Semester at Sea - Fall 2010 Itinerary

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada – August 27
Cadiz, Spain – September 4-8
Casablanca, Morocco – September 10-14
Takoradi, Ghana – September 22-25
Cape Town, South Africa – October 3-8
Port Louis, Mauritius – October 14-15
Chennai, India – October 22-27
Singapore – October 31-November 1
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam – November 3-8
Hong Kong / Shanghai, China – November 11-16
Yokohama / Kobe, Japan – November 19-23
Honolulu / Hilo, Hawaii, USA – December 3-6
San Diego, California, USA – December 13

Thursday, November 25, 2010

JAPANNNN

HELLO FROM THE PACIFIC OCEAN!!!

Well it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, ED IS ON HIS WAY BACK TO BOSTON, and stopping in Hawaii, MARK YOUR CALENDERS I get into San Diego December 13 and will be in Boston on December 15!

Anyways on to Japan, It was UNREAL… Not my favorite port, but still a great time! The first day we got to Kobe, home of Kobe beef, which costs an arm and a leg to order, $60 bucks for a small steak, but apparently well worth it. I headed down to Hiroshima, famous for where the US dropped the A-BOMB on Japan, it was wicked sad and powerful to grasp, but worth seeing especially since I’m going be at Pearl Harbor next week and to understand the destruction of Nuclear weapons first hand. The city has one building still standing from when the bomb was dropped to serve as a memorial site and so that no one can forget what had happened there, then you go into a museum that has artifacts, a documentary, and a step by step depiction of the days leading up to, that day, and then days following the Atomic bomb being dropped in Hiroshima. That night a group of us headed out for conveyor belt sushi, a few drinks, and then Karaoke! FUN FACT: Karaoke is sung in private rooms per group not in a giant crowd as the States do it. We had some trouble using the Karaoke machine as it was all in Japanese and in effect we ended up being able to sing only two songs both on repeat, “Don’t stop Believing” (a crowd pleaser) and “Bad Romance” (the only other English song we knew). Then we got half our money back for our troubles and called it a night…

The next day I woke up and headed to Kyoto for sightseeing with my friends, that was cool, we interrupted a Japanese wedding (not intentionally) by taking pictures of the scenery right where they we taking their photos and then walked more around the city. All the cities tend to blend together after a while, Japan doesn’t have distinct differences, between the cities other than the center regions. We walked around the river walk in Kyoto before we headed back to Kobe, that was a cool area because you got to see a lot of the locals down there playing sports, walking dogs, running (a big thing among all Japanese), or playing music. It was a nice peaceful day of just exploring then we sailed to Yokohama.

We get to Yokohama and hit the trains to go to Tokyo, crazy city, people dress in whatever they want so style is really in the eye of the beholder, We spent most of our time in the Shibuya and Hirajuka which is where most of the young people hangout. We continued explored all day saw the Imperial Palace, then went to TGI FRIDAYS for lunch because American food seemed like a great idea and then met up with our friends at the hotel, that night we went out for our friend Josh’s birthday and ended up at McDonalds at the end of the night, seems to be a common theme for me in Asia, McDonalds, as soon as I get to the states I am never going to a McDonalds for years. The next day we all got up and explored more of Shibuya, which is one of the many districts within Tokyo, we went up to the top of an office building and viewed the impeccable skyline of Tokyo, unlike many of the other views I have seen, Tokyo is completely surrounded by buildings, very little parks and greenery were seen from the view we were at, the farthest ends of the city were that of the mountains, and that was impeccable to see. After that we did some shopping, before catching our train to Yokohama. The trains might I add was a process in itself. Unlike China there was less English around to help us get around, and the trains was one of the hardest places for us, the maps only had prices next to the stations labeled in Japanese, thankfully the people were so friendly and willing to help that they got us to where we needed to be.

