Day 4: Africa Day

So they give us the day off from classes to sleep in and rest and then wake us up at 0830 to do a lifeboat drill? Assholes. Literally we have the entire day off from classes and all everyone was looking forward to was sleeping in. Everyone needed that. They came on the loudspeaker at 0830 to tell us that we’d be doing another lifeboat drill. The entire day is free. And yet we have to get up at 0830. I understand the importance of the drill, but honestly wait til atleast 1000. I can’t even imagine who thought that this was a good idea. I’ve never seen a more pissed off group of people. This was worse than the lifeboat drill leaving Hong Kong when everyone was hung over. That one made sense, this one didn’t.

After attempting to go back to sleep I eventually gave up and went to the gym earlier and worked out for over an hour on the bike. Then stretched out on the 7^th deck. It had been dark and stormy when we all woke up, but it was starting to clear up so I thought maybe I’d get to tan and relax.

I got a salad on the 5^th deck and showered and went back upstairs to lay out. By then the wind had picked up and was blowing so hard it was blowing my laptop across the deck. So that was a no go. The bow wasn’t even open due to high winds. No one was around because they all went to Abel’s great white talk. He told us he’d give that to us in class in a few days so we shouldn’t go.

I watched some movies on my computer til Tania came back. We watched the Hannah Montana movie then got pizza up on the 7^th deck. By dinner time everyone slowly came out of hiding for a family dinner. We haven’t had a family dinner in awhile so it was nice. We relived all the old school Nickelodeon cartoons and shows. The boys, being like 8 years older, knew of ones we’d never heard of. They make us feel so young sometimes. The waves had picked up around 1700 and were crrrrrraaaaazy big. Like beginning of voyage big. The swells were getting horrific and things were flying around the dining hall. Then we went out to the smoking deck to look at the waves. You’d look off the side and a wave would come and you’d only see water and no sky.

If you looked off into the distance to the starboard side you could see a few boats and as the sunset there were lights sparkling on the horizon. AFRICA!! The first sighting! So exciting.

I now find myself sitting in the hallway typing up yet another FDP for Abel and listening to some Bassnectar. The clocks go back another hour tonight. We’ll now be only 6 hours ahead of east coast time. So crazy that we’re catching up that quickly. 2 more days of classes then we’ll be in South Africa!

Oh yeah, today was Africa day. There were some seminars and talks about different things in Africa, but honestly between Pre-Port, Anthropology, Abel, and Global Studies I feel like I learn so much. Today was finally a legitimate day off. All other days off we’ve had have been like Olympic Day or Neptune Day where we get up early and do stuff all day. So today was a relaxing day of nothingness.

Things in our room keep breaking randomly, Tania and I are pretty convinced it’s haunted. I actually had a dream a few nights ago that it’s haunted. So that wouldn’t shock me. Some of the rooms on the ship are haunted.

I’ve been told 38 days til we’re back in Florida? That’s absolutely ridiculous. Wasn’t I just in Hong Kong? It’s started to get cold again as we get farther from the Equator. That water in South Africa is supposed to be cold. So I can’t imagine diving at the moment. I’m trying not to envision that. Especially after the warm waters in Mauritius.

Final thought, a quote by Erve Chambers from a book I’m reading:

If home is truly where the heart is, it might be equally possible that travel is where the imagination has thrived.

With that, I’m off to write some papers and go to bed. Love you all.

Day 3: At Sea

0930 Global Studies about HIV/AIDs in South Africa. It was really interesting. One of the inter-port guys spoke about it. 1100 Biology of Sharks was also good, we got to watch Shark Week: Air Jaws. It made everyone so stoked about shark cage diving in the next week. I can’t believe that normal conversations consist of “Which day are you shark diving next week?” and that’s totally normal. It’s even normal to discuss it in class.

After class Bea, Victor, Vanessa, Emily, and I grabbed lunch. I spent awhile in the Piano Lounge talking to whoever passed by and working on FDP’s for Abel. I’ve now completed 2 of 6. I’m getting there.

1400 Anthropology. Toby was speaking in Global Studies at the same time so she couldn’t teach class. Instead we watched “21 Up South Africa.” It was actually really good, especially after that Jamaica video last week

After class I worked out for awhile and did a ton of stretches and abs out on the 7^th deck. It was so nice out that I ended up going to the bow to relax and journal. No one was up there, so it was really peaceful.

At 1700 we had to sign up for tables for the Alumni Ball in May. I can’t believe we’re already signing up for that in May. That should be so much farther away. Our group is me, Becca, Victor, Bea, Vanessa, Molly, and Emily. After we signed up we got dinner up on the 7^th deck and chilled for awhile. Becca, Bea, and I went up to the bow to watch the sunset, it was gorgeous, even though it wasn’t a real sunset. It always seems to be cloudy on the horizon.

At 2200 the second segment of Nolan and Pat’s video “Well Hard” was shown in one of the classrooms. So the entire fam showed up to support them. It was really good. They showed the first segment, too. I need to get a copy of it all when they finish it up. It’s so trippy. Then we obviously had to go to snack in the 6^th deck dining hall.

Everyone headed off in different directions. Our ceiling was leaking? I put the trash can under one of the leaks and went to bed. Finally a day to sleep in! I’m not getting up til 1000 to go to the gym.

Day 2: More Time at Sea

Got up for 0800 Marine Biology. Exhausted. Didn’t get to go to bed too early last night. I would have loved to go to bed earlier, but my room is no longer an option for me to just chill in. When we looked out the starboard windows in the morning we could Madagascar. It was so cool to see the mountainous ridges that were Madagascar, but it made us really wish we could be going there.

Global Studies was cancelled for the day. So I was done with class at 0915. I went back to bed for an hour or so til Nic came to wake us up for lunch. Spicy pasta for lunch. Not too bad. Hung out for awhile then went to the gym with Becca at 1400. Biked. Treadmilled. Stairmastered. Stretched. The weather wasn’t too nice earlier, but it cleared up when I was out stretching on the 7^th deck. It was so nice out.

I showered and got dressed and started writing up an FDP for my Marine Biology class. At 1700 Becca and I went to the Jewish group. She is opening me up to the other religions. I figured I’d go and see what it was all about. We decorated matza covers for Passover. Susan I really hope you read this and see my attempts at being Jewish. I actually knew a bunch of people there. And Jason joined us later for the Shabbat service, since it’s Friday. He’s not Jewish either, so it was okay. Plus they were all really welcoming to have people interested. After they said prayers and sang we had Kiddush with challah and grape juice. Then we all had dinner together in the classroom. It was really interesting to see another prayer service than something Catholic.

I’m finishing up my FDP tonight and hopefully starting in on another one. I’ve got 6 to do for Marine Biology and Biology of Sharks combined.

