Guatemala Day 2

            Today we were still in Guatemala. I really wanted to go on a trip to this town called Livingston, but I already had this ticket to the Amatique Bay Beach Break. Amatique Bay is this really nice beach resort in Guatemala right near San Tomas de Castilla (the port). I had written in the buy/sell notebook that I wanted to sell my Amatique Bay trip, and I had e-mailed someone who said that they wanted that trip. This one girl called me at 12AM saying that she wanted to buy my trip from me. I thought to myself, “maybe you don’t go to bed early, but I have already been asleep for 3 hours!” She also wasn’t even willing to pay me ½ of what I paid for it. I suppose if I was really desperate to get rid of the trip I would have sold it to her, but I had decided that if I couldn’t find someone to sell it to for a good price then I would just go to Amatique Bay and have a lot of fun.

            That is exactly what happened. I couldn’t find anyone to buy my ticket from me so I went to Amatique Bay. We had to take a boat to get there because it is on this island or peninsula. I honestly don’t know if there is a way to reach it by car, but either way the boat is the fastest way there. We got there and we walked all the way around the area just to see what was there. They had a little bit of everything! There was a beach, pools, horseback riding, kayaking, waterslides, ping-pong tables, beach volleyball, pool volleyball, a place for turtles and a place for iguanas. My trip was basically just for the pools, and beach ect. There was a different trip that went horseback riding and kayaking. We all met up at the beach and the pools afterwards.

            One thing that I had never seen before was a wet bar or a bar that you swim to. Everyone was ordering drinks, but again I couldn’t figure out why people wanted to start drinking at 10:30AM (especially those who didn’t eat breakfast). Someone said, “We should come to Guatemala for spring break!” so word to the wise, unless you want to be there with a bunch of drunk college students I wouldn’t go there for spring break. I basically just hung out with friends in the pool, went down the waterslide, played ping-pong, and then we ate lunch. After lunch, we went back in the pool for a little while, and then I laid out by the pool in a lounge chair. Some of my friends went to the beach, but I didn’t want to get all sandy if I could help it so I just stayed by the pool and read for a while.

            I ended up getting a little sunburned, but it was just the tops of my shoulders and I knew it wasn’t that bad. We then took the water taxi back to the ship. It was so warm out that I was really glad that I went to Amatique Bay instead of Livingston. Some of my friends didn’t even really like Livingston, they said that they were supposed to get a tour of something but instead they basically just walked around and there were a lot of shops. In that sense I am kind of glad I didn’t go because I have no room to bring anything back!

            When we got back on the boat I had to work with my group so that we could finish our group projects, which were due the next day. They were mostly done we just needed to compile our information. It was then time for the crew talent show. Most of the people who performed work in the dining hall, and the crew are the friendliest people ever. They always say hi, and some of them even know everyone’s names. Two people did a salsa, two people sang, a group of the dining hall crew all did a dance together, and then a few people did a traditional Filipino dance (over 2/3 of the crew is Filipino). That was a lot of fun even though it was only 30 minutes. I heard that the crew talent show is normally part of the regular talent show, but for some reason it wasn’t this time.

Guatemala Day 1

         Today we were in Guatemala and I went on another service visit. This one was to a special education school in the morning and to an orphanage in the afternoon. When we arrived at the special education school, we were a bit early so the lady who was in charge of our visit wasn’t there yet. This made it a bit difficult because she is fluent in both Spanish and English, but no one else was, so before she arrived we really had no idea what the people were trying to say to us. They had 9 small rooms with only 9 teachers for over 110 kids. All of the children had special needs and they were in mixed classrooms. These classrooms were very tiny, and they were really hot. Most of them did have a fan, but it didn’t really make much of a difference.

            I went into a classroom with 2 other students, and we helped them make paper frogs. They were very easy to make all you do is cut out 2 pieces of paper and glue styrofoam eyes and then you draw on the pupils. In this classroom, there was a child who was in a wheelchair, there was one child who was deaf, and he really had no way of communicating with anyone that I knew of, there was also a child who was blind, and couldn’t see. There were other children who had all different types of disabilities in the same classroom. These people who work with the special needs children only earn about $170 a month. That averages out to about 8 dollars a day.

            After we were done making the frogs, it was snack/recess time. One of the children got a hold of my camera, and took a lot of pictures. It is kind of funny because I have a lot of pictures now with fingers in them because they didn’t quite figure out that you shouldn’t put your fingers in front of the lens, and I didn’t know how to tell them not to. After recess we went for a walk. It was a really hot day, so we didn’t end up walking too far. Supposedly when they normally go for walks on Fridays they walk another mile, but because we were all looking so tired we didn’t go that far.

            One of my friends had made a friend with this one kid who was having difficulty walking. He had a cane to help him walk. We took turns carrying him on our backs, but it was hard because his legs didn’t bend the right way for him to comfortably be on our backs. At one point I just picked him up and carried him not on my back, but when we were getting really tired this one man who worked at the school picked him up and put him on his shoulders. We realized afterwards that we should have carried him like that. Around 11AM a lot of the children go home because school is only a ½ day. We didn’t really figure out if the ones who stayed were still in school, or if they just hadn’t left yet.

            After we left the school, we went to this restaurant for lunch. We had tortillas with rice, beans, and chicken. When we were done eating we basically just sat at the restaurant for a while because we were on a schedule and they weren’t expecting us at the orphanage for a while, so we couldn’t head over there too early.

            When we got to the orphanage we learned that there used to be about 23 children there when they set up this trip, but now there are only 8 children. They moved all of the other children for economic and political reasons. The funding for the orphanage ran out, but they left the children there that no one was going to adopt. There were about 4 children there who were mentally or physically disabled, there were 3 teenage boys, and there was one 11-year-old girl who was new to the facility and just hadn’t been moved yet.