Traveling in the Pacific has been rough so far, last night no one slept due to the rockiness of the ship, all our stuff fell everywhere, my roommate got hit in the face with stuff that fell off our TV and desk, I got sea sick, my classes got cancelled in our Union because it was too rocky to be there its been pretty bad…
Well now its eight days to Hawaii, SPRING BREAK PART II, I can’t wait to just relax at the beach, attempt to surf, jumping off waterfalls, and seeing Pearl Harbor. This is the life can’t believe its coming to an end, but that means I’m that much closer to be back in Boston!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Ed

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Bungee, Hiking, and the Peking Family

Me and Cassidy in the Forbidden City


Hello to you all back in the states

China is the most interesting place in the entire world, I laws lucky enough to visit both Hong Kong and then the mainland to get a feel for all of China…  

Me on the old part of the Great Wall
So first things first, I spent most of my time in Hong Kong actually in Macau for Bungee Jumping, due to the fact that passports took all day to hand out we missed our first two time slots (I went with about 57 kids) at 11 AM and Noon, I was in the 1 PM bracket but didn’t get to jump until 5 PM. Still though being in Macau tower you had the most amazing views of the area Casinos and skyscrapers. Macau is the Vegas of China and amazing to see lit up all at night. Anyways back to bungee I got the video and pics, In which you see me have a small breakdown on the plank where I am yelling some profanity over and over again, then have to be pushed to the edge by the instructors and its looks like I am about to pass out, then it’s “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BUNGEE” next thing I know I am off the platform and into the air, what a rush that is, the first moment I was freaking out, but then it gets to be quite enjoyable when you are in freefall, then I shot back up almost to the top again and I didn’t mentally prepare myself for this so it’s another round of profanity as I try to remember to pull the tab to make me rightside up so then I am trying to figure that out for another few minutes, needless to say it was a process, but anyways I LOVED IT, it is something I will do again. After Bungee it was back over to Hong Kong where I spent the evening touring the city with my friends Marcus, Gail, and Carly picking up mementos from this amazing port and visited the night market which was still crowded at about 1 AM.
The Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium, Beijing
THE GREAT WALL WAS UNREAL, when you get on it you just cannot grasp how big it is and that people actually spent time making this monstrosity its long enough to fit from the east coast to the west cost of the United States. We hiked the old or unfinished part on the first day, which consisted of more trail based hiking at parts of the wall were over grown and you had to get off the wall at parts and then on day two we hiked the  finished area which was all on the wall, but was steeper and more of an up and down exercise… oh its unbelievably cold too thank god I bought a North Face Winter Jacket in Vietnam, and had a sweatshirt cause I had to give this girl, Margaret, my inner lining of my jacket to wear cause it was so cold, but anyways we hiked for two days and that was cool, plus the views of the mountains and the never ending wall were out of this world to see, we saw the sunset on the wall, and then were attacked by vendors selling anything and everything I Bought a Commie Hat just for the sake of it but came in handy as it kept my face warm it has the ear flaps. YES HB I recommend the Great Wall to anyone, Oh and just a little FUN FACT: If you will pay they will hike McDonalds up to you on the Great Wall that was our lunch the first day of hiking on top of the Great Wall of China I had 2 Big Macs, cross that off the Bucket List. FUN FACT 2: Bowling and Karaoke are huge in Asia we had a bowling alley and an archery court in our hotel and they were the hot places to go and Karaoke Bars are more frequent than a Dunkin Donuts in Massachusetts. 

The last day we headed into the city of Beijing wow the skyline and buildings China is looking more and more modernized and less and less like a developing country… We saw the famous Tiananmen Square, which is the largest square in the world and the place where Mao Ze Dong proclaimed the creation of the People’s Republic of China… Behind the Square is the Forbidden City, which is a monstrosity in itself and the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. The complex houses 980 buildings and 8,707 rooms and took nearly 20 years to complete. The place is about the size of Nichols College getting from Winston all the way down the hill to Rem and then have some extra room too. After that visit we went to a tea house where we were taught the culture of Chinese tea, and believe me there are a lot of rules when it comes to drinking and preparing tea, mainly which cup is for which tea, which one is for smelling or drinking, and proper hand positioning, seems a little excessive for tea drinking, the preparation of drinking take longer than actually drinking it, but hey that’s how they make their money, especially off tourists who need to get every type of tea, and then all the proper tea glasses for their new teas, so my guess is it’s them laughing their way to the bank.

