Port Louis, Mauritius

Our stay in Mauritius was short but sweet. The first day I wandered around the town, went to the market, then jumped on a bus to the popular tourist destination, Flic en Flack.  The market had fruits and vegetables I didn’t even know existed! Mauritius has a fusion of cultures African, Indian, Chinese, Christian, Hindi, Muslim and the market catered to everyone. Everything was displayed so precisely and beautifully, it was definitely my favorite market so far.  Afterwards, I met up with some friends who rented a villa in Flic en Flack. Jeremy and I missed having the ability to cook, so we picked up some groceries and headed to the kitchen! We cooked out at their villa, had some wine, and sang along with one of the boys on the guitar. It was probably the best dinner I am going to have on this whole trip, not because the food was amazing, but because of the company! We laughed so much there wasn’t any time to eat!
    
The next day I went to an adventure park where we climbed through an obstacle course while tied to a harness. What a workout! Then a large group of us went to eat at a Chinese restaurant with the interport student Vanni, where I  had some more memorable moments. We had a good group of people together, and while we ate a woman entertained the restaurant by singing along with the preprogrammed rhythms from a keyboard, like "time after time" and “you’re still the one”. She was so much fun to sing along with, but the best part was when they started to play country music and ALL of the old Asians in the restaurant got up and started line dancing!! It was amazing, and of course I got up and started dancing with them! I was so thrilled!

The last day I went back to Flic en Flack for a catamaran snorkeling adventure. It just topped of my stay in Mauritius! Snorkeling was remarkable, to be able to breath and see while you swim was an unbelievable sensation! I was expecting the fish to be more colorful, but it was still breathtaking. I had to look hard but I found teal, blue, yellow, red and purple fish, a sea cucumber and a water snake that is supposed to be instantly deadly! Ah!

I left Mauritius with marvelous memories.

South Africa

     Day One- I woke up early for breakfast and the ships arrival to Cape Town! This Table Mountain everyone had been talking about was right in front of my eyes and absolutely breath taking (see picture below). The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful. I couldn’t wait to get off the ship and explore. In the previous countries the ports were very industrial and required a 10-15 minute shuttle to get out, but not Cape Town! The Victoria and Alfred Waterfront had hotels, restaurants, entertainment and a large shopping mall. I was going on a semester at sea trip about wine production and management in the afternoon, so I scurried off the ship to explore the waterfront first thing. I wandered through souvenir shops and went to a craft market that was full of original art and jewelry before I had to get back for my trip. The trip was loaded with fun people and it turned out that all we would be doing was wine tasting! We visited the Backsberg Wine Estate first. It was in the original plan to walk through and learn about the production but the power was out, instead we were lead down a dark hallway where a 50 foot table was set up for a wine tasting by candle light. We were all obviously new to wine tasting so the guide directed us through the selection one by one. It ended with our guide showing us how to taste brandy. He informed us to warm the brandy by wrapping the palm of your hand around the bottom of the glass, waft the smell from afar, take the liquor in to your mouth and swish it around until it has touched each corner of your mouth (including your gums), breath in and then swallow. We all would have done it completely wrong if he hadn’t showed us. At our next stop, the Nelson Estate, we were given a tour of the facility starting with the actual vines. There was so much knowledge behind picking and pairing the grapes to make specific wines it was very interesting. We concluded our stay at the Nelson Estate with another wine tasting.
My friend Gretchen from Eckerd, who is studying abroad in Cape Town this semester, met me when we got back from the winelands.  She, Matt and I went out to eat at a restaurant that was something like a Native American themed Chili's, and I poorly chose a bacon cheeseburger. I can't remember the last time I had a greasy burger with cheese and bacon, but later my stomach was not happy about my decision. It was a Saturday night so after dinner we went out to Long Street to meet up with some of Gretchen's friends. I was having a great time until my stomach finally started reacting to my burger. At this point Gretchen and her friends were ready to take us to a music venue/bar called Mercury. The band there was a drum and bass band, which was misleading. It was actually a combination of techno/screamo music turned up so loud that the bass vibrations beat your heart for you. I didn't mind the music, but my stomach was so upset that I didn't want to see food or alcohol. I stood for a long time in the crowd trying to forget about my stomach issues. I ended up sitting down after a while and that’s when I realized that I would be better off if I just threw up and got it out of my stomach so I asked if we could leave. Matt got a pizza at a street vendor while we waited then brought it into the cab with us. The combination of its smell and the movement of the car immediately made me more nauseous. I asked Gretchen to get out of the cab at the next stoplight and as soon as I got out I projectile vomited in the street! Blah! I thought I was feeling better, but I ended up waking up in the middle of the night to motion of the ship rocking, but I was at Gretchen's apartment and not on the ship! I went back to sleep thinking that it would just go away, but that didn’t do it. I woke up at 6am, sat up in my bed, tried to fight the "land sickness" feeling and projectile vomited again on Gretchen's carpet! Gretchen and Maria woke up instantly. I was so embarrassed. I cleaned up my throw up and took some Pepto, then we all went back to sleep.

