I'll say it

When time is short-I miss twitter. The end.

I'll Eat Your Heart Out With a Spoon (props to Spero Gin)

     I have not been updating my blog lately.  Time has been playing tricks on me.  We just got back from India and I still haven’t written about Vietnam and Cambodia yet.
     …sorry.
     So I just got out of my global studies class-a class which everyone on the ship is required to take-and today we talked about how this voyage isn’t about sight seeing, but rather about the people we meet.
     So this blog is dedicated to the people I’ve met in my life and how they have carried through with me on this voyage and in my memory.
     My Uncle Chris passed away while I was in India.  He hasn’t been doing well for a while, but we’ve all just been hoping for something good to happen-and I suppose this is something-good or bad.  It kills me that I can’t be at home with my family right now.  It is engrained in my mind that when you lose someone you should be there-quickly.  Had I known before I left the ship I would have skipped India and flew back home for a few days-how expensive can flights be from India anyway?-Doesn’t matter.
     The countries I have been visiting (Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, and India) have a large emphasis on family.  In these countries people spend their lives attached to their family.  Some live in the same homes their entire lives, some work together, cook together, eat together, and pray together.  The point is, the connection is solid and the respect for one another is unconditional.  I want so badly to share these values with my family back home.  I love my family, more than anything in the world-and I would do anything for them-but I feel like the last few years have been distant.  Families are supposed to spend time together, especially holidays.  They are supposed to talk with one another, share their lives, laugh, love.  They should want to do these things-because this is what we have.  I want to celebrate our history together and appreciate that we have similar experiences, backgrounds, personalities, and humor.  When my family gets together (on the rare occasion that we are all present) I have always felt blessed-and blissful.  Since I was little I never wanted the night to end when we are all together.  I can remember so many times, looking at the clock and trying to delay our parents from wanting to leave.  I still don’t want to leave.
     I want to look past the differences that may be between us and find the similarities.  I want us to speak freely to one another and share our feelings.  I want to be able to hang out whenever we are around.  On a day when nothing is going on I want us to call each other up and see if we are interested in getting dinner.
     My grandparents on my mom’s side live in Kentucky.  Her brothers live as far as California.  My grandparents on my dad’s side have been deceased for years-but my aunts, uncles, and cousins all still live on Long Island.  A twenty minute drive is close enough.
     I vow to appreciate the rest of my family, both close and far away, for the good that they have and the good that they have brought out in me.  I have endless happy memories of my family and I together that I will never forget and will bring with me forever.  Maybe now that we are getting older we can all keep those memories and add some more.  If any of you are reading this I love you and miss you.  I hope you feel the same way I do and will try harder with me to see each other more.
     Also, I think Memorial Day is the weekend after my graduation so I should be back home in NY and most likely we all will be home.  I would love to go to the park and wake up early and save a picnic site-just like Uncle Chris used to.  We can barbecue and crack open a few beers, I’ll bring bocce ball, and Eric and my Dad can start a competition over who can run faster.  I think it is time we bring back our traditions and create some new ones.
    
     Thank you to all my family-blood and non blood-your lives have changed me in so many ways.  My memory is infinite and honestly I have pieces of all of you with me every second of the day.  I love you.