They posted the grades for Global Studies today. I had been afraid that I did horrifically. They got scaled by 4 points and I got an 88! That was 2 points better than my first test. So I was pretty pumped, most of my friends did not do so well. The average was an 80. Spectacular. I still think that class is stupid and a waste of time.

I’m currently sitting in Becca’s room watching Blue Planet as I have been ousted from my room for like the 4^th straight night? But I mean who’s counting. Really.

Day 1: Back at Sea

Slept through Global Studies at 0930. I’ve decided that since it helped me so little on the test to attend every lecture, that I deserved a day off. I got up and showered and went to 1100 Biology of Sharks. I had lunch with Saahil, Bea, Victor, and Emily. I took a nap. Went to 1400 Anthropology. I got my test back. 100%. Gloriousness.

I ran into Becca in the dining hall so we hung out and then got an early dinner on the 7^th deck. We got pizza. Way better than whatever dinner was. We hung out for awhile.

We tried to go stargazing out on the 8^th deck up front when they turned all the lights off, but there were too many clouds. The stars the night before were pretty incredible even with the lights on. There were so many.

Tonight we could only catch glimpses of a few. The moon broke through the clouds a few times. We played with a laser pointer though. Then we went to the gym for a late night work out. I ran on the treadmill for the first time. The seas were a little rough, but it felt good to run again. I’ll probably be sore tomorrow considering my lack of running on this voyage.

So I find myself here, sitting in the hallway updating my blog and chilling with Toby. That’s all for tonight. Only a few days until we get to Cape Town. I cannot wait for South Africa, it’s gonna be insane. I’ve got stuff planned for every day. This is the only port where that’s true ahead of time. So stoked. Oh, and the clocks go back an hour tonight. Amazingness. Goodnight.

To every SASer who’s ruined Mauritius in the past

We were only stopping in Mauritius to refuel. They’ve stopped there in past voyages for 4 days the students have trashed the island. They go out and rent villas and trash them and get wasted and are loud and obnoxious. The people there have such bad impressions of us. They hate when we come onto their island. I’m shocked they even let us there for one night. So now, for those of us that haven’t done anything wrong to this island, we’re looked at in the same way. We’re not allowed to rent most of the villas, the owners don’t want to deal with it. They’d rather not even have the business. It sucks. I’d love to have a few more days there and dive more and hike some of the mountains.

So to all of you SASers who had such little regard for this island and its people: you suck. It’s a beautiful island. They came and lectured us on what not to do on this island. Everyone was judging us everywhere. You really do all suck. Way to be SAS-holes.

Mauritius: Diving in Tamarin

Victor, Bea, Kate, Gabe, and I met up on the 6^th deck dining hall for breakfast at 0715. Two other guys were supposed to be diving with us, too, but they were staying off the ship so we had no idea if they’d meet up with us or not. They had been out partying at the villas so we really doubted they’d show up.

We got a cab to Tamarin down in the southern part of the island, about 45 minutes away. It was near Flicken Flac. We were diving out of a hotel. We filled out all of our paperwork at a little shack and were a little doubtful about the quality of this experience. We signed our lives away in French forms that we couldn’t really decipher. Oh well.

We were taken to another shack to get all our gear and wait to see if the other boys showed up. Once we were all ready we headed to the water to load it up with the tanks. We were gonna do two dives in the morning and see if we could convince them to do a third in the afternoon. The boat was pretty small. We were diving with a young woman from Austria named Isabella and a guy named Riere or something along those lines. Looking at the boat we were a little doubtful, but the weather was absolutely perfect.

They took us out about 20 minutes to the first dive site. It’s a pretty famous site off of Mauritius known as the Cathedral. Isabella briefed us and we geared up. Victor and I would be diving together. We back rolled off the boat and into the water and descended immediately to avoid the current. We couldn’t see the bottom. It was going to be a deep dive down to 30 meters. We all got down with no issues and followed Isabella.

We explored the mountainous reef and rock formations. We dove through some overheads. We got down to 30 meters and went into a cave. Isabella took us in 2 at a time with her light to show us the small domed cave. It probably went up about 5 meters. Along the walls were tons of lionfish just chilling. Also, at the top was a huge puffer. Like 2 feet long! That’s the biggest puffer I’ve ever seen. It was so crazy to just keep seeing lionfish and admire their beauty rather than have to worry about reporting them or thinking about the fact that they’re not native to Caribbean waters.

Next we followed Isabella to another area, this is the place known as the Cathedral. It’s a bunch of rocks overhead that you go through and at the end the sunlight streams down in an Cathedral-like glow. It was so pretty. Fish were swimming through and everything was illuminated. In this area there was a 2 foot statue of some Indian-like man, perhaps a god. It looked like some sort of spiritual symbol. It looked like it had been there as it was partially covered in algae.

We spent a good amount of time on the reef and checked out the coral. The fish were amazing. The snorkeling from the day before had gotten me so excited for diving today. I was so happy to be underwater. There were so many fish. Most of the coral was alive. It was an incredible dive. We spent 49 minutes down total.

On the way up on our safety stop Victor somehow managed to run out of air. So we had to share. What great siblings we are. He’s my brother in my extended family. Bea had his camera during the dive and got some awesome pictures. There’s a few of everyone during our stop. We also had to wait for the boat to come and collect us.

We de-geared in the water and passed everything up then hoisted ourselves up over the side. We switched over all our gear and headed to the next site. We spent about 50 minutes on the boat getting everything ready then heading to the next dive site.

Our next dive was to about 30 meters again, but this time it would be all on a reef with no caves or anything special like that. While we were getting briefed for this dive, another boat approached us and said they’d just see bullsharks in the water. So we moved quick in hopes of seeing them. No such luck. We rolled off into the water together and descended immediately.

This was probably my favorite dive. It was so relaxing and I was so happy. This was where I had my moment. I’ll explain. Apparently everyone on Semester at Sea has a “moment” where they think to themselves, “Wow, I’m really here,” and they get the chills and reality really hits. Some people had there’s on the Great Wall, some at the Taj, some in Cambodia. Well, mine was underwater when I finally had some time alone to think and just be.

The reef dropped off to a sandy flat and on the sand was a huge ray. I hovered over it and it was bigger than my wingspan. So probably 6 or 7 feet across. It was definitely the biggest ray I’ve ever seen in the wild. We saw it swim off into the distance. The visibility on both these dives was about 30 feet. So it was good, but not incredible. That has to tell you how awesome these sites were. We just chilled around the reef and drifted with the current for the most part. I saw so many crazy fish with spectacular colors. I saw some type of spotted eel just chilling in a hole. There were so many lionfish on this site, too. There were tons of boxfish with all sorts of spots and patterns, same with the butterfly fish. We saw a few scorpionfish as well. One of them was huge!