            This orphanage was basically in an abandoned building; it didn’t look like they had any fans and barely any lights either. It looked like it had once been a much nicer place to be, but now it is just so run down, that there is really nothing to it anymore. It was really disheartening to see people living like this. We helped create a garden at the orphanage, but I attempted to interact with the children for some of the time, because it was really hot outside in the sun. There are 2 women who are in charge of the orphanage, but they are volunteers, or if they get paid it is barely anything considering they have to provide around the clock care for a number of children, some of whom have disabilities.

            After the trip to the orphanage we walked up to this church that was right around the corner from the orphanage. That was also really sad because this was a beautiful new church, but the children living just down the hill in the orphanage had absolutely nothing.

            We then left the church and we headed back to the ship. We were all thrilled to get back in the bus because it was a little bit cooler than outside. As soon as I got back I took a quick cold shower, and no sooner had I gotten out of the shower and someone asked me to go to dinner. I ended up going out to this restaurant in Puerto Barrios. It was right on the water, and we arrived at sunset, which meant it was beautiful. For dinner I had a tortilla with rice, beans and beef (are you noticing a theme yet?). I am pretty sure that all people eat in Honduras and Guatemala is tortillas, rice, and beans. After dinner we just came back from the ship. I think from the heat and the sun and maybe even the emotions, I am ALWAYS exhausted after a long day of FDPs. Tonight they played a double feature of Harry Potter and the deathly hallows part 1 and then Salt. I was going to watch Harry Potter, but by the time we got back it had already started and I figured since I have never seen it before I shouldn’t watch it starting in the middle.

Honduras Day 2

      Today I did the service visit to Villa nueva youth center, in Honduras. On our way there we were asked to give a donation to the youth center to cover the cost of paint because we were going to be painting a fence. When we arrived at the youth center, there was no paint! The people who were in charge had to go and buy all of the paint so we basically just stood around doing nothing for quite a while. Some people interacted with the youth, but some of the youth seemed a bit intimidated by a big bus of 40 Americans coming to the youth center, and most of us didn’t speak Spanish, so that made it very difficult to interact with the youth because they don’t know English and I don’t know Spanish so if I were to carry on a conversation it would be something to the extent of “Hi, how are you?” and that’s about it.

            They finally arrived with the paint and we learned that we weren’t actually painting a fence. We ended up painting the cement brick wall that goes all the way around the building. We only did 1 long side and ½ of the short sides because there was enough paint. They added turpentine to the paint so that the paint would stretch farther. We started painting and then as soon as we started paint was getting EVERYWHERE!! I got paint all over me. I don’t think there was any part of me that didn’t get painted including my backpack.

            We managed to finish painting by about 11:30. This surprised us all because we had planned on it taking all day. After we were done painting, we tried to get the paint off of ourselves using turpentine, but this wasn’t terribly effective. Consequently we all continued to get paint everywhere and all over everything. We then waited for people to deliver lunch to us. It was these tortilla things with beans, rice, chicken, and avocado. This dish had a special name but I kind of forgot it. Either way it was delicious.

            Since we were all done long before we were planning on leaving, we ended up leaving to go back to the ship around 1300. We stopped at this market thing in San Pedro Sula on our way back to the ship. There were about 4 of us on that trip who had all gone on the FDP with me the day before. We were all terrified that it was going to be the same place we had gone the day before on our other FDP. It wasn’t so as soon as we saw it we were all relieved. Inside people were selling all sorts of Honduras souvenirs. Most of what people were selling was similar, so you could look around until you found the best deal on what ever you were trying to find.

            We then were getting pretty thirsty and there was one stand that was selling Pepsi. We heard that the Pepsi was 18 lempira or about 1 dollar. When the woman pulled the Pepsi out of the fridge we realized that it was 1 dollar for 1.5 liters! This is a lot cheaper than when we are at home, where you pay over 1 dollar for a 20 oz bottle.

            After 45 minutes in the marketplace, it was time to go back to the ship. We managed to get back to the ship around 1500, we didn’t do anything too exciting that night once we got back. I hung out with some friends, but that was about it.

Honduras Day 1

Today was my second FDP with my crazy professor in Honduras. The day didn’t even start out that great. We all knew it was going to be a disaster from the very beginning. My class was supposed to meet at the bus at 9:45, but customs seemed to take forever to clear the boat so we weren’t allowed to leave until 10:30, which meant that we were already 1 hour behind schedule. We then arrived at FINCA, which is a microcredit institution. Here is how microcredit works: a person needs a loan so that they can expand/start a small business, they then have to pay back the loans on time, a person is in a group with other people and they are basically like a support system. If one person is late in their payment the entire group can lose their “status” which means that they would no longer receive benefits such as lower interest rates, a return at the end of the year, and even health insurance.

            There were already quite a few women waiting for us. I guess there was some miscommunication because these women were waiting for us since 9AM! We were going to interview them and see how FINCA has impacted their life. We first had a presentation by the COO (Chief Operating Officer) who told us all about FINCA. Our professor had said that it was going to be a 5 minute presentation but it ended up being about 15-20 minutes L

            After the presentation we broke up into what my professor called focus groups. I decided to be in my professor’s focus group mainly because I knew that she was going to be able to do a good job translating, where as the other groups were being translated by students who didn’t necessarily know too much Spanish. This one girl from Mexico led another group so obviously she knew Spanish really well. While we were ½ way through the interviews everyone was getting really hungry. At this point it was 1PM and we had all eaten breakfast at 7:30, so it had been a while.

            The interview continued and then we finally finished around 2PM and our professor said that she wanted to get more information about how the microfinance worked or something like that. She asked who wanted to stay, but most of us just wanted to get back on the bus. She also told us it was going to be another 5 minutes, but it took 45 minutes. It was already 3PM by the time we went to get lunch. We went to the city mall to get lunch at the food court. There were mostly American chains for places to eat: Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, Quiznos, Subway, Burger King, Church’s Chicken, and there were a few places that I had never heard of but sounded like Central American Chains.