8 Days in China, 1 Long Blog Post. -Hope you still read-

    I left China over a week ago and I waited to write because of exhaustion and there was only two days between China and Vietnam.  But I’m really glad I waited because I’ve now had time to digest China and appreciate it a little more.
    Our first day in China we docked in Shanghai.  The city looked architecturally beautiful-kind of like something out of Tomorrow Land at Disney-so we expected a clean, fast moving city like we saw in Japan.  Surprise! It was not.  China has a much different lifestyle than Japan and we did not expect that-I honestly thought the cultures would be a lot closer.  But the people were loud, very loud and pushy.  Bumping into people is not rude in China; it is just what you have to do to get around since there are so many people.  And apparently in Shanghai it is perfectly okay to throw your trash and food on the ground and/or allow your children to poop straight on the sidewalk.  That was different.  The best smelling thing was the octopus that was being barbecued at the street vendors on the corners.  Also, we arrived in the middle of the Chinese New Year so it was a little crazy because crowds of people were in the markets and hustling around the streets and restaurants.    So that might have affected our original fear and hesitation in China.
    The second day was a lot better.  We were aware of what to expect and we avoided the markets.  We walked around a much cleaner area of Shanghai and went down to People’s Square, which is a large park that was full of people lounging on their day off and enjoying the sunny day that we were blessed with.  Shanghai felt like springtime, which was a good relief before Beijing and also allowed for a great photo opportunity of what we entitled “Babies and Birds”.
    Beijing is where the real Chinese magic happened.  Beijing was an interesting difference just from Shanghai because it was less intimidating and felt more traditional.  We stayed in a hotel a few blocks away from the Forbidden City so we had access to some amazing cultural experiences.  The Forbidden City was one of my favorite places.   I was surprised at how beautiful it really was-I just had no idea going in how huge it was and how immaculate the details on all of the buildings were.  It was also interesting how many beautiful buildings there could be in the middle of these large, open, stone courtyards that were created because the emperor was paranoid about being murdered.
    Our first night was a fun one because I ended up learning more about the modern Chinese culture as opposed to the traditional.  A few friends and I went out to a strip of bars which was funny simply trying to get there.  Apparently almost no one speaks English in China, or at least they didn’t want to (they were definitely not to keen on Americans-my friend Amy and I actually started telling people we were from Canada).  Anyway so when we headed out to the bars that night my friends and I took two cabs and got split up because of the communication issues.  So me and three other friends ended up sticking together.  The strip we were on was filled with bars that were very similar except for one major difference, the price of the beer.  In China, you can barter for anything, including your beers.  So we were getting beers for a dollar and refused to buy anything that was less.  Once we had a good drink deal we were set because each bar had singers performing on stage.  They were all so talented and entertaining to watch.  They sang both English and Chinese songs and loved how enthusiastically we were listening to them.  It was funny though because they sang karaoke kind of style, basically playing a recorded version of the music and them singing the vocals—no actual instruments.  And the songs they sing are hilarious because they are from about ten years ago.  Man did I miss Avril Lavigne and the Backstreet Boys!  But the best part was when we went to a bar where we met one of the singers, a spunky girl named Emily.  Emily is 21 years old and has a short blonde pixie cut.  She was singing “I’m coming out” when we walked in and her energy was amazing.  So as soon as she took a break we went over to speak with her and she chatted with us for longer than she could.  She spoke such great English so it was so easy to talk to her about where she grew up and how she moved away from her family and after going to school for music, sings at this club seven nights a week.  Once she went back on stage she sang tons of songs dedicated to us and even helped us get a better deal on our drinks.  Talking to local people in our ports really makes the trip a thousand times better, and Emily made my China trip.