As I was reflecting on everything underwater I realized how comfortable I was and how great my buoyancy felt. I mentally thanked Rick and Noelle for this.

We ended up staying down for 50 minutes. This dive was so great. We did a safety stop and waited for the boat to come and get us again. We swam over to it and handed our gear up then climbed up. This time we decided to jump off the boat into the water before we headed back to the island to switch our tanks and grab some lunch. It was already 1300.

We asked them where to go for lunch. They told us we could find a Mauritian fast food place on the street. We never found it, but we did get some great Italian. I got a chicken panini. It was so good and totally hit the spot. It wasn’t too big either, so I didn’t think I’d feel like I was gonna die while diving.

We got back on the boat around 1400 for our last dive. We had a new divemaster this time named Michelle. She was actually born on Mauritius and lived on the other side of the island. We stopped at a site but they determined the visibility wouldn’t be too great so they took us to another site about 10 minutes away. The view from the boat back onto the island with the mountains and palm trees and greenery was breath taking.

When we got to the other dive site they determined that they visibility wouldn’t be much better, but we’d do it anyways. We told them we were just happy to get to dive. They said the visibility would probably be only 10-15 feet. They weren’t lying.

Before we got in the water we saw a ton of squid at the surface. We figured that had to bode well for our dive. So we geared up one last time and rolled back in. This dive would be a maximum depth of 20 meters.

The dive started out and wasn’t anything too special, the corals were more on the dead side and there weren’t a ton of fish right where we’d dropped down. Then all of a sudden we came up what I can only describe as fields upon fields of egg-like polyps on top of rocks and hard coral. This is known to them as Bubble Coral. I’d google it if I had internet. It was absolutely crazy. It was pink and green and blue and orange. It glowed and took on all these crazy hues. I don’t think I can do it justice in words, but fish were swimming all around it and through it.

We spent forever just looking at it and resisting every urge to touch it and play with it. We didn’t know what it was while we were underwater so we didn’t touch it. It was beautiful. Bea got some obscene pictures of it that I’ll post on facebook when I’m back. I saw a few juvenile lionfish. They were the cutest things I’ve ever seen. I also saw some broadbarred lionfish. They have smaller pectoral fins that are more like sticks than fans, they’re just as beautiful and intriguing as the common lionfish.

Gabe spotted another eel. Bea got a sick picture of this Geometric Moray sticking its head out of a hole in the Bubble Coral. We spent forever just looking at the coral. This dive was about 45 minutes.

We surfaced and took a bunch of pictures at the surface with a mountain in the background. These pictures came out awesome. We handed up all our gear and got back into the boat and jumped off one last time.

This was some of the best diving I’ve done in my life. It beat out diving in Roatan, Honduras for me. And I loved Honduras. The Indian Ocean and all its life intrigues me so much. I wish we had more time there I would have loved to do more diving.

It took us about 15 minutes to get back and then we had to unload the boat. By now it was about 1600 and we needed to be back on the ship by 1800. A few people didn’t have enough cash on them to pay. We couldn’t pay by credit card here. They had to take a cab to an ATM. The 3 dives only cost us $108 each. So ridiculous. Gabe and I paid and ordered drinks while we waited. We finally had a chance to try out the rum that the island is famous for. I got a mixed drink and he got 2 shots to sip. One was tamarin and one was banana. They were actually really good. By 1630 they were back and paid for and a few minutes later a cab came and picked us up.

It took us forever to get back to the ship. There was massive amounts of traffic and the driver took us to the wrong port. We were freaking out because we had to be back on by 1800 or we’d be in trouble and it was 1750. There was a huge line to get back on to the ship. Our cab driver didn’t speak to us the entire way back and we had tried to ask him questions. Finally when we tried to get out he started to ask us questions about the ship and our semester. But we couldn’t talk for long, we were late.

We managed to get on just in time. I would have been so mad if we got dock time. But in a way it would have been worth it. The diving was so amazing. Stacey, one of the LLC’s, was outside the ship waiting to take down names for those who were late. She was being such a cruel human being about it, too. I believe there are a few people who need a lesson in community and human personal skills. I’d recommend her for that class.

We were all so amped up from our dive. We went up to the 6^th deck to check out dinner, it was breakfast for dinner. I’m not much of a breakfast person so this was a fail. No one seemed too excited by this. We decided to shower and get ready then meet up for chicken sandwiches and real food up on the 7^th deck at 1900 and exchange pictures.

I got to call home and talk to Mom and Dad for a little while and let them know that I went diving and that I’d made it back safely and alive.

Becca, Bea, Victor, and I met up and looked through all the pictures. Becca was stoked to see our dives. She even bought me a fish ID sheet! I literally bought nothing in Mauritius in terms of souvenirs due to lack of time. What a great friend. So we poured over this to see what fish we’d seen. In this fold out sheet we’d seen most of the fish on it. That rarely happens when diving. Or at least from my experiences.

We ordered a Hawaiian pizza to split, too. It was so good. We had gotten so caught up in diving and the excitement of the day that we hadn’t even thought about eating. We spent a long time up there. We showed our pictures to Dr. Abel and told him all about our dive and experiences. He was just as excited to hear about them. We spent forever up there and chilled with the people who came through. We pulled out of Port Louis and the lights faded off into the distance. It was beautiful in the dark.

I even got to talk to Dom for awhile.

What a great day. I was so exhausted that I just passed out the second I got back to my room and laid down.

Mauritius: Port Louis

Becca and I thought we’d get up early and watch the sunrise as we pulled into Port Louis, so we got up at 0600 for the 0615 sunrise. There was no sunrise. The seas had been rougher the past few days and were even rougher that morning. We came up to the 7^th deck to see and we could barely see the land as it was hazy and there were rain clouds all around. It got lighter, but there was no sun and it looked like it was not going to be a nice day in Mauritius. Fails.

We went back to bed and waited to be woken up by the loud speaker announcing immigration. Tania, Nic, and I went up and got breakfast right before it closed. Then I showered and got ready and we had to go through immigration. It was all pretty quick. We had a diplomatic briefing for 15 minutes, it was all pretty useless, but the man was from the US Embassy and essentially told us to stay out of trouble. Some American had been caught trafficking drugs there, that can be punishable by hanging. He has been in jail for 2 years awaiting his court date and it’s coming up. We were told he’ll probably be convicted and could spend up to 60 years in prison, but will most likely only get 30. He just tried to scare us into staying out of trouble. More on this later.

