester at Sea experience is to take the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and cram it all into one syllable. And I agree.

Thanks to everyone who sent e-mails, letters, pictures, facebook messages, updates, and everything else.

Thanks to everyone and anyone who actually read those long e-mails I sent out. J

Thanks to everyone who took a look at the blog. I spent valuable internet minutes updating that thing!

And THANK YOU mom and dad for EVERYTHING. I love you!

See you all soon,

Bree

2006-04-18T07:39:00.000-05:00

1. First day, Mer, Doug and I decided to do a BIT of culture in Japan, so we went to the oldest castle in Japan in the city of Himeji. It�s a pretty cool building, as you can see, and the best part of the area was all the cherry blossom trees! I think one of the main things I�ll remember about Japan is those beautiful trees- when the wind blew, the petals would fall off the tree and look like it was snowing!

Japan

2006-04-18T07:38:00.000-05:00

JAPAN BLOG- last port. Sad. .

I am EXHAUSTED. This last month of non-stop traveling and classes in between has been ridiculously busy. And now I’m tired. And I have a buttload of schoolwork to do. . . So here goes:

We only had 2 days between China and Japan, and NOBODY knew what they were doing when we docked the first day. Pretty much everyone just got off the boat in a daze with no plans-including me.

Japan turned out to be awesome! I sorta feel like I jipped Japan cuz I was so tired the whole time I could barely enjoy it, but I did my best J Impressions? Japan is CRAZY- Here’s some quick notes that don’t come up later in the pictures:

1. Their toilets are hilarious! They have about 30 buttons on the side that do everything from heat the seat to make a fake flushing noise to blowing air on you to shooting water up your ass! I wouldn’t be surprised if they started singing to you. Hah

2. Anime and porn is everywhere- kinda strange.

3. They are the most efficient people I’ve ever met. The trains are ALWAYS on time, the waitresses always make room for you, and even with all the rush, it still seems like a pretty relaxed society.

4. Never try to meet up with someone in the Kyoto train station, especially if you’ve both never been there before. Mer’s and my plan was to walkie-talkie each other at 4:00 on Friday, and if that didn’t work, we would meet at the Starbucks, because there would inevitably be one there. Unfortunately, the Kyoto train station turned out to be the size of Russia, with three different Starbucks, and for some reason our walkies wouldn’t get signals. We both ended up walking around that god-forsaken station for about 2 hours before giving up on each other.

5. Luckily, I was with Carey, so we just decided to hang out in Kyoto and grab a ryukan for the night, which is a traditional Japanese hotel where you sleep on mats and you get a little tea table in your room- it was an adorable room!

Check below for more fun stuff I did in my stay in Japan!!!

BUT NOW

Japan is over. Which means ALL the ports are over. We now have 14 days of sailing left until we dock in San Diego. I have nothing more to look forward to but papers, presentations, and tests. Good thing the weather sucks because otherwise I’d be tempted just to lay outside every day and be a bum. Ah well! K-now it’s back to paper writing! See you all soon.

Some highlights of Japan in pic form:

2006-04-18T07:37:00.000-05:00

2. The best part about our day is when Doug bought Walrus Cat juice (some random kiddie drink from the vending machine that had a cartoon walrus and cat on the front). It was the best juice ever! We had no idea what it was, but every day afterwards we searched the vending machines for Walrus Cat juice, and NEVER found it again! Sad. . .

2006-04-18T07:35:00.001-05:00

3. They sold some WEIRD stuff at 7-11. Here, would you like to buy some dried octopus tentacles? Mmmm.. . . .

2006-04-18T07:35:00.000-05:00

4. The gardens in Japan were gorgeous. And they were everywhere- smack in the middle of the city you�d find one.

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5. Mer and I went hiking in the hills of Kobe one day. I don�t know if they just don�t know how to draw maps or what but we got lost SO many damn times! Each time we came to a map we would be in a different place than we thought we were in. You can see how much the signs helped us out. haha

2006-04-18T07:33:00.001-05:00

6. Japanese baseball game! Kelli, Carey, me and Erin hanging out enjoying a beer- it was so much fun! CRAZY Japanese fans, beer, fly balls, and weird food. You could get grilled kebabs, noodles, and my personal favorite: fried and breaded octopus balls (which we lovingly referred to as pussballs) I ordered them the first time when I was slightly tipsy, and got thru 4 balls before I realized they had octopus inside. But surprisingly, they weren�t that bad, so I ordered them again.

2006-04-18T07:33:00.000-05:00

7. The best part about the game is that everyone had these huge balloons that looked like penises that they blew up right at the end of the 7th inning. At a certain time, everyone in the stadium let them go, and they flew everywhere! Will and Colin give �em a try. Half our group won Tigers hats on their free baseball scratch off cards. I wasn�t one of the winners

2006-04-18T07:31:00.001-05:00

8. Sleeping in Osaka in our capsule hotel! This is a place usually where businessmen go to simply sleep overnight-no rooms- just a little 4x4x6 �capsuls� to sleep in and a locker. They were actually a lot bigger than I expected. The capsules were stacked on top of each other, so it was weird when the person on top of you or below you shifted around.

2006-04-18T07:31:00.000-05:00

9. The streets of Osaka were insane!

2006-04-18T07:30:00.001-05:00

10. Japan LOVES their sushi- and it was sooo good! If you like sushi, you have to go to Japan and taste it there someday! I was a sushi beginner and had only tried it for the first time this January, but now I�m in love! But I may be disappointed when I come home and eat it there. . . They have so many varieties here! And this was only the �to go� menu- if you went inside and sat down, there was a rotating thing that went around the entire store right in front of you that brought sushi around. You would just pick up the ones you wanted and turn in all the receipts when you left.

2006-04-18T07:30:00.000-05:00

11. Japan also loves their SHOES! Lydia- this is your heaven. Hah. Their fashion is insane! Anything you�ve ever seen on TV about how Japanese teenagers dress is completely true. I don�t think I saw a single girl in the country without heels or trendy sneakers. These girls rode around on bikes with mini skirts and 4 inch heels! I tried to buy shoes, but NOTHING came in my size- they actually laughed at how big my feet were! Ha- ah well! That�s what I get for being American.