    Of course, going to The Great Wall was also a huge highlight.  We hiked up the wall at sunset one night and let me tell you, the wall is not an easy hike.  For some reason I had not thought about the fact that it is on the top of some enormous mountains but not that that would mean you would have to hike up and then back down and up and again back down steep and broken steps.  We later went to another part of the wall and had to climb 1,044 steps up to the top of the mountain in the dark.  That’s 1,044 steps straight up! No break!  I used to say I didn’t mind steps because back in Boston we are climbing up staircases all the time to get into our apartments or going to class (because it’s not courteous to take the elevator if you’re going to floors one through three) but after this hike I officially hate stairs.  Every opportunity that we had to skip staircases in places after the wall I opted the escalator.  I better have perfect legs now-it was intense!
    However, that night, after the hike of death, we got to sleep on the wall.  We slept in one of the towers and I slept underneath a window so I could see the moon (the sky that night was incredible-although somehow I still think I saw more stars up in VT with the girls).  Now let me remind you it is February-So China is COLD!  In my real world I would never sleep outside in the middle of winter, but when you’re on the great wall you have to do what you have to do.  So I slept wearing layers and layers of clothing; on the bottom-under armor, jeans, sweatpants, two pairs of big, fuzzy socks, on the top- a tank top, a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, another long sleeve t shirt and a sweatshirt.  All of this on a mat and inside two sleeping bags.  When I first got in it wasn’t that bad-it was actually a relief from the cold and I had to take off my jacket.  But then, once I stopped moving, I froze.  I constantly had to rearrange myself into the fetal position and pull the sleeping bags over my head so that I was cocooned tightly and could get some blood flowing again.  I’m not sure if I actually slept that night.   I kept waking up in the middle of the night and when I did I wasn’t sure if I had been asleep or if I was just closing my eyes.  All I know is that in an instant I was being woken up for the sunrise.  That is where it was all worth it.  The sun coming up over the mountains was breathtaking.  Now I don’t know what is better, the view from the poets table in the black hills in South Dakota or the view off the great wall.  Both are officially sacred in my mind.  I spent a long while sitting on the wall overlooking the mountain range with the sun just starting to touch each and every mountain top.  It was a relaxing experience and a perfect time to reflect on my life and this voyage.  I missed everyone from back home a lot up there.  I took some great pictures but it is not as comforting as the energy and feelings that came from being there in person.

    Leaving Beijing was kind of sad because it made my Chinese experience a better one, but I was looking forward to coming back to the ship to sleep in my own bed again and see all of my friends who weren’t on my trip.  Back in Hong Kong we were all reunited and were able to explore the city together.  Hong Kong is a pretty easy city to get around-it’s pretty cool they have ferries from island to island-and I love ferries because they remind me of Long Island.  But the city was fun because it was a mix of so many different cultures.  The city was like a mix between London, Los Angeles, and a little bit of New York-with a slight Asian touch.  Honestly it was harder to find Chinese food there than it was to find American food.  But thanks to a nice couple at an antique shop we had a recommendation for some great dim sum.  I loved that couple.  They had a tiny, tiny shop that was covered with statues, jewelry, boxes, masks, anything.  We stayed in there for a while, me and five friends jammed into this shop so much that we literally had to stand one next to the other in a perfect line and we filled the whole shop.  I bought a bracelet from them that has a Buddhist prayer for protection on it-I figured it might be a nice mindset for traveling.  But once I showed an interest in the different types of Buddhism and the prayers and practices they pulled out a book and continued to teach me different things about the religion.  I had noticed there were a lot of Buddhist statues which involved couples having sex (so of course I had to know) and when I asked they had no problem telling me.  In Buddhism they believe there is time, space, and consciousness-and sex is one of the only things that alters your consciousness so it is considered more of a holy experience.  Good research.
    The next day was our last day in Hong Kong and it was a little cloudy outside so we were worried, but decided to head to Victoria’s Peak.  Victoria’s Peak is at the top of a mountain on Hong Kong Island that has a gorgeous lookout point over the whole city and the waters around it.  Thanks to some life luck, when we got to the top the sky was clear and the weather was warm.  It was a nice day walking around in the sun and enjoying the views.  We ended the day taking a trolley back down the mountain and had to head back to the ship but it was definitely relaxing to be back on the Explorer that is my home now.

    Before we knew it we were in Vietnam.  This last week there and in Cambodia was absolutely amazing and I can’t wait to blog more about it.  Unfortunately I’m exhausted and we actually have to lose an hour of sleep tonight changing the clocks because we’re going east around Singapore to get west to India.  So Jennie Wennie needs some sleep.

    If you read this whole thing-you rock! I love you all!!