I ended up using a trip that Tania had bought but wasn’t going to use. I went with Abel to a marine science facility in Albion. They were all going to spend the day finding a place to stay for the night and then hanging out at the beach. I wasn’t going to stay over with them since I had to be up early to dive and meet people on the ship. So I decided I didn’t want to waste the day looking for a house or hotel when I wasn’t even going to stay there. Plus a bunch of my friends were doing this, so I figured I’d go with them.

It had stopped raining around breakfast time but picked up again just in time to get off the ship. Wonderful. It was about an hour and a half ride to the marine science research facility.

Mauritius is a small island, about 45 km across and 55 km long, but there are only a few major roads, so traffic is miserable. It felt like forever to get there. We listened to the director give a presentation about all of the projects they’re working on around the island. They have a ton of different sites for aquaculture projects in the future, but the funding wasn’t totally there. This entire facility was funded and given to Mauritius by Japan. Their main efforts are in conservation and preservation. This seems important as the entire island is surrounded by coral reef. It’s one of the only islands to be completely encircled by reef.

After the presentation we were given a brief tour of their aquaculture facility. It was pretty basic with one small room. They had a few round tanks outside with sea cucumbers that were spilling over and seemed somewhat overgrown. Inside they had fish larva. I’m not sure what kind. They also had a small viewing museum area inside. They had a bunch of ornamental fish like mollies, guppies, and goldfish and some shrimp.

Then we got back on the bus and headed for Il Deux Coco, an uninhabited island on the other side of the island. The sun had come out while we were inside, but we were greeted by more clouds as soon as we stepped back onto the bus. It took about another hour and a half to get to Il Deux Coco. It down poured for most of the ride so we weren’t too optimistic about going out on a boat and eventually snorkeling. But it cleared up almost as soon as we went down the small road between plots of sugarcane. Sugarcane fields are literally everywhere once you get out of the city.

We split up into two groups and got onto two glass bottom boats. I’d never been on one before, so for me this was awesome. The driver took us out over the coral in the bay. It was incredible. A good amount was alive, I was impressed. There was all different types and we saw a bunch of different fish I’d never seen before except maybe in pictures. We saw an anemone with 2 clown fish! I’ve never seen a clown fish in the wild. That made my day.

Oh, for those of you who may not know where Mauritius is (I had no idea before this trip, I hadn’t even heard of it), it’s to the east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean.

So these were my first experiences with coral and fish in the Indian Ocean. I was so stoked. We drove around the bay for awhile. Some of the coral was overgrown and some was covered in algae, but it was still incredible. We didn’t see too many fish, but I think that was mainly because of the boat.

We got to the island and were greeted by hotel staff. Apparently it’s owned by a resort and we were getting a meal out of this. There were umbrellas, chairs, tables, and a bar. I was a little disappointed by this, I thought we were going to an island where there’d be nobody at all, not just no residents. Lame.

But the food was incredible. We had salad and lamb and BBQ chicken. There was also a ton of fish, but I don’t eat fish. Dessert was fried bananas and fruits. Delicious.

Once lunch was over we got back into the boat and went snorkeling in the middle of the bay. I could have spent forever out there. I’m not usually a huge fan of snorkeling, I’d rather dive, but this was incredible. The fish were so different than the Atlantic fish I’m used to seeing. These ones are way more colorful with crazy stripes and bars and rings. There were some reef fish that are also found in the Atlantic as well.

While free diving I found an octopus chilling in a hole and we spent a while looking at that trying to get it to come out. I was wishing I’d looked at a book of Indian fish before I’d gotten in the water so I could identify them. We got to swim around and snorkel for awhile before the boat took us back to the island. On the island Tyler, Isaac, and I walked around the beach and looked at shells and crabs. We found a mole crab, it looked like an albino cockroach. It was crazy looking and it would burrow down every time we put it back down on the sand. It was the perfect temperature out and the sun was shining.

We collected up all of our stuff and got back on the glass bottom boat to check out the coral a little more before heading back to the main land to leave. We saw some barracudas and jacks. More reef fish.

The bus ride took about an hour and a half to get back to Port Louis. It rained again almost as soon as we got onto the bus.

Mauritius is gorgeous. It’s unlike any island I’ve ever been to. The mountains that exist here are incredible, way different than Hawaii’s volcanoes or the hilly islands of USVI’s and BVI’s. These mountains are so angular and jagged. The island is so green and the waters are so blue. It’s incredible. The people are a mix of Indian, French, British, and African. Most people seemed to speak English easily, but the newspapers and news were in French and everyone seemed to speak French and Creole with one another. Apparently Creole French is the main language of the island.

This island is one of the most inaccessible places to get to from the United States. You have to fly to South Africa or France or England or Egypt for a flight there. We were told it’s about 24 hours of flying from the United States to get there and it’s incredible expensive to fly there. It’s more of a European vacation destination. You could definitely see that, too, there were a bunch of European tourists.

Port Louis is also beautiful. The buildings are right on the water and the city itself isn’t too big.

I got back on the ship and showered and got ready to go out with Victor, Bea, Vanessa, Molly, and Emily. We walked into town. It was right after sunset, but we had a big enough group that the 30 minute walk wasn’t bad. It saved us money and with a group that big you’re safe. Plus we had Victor to protect us. We walked to the waterfront to get some dinner and drinks. We ended up going to Shooters. I think we’ve encountered several bars named Shooters in our travels. It was a sports bar and grill. I was dying for some American food. I got some chicken fingers with Emily for an appetizer and some chicken fajitas for dinner. We tried the beer of the island, Phoenix. It was pretty good. We also got the most delicious brownie dessert. We were all starving, so the food was amazing.

A bunch of other SASers made their way there, too. We were planning on just chilling there for the night and going back to the ship at a reasonable hour so we could get some sleep before diving the next day. A ton of people from the ship were staying at either Grand Bay up in the northern part of the island or Flicken Flac down in the southern part of the island. We had to keep reminding ourselves that the diving would be awesome and it was worth it to not party that night.

We spent a few hours just chilling at Shooters with everyone. MTV was playing on the big screen up front, this was some of the first real TV I’d watched in awhile. It was all music videos and they were mostly music we hadn’t heard before, so it was strange. We keep thinking about all the music we’re missing out on while we’re abroad.

Even though it was a Tuesday the manager tried to turn it into a party. They knew that SAS was in town and they knew how much we party. They told us they usually only have DJs on the weekends, but they had one tonight. Unfortunately there weren’t too many of us there and we were just chilling. The crew showed up, too. Apparently they’d been barhopping all night. We talked with some of them for awhile. I love the crew, they’re awesome. I’d seen my cabin steward earlier in the night. They told us how upset they were that we couldn’t all hang out on the ship. It sucks. About half of them are around our age, it would be so awesome if we could interact more with them. It was good to hear that they wanted to spend more time with us. They also said that they weren’t supposed to talk with us all too much on the ship in the dining halls as the SAS administration seems to always think the worst of them when they see us interacting. Sorry, we’d rather be friends with them than have them be servants to us. Thank you SAS administration yet again for ripping apart a community.