            We only had about 45 minutes for lunch because we were supposed to go back to FINCA and then we were going to walk to 3 businesses from the FINCA office and we walked down some pretty sketchy streets. Even where the businesses were didn’t seem too nice either. People had set up stalls in this old warehouse and they were really small. It was also really hot and stuffy in there too. We were all a little bit nervous about walking around because earlier a group of us were just walking around and we had only gotten about 1 minute down the street when our bus driver had told us to turn around and get back on the bus. They hadn’t told us when we were walking around that the FINCA representatives were well respected and no one was going to hurt us or even bother us because we were with FINCA. I think if they had given us that piece of information we all would have felt a little more secure.

            We visited one man who was selling home remedies for basically everything; he said he had herbal remedies that could even cure cancer. We then visited a woman who was selling shoes, she imported shoes from different places and then sold them to people. The last person we visited was a man who had a wholesale leather business. He makes the different parts of shoes and then the parts get sent somewhere to be assembled and then they get sold. They were really interesting businesses to see, but they were in a sketchy area. After we were done visiting these businesses we were all really hot and tired, so we headed back towards the ship. When we got back it was time for dinner, and then we played a game, and settled in early because we were all exhausted.

June 5, 2011

        Today we were at sea again. During sociology we had the interport lecturer come and talk to us about the history of Honduras. It was really interesting, but I am not a huge fan of history so I got a little bored. He was also talking in Spanish so our professor was translating for us, but she would react to what he was saying in Spanish and then tell us what he had said. After sociology we went to lunch and then it was picture time. We were to take a picture with our seas and then we took an entire ship community picture. The one of just my sea took all of 2 minutes and we were done by 12:25 which is when they said the picture was going to be so some people missed their chance to be in the picture. The one of the entire community though seemed to take forever. They had to figure out how to fit everyone into the photo on the deck.
        After pictures I basically didn’t too much all afternoon. It was kind of rainy so I couldn’t really go out on the deck to read or anything. Tonight we had preport for Guatemala and Honduras. This is when we learn all about the ports that we are going to and where we are allowed to go or not go. We all thought this meant it was going to last about 3 hours or so because so far preport hasn’t been shorter than 1.5 hours and this time it was 2 countries instead of 1, but we actually finished in about 1 hour so we were all thrilled by that.

June 4, 2011

     Today we were at sea. I have officially decided that I like port days better because they are a lot more interesting. The highlight of today was that it was the talent show at 2100. It went pretty late, but it was really good. We had this competition where whichever sea (hall or floor) had the best chant they get to disembark the ship first when we arrive back in Nassau. Our team won the sea chant competition! This was really exciting. We did a remake of the Party in USA by Miley Cyrus, but we changed it to Party at Semester at Sea! It was a lot of fun to do. We weren’t sure that we were going to win because some of the other sea chants were really good too, but we won so that is all that matters! In a way though I didn’t necessarily want to win because my flight isn’t until 4:30PM on the day I leave, and I wouldn’t have anywhere to go besides the airport with all of my stuff.
        All of the acts were really good at the talent show. One of the professors played the violin and she has been playing for about 50 years or so, one lifelong learner who has been singing her whole life, she was really good but has more of an operatic voice or classical style voice, she did a good job, but not really my type of music, and then a bunch of people just played and sang songs. One girl even did Irish step dancing, and one of the librarians read poetry. It was a well balanced show that was well done.

June 3, 2011

        Today I did the Off-Road Adventure. I think I actually did more off-roading the day before when we were going through the forest to get to the tubing place. It was still a lot of fun because we were able to go up into the mountains to this place where a tourbus wouldn’t be able to go. The vehicle that we used was a 6 wheel drive vehicle. It used to be a US military vehicle. Costa Rica hasn’t had an army for over 60 years so they didn’t have any military vehicles that could be bought and used. The people that started this company first started with a Russian Missle Launcher, which they bought from this collector of old vehicles. We met at the bus around 7:15AM but it was more like 7:45 by the time we actually left. That’s okay though. We then went up into the mountains and while we were up there we got out of the truck. We walked down the hill a little ways to see what wildlife we could find, and then we got back in the truck. While we were walking around we saw quite a few poisonous dart frogs, and some cool spiders, but nothing larger.
        After we got back in the truck we went to a banana plantation. The plantation wasn’t operating today because they only operate on days that ships come in, and there wasn’t a ship today. We had a “picnic” around 10AM, which consisted of pineapple, watermelon, these chip things, and some sauce (I don’t remember what they were called), soft drinks, and some people had cocktails!! I thought “way to start early!” Most of the people on this trip were still hung over from the night before so I don’t really know how they could keep drinking. This was very puzzling to me.
        Once we picked up our stuff from the “picnic” we got back in the truck and were going to head back to the ship. Our guide asked us if we wanted to stop at the river on our way back to the ship, so we did. It was disappointing though because they hadn’t told us to bring our bathing suits, and I wasn’t about to go in the water with all of my clothes on. I put my feet in and the water was really warm. It was really clear and blue too. Our tour guide said that sometimes the water is so clean that you can actually drink it, but it was rainy so it was a bit dirty from all of the runoff.
        After stopping at the river, we got back in the bus and headed towards the ship. At this point it was still only 12PM so I had time to get lunch on the ship. After lunch I tried to find people to go out into the town with, but everyone was either headed to the beach or people had just come back from the town, and since there wasn’t too much there they didn’t want to go back there. So I braved the city and decided to venture out by myself. It was broad daylight, and there were a lot of people around and I knew I would find people that I knew. The city also felt pretty safe compared to where we were in Panama especially.
        I decided to go the internet café that was about 2 blocks from the port. It was really nice to have high speed internet again. While we are on the boat we are limited in our internet use, and when we do go on the internet it is SOOO slow. They said that it is about ½ the speed of dialup internet. This means that we aren’t allowed to video chat or even instant message because it would use up all of our internet time very quickly. While I was at the internet café I was able to skype with my dad and my (not so) little cousins, and through google voice I was able to call my mom too. This was really nice being able to talk to my parents. I was also able to check my facebook for once.
        After the internet café I was headed back to the ship and then I found some of my friends, and they were headed to the park to eat fresh mangoes that they had bought. We then walked to the park and had the mangoes. They were almost a little too ripe. They were really sweet. After we had eaten 2 of the mangoes, we found worms in one of the mangoes. This was very reassuring because we had already eaten some of them. At least of we did eat them, it was just a little extra protein.
        I then came back to the ship relatively early and then didn’t do anything too exciting. I played a game with a friend, and then later we had conversation circles where some people get together and just talk about their time in port. Those are really interesting just to hear what people have to say about what they did in port.