2006-04-18T07:28:00.001-05:00

12. Japan is the KING of vending machines! You can buy everything from cigarettes, beer, apple juice, sake, hot coffee, ANY drink you want- but strangely no food. They�d be lined up on the streets in rows of like 5 or 8. It was great cuz beers out of the machine were only $2 whereas in the bars they were upwards of $6. It was GREAT!

2006-04-18T07:28:00.000-05:00

13. Do you believe me when I tell you that I actually ATE that thing?!?! Yep- it�s a raw mini squid. And I didn�t only eat ONE, I ate THREE. How�d that happen? Well, not many people in Japan speak English, so it�s always a surprise as to what you actually get on your plate after you order. Carey and I were surprised to receive some little bowls of �stuff�. We inspected them and discovered that there were three raw, mini squids in each bowl. WHAT?!? We did NOT order that! But eh, what the hell- when in Japan! We grabbed our chopsticks, cheers it up, and chewed. It didn�t TASTE too bad, but just the texture thing was sorta disgusting. . . . . Good thing the rest of the sushi was good, cuz that was too weird for me.

2006-04-10T05:53:00.000-05:00

1. Me in Hong Kong with Jackie Chan�s handprints!!! They�re surprisingly big for a little Asian dude.

2006-04-10T05:48:00.001-05:00

2. The busy streets of Hong Kong- this city was ridiculously huge! GREAT city- sooooo busy and bustling and loud. Katelyn knows this girl Vivian who lives in Hong Kong, so we met up with her and got the grand tour of the city (as well as a new friend. Awwww)

2006-04-10T05:48:00.000-05:00

3. They sell PABST in Hong Kong!!!! Hell yeah Wisconsin, making it all the way over to East Asia!!! Hahah. Vivian advised us that the bars were really expensive, and everyone just goes to the 7-11 to buy beer, then hangs out outside the bars. We took her advice and bought the cheap beers. Love that girl-always looking out for our pockets!

2006-04-10T05:45:00.000-05:00

4. The whole gang outside Fat Angelos, where we ate dinner. (I know, you�re thinking Italian? In Hong Kong? But don�t worry- we had dim sum and other asian stuff for breakfast and lunch) Anyway, it was Sarah�s birthday, so we all got sweet Italian hats and wore em out! (btw- Vivian is the Asian one, in case you were wondering J)

2006-04-10T05:43:00.000-05:00

5. haha. Funny sign on the streets. I made Meredith carry around my painting all night cuz she had a bigger purse, so I let her use it for incriminating pictures as well.

2006-04-10T05:42:00.000-05:00

6. Jello shots!!! Too bad they were so enormous that we could barely fir them in our mouths! The dude in the background is from Milwaukee and works in Hong Kong, so he bought Dana, Meredith and me a shot. It took me literally 2 or 3 minutes to chew it all and get it down!

2006-04-10T05:40:00.000-05:00

7. PANDAS ARE THE CUTEST ANIMALS IN THE WORLD! The second day Mer and I visited Ocean Park, which is sorta like Six Flags. The rides were pretty sweet, but the best part about the park is that is has the biggest aquarium in the world AND PANDAS!!!!!! Haha we probably spent about an hour just staring at them. I bought a LARGE (think 2 � foot) stuffed panda-and now I have no idea how I�m gonna be getting him home. Ha

2006-04-10T05:39:00.000-05:00

8. Gotta put one picture of the Great Wall in here. To get here, we took a three hour bus ride (with no heat) to this TINY little village called Jingshaling. There, our driver dropped us off and told us he�d pick us up in 5 hours at a different town called Simatai-a 10 kilometer hike away. Thank the lord for that little old lady on the side of the road selling stuff in Jingshaling-we all ended up buying XXXXL �I climbed the Great Wall� sweatshirts and I also got a hat. To top it off, after about 20 minutes into our hike, it started SNOWING! Yes snowing! We were like, uhhhhhhh okay? It started out as just a little light flurry, but after about an hour, it was a FULL BLOWN BLIZZARD. It was basically a white out- we couldn�t see a thing past 10 feet.

2006-04-10T05:38:00.000-05:00

9. Me attempting to catch snowflakes with my sweet commie hat on. And I was so thankful I bought that thing, cuz it was DAMN cold. Plus, our �guides�(Mongolian farmers trying to sell us stuff to make a living) latched on to us for the first 15 towers, but when we got to number 15, they ditched us and headed back, leaving us on our own in a freaking blizzard on the Great Wall! �It�s easy from here on� they said!! Yeah right!

2006-04-10T05:37:00.000-05:00

10. Me and Mer on the Wall after the blizzard calmed down a bit. We trekked the last 15 towers pretty much alone, and after about 3 hours of snow, it started clearing up.

Hong Kong/China update!

2006-04-10T05:36:00.002-05:00

First of all, we were REALLY excited to be doing this trip independently. I’d had enough 5 star SAS trips and was ready for some hostelling! Mer and I were planning on hanging out the whole time, and we made some tentative plans to meet up with Lisa, Dana, Katelyn and Sarah.

We had two days in Hong Kong—the first day, we ate dim sum, met the national rugby teams of Portugal and Argentina in the market, took the tram to the top of the mountain to see the whole city, and went out for Sarah’s birthday!

Second day we headed off to Ocean Park! On our way home, we had the biggest scare of our lives. We had heard that the ship was leaving at 6 o’clock to leave for Qingdao, but never really thought to confirm the time. We figured if we left the park at 3:30, we’d have plenty of time to get to the ship, grab our stuff, and head off to our hostel for the night. But as we were taking the bus home from the park, we were thinking hmmm. . . . usually “on ship” time is 2 hours before we depart. What if we had to be on the ship by 4? Crap. Our plane tickets were on there. All our luggage was there. Even my passport was on the ship! ah!! If we missed the ship, we’d be officially screwed with only the clothes on our back and a giant stuffed panda to help us home. And of course, our bus didn’t drop us off at the same place we left from, so we had no clue where we were when we got off at the last stop. Thankfully, a kid helped us find the subway and get off at the right stop but THEN we took the wrong exit from the subway and AGAIN had no clue where we were. Last resort, we called a cab. It was about 4:30 now and we were SWEATING- if we missed our ship, we’d have to go to the embassy to get new passports, then buy new plane tickets, oh we were just flipping out. And of course the traffic was ridiculous. We sat at a red light in the taxi for about 4 minutes straight, biting our nails and praying the ship was still there. (you’re probably thinking, why would the ship leave you? Don’t you have to swipe in? but not this port- we had signed out saying we were flying to Beijing and not sailing with the ship, so they had no responsibility for us anymore) after a nerve-wracking 15 minute cab ride, we literally RAN to the dock and were relieved to see the boat still there. Needless worrying probably, but it definitely taught me to CONFIRM the on ship time with the crew. Phew.