Anyways, after we left Shooters we went to the casino across the way. It was built as a pirate ship. We played on the slot machines and other games. We lost all our rupees, but we’d only gambled a few to begin with. Victor and Emily played blackjack while Bea, Molly, and I played around downstairs. We ended up staying there for awhile. It wasn’t too busy, but it was really fun. I love being able to walk into bars and casinos in all these countries without being carded at all. I know that I’m legally old enough now even at home, but it’s still strange to not be carded.

We got a cab back to the ship and were back by 0030. Plenty of time to sleep and rest up for our big day of diving the next day. There were actually a fair amount of people sleeping on the ship. I was actually happy to not spend $130 staying at a hotel with everyone else.

Day 6: Last day before Mauritius

0800 Marine Biology. 0930 Global Studies. 1100 work out. I worked out forever then ate the cereal I took from the dining hall at breakfast: packaged up Special K. It felt so good to eat something normal instead of the food they serve us everyday. My body felt so much better.

I spent the afternoon hanging out and doing nothing special. 1730 dinner on the 5^th deck. We went to Zumba as a family to cheer Tania on. Apparently it’s not a cheering activity. But we did it anyways. Pre-Port for Mauritius was at 2000. Luckily, it was only an hour long. So we could get out and do stuff and go to bed at a reasonable hour. I had no real plan for Mauritius except I wanted to dive. We had been trying to get a villa, but no one would rent to us for one night. Semester at Sea has not left a good reputation in the past.

Day 5: Global Studies and Anthropology tests

I got up early to go to the gym because I knew later I’d have to study for my tests. Plus Global Studies was cancelled for the day because of the test at night. 1100 Biology of Sharks. I spent the rest of the day in the 5^th deck dining hall studying for Anthropology at 1400 then Global. Anthropology wasn’t bad, it was quick and easy. I studied pretty hard for Global. We had dinner, studied some more and took the test at 1930. It was so difficult. It was multiple choice and tested us on really obscure details that were of no relevance to anything. Some were about the details of a speaker’s opinion. Useless. No one was too pleased with this. I’m not too optimistic.

Of course it was absolutely smooth waters up until this day. The closer it got to the test, the more the waves increased. They ended up being about 7 feet or so. But if you remember from my first Global Studies test we had the worst seas ever. The ship felt like it was going to capsize. Today wasn’t that bad, but everyone joked that Don, our teacher, had summoned the rough seas for the test. It wasn’t too too bad.

I was glad to have it over. Everyone ended up doing their own thing and everyone seemed to be in a pretty miserable mood. So I ended up just playing around on my computer.

Day 4: NEPTUNE DAY

Becca and I decided to wake up at the crack of dawn. Literally. We woke up to watch the sunrise right along the Equator. We didn’t have classes today so we woke up at 0600 for a 0615 sunrise. The sky was pitch black when I got up and it was hard to believe that the sun would be coming up in a matter of minutes. Apparently near the Equator it’s really dark right before the sunrise and then it gets dark almost immediately after sunset.

It was cloudy out, but the light shone through and was beautiful. It took almost a full hour for the sun to manage to poke out above the clouds on the horizon. The water was pretty calm. It felt so great to be up with the sun. Shannon and I were up on the 7^th deck taking pictures. The three of us got breakfast and enjoyed the start of the day.

Becca and I were supposed to go to the gym after breakfast before the festivities of the day. But when I was back in my room I heard pounding and drums. I looked out of my cabin to see the crew members dresses in white sheets with tin foil shields, hats, and weapons. They were drumming and knocking on everyone’s doors to wake them up at 0800 to start out Neptune Day.

Neptune Day is something that sailor’s celebrate when they first cross the Equator. Typically they go through an initiation where they get fish guts poured on them, then they jump into the ocean, they have to kiss a dead fish, then shave their heads.

Becca and I put on our bathing suits and headed up to the 7^th deck pool area. Everyone gathered around the pool to see what would happen. A few minutes later the crew drummed up with Dean White, Crabtree and his wife, a bunch of the staff, and a few of the teachers’ children in tow. They were all dressed in white. Crabtree had on a crown. They processed up to the front of the pool and addressed us that we’d be changing from Pollywogs to Shellbacks as we got initiated. They chose several people to go first through the initiation process. Becca and Victor were two of the chosen.

The crew dumped a green liquid that smelled rancid onto them, then they had to jump into the pool, then climb out and kiss a real dead fish that Cindy was holding, kiss Crabtree’s wife’s ring, then his ring and be dubbed with a sword by Dean White. Everyone went through the process and the pool changed from a light blue to a murky green.

Then they started the head shaving process. A ton of people shaved their heads. Girls included. I was sad for them as I watched them chop off their long locks. I can’t believe how many girls shaved their heads. I did not. As I’m sure you all know, I love my hair and can’t imagine not having any. I feel sorry for all those that did. Some of the girls look amazing with shaved heads. Others…not so much. More power to you for shaving your head, but it’s definitely not for me. Bea and I were discussing it, it’s cool on here while we’re all together and we know the meaning, but when May comes and you’re back in your regular life, it’s not going to be the same. I’ll be curious to see how that goes. One of my friends shaved her head except for a mohawk. It looks awesome.

The rest of the day was spent studying for the Global Studies and Anthropology tests the next day. Well, not the whole day, a lot of it was spent chilling outside and doing random things since we had the entire day off from classes. Dinner was a BBQ like for the Sea Olympics. It was delicious, it was BBQ chicken and other delicious foods we never get. And then there was ice cream.

After dinner was the Talent Show. We went a little early and got good seats up front so we could see everyone and tape Mason’s poem. Everyone who performed was amazing. It was about two hours long, but it flew by. I was so ready for bed by the time it came around.

The Indian Ocean: Day 3: The day we crossed the Equator, saw an oceanic white tip, and witnessed the most beautiful sunset ever

0800 Marine Biology. We just looked at copepods under a microscope. 0930 Global Studies on climate change. Lunch with the girls. Nic and I laid out on the 7^th deck. We crossed the Equator at 0245 this morning. No one told us this until the next day. So lame. But we’ve not been in all of the hemispheres. That’s pretty sweet. This is my first time ever being in the southern hemisphere. When we laid out today we were at 1 degree south latitude. How crazy is that?