June 2, 2011

        Today I went tubing. We left early in the morning and then we travelled to this place where we were going to go tubing. On the way we saw 2 banana trains. These were mules pulling bananas on a track system through the banana plantation. Imagine a rope tow being pulled by a mule. That was pretty much what it was except the track stayed in place and the bananas moved instead of the other way around.
        We finally got off the bus somewhere at an undisclosed location, just kidding, but I really have no idea where it was, we got on this cart that was pulled by a tractor. It was just this set of benches on a trailer being pulled by a tractor. There came a point when we were going up the hill that I wasn’t sure we were going to make it, but it was like the little engine that could “I think I can, I think I can!” We had to cross streams, rivers, mud puddles, climb hills, go down hills, and a little bit of everything. There came a point when we crossed a river that was probably about 18 inches deep, and it looked like the water was going to come onto the trailer, but it didn’t. We had to dodge trees too, and if we weren’t careful we were going to get hit in the face with the trees.
        We then made it to this lodge area where we all left our dry clothes, and took a bathroom break. Our tour guide called them Shakespeare stops, “To pee or not to pee, that is the question” We then got back on the tractor and ventured to where we were going to go tubing. Part of the adventure was merely getting to the tubing place. Once we got there we were all given helmets and life jackets. We were given a safety briefing and then we were to get into our tubes. We got into our tubes and we had the oars, and we tried to avoid rocks, but it was inevitable. There were SO many rocks that it felt like no matter what we did we always got stuck on a rock. Sometimes we would be going pretty well for a while and then just hit a rough patch. Other times we would hit the rocks and just bounce off of them because we had enough momentum.
        Whenever we got close to the edge we just kind of let the tube take us wherever it wanted to go. We tried to maneuver it, but it was pretty much impossible (at least for us). When we were in between rapids we got out of the boat and swam. It was too hot to just stay in the boat so we would get out and put our heads in because it felt really good, and the current would still send you in the right directions. Some parts of it were less than 2 feet deep, but at other times I couldn’t touch the bottom. It really depended on where you were in the water and how close you were to shore. Once we got most of the way down the river there was this “calm” part where we all put our tubes on the rocks and went swimming. This was pretty hard because there was a strong current so if you weren’t careful you were going to float away and next thing you know you are much further down stream than any of the boats.
        After we went tubing we went back to change and then we ventured back to the bus on the little engine that could. We then went to the village where the people that owned the tubing company lived, and they had prepared lunch for us. Lunch consisted of rice, beans, chicken, plantains, and for dessert rice pudding. I learned that rice, beans and chicken are pretty much a staple of Costa Rican food, but every time they are cooked really differently so even though it is the same food, it doesn’t all taste the same.
        Once we were done eating, the woman guide from tubing showed us some of their traditional dances. They were really cool to watch, and then they asked some people to participate. I just watched, but I had fun taking pictures of people! We then headed back to the boat. By the time we got back it was about 1600, and we were told that we were going to get back at 1400. I don’t think they should have made the trip any shorter, but I think they should have adjusted the time that we were going to get back.
        After I was back I walked around Puerto Limon with some friends just to see what there was in the town. We did find an internet café, but we didn’t go into it because we didn’t want to be gone too long because it was almost dinner time. We also found a few souvenir shops and a grocery store. While we were walking around a woman came up to us and asked us how to get back to the ship. At first we couldn’t figure out why she wanted to go to the ship, but then we realized that she was crew for the ship, and she had been walking around, but had become disoriented, and you can’t see the boat from the city, so we pointed her in the right direction. It is weird seeing crew when they aren’t in their crew uniforms. We then came back to the ship because it was dinnertime, and guess what was for dinner? Pasta, potatoes, salad, fish, pork, and vegetables. Surprise!! Just kidding. That is what we have every night, except some nights it is chicken or beef instead of pork. After dinner I came back to my room for a little while, but I was going to explore the town later with some friends. I started doing things, but then I became really tired, so I took a nap and then we went out again to see what was around. We didn’t stay out very long, so I still went to bed pretty early because I knew that I had to get up early again the next morning.