Wednesday it was off to Beijing! We got there at about noon and it was NOTHING like I expected it to be. First impressions were not too good:

1. Beijing looked more like Russia than like China:

2. First of all, it was 6 degrees out (about 42 F) and Mer had only brought along flip flops!! Haha—they definitely didn’t warn us of the weather. And I know 42 isn’t THAT cold, but when you’re used to traveling in 90 degree countries, it’s quite a shock.

3. I couldn’t breathe. The air was RIDICULOUSLY polluted. My snot was black

4. Seinfeld was right when he said that communists only dress in drab, neutral colored clothes.

5. There’s this wonderful Chinese custom of snorting up a ball of snot as loudly as possible and hocking a loogie on the street. Quite lovely.

6. There were CARS everywhere! After coming from Vietnam where there were probably 10 cars, it was weird. I guess I just expected everyone to be riding bikes. But the traffic was horrible!

7. I was also expecting a crowded downtown area, but Beijing was just a large, sprawling city. (where you could only see about a half mile cuz of the smog)

8. Chinese people are not as short as I would have thought! Ha

Okay, not so good so far. But things got better. . sorta. . .

FIRST we went out and bought shoes. Thank the lord for cheap knockoff Pumas. All the girls got them except for me because yeah, they don’t have my size. Apparently no one in china has as big of feet as me. Ah well. Good thing I brought my sneakers along because the next day we were climbing the Great Wall!!! Woohoo! Scroll down to the pictures for the full Wall experience.

Third day, we went and did the tourist things like Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, etc etc. We were kinda sick of tourist stuff by then tho, so we cut our tour short and went shopping! China is by FAR the hardest place to bargain- probably cuz its got so many dumbass tourists willing to pay a lot for crap. But after 80 days of bargaining, we were pretty good at it and got stuff down to reasonable prices. The day in general was a bust though- things just kept gong wrong! First of all, I almost killed a guy when I opened my taxi door and T-boned a dude on a bike! He FLEW over his bike and laid on the ground for about 30 seconds during which I just stared and prayed he wasn’t dead. He was okay, but I felt AWFUL. Then things went downhill from there: the waitress forgot my order at breakfast, I slammed my finger in a bank door, no taxi drivers in China know how to read a map, the Kung Fu show was sold out for the night, we got separated from our group for about an hour cuz of stupid taxi drivers, the internet was too slow to sign up for classes, and to top it all, I still couldn’t breathe cuz of the damn pollution. BUT at least the day was a hell of a lot warmer J I wore my brightest shirt in an attempt to spice up the city and its drabness. But, all in all, I was ready to leave.

I’m not sure if that’s because I’m just about traveled out (100 days straight gets a bit tiring) or if it really was just that I didn’t like China that much. I don’t really want to blame China too fast. . . . . but I don’t know if I’ll be coming back soon to test out my hypothesis.

Thankfully, Qingdao was cleaner, brighter, warmer, and I had a great time just hanging around the port city on our last day. Mer and I went to this “park” to go hiking, but it ended up being Fun World for 13 year olds. Hahah we had an awesome time going on all the little carnival rides with schoolkids J It was so random though!

Overall: mixed feelings. I had a wonderful time with the girls I hung out with. We ate AMAZING food and went to an awesome acrobat show. Of course, the Wall was fun, and it was cool to do everything by myself without a tour guide or SAS being my mom. I’m ready to chill for 2 days before Japan though. Too bad I have freaking papers and projects due! Ahh!!

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11. We had a nice little surprise at the end of our trek-a zipline! Instead of hiking the last 20 minutes, we could pay 4 bucks and take a zipline down. We all jumped on that real quick J So of course, looking back on it, hiking the Wall in a blizzard was awesome. But I think next time I�d like to do it in the sun J

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12. One night in Beijing we went to an acrobat show! These Asians are amazing-most of my pics didn�t turn out cuz of the lighting, but this was one of the better ones. That�s TEN people on one bike! Hah it was a fun night

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13. Me in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese COMPLETELY deny that anything happened here in 1989. There was nothing in the papers ever, and even Google is blocked. When you type in �Tiananmen Square� it only brings up the location-there�s nothing about the events. Interesting. . . . . that�s what happens when the government controls and censors everything. . . .

2006-04-10T05:34:00.000-05:00

14. oh Mao. These people worship this dude, even though he was probably the worst thing to happen to them ever. When I found someone who spoke English (a rare occurrence) and asked them about Mao Ze Dung, they all smiled and responded something along the lines of, �ooooooooooooohhhh Mao! He was 80% good and only 20% bad� right. You keep telling yourself that people. His body is even preserved in the Mausoleum ! you can go and say �what�s up homie?� to Mao! Haha. Okay I probably shouldn�t laugh cuz it�s a big deal to most Chinese. . . .

2006-04-10T05:33:00.000-05:00

15. hahaha they had CORN flavored ice cream bars!! We couldn�t NOT buy one. Oh, it was awful! We gave it to a begger on the street, and even he didn�t seem to pleased about receiving it. But they also had bubble tea! My new favorite drink- it�s the one in my right hand- its flavored tea with big black tapioca balls in it- doesn�t look very appetizing, but its damn good!

2006-04-01T07:45:00.000-06:00

4. AWW, look how cute me and Mer and Mom look in our Vietnamese hats!!!! Haha

2006-04-01T07:42:00.000-06:00

1. Traffic in Vietnam is insane! ALMOST as crazy as India, but not quite. Everyone drove scooters- and there are hardly any traffic lights. The best way to cross the road is NOT frogger style, but just to close your eyes and start walking. In the states, there�s NO WAY you�d get across these roads because of the constant stream of traffic, but here, you just have to walk at a constant pace, and people will drive around you. Terrifying, but it worked every time! And we took scooter taxis a lot because they were way more fun than regular ole� taxis!

