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