June 1, 2011

        Today we arrived in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica. I had an FDP (Field trip) for my class today. We visited Earth University, and then we went and saw a village where Earth University has played a major role. At Earth University we first toured the organic farm, then we saw where they raise the pigs, and then we kept walking around and we saw many other things too. While we there our guide told us how the university is trying to become completely sustainable in terms of food and agriculture. The majority of the food that they eat in the cafeteria has come from the farm. While we were walking around the farm, our guide used a machete and chopped a pineapple out of the pineapple patch. That was really cool. I guess I had never realized how pineapples grew. After we walked around the farm a while we went to this other area where there was sustainable agriculture. A different guide was telling us how a person could grow plants using any type of “soil”. They had plants there that were growing in cacao fibers and charcoal. The plants can grow as long as they have 5 things: water, air, nutrients, heat, and support. This was an interesting experience because our professor almost took me out with an umbrella! She was walking and then I was standing next to her but she didn’t notice where her umbrella was and then it hit me. Fortunately I am a bit taller than her because otherwise I would have lost an eye. Our professor was also trying to ask our tour guide some questions and he had no idea what the answer to the question was, but she kept asking until she got some sort of answer that she liked, at that point we all just wanted food though, and thought we should move on because she clearly wasn’t going to get her question answered. Oh well! It was an adventure to say the least.
        After we learned about the farm we then went to lunch at the cafeteria. Our lunch consisted of rice, beans, chicken, plantains and pineapple plus I had fresh milk! The whole lunch was delicious and most of it was made right at the university. After lunch we went to this local village that has been helped greatly by Earth University and surprisingly enough by Hewlett Packard (HP). This village has only had electricity for 5 ½ months, and they still don’t have potable water. HP we learned has to do a social service project so the people of this village applied for a grant from them. HP helped them build a futbol (soccer) field, a community meeting place, which consisted of a tin roof over some tables and benches, and they built a playground. There are certain committees within this village and I guess HP gives the special events committee $10,000 a year to put on special events.
        After we learned a little bit about the community, it was time to start interviewing the community members. Coincidentally it started to rain at that exact moment, and we were under a tin roof. It wasn’t just drizzling, the rain was coming down in sheets. If you stepped out from under the overhang in less than 1 minute you would be COMPLETELY drenched! Since it was raining so hard we couldn’t do the interviews the way we were planning on doing them. The only people that actually got to do the interviewing were the people who spoke Spanish because it was so loud that if too many people were gathered around no one would be able to hear. Considering I speak absolutely no Spanish, there were quite a few of us who basically just sat around and did nothing for about 1 hour. This got pretty boring after awhile. Around 4PM we were still at the village and we knew it was about time to go back to the ship, so someone asked our professor if we should head back. She said, “Yes, yes, we need to go!” After that a group of us ran to the bus so that we would try not to get drenched, but that was inevitable. After we got back to the bus, the bus decided that it would venture down the rocky road to pick up everyone else right from where they were. The bus backed up the whole way so they wouldn’t have to turn the bus around later on.
        Once the other people were going to get on the bus, our professor was trying to get on the bus with her umbrella still. The umbrella didn’t fit through the door and flew back and landed on my friend Julia. Julia then dumped the water out of it (it had filled up quickly), and folded up the umbrella to hand it back to our professor. Meanwhile, the professor is looking around like “Where did it go?” and blocking the doorway to the bus, so everyone else got pretty soaked too even though they didn’t have to run to the bus. We learned after the rest of the people got on the bus, that after I had already left to run back to the bus, the community members gave everyone snacks. Some people wanted to get off the bus just to get the snacks, but at that point we were already late, and we just wanted to get back.
        After we got back, I went and played a game with some friends, we played clue. I then went to bed because I was exhausted after a long day.

May 31, 2011

        Today we were at sea. As of 12PM we have travelled 1 nautical mile from Colon. This is pretty funny because we left Colon at 9PM last night. We travelled 1 nautical mile, and then we anchored. With the boat anchored it moved a lot back and forth. It was pretty intense. I actually almost started to feel sick as the day went on because of all of the rocking. We then had preport for Costa Rica. That was interesting. Preport always seems to take forever, but oh well. We learn some pretty important stuff. I learned that 2/3 of my trips leave at 7:30AM which means that I will have to be at the bus by 7:15! That’s pretty early! Oh well. I will have a lot of fun. I also learned that whenever you travel anywhere in Costa Rica you always have to leave at least an extra hour for who knows what reasons.

PANAMAAAA!!!!!!

       When we went downstairs in the morning Louis wasn’t there waiting for us like he said he would be. People were asking where we were going, and once we realized he wasn’t there we asked how much it would be and someone said a price, but it was higher than what we were quoted, and we said,  “We were told by someone else yesterday that it will be lower” and she said, “I will take you for that price” and we were very content. Our tour guide was really awesome. She first took us to the Gatun Locks and we arrived just as a boat was passing through the middle locks so we were able to see it. We quickly bought tickets and went up to the observation deck. It was really cool to see the boat there. We then took the scenic route around to Panama City. We went to this place where there are 3 islands that became connected with the construction of the Panama Canal, called the causeway. They needed to put the dirt somewhere so they built a road between these islands. We got lunch at one of these places and it was absolutely delicious. I had some Panamanian empanadas, Jumbo Shrimp in Garlic Sauce, fried yuca and a cantaloupe shake.
        After lunch we saw historic Panama City with all of the architecture, and we were told the story about the church with the golden altar that was trying to hide the gold from the pirates a long time ago so they painted everything black, and apparently it worked because everything is still intact today. While we were there we saw where the President lives, and we saw many other things too. I can’t name all of them.
        We then drove around downtown Panama City so we were able to see all of the really tall buildings. The real reason of that though was because I needed to get my Hard Rock Café T-Shirt. I bought it and I was really excited. We then started heading back to Colon and again it was siesta time. Our tourguide was amazing and showed us all of the important parts of Panama City. We realized towards the end why she was willing to give us such a good deal. Most of the Semester at Sea people were already in Panama City, and she isn’t really a taxi driver so she can’t just pick people up off the streets. She works in Tourism at the Sheraton, so basically she is a hirable car, but not a taxi. This was really what we wanted because it gave us the freedom to do what we wanted, but we were able to see all parts of Panama City.
        We came back and then went to the grocery store, and I bought some juice and chocolate and Yuca Chips that looked really good. We then went into a souvenir shop and I bought some souvenirs, and then we decided that we had all spent enough money for the day so we came back to the ship.