2006-04-01T07:41:00.000-06:00

2. Me inside one of the Cu Chi Tunnels. One of the best parts about Vietnam is that they have funny names for things! Their currency is the dong, and I definitely dropped a lot of dong in Vietnam! Our guide Bong gave us a tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels. These tunnels were used by the Viet Cong (north) tunnels during the war (they call it the American War). The soldiers sometimes spent months at a time underground, and attacked the Viet Minh and the Americans during the night. We got to crawl through some of them, and they were tiny! Granted, the Vietnamese are about half the size of Americans, but it was really hard- and they had to do it with full army gear on. Haha-my friend Jeff accidentally kicked Jane in the Cu Chi Tunnel because it was too dark to see anything. Dan made some jokes about putting booby traps in the Cu Chi tunnels. J

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3. These are some examples of the booby traps the Viet Cong used during the war. Some of these things were BRUTAL. In this one, you would fall through the middle and the spikes would rotate, so you would get stabbed by all of them and then they would rip out as your body weight took you down. OUCH. Thankfully, they were tipped with poison, so if they spikes alone didn�t kill you, you�d die in 2 or 3 minuets from the poison. They had about 15 varieties of bobby traps. Smart guys.

2006-04-01T07:39:00.000-06:00

5. Sign at the Killing Fields in Cambodia: The killing fields were one of the many where the bodies of the victims were buried. They had a building with thousands and thousands of skulls in it, a tree that was labeled as the �killing tree where soldiers beat kids against�, and hundreds of big potholes where people had been dug up from mass graves. It was indescribably sad.

2006-04-01T07:37:00.000-06:00

8. Me and mom and dad in front of Angkor Wat-one of the wonders of the world! It was pretty cool to see! Angkor was built in 1113 AD and was used as a party place for 300 years till it was abandoned in the 1400�s. Thailand and Cambodia are STILL fighting about who owns it, even though it�s clearly on Cambodia land. And during the Khmer Rouge period when there was no security, looters cut the heads off of almost all the statues-so it�s kinda sad. But it was still beautiful- we got to climb to the top of the center tower.

2006-04-01T07:36:00.000-06:00

11. KICKBOXING MATCH!! As we were pulling up to our restaurant for the night, there was a huge crowd across the road. Khet, our guide for the day, said it was probably a soccer game or something. Katelyn, Jay and I weren�t really hungry, so we decided to go check it out. Turns out it was a kickboxing match!! Haha we had so much fun! Blue dude beat the crap out of red dude! After the match, we went and played carnival games and won like 20 bags of funky Cambodia junk food. Most of it we gave away to the kiddies, but I kept one bag of shrimp flavored chips to eat on the plane-they were interesting, to say the least!

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6. Some of the thousands of photos of people who were murdered during the Khmer Rouge regime. There were pictures of all ages, from little 4 year old girls to grandpas. I asked who took the pictures and why, and our guide said the soldiers took the pictures to prove to their bosses how good they were doing and how many people they were killing.

2006-04-01T07:32:00.000-06:00

7. Me and Dad took a ride on the elephants through the Victory Gate in Siem Riep! Our elephant�s name was Chiher and he was a big dude! In front of us is Jay and John on their elephant.

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9. This temple was one of the coolest-the trees were literally growing through the sandstone! The whole area was a big mass of broken up blocks and trees growing straight up from the bricks.

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10. Jay was always the giver- here he is buying 68 sodas for the kids in this little town!! They were always begging, and instead of just giving them money, he always bought some food or a soda for them-and they loved it! I think they might make this day a new annual holiday! Jay-Day!

2006-04-01T07:16:00.000-06:00

12. These guys were at the kickboxing match, and we thought they were hilarious, so we took a pic! Afterward, we found out that WildAid was sponsoring the match and they were there to encourage people to save the animals in Cambodia. Kinda odd to think of saving the animals when they have so many other problems, but it was good to see that someone cared.

Vietnam slash Cambodia update!

2006-04-01T07:15:00.000-06:00

disclaimer- this is gonna be ALL out of order, cuz the internet keeps cutting out. Sorry bout that, but the pics are numbered so you can see what order I intended them to go up in. . .

Sin chow! (that means hello in Vietnamese!)

Time for your update on Vietnam slash Cambodia!!! First of all, it was a great 5 days because my parents came to visit me!!! Yay! It was great to see them and hang out, if only for a few days. Plus, the fact that we went on the “parent trip” to Cambodia meant UPGRADES for the hotels! We stayed in the nicest hotels I’d ever been to in my life-even my parents said that!

I’m assuming everyone knows at least a little bit about Vietnam, so I won’t give you background info this time. The people weren’t bitter about the war at all- in fact, it was the exact opposite.However,that could have been due to the fact that I stayed in the South the whole time. Some people that went north to Hanoi said that they were a lot more pro-communist and anti-American. But for the most part, people were extremely friendly, just like all of Southeast Asia. I got a real sense of a divided Vietnam though- because the people in the south would talk about the people in the north as “them” like they were part of a different country, and not all just one Vietnam. So, there were still some tensions.

After our first day of digging in the Cu Chi Tunnels, we headed off to Cambodia! After a quick stop in the market to drop some dong on fake Northfaces and pirated DVDs, we took our noon flight and arrived in Phnom Penh in time to visit a semi-interesting museum and eat some damn good Cambodian food. Next it was off to visit the killing fields. On the way, our guide told us all about it: (be prepared for some grim stuff). . . .

So in 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia and began a 3 ½ year attempt to exterminate anyone who had been educated. They wanted to alter society completely, and create a completely classless society where everyone was equal. The result was the massacre of 3 million people—one third of the population of Cambodia. Kids were removed from their families, private ownership was eliminated, money was outlawed, and they started the calendar year over at zero. 95% of teachers, doctors, and engineers were murdered in extermination camps—it got so bad that if you wore glasses, you were killed. Not just shot either- tortured, beaten to death with hoes, disemboweled, or had nails hammered into your head. Our guide lost both his parents and his older brother to the Khmer Rouge. This thing was worse than Nazi Germany and more recent, but I was amazed at how little I knew about it!