The last stop before heading to the airport was to a drive by at the Olympic stadium, “The Birds Nest” the Olympics did a great job making it look much bigger than it actually was, the Stadium looked like Gillette Stadium could eat it for a snack, but still the design of that building is impressive, and according to our tour guide the building is being used constantly for all types of venues, their next big usage of it will be for Celine Dion’s World Tour which is something China is excited to start gearing up for, in my opinion the Olympics were bigger than her, but hey at least its being used… That night we were back in Shanghai meeting up with the ship after being in transit for two nights from Hong Kong to the mainland… We went out that night to a cool nightclub to celebrate my friend Tristan’s 21st birthday, what a place to turn 21 in… The next day a few of us visited the marketplace to buy some more brand labels at cheap prices, Today I got Beat headphones by Dr. Dre for $11, two pairs of Vans for $40, pair of Oakley and Ray Bans for $18 all American Prices so even if they are knockoffs the prices aren’t bad at all, gotta love China, Shanghai port where we docked had the best view of the waterfront and Pudong Skyline which is continually growing with more and more skyscrapers, including the Oriental Pearl Tower, which is the second tallest building in China at the present time… 

So now I will talk about the food, everything is served on a lazy susan and the food is setup for approximately 8 people, we had everything from disgusting mushrooms, tofu, and full fishes, which no one ate, to Peking Duck (not bad), to Kung Pao Chicken and then millions of veggie and pork dishes we ran out of food at every meal minus the gross plates no one would eat, at one meal they refused to give us more food (going so far to give the extra duck to the Vegitarian table that we were stuck next to just to be funny), others we took this matter into our own hand and went around to the other tables in our group and took the food they didn’t eat. My table was told we eat the most out of anyone they have ever seen, by the tour guide and the waitstaff… and as I said before lunch on the Great Wall they hiked us up McDonalds, (I had eaten more McDonald than anyone ever needs to in a weeks period). Anyways my table was me, my friends: Kelly, Tristan, Drew, Cassidy, Jen, Nate, Pat, Kristin, John. We ate every meal together and became a family. The Peking family to be exact named after our Peking duck dinner, quite a group in fact we have our first on ship family dinner tonight!

All in all China was a great experience and I now cannot wait to return here and see more of this fascinating country. So tomorrow I will be in my last foreign port, Japan I cannot believe how fast this has gone by, I am heading off to Hiroshima tomorrow and then exploring Kyoto the following day, then Tokyo, and Yokohama, and going to a Sake production factory, and you can bet yourself I will be at a Karaoke bar and Sushi restaurant where you get the sushi off the conveyor belt. Then its 9 days to Hawaii, or as I like to call it Spring Break Part II after Mauritius, then a week to San Diego, where did the semester go, Keep me in Paradise I don’t want to cold and snow of Boston, Burlington, or Dudley… Enjoy the pics I used up some of my internet minutes for you guys, next port ill try and do a post of just pictures

Until after Japan Later,

Ed

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

NAM!!!!

Well it took about 26 and a half hours and three flights, but I made it back to the MV Explorer meeting up with my ship on its last night and my only night in Vietnam, I got here around 11:00 PM or the middle of the day for Boston on Saturday… Its good to be back though and continue this amazing opportunity that I am doing now not only for me, but my mom too.

So with the very little time I had in the country I utilized as much of the time here as I could. I first pulled an all-nighter due to the fact that in my mind it was the middle of the afternoon, while everyone was sleeping then around 7 AM, I headed to the Cu Chi Tunnels with SAS where we learned about the underground tunnel system used by the Vietnamese during the Vietnam War. It was actually really cool to see how the Vietnamese would not only hide, but fight the Americans from these tiny places that would include small holes in the ground to tunnels miles long and no bigger that 4 feet tall, yes we had to crawl a lot. FUN FACT: Vents were put every half mile to ensure that no one would pass out, although if you weren’t near a vent it gets extremely claustrophobic fast. My favorite part though was when I got to shoot an AK-47 at the Vietnamese gun range. That had to be the most fun I had during the visit, but the entire site that we were on was amazing to see. Right when you walk into the start of the trail you see a giant crater from a bomb that went off and then right next to it a trap door that is hidden with bamboo spears in the ground to kill its enemies. I even got to go inside one of the underground passages that are not made for Americans or tall people, the size of the hole was no bigger than an air conditioning vent (I’ll try and put pictures up when I get to China) and got to sit in one of the tanks that they have on site. The trip was so far the best one I have been on because it did a great job integrating the important history while engaging us with fun interacting things to do and explore.
After the tour, I headed off to the marketplaces to take advantage of the low costs thanks to the exchange rate… I spent less than $200 American and bought the following:

a North Face winter jacket $36

DVD Sets $60 all together
CSI seasons 1-10
Mad Men season 1-4
Family Guy season 1-7
Two and a Half Men season 1-7

Nike Shocks $70 for two pairs

So in my opinion it was a successful day, minus the torrential downpours I got stuck in. But hey it’s a small price to pay, right now we are having some big swells in the ocean as we head for Hong Kong, I am bungee jumping my first day then its off to the Great Wall to hike it down to Beijing and then seeing Shanghai on my last day in China. Probably trying to find some good deals like Vietnam.