May 29, 2011

        Here is the description for the trip I did today. We went to an Indidan Village: “This adventure to the Chagres National Park and the Emberá Indian Village begins with a drive to the Corotu Pier where a dugout canoe, or cayuco, will be waiting to transport the group up the river through spectacular rainforest. Here is an experience for immersion in the unique native traditions of a remote Emberá Indian village, deep in the heart of the rainforest. On arrival at the village and surrounded by lush forest, be greeted by the traditional music of this fascinating culture. After experiencing several ceremonial dances, learn more about the customary lifestyle of a people virtually unchanged by civilization. The local shaman will describe some of the medicinal plants and herbs found in this environment, many of which are still a vital part of everyday life. Feel welcome to use the body paint as the Emberá do, with a natural fruit dye called Jagua. Enjoy food served and prepared in the Emberá community, such as fish, fried plantains and tropical fruits. Finally, there will be an opportunity to purchase finely-crafted artifacts made by these skilled artisans. After spending the day in the village, return to the shores of the Corotu Pier for transfer back to the ship. Note: If you would like to swim there will be an opportunity”
        All of this was actually true. We drove almost 2 hours to get to Chagres National Park. When we got to the pier there were dugout canoes waiting for us to transport us. These canoes surprisingly were not the type of canoes that you row. They had a Suzuki engine on them. We were then transported to where the people lived, yeah it was the rainforest, but it was very clear where the rainforest part of the wilderness and the river was. The water in the river was very brown from the sediment running off into the water from all of the rain. When we arrived they were playing traditional music for us. We then moved into the “marketplace” and then the shamans did a traditional dance, and then they showed us one of their traditional dances that they do when they “party”. We used the body paint, one of the younger girls painted a traditional symbol on my arm. We then enjoyed fried plantains and tilapia served in a life shaped like a cone. I decided I am not a huge fan of the plantains, but the tilapia was really good and fishy. It was very rich though so I couldn’t eat too much of it, and it still had all of the bones in it. We then had an opportunity to buy souvenirs from the people who had made all of them. The part that wasn’t necessarily accurate in the description is that we would have a chance to swim. Well I suppose we could have swam if we had wanted to, but there was no way I wanted to when we heard that there were crocodiles in this river up to 3 meters long! As soon as I heard that in the bus on the way over I was like, NO WAY am I going to swim there! While we were in the motorized dugout canoes headed over to the Indian Village, we saw a decent sized crocodile on the river bank. Unfortunately I didn’t end up getting a picture of it because I didn’t really see it until we were almost past it. They do a pretty good job at camouflaging.
        After the Indian village we headed back to the bus and it was siesta time. Basically that meant that everyone was exhausted and it was nap time on the way back. I didn’t sleep on the way back because the bus ride was too bumpy. I then came back and took a shower. I had talked to a friend about maybe going out to go get some local food so we went down to the gangway. On our way we found a group of people who were also going out so we decided maybe we should go with them, but they seemed to be taking forever, and they couldn’t make up their minds. They then finally decided that they didn’t want to go out because there weren’t many places around. My friend Erin and I, decided we were going to go  anyways and just see what was around, and if it wasn’t anything good we would come back and eat dinner on the ship. Then this girl named Rachel asked if she could come with us just to look around, so she did.
        We then started walking outside and someone asked where we were going, and we said we wanted Panamanian food, so this tour guide named Louis walked with us all the way down to the other side of the wharf to get the Panamanian food. On the way over we asked what time it got dark and he said “Oh about 45 minutes from now”. So we said “We should eat fast and get back before dark.” And he said, “Oh no! I wait for you to be done!” and we said “OK”. But got there and the place was closed. While we were walking over there we were asking how much it would be for a taxi ride to Panama City, a tour when we got there, him to wait for us for lunch, and then bring us back. He gave us a reasonable offer. We honestly didn’t think this was a bad price because we had heard that it could be up to $100 each way just for the taxi ride, and there were 3 of us splitting the bill. He told us that he would be out there at 7AM waiting for us to come down in the morning.

Overlooking the Port of Spain

Katie and Sarah

Katie eating Shark

Overlooking the Port of Spain

May 25, 2011

Today I did at trip called the North Coast Hop and Beach Stop. We got on the busses first thing this morning. In my bus we had Bas the bus driver and Derik who was our tour guide. We pretty much had the best tour guide ever! He was awesome. On our way to Maracas Bay we stopped at many different places most places we didn’t get out of the bus, but a few places we did. He showed us all of the historical places in Port of Spain. When we got up to the Queen’s Savannah we drove all the way around it. On the part we didn’t get to yesterday we saw the Botanical Gardens and the zoo. We then went up this big hill called the Lady Young Road, and then we got out at the Lady Young’s Lookout from there we got a panoramic view of the city. On our way up to there we saw this Hilton Hotel that was built into a hill right near the Queen’s Park Savannah. The lobby to this hotel was at the top of the hotel and then the rooms were below. Our tour guide was saying how during Carnivale when people aren’t necessarily clear headed and then they get in the elevator and press 6 and it goes down it can really confuse them!

            We then continued on our journey through the mountains and the rainforest. We came to a place called turtle point. The mass of land looks like a giant turtle from this spot but one is a hill and one is an island behind it. We then continued on and we went to a cocoa plantation. Our tour guide pointed out all of the trees and the cocoa pods, and then he found one on the ground that was already broken in half so he opened it up and showed it to us. It was really cool to see how they were grown. After that we finally made it to Maracus Bay. I heard that it is one of the best beaches in the world, and people go there from all over the world. It was gorgeous and the water was really warm. It wasn’t too warm though because it was still very refreshing.

            After we went swimming for a little while we walked for a little ways to the fishing village that was right near the beach. We assumed that there would be people selling crafts there, but there weren’t. We walked a little ways but then turned around because we didn’t want to go into this sketchy looking neighborhood. We then went back and decided that we would go back and get lunch. For lunch we had bake and shark, another Trinidadian Delicacy. It was basically a doughy pastry type thing with fried shark in the middle. Shark tastes kind of like a combination of chicken and fish. It is more the consistency of chicken, but tastes a little bit like fish, but shark is a very mild fish and doesn’t really taste like fish at all. I am aware that this description makes absolutely no sense, but the bottom line is that it was delicious. I put a little bit of ketchup and some pineapple slices on the shark too. I had tomatoes and lettuce on my sandwich but then realized that I probably shouldn’t be eating those because we were told if you can’t peel it don’t eat it. I also had put some pickled mangoes on my sandwich but those were pretty gross. I also tried this soda stuff that tasted kind of like really sweet ginger ale.

            While we were eating lunch it started pouring rain. We were lucky because we were under a tent, but then soon after it started I got soaked because the rain was running off the top of the tent onto me because I was right at the edge of the tent. I then had to relocate in order to stay dry.  We then just sat around for a little while before getting back on the bus because none of us felt like getting wet again in the water because by that point we were mostly dry.