Ah! Enough depressing stuff! I’m getting sick just thinking about it again. After these sad sights, we went to the royal palace. Cambodia still has a king, although he’s like the Queen of England, and doesn’t do shit. The country is supposedly a democracy, and they have a prime minister that is like our president, but Khet, our second guide, said it’s more like a “democracy” and that the current prime minister used to be part of the Khmer Rouge. So, this country is just about as f-ed up as Burma- maybe even more so because they had to start at ground zero in 1979 because they had NO educated people. Khet said things are SLOWLY getting better, but it’s hard to rebuild when you have no one to teach anyone how to do anything. Most of the people still around in Cambodia after 1979 only knew how to farm, which will help them not starve, but won’t help them improve their country.

Overall, this port was just okay. It was wonderful to see my parents, and we saw some pretty cool stuff, but our trip was more sight seeing that sight learning. I felt like we were rushed around from one tourist sight to another, and didn’t really get to interact with the locals at all (which is now my favorite part about traveling- Drew aren’t you proud of me?)

2006-04-01T07:14:00.000-06:00

13. Typical view of the streets in Vietnam. Crowded as all hell with MILLIONS of power lines- I don�t know what they do if one of them stops working-it would be nearly impossible to sort them out. I�m guessing they just add new ones and say screw it to the broken ones. Some people were even hanging their laundry on the power lines!

2006-04-01T07:13:00.000-06:00

14. I got to hold a BOA!!! It was scary for about 3 seconds, but then I calmed down a bit. It was really cool to feel his muscles moving around and stuff- but scary to think that he could choke me any time me wanted! Eek!

2006-03-31T07:22:00.000-06:00

1. A house on the side of the road-they have water buffalo! And a cute little bamboo bridge across the water to their house. And adorable kids!

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2. The Inle Lake people had an interesting way of fishing- they would push those big conical nets in the water with their foot, and then poke a stick around to scare the fish. The fish would swim into the nets, and then they�d lift them up and dump em in the boat! Easy as that.

2006-03-31T07:20:00.000-06:00

3. This is what all the houses looked like on Inle Lake-built on stilts and made out of thatch! Even the walls were made out of woven palm leaves. It was so cool! The kid in front is using his bamboo stick to pull out lakeweed from the bottom of the lake and collect it on his boat. They use it for fertilizer on their floating gardens.

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4. A favorite

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5. More Burmese people collecting lakeweed. They would really pack into their boats!

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6. What did I say about adorable kids!?!?! How freakin CUTE is she? They loved hand games like pattycake, high fives, and �pound it.� There wasn�t too much we could talk about, so hand games were a perfect way to interact. They also loved looking at their picture after you took it.

2006-03-31T07:15:00.001-06:00

7. Me chewing a betel leaf- its like the southeast asia form of chewing tobacco (don�t worry mom- Im not hooked yet) They wrap up a bunch of stuff inside this leaf and chew on it for hours. People who chew it often (which is pretty much everybody) have red stained teeth, which looks pretty nasty. I chewed it for about a minute- it was minty-ish, then I spit it out and my tongue was already slightly numb. It was interesting, to say the least. And of course I�m looking cute in my Burmese hat!!!

2006-03-31T07:15:00.000-06:00

8. A view of the local market in the Pao O region- the Pao O people wear towels on their heads, as you can see on the ladies on the left. In the background is one of Burma�s three million pagodas! Haha you can hardly see it, but it�s a bunch of cone-shaped monument things with one large one in the center. Scroll down to see the largest pagoda in the world!!

2006-03-31T07:14:00.000-06:00

9. Cute old lady at the market. Even the older people loved having their picture taken! Some of them were disappointed that I couldn�t give them the actual picture. Where�s that Polaroid when you need it?!

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10. Can�t resist putting in another adorable kid! This kid NEVER stopped smiling!

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11. A local working on his land. Everything is so traditional here-and all the people were so happy about it! We sneakily talked to some locals about the government and if they like tourists coming to Inle. They said that the cities have it bad, but since they�re out in the country, they don�t really feel the effects of the repression very much. They just continue living how they always have. The tourist money helps them, and most were happy that we were visiting so that we can see the country for ourselves, and maybe go home and try to change things. FreeBurma campaign. Look it up!

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12. A woman carrying her two little kids in a pagoda area. See the cone shapes? Each one of those gets donated by a Buddhist so that they can gain merit and move up in their next life.

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13. Everyone waves!!!! Yay!

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14. Me and our awesome guide Winston posing in front of the larges Buddha in the world! haha they always try to outdo each other and have the largest something or other. There�s a largest gold Buddha, largest sitting Buddha, largest marble Buddha, largest ceramic Buddha, largest blah blah blah. I suppose this was a damn big reclining Buddha, but it was funny too. I took a picture picking his nose- I don�t think I�ll be getting reincarnated. . . . hummmmm

2006-03-31T07:10:00.000-06:00

15. In front of the Shwedagon Pagoda! (aka the SchweatyBalls Pagoda, as we liked to call it cuz it was so freakin hot out!) This is one of the wonders of the world! It was built in 600 BCE and the very top of it has 83, 853 diamonds on it! The biggest one is 76 carats-they said it is the biggest diamond in the world! (Maybe Burma should take a hint and sell those diamonds to buy a new government)

what the hell?

2006-03-22T07:19:00.000-06:00

yeah. . .the pictures aren't loading at the moment. Apparetnly tons of people are having problems with the internet right now, so you get the writing, but not the pics, which are the best part! sorry! they'll be up as soon as the internet starts working again!
bree

Burma Update!

2006-03-22T07:13:00.000-06:00

Ever heard of Myanmar? Yeah, me either. Burma? Oh, that sounds familiar. This country is one of the most interesting as well as one of the most f-ed up place in the world. . . .

BACKGROUND: It’s a military dictatorship first of all. A lady called Aung San Suu Kyi led a revolution in the 80’s and succeeded in getting elections in 1990. 80% of the seats went to her party, but the military refused to step down and has remained in power since. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since then, and there is civil war fighting in the east.