     Day two- Our original plan was to go to a Braai, which is a traditional South African barbeque, but my stomach wasn’t feeling strong enough to buy a bucket of meat and drink all day. Instead, we decided to take the train to Simons Town to see the penguins! It was an adventure trying to get there because Gretchen had never used the train before,  but when we finally got there the penguins were a rewarding treat.  In the evening I went out with Maria and two other girls from the ship to Cape to Cuba, a Cuban restaurant. Then we Salsa danced until 3am. It was the first night I spent in a port where other SAS kids didn’t show up at the same place. We had a blast.

    Day three- Maria and I cycled through the winelands! What an awesome experience. I had perfect weather and beautiful scenery while CYCLING! :D It was definitely a workout. It should have clicked that winelands are often in the mountains and that I would be cycling in the mountains, but it didn’t. I guess am just used to flat Florida. We rode two different rides and had two wine tastings in between. There was a couple on our trip that have been together for a while now, and at our first wine tasting, the boy dropped a ring in her wine glass and proposed! None of us knew had a clue what was going on, but it was pretty exciting when we realized what had happened.

     Day four- Gretchen came to get me after her classes to climb Table Mountain, but the weather was too cloudy. In Cape Town the clouds are called the tablecloth, and when its on the mountain it is not safe to climb. Instead she took me to the township (ghetto) that she volunteers at weekly.  We taught a group of children in a foster home math. She has the same class of 13 year olds every week.  I'm glad I went to the township because got to see the living situation of the people in SA. In comparison with other poor places I've seen, Mexico, Morocco, Ghana, the worst by far is South Africa. If you only stayed in the waterfront/touristy areas you would never guess that the living situation for these people was so terrible. The waterfront made me feel like I was in Europe, but as you drove on the highway you saw wooden and tin shacks stacked on top of each other where people lived without electricity. In the evening we went to a charity concert for the organization that Gretchen and I volunteered with at the townships. The band was the Weekend Warriors who are American and actually really good. After the show we called it an early night compared to the rest of the ship.

    Day five- I used the internet to upload photos on facebook which I believe you have all seen, picked up some essential items from the grocery store (oreos and shampoo), and spent my time relaxing at the beautiful waterfront before heading out in the evening.

ps. Sorry this was so late. I promise I'll catch up.

A Ghana Update

You may be wondering why I haven't written about Ghana yet, well the answer to that is I got sick and didn't want to write about it :). I ate some Ghanaian foods like fufu and kelewele, which were both delicious at the time, but left me feeling uncomfortable the rest of the trip. Kelewele is deep fried sweet plantains then sprinkled with spices. Fufu is a ball of raw cassava dough, usually served in a soup. The light chicken soup with fufu that I ate was so spicy I could barely stand it and I relied on the fufu to calm the heat. My friends (Maria, Matt and Bill) and I ended up eating this with some locals we met on the first day.  We ate at restaurant that didn't have salt, pepper, and napkins on the tables, only a bottle of hand soap. In Ghana, before the food is brought out, the server brings out a bowl of water and hand towels for you to wash your hands. And contrary to popular belief, soup should be eaten with your hands and the cassava dough should be swallowed whole and not chewed. If we weren't with our new friends we would not have known what to do.  The Ghanaians are so friendly and loved having the opportunity to sit and talk to us.  After our meal with our new friends, we wandered down to the water, and as much as it is habit for me to say that beaches are beautiful, this beach wasn’t. The beach and sand dunes were littered with everything from plastic bags and bottles, to rotten food and diapers. It was also hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I was in an English speaking country that was so under developed. The contrast between the modern world and undeveloped world was huge. There were endless plastic products imported into the country with no facilities for disposal and littered the grounds instead. 
Aside from the fact that I hadn’t been feeling too hot, my favorite activity in Ghana was at my drumming and dance workshop. I got to learn West African dance in WEST AFRICA! Matt, Maria and I went with the Semester at Sea group to Noyam Dance Academy. It was located in a tiny village outside of Accra. Our bus couldn’t fit down the small dirt road, so it dropped us off and we walked. The building looked unfinished because there were no windows or doors, but actually they were gone for a reason. When we got inside it was surprisingly cool and the wind blew in through the openings.  We learned a traditional social dance that is often performed at weddings and large gatherings, and as soon as we got through the whole thing, a storm came through and kicked up all the dirt and sand inside the building, which was another factor for my discomfort.  My time in Accra was enjoyable, but I felt like most of it was spent in a shuttle or bus waiting in traffic, everything moved in Africa time.