            When we got back to the bus I saw that my bus driver and my tour guide had gone out and picked fresh mangoes off of the tree for us while we were at the beach. We couldn’t eat them until we got back to the dock because they were too messy, but they were delicious. I don’t think I have ever had a better mango! Once we got back it was time for on ship time, which meant that we weren’t allowed to leave the ship again. After dinner we had small group discussion about what we saw and experienced while we were in port. I thought the discussion was mandatory so I went, but it turned out that there really weren’t that many people there because it wasn’t mandatory. It was still fun though getting to listen to other people’s experiences in the ports.     

            After this I worked with my group on my Engineering a New Tomorrow project and the goal of the project is to identify an opportunity which if addressed successfully will lead to improved quality of life. For our project we are proposing the idea of ecotourism. We haven’t made too much progress on our project yet, but we at least have a starting point.

May 24, 2011

Today we arrived in Port of Spain. It was really cool!! We got to see the whole city and we got to see the boat pull into our first port. The one thing I didn’t like was how the oil rigs are right on the waterfront because one of Trinidad’s biggest exports in petroleum. We planned to get up early so that we could get off the ship as soon as possible. Our plan kind of backfired because it took until 9AM for the ship to get cleared. None of us were allowed off the ship until the boat was “cleared”. I am not totally sure what that meant, but all I know is that it is pretty important. We then walked around Port of Spain. It was over 90 degrees outside with a feels like of over 100 due to the humidity. We were told to go to Independence Square so we did, but there wasn’t a ton there. People needed to change money too, so we went to the bank. That seemed to take FOREVER, but I didn’t mind too much because the bank was air-conditioned. It also took a while because people were trying to figure out how much money to take out because of the exchange rate. I took out about $15US and that lasted me the rest of the day plus I have some left for a souvenir. I spent money on a cold drink, lunch, and souvenirs. We then walked up to the Queen’s Park Savannah which is where Carnivale is held every year. It is basically just this really big open park area. We started to walk all the way around it, but soon realized how big it was. It was huge! It is considered one of the largest roundabouts in the world because it is only one-way traffic. We quickly decided to turn back instead of continuing on that part of our adventure. We then kept an eye out for native foods. We saw signs for Chinese food or for KFC (they are on every corner here), but we wanted something that we couldn’t get at home. For lunch I had a chicken pie (not like pot pie) it’s this doughy pastry thing, with chicken inside. It was really good. It is considered a Trinidadian specialty. I also had passion fruit juice with it. I later found Ribena (blackcurrant juice)!!! This is one of my favorite types of juice now, but you can barely find it in the U.S. The only place I have ever found it was the international foods section of Wegmans, only because Wegmans is the best place ever. For those of you who have never been to Wegmans you are missing out. It is only the best grocery store EVER located all over upstate New York. Anyways, after lunch we were getting pretty tired, and one of the girls in my group had to go back to the boat to go on a trip that afternoon. When we got back to the boat we were exhausted from being in the heat for about 4 hours! After we showered and everything I taught my friend Sarah how to play Canasta. We started playing on the pool deck, but every so often a big gust of wind would come and blow all of the cards away. We decided to move inside to the AC to finish our game in peace. After Canasta it was naptime!! I turned on Princess Diaries and didn’t get through more than the first 20 minutes of it. After dinner I came back and did all of my work so that I wouldn’t have to do any work the next day, but I was practically falling asleep. I felt like I was 100 years old!! I couldn’t stay up any longer and managed to go to sleep at 8:30PM maybe 9:00PM

May 23, 2011

Today was C3. We talked about agrarian and horticultural societies in sociology today, and we learned how to tell time and the months and the seasons in Spanish class. We then had a presentation for Engineering a New Tomorrow (ENT) on water and infrastructure. After that it was dinnertime and I tried something called Callaloo soup. This was something that I had heard about on the Cosby Show oddly enough (I was kind of addicted to that show for a while). I have heard that it is a Caribbean delicacy. I also heard from a native Trinidadian that Callaloo soup is typically a bit spicy, but what I had tonight wasn’t at all. It had all sorts of fresh vegetables in some type of broth. I can barely even describe it, but it was really good. I tried to do some work outside today, but it was WAY too hot for me. I couldn’t handle it. I had to go inside to finish my work. After dinner I met up with my group for our ENT project, it was a bit awkward at first because I had no idea what one of the people in my group looked like. We discussed where we were from, and the other girl in my group was from a really small town in Kentucky and the boy in my group was from a small town in North Carolina. While we were talking we were comparing stories about Tractor Supply Company. What a country thing to do!! We decided that we were going to work on a project about sustainable tourism and how that could help some of the economies in places where we are going to visit. We then had pre-port. That is where you learn all about the place that you are going to visit. We learned about the culture and what not to eat and drink, and where not to go. We also learned about landsickness (where you get sick on the land because you still feel like you are moving even though you are on level ground).

May 22, 2011

Today was C2. I think this was actually the first time I had class on a Sunday. I was used to always having class on Saturdays because I had 4 years of that in high school. We passed by Puerto Rico today and that was really pretty, and then later we passed by the Virgin Islands at night, and they were really pretty with all of the lights. I’ve been learning a lot in all of my classes. My professor has been basically everywhere in the world. She isn’t one of those professors who just pretends to know what she is talking about in relation to all of these exotic countries, but she has actually been to all of them. We have been reading a lot of the work that she has done in all of these places. In Spanish class I have really been learning a lot because we are forced to talk only in Spanish, and everything that she says is in Spanish too. Of course a few times I caught myself saying “oui” instead of “si”, but that will get better over time hopefully. My goal is to be able to at least have a basic conversation with someone while we are in a Spanish speaking country. Some people saw dolphins today, but I somehow missed them. I was busy doing other things. Tonight we met our extended families of the boat. My “parents” are professors at UVA, they seemed like pretty cool people and I really liked the people that were in my group as well. Tonight we had a game night with lots of getting to know you type activities. The first one I did was called team challenge. In this activity we were given a pile of materials and we had to figure out how to build the tallest structure. My team was doing pretty well, but then part way through it we were told to rotate tables, so we had to keep working on a sculpture that another team was working on. We thought we were doing pretty well again, but then they had us rotate back to our first project, but the people that worked on it after we rotated it were completing it in a totally different way from what we had imagined. This made it really hard to finish our structure. Our structure had to be freestanding and stand up for as long as possible. Due to the rocking of the boat (or at least that’s what we were blaming it on) we didn’t win ☹ We still did pretty well though.