I took a mega nap after sunning myself. Becca and I ventured out to the front of the ship. This was my first time up there. It had been closed up through at least Japan due to rough seas. It was a beautiful day out. Crystal clear blue waters, crazy clouds, sun. We saw a ton of flying fish. I hadn’t seen any yet; I guess you need to be up near the bow. That’s where they all seemed to be. The water was so clear, when we looked down at one point we saw two little blue and yellow fish swimming along.

We moved to the other side of the ship to see more flying fish and take some pictures. We noticed a bunch of birds dive bombing into the water and silvery flashes in the sunlight. They were fish jumping about. We figured there must be dolphins nearby. As the ship cruised past we looked directly down to see a little oceanic white tip shark! We were dying to see a shark and mostly just joked about seeing one while out at sea. WE ACTUALLY SAW A SHARK! AND IT WAS AN OCEANIC WHITE TIP! Those things are crazy hard to find out in the middle of the ocean; they’re not common. The water was so perfectly clear it was easy to identify.

Later we had to take a picture out on the 7^th deck bow for our Sea. We found Dr. Abel, the resident marine biologist on board. He was so excited to hear we saw it. Apparently that’s one of his top things to see on this trip.

After dinner we went back out to the 7^th and 8^th decks to check out the sunset. It was obscene. Probably one of the best sunsets of this journey so far. We took some pictures and ended up just chilling out on the deck for a few hours until it got completely dark so we could star gaze. Now that we’ve crossed the Equator we have started to see some of the southern hemisphere constellations. People were pointing them out to me, I would not have known them on my own. I can’t believe how many stars I could see. I can’t wait to see them turn off all the lights to legitimately go stargazing.

Tomorrow we have off from classes to celebrate crossing the Equator. It’s called Neptune Day. A bunch of people will be shaving their heads as is tradition when you cross the Equator. Yours truly will not be partaking in such activities. I like my blonde locks.

Side note: last night they “randomly” drug tested a bunch of people. We now all anxiously wait to see who gets kicked off. This is getting ridiculous.

Anyways, I’m off to bed. Becca and I are getting up at 0600 to watch the sunrise. It’s supposed to be amazing. And that’s one of the top things to do on the ship before getting off in Ft. Lauderdale. I figure I’ll scope it out, take some pictures then go back to bed. I’ve heard so many people are getting up to see it. We’ll see how that works out. I’m not good about getting up.

I miss everyone oodles. I can’t believe today is already March 19^th. 3 days til Mauritius!

The Indian Ocean: Day 2

Woke up and went to 0930 Global Studies. It was on the role of women around the world. 1100 Biology of Sharks. We didn’t get our tests back yet. Lunch on the 5^th deck with Mason, Nolan, Brandon, Tania, and Nic. Today’s discussion: do fish have feelings? I made it to 1400 Anthropology. I had to drag myself out of bed from my post lunch nap. My teacher wasn’t even there, she was speaking at the afternoon Global Studies lecture. Wonderful. We watched a movie on the financial crisis in Jamaica. It was somewhat interesting. Dinner on the 5^th deck at 1730. We took a family picture up on the 7^th deck for Midhun, our father. We’re trying to find him a wife/find us a mother. So we’re posting fliers for an arranged marriage. We’ll see how this works out.

Nolan showed his movie. They got a really good turn out and their movie was awesome. It was so great. Everyone was really impressed with it.

The Indian Ocean: Day 1

Slept through Marine Bio, I was exhausted. So did Nic. I heard not many people made it. Not surprised. It’s the first day after leaving port and everyone is exhausted. I got up at 1115 to go to lunch with Tania, Becca, Nic, Mason, and Emily. I made it to 1400 Global Studies for a pop quiz. It was actually a letter to ourselves about someone we’ve met in one of the countries so far. But it was an easy 100. We got an automatic 100 for doing it. Sick. I painted my nails blue.

Dinner on the 5^th deck with the fam, there was actually good pasta. Pasta with marinara sauce. Post dinner we all played Apples to Apples in the Piano Lounge and went to 2200 snack, where there was chocolate cake!

The clocks go back another half hour tonight. I’m glad we’ll be back to dealing with solid hour time differences and not half hours. Strange, India, strange. We get laundry tomorrow! I can’t believe it. It took almost 6 weeks for us to get laundry last time. Now it’s only been 10 days. Gloriousness.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Where’s my green beer? And happy 21^st birthday Eileen! You’re so Irish right now, celebrating the big 21 in Ireland.

My Posts

I have been informed by some that my posts are too long. Well, uh, too bad? Kidding. Sorry, they’re so long because I’ve been doing so much each day and I feel the need to write it all down for those who care to read it and so I can remember it, too. If they’re too long then skim them. I won’t be offended. They’re more for me then you.

I still love you all though, especially those who are still reading this. Also, I don’t have internet while on the ship, so I haven’t been able to post some of my entries until way past the time they occurred. I apologize. That also adds to the length of reading. Apologies all around.

Nick and Kaitlin, I do check up on your blogs whenever I’m able to get service in the different countries and catch up as best I can. You sound like you’re having such a crazy time around Europe. I’m jealous of your European travels.

Semester at Sea Administration

I’m going to write this with the hopes that they have not posted my blog on their website. Apparently they’ve found a few people’s blogs and posted them without their consent. People are not pleased. I never posted mine in the group, so hopefully mine’s not up.

As this trip progresses the administration is getting worse and worse. They literally treat us like we’re in middle school. 2 kids got kicked off in Vietnam. For decent enough reasons involving buying prescription drugs.

But they are getting bad. People are getting in trouble for the stupidest stuff. They’ll have meetings with you and draw out the entire process as though you’ve killed someone. They given so much dock time out I can’t believe it. Some people weren’t allowed off in Chennai or Cochin at all and others won’t be allowed off for an entire day in Mauritius. A few of the upper administrators have taken the words of kids and twisted them to get them into more trouble.

If you get caught being drunk, at all, you get sentenced to going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings on the ship. Yes, because drinking at all makes you can alcoholic. The leader of this meeting is not a recovering alcoholic nor does he drink nor has he been affected by alcoholism. He admits he doesn’t know what he’s doing there. That doesn’t even make sense. Some people aren’t allowed to drink on the ship or even in port. Most of the people who’ve gotten in trouble are older, too. They’re not the younger students, they’re way beyond the legal age of drinking anywhere. Some of them have even graduated. They still treat them as though they’re 13.

I keep seeing what my friends are going through and it just bothers me how little respect the administration has for their students.

One girl had to have a meeting when someone overheard her talking “disrespectfully” about the process and what happened. Goodbye freedom of speech.

The ship just keeps feeling smaller and smaller. Everyone’s started being really careful about what they say and to who. Some of the teachers and LLC’s try to snoop around and get you to tell them things. It is pure ridiculousness.