The government censors everything. Hotmail and Yahoo are not allowed. E-mails are screened for words like “Aung San Suu Kyi” or “democracy” or “uprising” or “revolt” or anything of that nature. Letters cannot be sent to the US, but postcards can because they read them first. We were told not to talk to any of the Burmese people about the government or politics because the military will go to their house at night and ask what we talked about- possibly arrest them. Our guide would turn off the mic on the bus whenever he talked about anything remotely controversial because “you never know” if it was bugged. Other groups had military people following them around in street clothes the whole time making sure they didn’t go anywhere they weren’t supposed to.

US has sanctions on it. Bush has told US citizens NOT to go here- not because it’s unsafe, but because by going, you support the government. Needless to say, there was a LOT of debate about coming here or not. Like it or not, we docked, and I think it was a great idea. Why?

Because I got to see for myself what a beautiful country this is. Minimal poverty compared to other countries we’ve visited, wonderful people, breathtaking scenery, and did I mention wonderful people? But, I also have to remember that I didn’t see anything the government didn’t want me to see. If you chose, you could close your eyes and ears and visit Burma for weeks without seeing anything wrong.

I went to Inle Lake, which was basically like opening a National Geographic and diving in. The entire city was built on the water—all the houses and stores were built on stilts out of bamboo and thatch. Our hotel was in the middle of the lake, with little individual bungalows! The people grew vegetables and flowers in “floating gardens” attached to their houses, they used water buffalo to work in the rice paddies, they harvested seaweed, they fished with cool nets, they rowed with their legs, and they ALWAYS smiled!!! Haha and I thought Indian people were nice- these people blew me away! Everywhere we went, they waved to us, offered us tea, or just wanted to chat. It was a lot harder to chat here cuz not many people speak English, but I think I’ve become quite the master at hand signals and body languageJ. And the kids were ADORABLE!

Burmese people are mostly Buddhist, so we got o visit a lot of monasteries and pagodas. The pagodas are EVERYWHERE- apparently there are 3 million in the country, and the biggest one—the Shwedagon Pagoda is one of the wonders of the world

During our four day stay, we visited an orphanage, a monk monastery for teaching kids how to be a monk, a “jumping cat” monastery, a few pagodas, a silkweaving factory, a blacksmith, a cigar making place, a canoe maker, and the largest reclining Buddha in the world.

Some highlights:

1. One night four of us ditched our SAS group and took a water taxi to town, where we rented bikes for 30 cents and biked around town for an hour! I picked one with a really loud bell, and I would ring it and say Mingalaba (hello) to everyone we passed on the streets. Of course, because it’s Burma, everyone cheerily responded with a Mingalaba!! It was so much fun! Oh, except for that moment when I fell off my bike and busted my toe open. No big deal in the states, but who knows what kind of funky diseases you can pick up in the dirt here! I toughened up and poured some Purell on it just to make sure I would kill all those nasties.

2. After our lively bike ride, we went to a local restaurant and ordered some pasta. We could see in the kitchen, and watched as the cook whipped out the flour and water and MADE the pasta from scratch! He kneaded it, rolled it, put it through the little pasta maker, and baked it!! Dinner took forever, but it was the best pasta I’ve ever had- yes jess, better than Italy! (but don’t worry, I ordered the gnocchi)

3. This didn’t happen to me, but I ran into my friend Ted on the last night and he said that he had just come from a little local bar where two Burmese men approached them and began to talk about starting a revolution! They thought that Americans could help them organize because we don’t have restrictions on anything. Ted asked if they were gonna get in trouble for talking about it, and they said as long as they didn’t tell on them. I found that amazing!

4. Did I mention that the people were wonderful? Haha I think about 80% of the pictures I took were of people smiling at me!

Burma=new favorite place to visit. I still vote that South Africa would be my favorite place to actually live or stay for a long period of time, but Burma was definitely the best time so far.

India- mixed impressions

2006-03-16T08:11:00.000-06:00

India: One word for it: INTENSE. Intense smells, sounds, cultures, customs, beliefs, and feelings. I am completely torn on how I feel about this country. . . .before I can really tell you about my time here, it’s kinda essential to know a bit about it first.

1. India has 1 billion people-that’s a LOT! That’s 16% of the world population living on 2.3% of the land. 85% are Hindu (Mer and I consider this one of the worst religions ever- you’ll see why soon) and 80% live in rural areas.

2 They operate under the caste system, which separates people into “classes.” It’s technically illegal, but from my observations, it’s still in full swing. There are 4 main classes, and then a “fifth” category- called “untouchables” who do the worst jobs like cleaning the streets. It’s impossible to move castes-the only way to do so is to lead a good life, die, and come back born into a better caste. There is terrible discrimination between the castes. You cannot intermarry between castes, and about 90% of all marriages are arranged (the biggest section of the Hindu newspaper is marriage ads)

3. Horrific things still happen here- men are considered superior to women, and the rate of infanticide/abortions for baby girls is awful. They feel that killing a daughter is a better option than sentencing her to a life of poverty and discrimination. It’s estimated that about half of rural Indians have killed infant girls. “Bride burning” happens often as well- this is when the husband is not satisfied with the woman’s dowry, so he murders her (usually by setting her on fire in the kitchen) so that he can marry another girl and collect a second dowry. My homestay family knew 3 women personally who have been murdered in “questionable” circumstances. They usually never get punished because the whole husband’s family is in on it also.

4. India is a garbage can. EVERYWHERE you look, there’s trash, someone peeing, or a little kid pooing in the middle of the street. Monkeys, cows, horses, chickens, dogs, cats, roam freely around. I actually had trash in my hand one time while I was looking for a garbage can to put it in, and my guide said, “Here, I’ll take care of that for you.” She took it from my hand and dropped it on the ground! Ahh!!

Okay, regardless of all this, I still had an incredible time here. How could that be? The PEOPLE are great- they LOVE talking to you about anything and everything in the world- they probably asked just as many questions about the US as I did about India. And they were honest- I feel like I got REAL answers out of a lot of them- not just “what I wanted to hear” kind of answers.

During my stay here, I went to an Untouchable, or Dalit, village the first day and helped paint an elementary school for them. I went on a home stay in rural India for the next two days, went to the market one day, and visited some temples on the last day. You’ll see pics from all that below.