So Long Sweetness

    Our last day in Japan was one of relaxation and bliss.  When we woke up in the morning we went to a hot spring bathhouse in Kobe.  This was slightly outside the city tucked away in the hills and off a few small roads.  When we walked inside we needed serious assistance from the woman working the house because this was a system we had never worked.
    Public bathhouses are a common experience in Japan.  In fact when we were actually in the bath I saw a few pairs of mother daughters and many women came with friends.
    But let’s backtrack.  We were required to leave our shoes in a locker by the entrance, since you cannot walk into a home or certain spaces with shoes on.  We bought towels that were about the size of a dishtowel and walked upstairs where there were two curtains, one blue and one red.  We went in the red one and were luckily correct.  This led to a locker room filled with naked Japanese women.  So okay, we knew this, and we all came because we don’t really have any issues with nudity, but at the same time we had never done this before.
    So slowly we began to take off our clothes until we were left in our bras and underwear.  Then there was about a five second pause in which we all looked around for the person who would be first with the big reveal.  We sucked it up and stripped down.  Within five more seconds it wasn’t weird anymore that we were naked.  In fact I was watching so much around me for what I was supposed to be doing that I didn’t even realize we were all naked anymore.
   First we had to shower off before getting into the bath, which was a process of sitting down on a seat, filling a bucket with water, and a series of knobs that released water.  Apparently I must have looked lost because the Japanese woman next to me pointed out the soap to me.  Loves it.
    Eventually we stepped into the bath that was filled with steaming hot, brown water.  It was immediately comfortable but we didn’t really know where to sit or what to do so we just sort of picked a corner and watched all the other women.  They were all staring at us and we were all staring at them.  Basically, Japanese and Americans have very different body shapes and body habits.   But once we got over the beginning awkwardness it was a very leveling experience.  I wanted to talk to all the women in there because when it came down to it we were all women and we all can understand each other.  In that moment I really felt like a woman in my own skin and proud to be so.
    Eventually we had to get out because we were over steamed and pruned.  Another Japanese woman had to help me figure out how to dry myself off with the towel that we used to shower in the beginning.  But at that point I was less embarrassed because my body was so relaxed and warm.  I felt like my muscles were melted inside me.  Heading back out into the cold weather was actually enjoyable after being so warm.
    Our next stop was to get lunch at a steak restaurant to get Kobe steak.  This was the most expensive meal I have ever personally purchased in my life but man was it worth it.  First of all the anticipation of this meal was amazing and made it feel like we were really getting a full meal out of our purchase.  The chef was cooking in front of us with such precision and care with everything he cooked-from garlic slices, to vegetables, and finally the big finale-our steak.
    This steak needed nothing.  You pick it up, you put it ever so gently into your mouth, and BAM HEAVEN ON YOUR TASTE BUDS!  This steak melted in your mouth—literally.  We ate the steaks with our eyes closed because we wanted to focus solely on the taste.  Bite after bite of orgasmic flavor.  I never wanted it to end.  But it had to somewhere and I just tried to savor that feeling for the rest of the day.
    We had to head back to the ship that night and leave Japan.  It was sad to leave our first international port that was already so important to us.  At least we had the opportunity for a day of luxury before we shipped out.
    And with only two days at sea we are docking in China tomorrow morning.

More adventures to come.

I hope you savor your moments as well.