Malarone

I hate taking Malarone everyday. It makes me feel sick. It’s stupid. If I keep feeling sick I’m going to stop taking it. It’s the Malaria medicine that some people are on. It really sucks. I’ve still got a month and a half on it. I heard that a lot of people still get Malaria on it. So we shall see. I’ve got a ton of bug bites from India, and I was even wearing lots of deet every day. So I’m not too optimistic about this whole situation. I don’t think you’re really supposed to be on it for weeks to months at a time. I’ll be on it for about 2 months total. But the other medications suck even more. Doxyclyine makes you sensitive to sunlight, not the best option as we’re in the sun all the time and dancing about the equator. Lariam makes you hallucinate and have horrifically vivid dreams. Well I already have crazy vivid bad dreams, so no need to make it worse. A bunch of people aren’t taking anything or stopped taking theirs. They are the smart ones.

India: Cochin/Kochi: The Last Day

We slept in. There wasn’t that much to do in the town that we needed to get up for. I got up around 1000 and showered. I ran into Nic in the hallway and we decided we wanted to go and ride an elephant somewhere. The two of us got breakfast up on the 7^th deck with Becca. It was so crowded up there, everyone had slept in from going out last night. No one was over eager to get off the ship. It was kind of a hassle to get into town as we were on an island and everything else was on another island. The island we were on had little on it and was man-made. It took awhile to get our breakfast wraps. Tania and Becca had a trip at 1300 so they weren’t getting off the ship until then. There wasn’t really enough time to do anything before it anyways. Nic and I woke up Brandon and Mason to go with us.

We got off the ship a little before 1300. A cab driver told us it would be about an hour and 15 minute drive to get to the elephant place, about 60 kilometers away. We needed to be back around 1700 to be on the ship by 1800. We figured we’d have enough time and it was 1500 rupees. Reasonable for what we wanted to do. We stopped at an ATM and the boys picked up cigarettes and we were on our way.

The ride felt like forever, it took about an hour and 45 minutes. It started raining by the time we had left the city/town areas and were in the more rural areas. We were beginning to get nervous when we saw that it was 1415 and we still weren’t there. Our driver kept saying 10 minutes or 5 minutes, but then it would be 20 minutes.

Eventually we got there. It was a government-owned property. We tried to buy tickets to ride the elephants, but they told us the next ride was at 1530. We couldn’t wait around until then. They said maybe we could go on at 1500. We bought tickets to see the elephants on the property. This place was in the middle of a tropical forest area by a lake. There were two small buildings and a cement wall. One of the guys who worked there took us over to the elephants. There were three babies. They were so cute and they all seemed to remain in the same general areas near posts. Then we realized that they were chained to posts. Each one had about 2 feet of chain and was chained by the back leg. It had almost no ability to move and seemed to even struggle lying down.

They looked so angry. They let us in to pet them and take pictures. One of them starred growling and trying to move towards us but it couldn’t get very far. I was feeling badly that I had paid money to support this. I feel worse now when I think back on it.

We were then led down to the water to see a large female splashing about in the water. There were two men with sticks standing by. There were 3 other SASers down there. We all said hey and talked. Our driver had managed to convince them to let us ride one at 1500 and had already bought us tickets. We walked up with this elephant. It was huge. It’s legs were bigger than me. It was incredible.

There was a staircase up to get on the elephant’s back. We had to take our shoes off, we were riding bareback. When I had been in Jaipur at the Amber Fort we sat in a little platform. This was way cooler. Nic got on first and had to hold onto a rope so she wouldn’t fall off. I got on next and held on, too. Then Brandon and Mason got on. Mason had nothing to hold onto. It was so high up, probably like 10 feet off of the ground. The hair that covered the elephant was so coarse and uncomfortable to sit on. We were so afraid we were going to fall off. One of the guys led the elephant down the road and another took Mason’s camera and snapped pictures of us. What a great family bonding experience. Well, minus 3 of the members, but still.

It was really cool. Nic was so excited, this was all she had been dying to do, so I’m glad for sake we got to do it. By the time we were off and finished up it was 1530 and it was time to head back. We made it back with plenty of time. We stopped and got a beer before getting back on the ship and the boys loaded up on chips on a little street shop. We walked back to the ship.

When we got to the ship Midhun and a bunch of teachers and LLC’s were standing around. There was a reporter and interviewer. They asked us to talk to them about our experiences on the ship. We thought it was a local news station. Apparently it was Asia News, or something like that, and is a pretty big deal and is viewed by millions of people. I’m so glad I was sweaty and had elephant sweat all over me. We were so exhausted, too. Our answers to their questions were good enough, but I don’t know that they were good enough to be viewed by millions. Haha. Anyways, that was cool. We made it back on the ship with 15 minutes to spare. We handed in our shore cards or whatever they were and our customs forms.

We all showered and had a family dinner at 1800. Besides that, nothing exciting went on tonight. I’ve been blogging and hanging out with random people. I went upstairs to buy a water at 2130 and there were only 5 people around. I think everyone’s in bed. That’s what I should be doing. And with that I’m going to clean off my bed and sleep.

India: Jaipur to Mumbai to Cochin/Kochi

Our wake up call was at 0400 and we had to be ready to leave at 0515. I got up and showered and headed downstairs to check out. It always amazes me that I’m able to get up at these absurd hours on such little sleep. We took the bus about an hour to the airport. Our flight was a little delayed. We were taking it to Mumbai for our connecting flight to Cochin/Kochi. I’m not sure why it’s referred to as both Cochin and Kochi. My guess is that Cochin is the American/Western/English version of the word and Kochi is the Indian way. But who knows. I’d google it if I had access to google….

It was about a two hour flight to Mumbai, and I slept the entire time. We felt pretty badass being in Mumbai with all the terrorist threats and stuff. They had just caught the people though, so it was safer. But still, security was heightened.

In Mumbai we had to get off the plane while they cleaned it up, but it was the same one. Good thing, because we got there later than our next flight was scheduled to take off and we would have missed it and been stuck in Mumbai. Our flight to Cochin was about an hour and a half. I slept some more. By the time we got in and gathered all the luggage it was already 1230. Luckily we got food on the flight.

We took a bus an hour to get to the Customs and Immigrations office right outside the port. We had to get our shore cards to get access to the ship and then get off it to explore. Cochin looked nicer than Chennai from the bus. Although it was less city than Chennai, it was more of a port city or town. It took forever to get through Indian security and then security on the ship. There’s always a sign outside the ship that says the level of security in place on the ship and it’s always said 1. Today it said 2 with the increased terrorist threats in Cochin.