Well That’s Hit from the MV

-Ed





Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Sea Olympics & India

First things first, yes its been a while since i updated but well things have been hectic the last few weeks...

So just before India, the ship took part in its tradition of Sea Olympics, and event where each sea, made up of different decks and areas of students, faculty, life long learners, and dependent family members participate in shipboard events that vary from dodge ball, jeopardy, lip singing, and banner making to name a few. My sea, the Aegean Sea, made up of all deck two, was considered the "forgotten sea" by our rivals, ended up taking second place overall placing in the competition.

My Roommate Tom, Me, Archbishop Tutu, Aubrey, Lindsey, and Sulli reppin' the Aegean Sea at Sea Olympics
 The competition was a lot of fun and it brought our sea together where days before members of our sea could not even name names of those who were neighbors to them. The best part though was the lip singing competition and the skits competition. We did a "Anchorman" parody, which I took part in and took in some big laughs and the Lip singing we took first in with a mix of different songs and some pretty good resembles of the real people including Justin Bieber....

After the fun, it was time for India, which for me was an abbreviated trip that consisted of a day in Chennai with my good friend Ashley, where we along with a few of our other friends braved a day of riding in a rigshaw and looking for stickers and shotglasses something we all seemed to be collecting... That night we made our way to a mall that blew the doors off of the malls in Massachusetts, and had a movie theater that was incredible. We wanted to see a Bollywood film, but all that was playing was "Despicable Me" in 3D so we did the American thing and went and saw it after pigging out at the malls Americanized food court, however I chose Indian Chicken Kabobs which were amazing..

Me at the Taj Mahal at Sunset
The next day day i was up at 4 AM to catch my plane to the Taj Mahal, which has been my favorite attraction i have visited to date. It really was an amazing place to see especially at 6 AM for sunrise, granted i was not happy to be up that early once I got there. India itself I am not a fan of, don't get me wrong i saw a lot of amazing places such as the house where Ghandi was assassinated, his burial space, and some great temples and historical landmarks. But the Taj takes the cake as the most beautiful places in the world, during the day it changes colors and the people there were in the masses. By sunset when we got back, there was barely any room to move at the Taj as it was swarming with people anywhere you could stand... Now the country itself, mighty dirty, and just people everywhere. That was a culture shock, people sleeping on the streets, making bathrooms out of the road, poverty in the masses, and the driving, it was completely overwhelming for someone who was not used to it, I have been to Manhattan countless numbers of times and that is quite a hustling bustling city, but this was more chaotic and stressful than anytime I have been to New York or Boston or any other city we have been to so far.

Me at the Taj Mahal at 6 AM
The worst part of the trip though had to be the travel, my god how I wanted to kill myself, first it was early morning flights from Chennai to Delhi, then a five hour train ride to Agra for the Taj on the slowest train in the world, then a train ride back to Delhi, where we stayed in the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in Five Star Hotels, multiple restaurants, and rooms to die for. It was a great retreat from the long days of traveling around India to relax in luxury.

So finally I took a detour back to the states, to see the family, for those who don't know my mom passed away after battling lung cancer. She was a fighter and went peacefully and it was good to see my family and friends (who basically are family) at this time, and after 28 hours of flying and enduring American Airlines longest nonstop flight from Delhi to Chicago (15.5 hours) I made it to Boston. Now I am preparing to return friday to the MV Explorer in Vietnam and finish what I started not just for me, but for my mom too. Now after getting a Visa in less than 48 hours I am ready to go back, im hoping for some bungee jumping in Hong Kong, what can I say I'm an adrenaline junkie, but Vietnam I want to get me some Nike's for the day I am in the country...

Until China,

-Ed