Never Again

Hiroshima is an event that has been haunting me and my image of the U.S. for years now.  Being able to visit the site was an incredible and eerie experience.
    We left Kyoto for Hiroshima early in the morning and I was shocked to see that when we got out of the train station we were not in an abandoned, empty space.  So, we had to navigate ourselves around a city that we thought would be purely for the purposes of memorial.  Luckily, by this day in the trip my Japanese had improved enough to ask where the bus station was-by the way my friends were teasing me that if I got an asian haircut I could basically be Japanese because I was the one continuously trying to speak the language and learn different words-it was great—point is we found the bus station and made our way to the A-bomb dome and the peace memorial park.
    The moment we stepped out of the bus we could see the dome and the image was breathtaking.  The fact that we were in a flourishing city with tons of restaurants and shopping and then could take the bus a stop away and witness the remains of the city that was before was terrifying and quite honestly embarrassing.  We were stopped by a few Japanese people asking us if we were Americans-and this was a place I did not want to admit that-but we did.  It was difficult to talk to people who lived there and had families who were a part of this catastrophe that we as Americans caused.  But the Japanese are forgiving-and I can only give them endless credit for that.  I don’t think I could forgive anyone who could do such a thing to a community.  The atomic bomb on Hiroshima was a sick joke.  One that the U.S. did not think too hard on and did not understand the full consequences of their actions.  We caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, knocking out an entire city, but torturing them first.  People’s skin melted off their bodies, maggots began emerging from their open wounds, and with limited medical supplies since the hospitals were bombed as well, people were left to sit and watch their families decay before them.  I can’t describe all the pictures, the scorched bicycles, the burned clothing, anything that was left behind and now on display.  All I know is if I wasn’t in a museum full of strangers I probably would have thrown up.
    We just sat down on a bench and processed for a while after we left the museum.  We looked out upon the memorial and were haunted by what was gone.  It was bizarre to think we were staring out into a city that was once entirely different, then nothing, and now new.

Confusion and Love

  Japan looks like the U.S.  Honestly, if the signs were in English I could believe that I was in Chicago or New York.  Japan is so westernized-beyond the U.S.-but it is totally the people and the culture that makes Japan an entirely different universe for Americans.
  I spent my first two days in Yokohama and Tokyo almost entirely by myself and it was probably the greatest thing I could have done to break myself into Japanese life.  First of all, I thought since Japan has such a strong culture and importance on intelligence, school, and success, that most people would also speak English.   I was wrong.  I didn’t even eat lunch the first day because I couldn’t figure out how to ask for something to eat nonetheless how much currency I needed.
  Despite the language barrier people did try to communicate regardless.  A man by the harbor mimed to me to ask if I wanted to feed the birds with him, a man playing in a park with a remote control car rolled the car up to me and my favorite, a woman in an art gallery who tried to talk to me about her work.  I walked past her gallery that had sculptures of mystical creatures-some fish, dragons, hippos, etc in different colors and most of them only had one eye.  I was super intrigued by these so when I walked into the gallery I wanted to speak to the woman and she began babbling off Japanese to me, looking at me like I could respond.  I shook my head saying I don’t speak Japanese.  She said some more Japanese and finally said in English “Spiritual Monsters” in regards to her sculptures.  All I could do was hope she understood when I said they were beautiful.
 Once I got into Tokyo I found my way to some friends and it got a little easier.  A 21 year old Japanese couple approached us on the street on our way out and immediately asked if they could come out with us.  Laka, a student at a Japanese language school, spoke enough English for us to communicate.  She showed us around Tokyo and helped us talk to people and showed us some bars and clubs and while we were around the neighborhood some love hotels.
  These people definitely helped us adjust to this beginning but the real Japan love started when my friends Bailey, Elle, Traci, and I went to Kyoto.  Bailey and Traci had a friend-Erika-from home who is now living in Kyoto teaching English.  Erika was our inside to Japanese life and from then on my Japanese experience was magical!  Erika took us to the best restaurants where I ate my new fave meal Okonomiyaki, which is sort of like an omelette but really not at all even though it is made with eggs, vegetables, meat, and fish scales.  Also-get ready for this Mom and Dad-and I also feel like Manda would be really proud-I tried sushi-twice-and loved it! Hopefully I can find that good of sushi in the U.S. Ha. Here’s to hopin.
  Also got some good dirt on the Japanese romantic system, which obviously I took an interest in.  The courting process is totally different than our own.  My favorite ritual is with over a hundred teenagers that meet in a dried out river bed.  They all get into a giant circle and then one at a time the guys step into the circle and call out the name of the girl they like.  The girl then enters the circle and if she likes him she takes his hand and the two go off together.  If she doesn’t like him she says sorry and walks back to her friends. I love it.
  On my own personal love note Erika took us to a bunch of Shinto and Buddhist shrines.  One of the shrines was a love shrine that inside had two large rocks spaced about 20 or 30 feet apart.   There is a myth that is said that if you can close your eyes and walk from one stone to the other you will find your love soon.  You are allowed one person to talk you through it so I had Erika direct me-oh and by the way, it was POURING rain that day, like at this point in the day my shoes were soaked, my jeans were wet up to my knees and my camera was fogging up-but I made it through the rain and through the mass of people to the other stone.  So look out world, I’m destined for love, rain or shine, in Japanese or English, even if I’m halfway around the globe.  If nothing else, I fell in love with Japan.