Cochin was even hotter than Chennai and more tropical with palm trees. It was gorgeous, but not a conventional beauty. I didn’t think it was possible to get any hotter or more humid than in Chennai, but I was wrong.

We got back on the ship and dropped out stuff off. I found the girls and said hi, they were lying out tanning waiting for the boys to get back. I went out with Victor, Bea, and Vanessa to explore the area.

We walked off and got through all of the security again. All the rickshaw drivers and taxi drivers jumped at us to take us around. We ignored them all. We walked a ways down the road trying to figure out what to do. We decided to pick a rickshaw driver and see if he could take us to get some food. There was one just hanging out and not bugging us, so we asked him. He told us he’d take us around for $1 USD. Perfect.

We squeezed in and he took us into town for some samosas. He took us to this very local restaurant. It was just a little room that was completely open to the street with a few tiny tables and benches. The man gave us a few samosas and this other coconut-rice sweet dessert-like food. We ended up having a bunch of both. At the end we asked how much, expecting them to drive up the price crazy high since we’re Americans, but it was only 44 rupees or about $1 USD for everything. We were so full. It was the best food I had the entire trip. We were advised not to be eating street food, but I remind you, that’s the best part.

Our driver took us to the Spice Market next. We saw huge piles of ginger and warehouse rooms of it. There were boxes of it piled up ready to be shipped out and exported all over. Upstairs a few women worked in a hot room with all sorts of spices and soaps. They had us test a few different teas. We all ended up getting something. I bought some all natural, delicious smelling soap and masala tea. I can’t wait to have some of it.

We told our driver we wanted to go shopping, so he took us around. He took us to a few of the government stores while sell nice stuff, but it’s more expensive than we really wanted to buy stuff for. We went to about 5 of them. He told us up front that if he took us there and we looked around for a few minutes he got points. If he got 5 points he could get a new uniform from the government and he really wanted one. We agreed to do him this favor. I liked how upfront he was. In Chennai, the drivers had been out to screw you. He was so genuine and nice. But after awhile we told him to take us to a cheap place on the street. It was getting late and most places were closing down anyways.

He took us down to the water to see the Chinese fishing nets. It was right around sunset and they were so incredible in that light. I was glad we made it down there. There were a bunch of vendors there, too. I finally found my M.C. Hammer parachute pants and a bag. My shopping was now complete. After this we made one final stop at a store to get a sari for Bea’s mom. She got the price down really low on a nice silk one. Then we headed back to the ship. We figured we’d shower and meet up later on the ship to hang out. We asked our driver how much, expecting him to name some absurd price. He simply looked at us and said, “Up to you, I said $1 earlier.” We looked at each other and agreed on each giving him about 100 rupees, about $11 USD total. He was thrilled by this. See what happens when they’re not pushy and rude? They get way more. He was so grateful and told us he’d be here the next day if we needed a ride anywhere.

When I got back I saw Brandon coming back from his trip. We all got back and had a family dinner to retell our stories as everyone had just gotten in today. Dinner was good since we were in port. Some girl on the ship was having her 21^st birthday party in port that night at some hotel. We decided we’d get ready and go to that. I have a hard time wanting to stay on the ship for more than meals and sleeping when we’re in port. It seems like a waste of time.

We got ready and tried to figure out where to go. It was going to cost about $20 USD to get into the party and it was about an hour away from the ship. We decided we’d try and find a restaurant and get a few drinks there. Most things close at 2300 anyways. This party was going until 0100, which still wasn’t too late. Especially after some of the other countries we’ve been out in.

It ended up being me, Nic, Tania, Brandon, Mason, and Emily. Becca didn’t want to get off the ship, and I don’t think she got off all day. Nolan had dock time and wasn’t allowed off the ship at all in Cochin.

It took forever but we finally managed to find a reasonably priced rickshaw that the 6 of us could cram into. We tried to find a useable ATM, but that didn’t happen. Our driver drove us around in search of a bar. There were no bars. We found a restaurant and told him to drop us there. We found out that they don’t serve drinks at most restaurants. We saw a hotel and they told us to go to XL down the road. It was a restaurant with alcohol.

We got there and there were some other SASers and other foreigners. We got a few King Fishers and split some fries. We couldn’t order anything past 2230 and we were kicked out by 2330. We used the bathroom before we left, it was super sketchy. It had a lock on the outside…? I made Nic stand outside to make sure I wasn’t locked in and kidnapped.

We made friends with an Australian and went back to his hotel right down the street to hang out for awhile since it was still so early out. The hotel was named Good Karma. It was more of a house with bedrooms rented out. But we could chill out on the roof and it was a gorgeous night out. We all got a kick out of his accent and he seemed to enjoy ours. We hung out there until almost 0200.

We figured we needed to find out way back. Our rickshaw driver had said he would be waiting outside the restaurant when we were done, but he had been nowhere to be seen when we had finished up earlier. We wandered down the street trying to find a cab. Cabs don’t exist at this hour in Cochin. At least not back in the obscure streets. There were no lights and everything was closed down. It was so creepy. We were relatively far from the ship. We had no idea how to get back.

There were random stray dogs everywhere. We decided to keep wandering until we came across a hotel or a cab. We found neither. It was like a deserted town. I can’t even explain it enough to do it justice. It was one of the weirdest feelings just walking through this town, the 6 of us, as if we were the only people in existence.

A cab came by and we asked him how much to take us back to the ship. He told us 800 rupees. Someone stupidly said absolutely not and he drove off. Yea, that would be a little more than we would like to pay, but it’s like $3 USD a person. And at that hour, we really should have been open to any price. This pissed me and Nic off. We now had to keep wandering in hopes of seeing another cab. A few minutes later another cab drove past us.

Someone in the cab yelled out “SASers!” and we knew a few of them. They were wasted. The cab driver started to pull over and we yelled to ask him to call another cab for us since we were in desperate need. With that we hear them urgently yelling at him, “Drive away! Go!” And with that they blasted off. What assholes. I will forever look at these people as complete assholes. That is something you do not do to other SASers. You’re supposed to look out for each other, especially in port. We didn’t even ask for a ride, we were asking for the cab driver to call us a cab. We were furious at these people. Sometimes the people on this ship really piss me off. I can’t believe how self-centered they are. I know two of them are from UC Boulder and do nothing but drink themselves into oblivion in every port. Good for you, assholes, you really make the rest of us look good.

We wandered for another 15 minutes and came upon a house with a tv going that was semi lit up. It stood out since everything else was pitch black. We tried yelling in to them to see if they could find us a cab or drive us back. With that a cab appeared. It was the same guy as before, but this time he said 100 rupees a person. This was way more reasonable. So he took us back. I was so happy to see the ship and get on and go to bed.