Maria, Matt and Me in front of Table Mountian- Cape Town, South Africa

Morocco

Morocco, Morocco, Morocco, what an experience. I had a wonderful time on the camel trek. We spent two nights in Marrakech and one night sleeping in tents with Moroccan nomads. The camels were so funny and riding the camels was definitely the highlight of my time here. Marrakech was an interesting place. It only rains in Marrakech twenty days of the year and we happened to pick one of thoses days to visit. We managed to make it to the Souks (the outdoor market) just in time for it to rain. I was buying a scarf as it started pouring. The vendor was so nice and pulled out chairs for us. When we thought it had slowed down we left his tent and headed toward the busses, however they didn’t come for another 30 minutes and by the time they had finally arrived we all were so drenched that there wasn’t a single piece of dry clothing on anyone! That evening we went to a dinner and show that reminded me of Medieval Times, which wasn't exactly my favorite part of the trip. Every five minutes or so a group of Moroccan signers would parade through the dining tent for entertainment. I didn’t find it entertaining it actually made me uneasy. After dinner we watched a horse show with a “flying carpet” with a couple on it in the background, a little belly dancing show, a fire juggler and to top it off a very anticlimactic firework show.

Within thirty minutes of getting back from the camel excursion I got to join another field program called Dinner with a Moroccan family that was delightful. A Moroccan man married an American woman from Pennsylvania and I was so interesting to learn about the Moroccan culture from an American and Moroccan point of view.

I made a new friend Molly who speaks French so I've had no problems getting around, but I do feel uncomfortable here when I am walking around. It is so chaotic between the cars driving wherever they please, the motorbikes and donkey carriages driving through groups of people, and all the street vendors and snake charmers trying to force you to buy things from them including a picture you take on your own camera! Their culture is very aggressive and would take me more than 5 days to get used to. Overall, I've had a wonderful time in Morocco. We will leave today after I get back from my last field program here at the Coca Cola plant. I believe on ship time is 1800 hours (6 pm), then 7 days at sea before Accra, Ghana.

Sept. 5, First Stop SPAIN!

It was such a relief to wake up to the sight of land!! After 8 days of only water, I was more than happy to wake up before the sun to see the lights of Cadiz on the horizon. I grabbed my camera and hurried outside to join the others in taking pictures of our first port.

I have several plans ahead of me today including a city orientation and a night of Andalucian Flamenco Dancing! Until then, Maria and I will do a little exploring for our selves. Maybe a little shopping, and of course some EATING!

This morning I learned a new way of posting on my blog, so for the rest of my voyage I should be able to post entries from my semester at sea email! Which is ACStclair@semesteratsea.net by the way.

I'll write more soon!

Day one! 8-27-2009

My journey couldn’t have started off better! I got to spend thirty minutes with Samantha in the Boston airport, and as soon as I went through security check I found a group of students who were obviously Semester at Sea students. All of them, traveling parent-free, gathered together talking about the unimaginable trip ahead of them! And I couldn’t help but join in! I actually sat next to a boy from Lake Tahoe, who goes to UCLA, who is embarking on the same adventure! After customs, we all sat around discussing where everyone was from and what school they went to while we waited for the shuttle to our hotels.

At the hotel, I was assigned a roommate for the night (Maria from the Bronx) that is also a work-study student, so she and I have spent the day together. We checked onto the ship, had breakfast with my dad and went to our work-study meeting. Currently, we are both using the last free Internet access we have available for a while!

Oh, back to the work-study assignments. I am the only work-study student to work with the registrar, and I am really excited to be her assistant. She and her husband are on the voyage this semester, they are both retired faculty from the University of Virginia. She was so excited to give me a tour of the ship, and she did a great job! She also gave me a cookie shaped like the MV Explorer (photo to come later)!

Well, I’m moved in to my room, which was upgraded from deck 2 to deck 4! Which is pretty cool because I have a huge room and its closer to everything. My roommate has also moved in, but I haven’t met her because we unloaded at different times.

Tonight, I will get to spend a little time on the ship with Dad, because I am work-study and checked in early!

Well, my computer is dying. I hope to post again tomorrow, because the next time I get free Internet might be a little while. If I don’t write again, I will at least post photos!

Thanks for reading!