More to write…will write later.

<3

The Time Traveler's Life (Delayed)

Hello hello after so long! FYI our email was messed up on the ship for a while so I couldn't blog.  I am about to update so many times since I just got back from Japan! AMAZING! So check more over the next two days before China.

Here is a blog I wrote when we crossed the international dateline about a week and a half ago!

Hope you're still reading! Love!

...


 I have officially reached my biggest dream...time traveling.
 I mean honestly, it's time traveling, teleportation, and then having a moderated temperature bubble (Caitlin remind John endlessly).

  So I did it-Success! But I kind of cheated by crossing the international dateline. The craziest concept ever.  We crossed it and then we lost a day-we just lost it-left it somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

  The international dateline is a concept we are all familiar with but when you think about it you can not make sense of it.  Everyone on our ship has been talking about it for weeks-mostly because Don, our global studies prof, made a contest for a fifty dollar gift certificate to the school store to whoever could best define the international dateline.  So last night we held the contest in the union and discussed about ten different ways the international dateline might make sense.  Singing it like Lady Gaga, rapping it like the fresh prince, or even just a simple definition didn't do it.  Instead the best definition (or maybe just the most entertaining) was told by a kid named Zack and it was a story about the pain of loss and the joy of recovery.  Zack's story was as follows:

"This story has to do with two paths that never cross.  One path begins on a ship in the Pacific Ocean heading west. The other path is that of a creature called an anole (which Zack explained he didn't know exactly what an anole was but most importantly it has a tail).  This anole's name was Carl and he lived in Peru with his tail.  Both the ship and Carl have been going on about their lives normally when all of a sudden down in Peru Carl is walking across the street, gets hit by a car, and tragically loses his tail! Coincidentally the same day the ship is crossing the international dateline and loses a day!  So both Carl and the ship are sad that they have lost a part of their lives.  But, as the ship keeps moving westward on its path it gains an hour every 15 degrees and with each hour it starts to feel a little better.  Luckily for Carl, his tail has the capability of growing back slowly, 1/24 at a time.  And as time passes Carl's tail grows back to its full length and the ship goes entirely around the world and gains all of its twenty four hours back.  So with the passage of time everyone lives happily ever after."

 Did that make sense? Probably not.  It simply does not make sense that just because we are going west means we should lose a day entirely.  However I have come to the conclusion that it is for pure convenience.  On the ship we are gaining an hour every 15 degrees due to the fact that the Earth is spinning and thus time zones exist and we are selfishly taking 25 hour days.  So if we had continued to take an hour to stay on track with the countries we are visiting we would be 24 hours ahead of everyone else when we docked in Ft. Lauderdale in May.  So in order to stay in the same world as everyone else we must trade in our day somewhere for all the hours we're stealing.  So here it is.  And February 3, 2010 will never exist for me.

  If it were up to me I would always live in another world but instead I am now about seventeen hours ahead of east coast time (sixteen hours tomorrow).  Weeeeeiiiiiirrrrrddddd.  But at least I know what the future looks like. Muahahaha.