May 21, 2011

Today was what was called C1 (class day 1). Yes, sadly we had to start classes on a Saturday, but I suppose when you are in the middle of the Caribbean Sea you can’t really complain too much. I woke up and then went to breakfast. After breakfast was my Gender and Subsistence Technology with relation to the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals). Our professor seems like a very cool person. She has traveled everywhere and clearly knows what she is talking about. We then had lunch because classes are about 2.5 hours. After lunch it was time for Spanish class. That was very amusing because she asked us to introduce ourselves and of course I speak Spanish with a French accent (I need to work on that). Yesterday she sent us an e-mail that was written completely in Spanish, but I think I was able to make out most of what she was saying. Today she only spoke to us in Spanish, it made class difficult, but I think I will really learn a lot. We then had to have conversations with the other people in the class, but that was a bit awkward considering we only knew how to say “Hi, how are you? I’m good and you?” and “What is your name?” After Spanish we had our seminar called Engineering a New Tomorrow. We learned how we are going to try to change the world, and that we all have to come up with our own solutions in small groups. After the seminar it was dinnertime. Dinner was yummy but nothing spectacular so I won’t really write about it. After dinner I did work on the pool deck, and watched the sunset. It is strange because I somehow feel jetlagged, but I am still on East Coast Time. I suppose I’m just not quite as used to getting up early on a regular basis anymore. I miss everyone at home, but I am having a lot of fun!!

 

P.S. I guess people were wrong by saying that today was going to be the end of the world at 6PM because I am still floating on a boat (I think to Trinidad) or maybe the world is gone because I can’t see any land from here. There is nothing except the boat, the ocean, the sun and the clouds.

 

P.P.S. Miss you!! I will write again soon.

Adventures!

Yesterday I woke up early and headed to the Boston Airport. Nothing too exciting. I then made it to JFK where I hung out for 2 hours before my flight to Nassau. It didn't quite hit me that I was going to the bahamas until I saw the blue-green water from the airplane. I stepped off the airplane and I could feel the blast of hot humid air. From then on I knew it was going to be a fun trip and I knew that I was no longer in the 50 degree and rainy New England. It was about 90 degrees or so when I stepped off the plane and into the taxi. I got to the hotel and checked in. The view from the hotel was gorgeous.

From Semester at Sea

From Semester at Sea

From Semester at Sea

From Semester at Sea

I was just contemplating going outside to the pool, but then it started raining. I was like "Oh great! Thanks! I must have brought the rain with me!" I knew that I could still go swimming even if it was raining, but with the thunder I decided otherwise. I then went to dinner with Julianna, a friend that I knew from Vermont Academy who lives in the Bahamas, and I tried some Grilled Conch, a Bahamian specialty. It was delicious.

From Semester at Sea

From Semester at Sea

We then wandered around the fish fry area and went to a bar. I tried a Bahama-Mama. It has pineapple juice, orange juice, and grenadine. That was really good too. While we were at the bar we were entertained by watching the contact sport of Dominoes. People were getting into it and slamming the dominoes onto the table and I think every time someone slammed a domino onto the table I jumped. After that I returned back to the hotel, and again I was going to go swimming, but I was way too tired so I just had a quiet evening to myself.

Today I got up early and eagerly awaited the arrival of my roommate for tonight. After she arrived we decided to go downtown and I found my Hard Rock Cafe!! For those of you who don't know, I collect Hard Rock Cafe T-Shirts from all of the places that I travel, or where someone else has travelled and brought me back one. So for me this was a big deal. This was a higher priority than the beach or the pool, because I figured I could get tanned during the rest of the summer, but this was my only chance to get a Nassau T-shirt. We also wandered around the Straw Market and haggled a bit. I don't know how I am going to fit these things into my suitcase, as it was completely full when I arrived, but I will be able to do it. We finished the morning/early afternoon off with some good, old fashioned Edy's Ice Cream. And then we got on a Jitney (bus) and headed back to the hotel. The plan for this afternoon is the beach and then the tourist bar named Senor Frogs tonight, and then tomorrow Semester at Sea begins. I can't wait!

Ready for Adventures

I have been home from my first year of college for less than 2 weeks, and now I am ready to embark on an amazing adventure. I would like to thank my grandparents for allowing me this opportunity. I am doing a Semester at Sea program for 26 days. I will spend a day and 1/2 in the Bahamas before boarding the ship. I really have no idea what to expect while I am on this adventure. I know that I will be changed by this experience. This is neither my first time on a large boat nor my first taking college classes, but this will be the first time that I will do both of them together. I am anxious to get this adventure started and I know I will meet many cool people along the way. I am taking a class that is based on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. I am also taking a seminar that is focusing on the MDGs (Millenium Development Goals) that were developed by the UN. I will also finally be learning Spanish. This is something that I have wanted to do for a long time, but have never had the opportunity.

Below is a list of all of the places that I will be heading:

In Trinidad, I am taking a trip along the North Coast where there are some cocoa plantations, and then spending the rest of the day at the beach.

In Panama, I am taking a dugout canoe through the rainforest to an Indian Village.

In Costa Rica, the first day I am doing a field program (I will explain more about this at a later date), the second day I am doing a tubing adventure, and the third day I am doing an off-road adventure.

In Honduras, the first day I am doing another field experiment, and the second day I am working at a youth center.

In Guatemala, the first day I am doing a service visit to a primary school, elder home and/or orphanage, and the second day I am going on a beach trip.

In Belize, I am taking a reef rocket (really fast boat) to the barrier reef and going snorkeling.

I will not be checking my facebook on a regular basis while I am away, so this is probably the best way to keep track of my adventures.

Now maybe it is time to start packing. I will hopefully write again soon, but I have no idea when I will have a chance to update.