Overall, I have mixed impressions of India. Would I come back? Definitely, but not for a few years because I’m curious to see how their country will look 10-15 years from now, after they have had a chance to develop (and hopefully clean up a bit)

2006-03-16T08:10:00.000-06:00

I didnt take this picture- Nicole did, but I thought it was really good, so I'm sharing it here!! It's on my desktop right now!!

2006-03-16T08:08:00.000-06:00

1. Indian women in the Dalit village we went to the first day. I�d say about 98% of women wore saris every day. I only saw two or three with western clothes the whole time we were here.

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2. Everybody loved getting their picture taken! This family posed for me in front of their street. After I take the picture, they love to look at it and laugh at themselves on the camera.

2006-03-16T08:06:00.001-06:00

3. Asad, me, Colin and Nicole all drinking coconut juice from freshly cut fruits. Apparently this stuff is like Gatorade with all kinds of electrolytes- you can even inject it directly into your veins- Purni, our home stay mom said they used to use it a lot in hospitals.

2006-03-16T08:06:00.000-06:00

4. Me feebly attempting to climb the coconut tree with the help of a weird contraption and three people holding me! Haha it was a LOT harder than the dude made it look!!! Some of the guys could even climb the trees without the contraption!! They were just like monkeys!

2006-03-16T08:05:00.000-06:00

5. Me hanging out with the little kids at a school in the village of Erode. Although schooling is free, only about 50% of the kids actually attend because their parents need them to work on the farms at home.

2006-03-16T08:04:00.001-06:00

6. A traditional way to eat a south Indian meal. Purni said that they still eat off banana leaves at weddings- and there is no silverwear- you eat everything with your fingers! And NEVER eat with your left hand! It�s considered unclean because that�s the hand you�re supposed to wipe with. (Left-handed Colin had a hard time with this rule) The food just kept coming here too- as soon as you finished one course, they�d come around with more scoops to put on your leaf.

2006-03-16T08:04:00.000-06:00

7. Little markets on the side of the road were everywhere! And lots of men wore lungis (skirts). Smart idea cuz it was f-ing HOT here!

2006-03-16T08:03:00.001-06:00

8. The one and only trash can I saw in India. Notice that there is NO trash in the can- that�s because it�s strewn all over the rest of the county. . . . . .

2006-03-16T08:03:00.000-06:00

9. A temple elephant!!! You give this elephant an offering of a coin or two and he wraps it up in his trunk. He then taps you on the head, blessing you, and hands the coins off to his Hindu man. It was pretty cool.

2006-03-16T08:02:00.000-06:00

10. A typical Indian toilet. Yummm. . . just make sure you don�t forget to bring your own toilet paper, because it doesn�t exist in this country.

2006-03-16T08:01:00.001-06:00

11. The busy streets of Chenni.

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12. An auto-rickshaw- with our driver! This is pretty much what everyone used to get around town- its kinda like a 3 wheeled taxi with no doors. The streets are INSANE. It�s like being in Frogger constantly- cows, buses, trucks, bikes, scooters, auto rickshaws, bike rickshaws, everything shares the road and there are no rules- it�s pretty much every man for himself. We even saw people riding ON TOP of city buses. Craziness. . . .

2006-03-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

13. We crammed four people into our rickshaw and prayed that we wouldn�t be the ones to get in an accident that night. . Colin, Meredith, me and Will all made it safely to the restaurant, but Carey�s rickshaw got into an accident later that week with a motorcycle. I still can�t decide if Indian drivers are skilled or just plain crazy!

Mauritius!

2006-03-08T03:50:00.000-06:00

Well, we had quite an interesting time on this little island country. If you haven’t looked it up yet, Mauritius is located smack in the middle of the Indian Ocean, just right of

Madagascar

. For its size, it’s the most crowded place in the entire world, but also has some of the most beautiful places. Mark Twain visited here once, and wrote, “You gather that Mauritius was made first, and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after

Mauritius

.”

So we started out our journey in the city of Port Louis which was crowded as all hell- people EVERYWHERE. We walked through blocks and blocks of market area, and bought every type of weird food we could imagine. We had fried gooshy donut things, fried crunchy things, fried balls of veggies, fried bread, fried noodles with beef, fried spicy things, fried sweet things, you get the picture. When we were all about to puke, we washed it down with some mystery juices from the side of the road, then made sure to take our Pepto!! J

Thirteen of us had rented a beach house in a city called Flic en Flac- but half our group left earlier that morning, and just said to call when we got there- which turned out to be the worst plan in the history of bad planning. First, we decided to take an adventure and take the city bus there- it was about 110 degrees, packed to the gills, and about an hour long- pretty much hell. So we get to the city, find a payphone, call our friends, and find out that the number he gave us doesn’t really exist. We spent about 45 minutes at this phone trying as many different combinations of numbers we could think of, sometimes getting a hold of a very confused Mauritian, but most of the time getting the electronic voice saying it was an error. But we DID have the name of the house where the sister to our house owner lives (confused yet?) so we ask some policemen to help us, and they have NO IDEA where it is. So we’re pretty much stranded on the beach with no clue where we live.

We start walking on the beach asking every SASer we can find if they’ve seen our friends, and of course, no one has. About 20 minutes later, the policeman comes running up to us and says he’ll take us to the sister’s house. How’d they figure out where it was? No clue. So we get escorted in the back of a caged police car to the sister’s place -turns out her husband (nicknamed Captain) and her are known to be the biggest drunks in town. It’s about 2 pm, he’s wasted, and insists on DRIVING us to our house. We have no other choice because he won’t give us directions to walk. So five of us cram into the backseat of his tiny Mazda (sorry mom) and pray for our lives that he doesn’t crash. It ended up only being a five minute drive, so we survived, but it was terrifying. Captain kept trying to speak Japanese to our friend Nobutaka, but all he could say was konichewa.

Well, once we finally got there, the beach house was awesome! There’s not much to do in Mauritius besides hit the beach and drink, so that’s what we did. The first night was quite an adventure- my friend Carey and I got separated from our friends and didn’t know where our house was (de ja vou anyone?), so we ended up crashing with some other SASers. It took us about an hour in the morning to find our house which ended up being only 10 minutes from where we actually started. Ah well! At least we eventually found it.

Overall, Mauritius was a lot of fun, but a lot of us (including me) are really disappointed that we didn’t get to go to Kenya. For those of you that don’t know, we were originally supposed to go to Kenya, but after the incident in November where a cruise liner got attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia, we detoured and went to Mauritius instead- a total copout by SAS if you ask me. Ah well

2006-03-08T03:48:00.000-06:00

2. Colin, Brian and Evan on their way to catch a taxi, looking cute with little yellow flowers in their ears. . awww

2006-03-08T03:47:00.001-06:00

3. Erin being hungover. . . . eating a yummy sandwich on the beaches of Flic en Flac.

2006-03-08T03:47:00.000-06:00

4. Me looking over the edge of a waterfall on our awesome hike to �seven falls.� We had to hire a guide to lead us, because the trail was pretty much unmarked and treacherous- at some points it was literally an 80 degree incline, in the slippery mud (mist off the waterfalls made it muddy) and me wearing flip flops cuz I forgot to bring my sneakers (great move bree) At one point during the hike we had to scale down a rock wall and jump onto a tree, then climb down that. Ridiculous. . . .

2006-03-08T03:46:00.000-06:00

5. Evan fell and slid down the trail for about six feet until he was stopped by that stick in front of him when it went up his shorts and snagged on them. .. .that must have felt good. Haha

Sea Olympics!!!

2006-03-08T03:45:00.002-06:00

Background info: So our student body of 68 is divided up into 9 different “seas.” They’re kinda like floors your frosh year- we all have our own RA’s and stuff. I’m part of the Red Sea and March 4^th was the day of the Sea Olympics!!!!! First prize team gets to be the first ones off the ship in San Diego.

During this day, we had competitions- everything from scavenger hunts, dodgeball, wet clothes race, orange pass, chubby bunny, limbo, twister, synchronized swimming, lip-synch, big hair contest, relays, banners, and everything fun you can imagine.

Our sea started out a little sub-par cuz our RA was kinda disorganized and only had one meeting (as opposed to other seas who had up to 6 meetings) for the Olympics. No one really knew what was going on at first, but we got the hang of it soon enough, and by the end of the day, we proved to be really sucky competitors, but really good cheerers! Haha for each event you get 5 points for first, 3 for second, 1 for third, and 1 extra “spirit” point goes to the loudest team. After we lost the first few events by a landslide, we decided the only way we could get points was by cheering, so that was our plan. Our team had like 15 different cheers. At lunchtime, we were in dead last, but by the end of the day, we came in 5^th. The only reason we did that well is because we WON the lip synch and got 9 points for it (this was the only competition where every team get points for what place you come in) Even though we didn’t end up winning the whole thing, our team definitely had the most fun cuz we had SPIRIT!! Haha if there was a spirit stick, we would definitely have won it!

2006-03-08T03:45:00.001-06:00

6. The first waterfall- we got to walk right under it! See the rainbow? They were everywhere! It was beautiful.

2006-03-08T03:45:00.000-06:00

7. Group photo of the five of us who got off our butts that morning and braved the hangovers to come on this hike!! Yay for us!

2006-03-08T03:44:00.001-06:00

8. Bri jumping off the rocks into the water. It was really refreshing to jump in after sweating all day in the almost 90 degree weather.

2006-03-08T03:44:00.000-06:00

9. This is us on our taxi ride home from the hike- our diver randomly pulled over and said he�d be right back. We assumed he had to run an errand or talk to a friend or something, so imagine our surprise when he shows up at the car with fried goodies and a 12 pack of beer for us (plus 2 Smirnoff�s for the girls)! Hahah it was hilarious! Good ole� Mauritian taxi drivers!

2006-03-08T03:43:00.000-06:00

10. Carey and I eating cool little pineapples off the side of the road. Nothing like fresh fruit on an island in the sun.

2006-03-08T03:42:00.001-06:00

1. Bri and I have our game faces on for the orange pass!! Grrrrrrrrrr. . .

2006-03-08T03:42:00.000-06:00

2. There was quite a crowd to watch the flip cup tournament. Too bad they only gave us lemonade instead of beer. . . . . ah well!

2006-03-08T03:41:00.001-06:00

3. the karaoke/lip synch competition was by far the best entertainment of the day. Some teams got real crazy with it. . . These guys were dancing to �it�s raining men� haha oh dear. . .

2006-03-08T03:41:00.000-06:00

4. The Red Sea winning team of the karaoke dance!! Our guys were awesome- they did a skit/dance to �under the sea�, �cry me a river�, �YMCA� �yellow submarine� and �walk on� TOTALLY hilarious!

2006-03-08T03:40:00.001-06:00

5. Sea picture! Hell yeah Red Sea Ringers!! (yeah, we had a bit of confusion on what a �ringer� is, but apparently it�s someone who comes in at the end of a game and wins it. . riiiiiiiight. . I didn�t choose it)

2006-03-08T03:40:00.000-06:00

6. Some of the other seas got a lot more creative with their outfits- this was the Baltic Sea Vikings.

2006-03-08T03:39:00.000-06:00

7. Most days on the boat we have pretty awesome sunsets. This was a particularly good one.

2006-02-26T00:17:00.000-06:00

this is what ALL the houses used to look like here. most of the other townships have living conditions more like this.

sorry!

2006-02-26T00:16:00.000-06:00

PS- sorry everything is totally out of order! the internet is kinda whacky way out here in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I numbered the pics for you so you can see what order in INTENDED them to go up in, but they like to create their own order sometimes, so the blog will be a bit schizo. ah well! deal with it

2006-02-26T00:13:00.000-06:00

12. close up of a white rhino. these guys were everywhere! we saw one withine the first 20 seconds of entering the park. . . but its the balck rhino thats endangered, and we didnt see any of those guys. plus their poo was all over the road! our guide said that its because they mark their territory with their poo, and then if another rhino comes along and wants to cahllenge the territory, hell follow the scent. when they find each other, they duke it out!

2006-02-26T00:08:00.001-06:00

1. A view of Table Mountain from the ship as we were docking. Cape Town is in front of the mountain there. I hiked that thing twice!!