"Christmas is Coming..."

For the past 3 weeks or so, I've been successfully boycotting any store/restaurant with either Christmas decorations up OR Christmas music being played. I strongly urge you all to do the same. Even before Halloween came upon us, Christmas music was "delightfully" being played in department stores. This includes almost every store in the Robinson Twp (and greater Pittsburgh) area.
Unacceptable people. Simply unacceptable.
Luckily for me, I don't need any new clothes...

There's 'Hell' in Hello, but More in Goodbye

I haven’t written anything in awhile, so here it goes.

Pittsburgh summers are usually gray and monotonous, though the past 2/3 months have been rather eventful. Besides working everyday in this miserable office (where I’m currently writing this), I’ve been able to catch up with a lot of friends around town, see a few (rather interesting) shows, play some music w/others, read a few books (though not as many as usual), and just walk around and enjoy the horribly humid air.

As far as movies go, I haven’t really seen too many (my attention span is dwindling at the moment). I HAVE been listening to a lot of music though. I’ve been craving electro dance/electronic sort of stuff, but have also been receiving a heavy dose of shoegaze and
your standard indie pop. Some things never change.
I’ve been reading a lot of travel writing, along with a few select novels (yes, including Harry Potter). The best book has probably been “The Mysteries of Pittsburgh” though. Yeah, I can realllly identify with the main character, though the upcoming movie sounds like they’re really fucking up the plot.

Relationships…..hmmmm ok next subject.

One different activity I’ve been indulging in is drum corps...not playing or anything, just watching and experiencing. I’ll try to write another entry solely about drum corps, but seriously, it’s wicked. I’ve been kind of searching for some kind of subject to possibly make a documentary on in the near future since I’ve gotten back from SAS, and so far, this seems to be the most interesting. There’s this whole world containing thousands of drum corps members and fans, but the whole activity has failed to break it into the mainstream (though if you’re bored this weekend, you can definitely watch the DCI finals on ESPN, PBS). It’s seriously insane (and yes, it generally takes a lot to really impress me).

So school starts in a few weeks, and I’m NOT looking forward to it. I’ll be student teaching, and even though I’ll be at CAPA (Pittsburgh’s performing arts school downtown…which is awesome), I’m still utterly terrified and simply uninterested in completing this semester. I don’t really want to teach… at least high school kids anyways, and that’s upsetting, because I for one believe that one must really desire to teach in order to effectively do the best job. Teachers always just seem so…old. I’m still young! I can’t imagine people calling me ‘Mr. Moslen.’ Ewww. I don’t want that. Luckily I’m double-majoring so I have other options of course. I was kind of hoping to start a graduate degree soon (in another city), but I’ll have to work alittle bit before starting that; not only because I’m planning on moving into my own place later this year, but also because I need to save up for traveling in the future! That or I should just move to Japan and teach English…we’ll see.

This summer I’ve been to Erie, Allentown, Philadelphia, Toledo, LA (after this weekend), and DC/Baltimore for our little SAS reunion last week. Honestly, this past weekend in DC/Baltimore was easily the most enjoyable weekend I’ve had in a long time. I really do miss a lot of people from the Semester at Sea trip. It’s also a shame, because I’m not too sentimental and don’t care for expressing many feelings/emotions out loud, but I really do miss certain people a lot and it’s most difficult to express at times. Though it was a fun weekend, saying goodbye is always the worst. Feeling somewhat depressed at the moment.

Well, after work today I have a 21st birthday party to attend to at least, and still must find time to pack some clothes, for I’ll be leaving for the LA area tomorrow immediately following work. So I’m still sad, but still very excited.


Current listening music: “Neverland” by The Knife

Random Thought

I'm toying with the idea of buying a house in Valencia, CA when I have the sufficient amount of funds.
Why you ask? Not for any imporant reason really. Just so that when someone asks me where I'm from, I can exclaim slowly, over-dramatically, and mystically "VaLENcia!" and then disappear into the darkness.

work/out of town opportunities-related

So I’m looking at my desk and I literally have one empty styrofoam cup of coffee on one side, a half-full cup of coffee on the other side (which I’ve already refilled), and an empty bottle of Starbucks Frappuccino on the other side from this morning. This doesn’t include the half-drunken bottle of Gatorade I have stashed in the refrigerator. I think I’m starting to get sick from all this caffeine though. It's only 12:30, and needless to say, it’s still difficult to stay awake/concentrate.

Because of these coffee cups and all of these papers/folders, by the end of the summer my desk will probably resemble Dennis Nedry's. My messy antics will surely cause Samuel L to come in and give me a beatdown ("what a complete slob"). Hey at least I'm usually really clean.

In other news, my friend Jon e-mailed me this link late last night, saying that I must do this. It is VERY tempting. A friend and I went to NYC a few years ago and played in a symphony with 100 guitars, so playing with 77 drummers doesn't seem tooo far fetched I guess. Plus I am actually in the mood for an absurd road trip. I’ll e-mail them and see if they’re still looking for people.

I'm Starting to Realize How Truly Exciting My Life was a Month Ago...

I kept a journal for my trip, and it was rather interesting for the most part. Different adventures each day. Lots of fun. So much to write about that I often skipped over the more important things.

Anyways, I’m still in a journaling mood, but have no cool adventures. So here’s a recap of my exciting day at my summer job, just to prove how boring and uneventful life suddenly becomes.


My Work Journal for 6/12/07

8:31. I arrive to the office one minute late. Oops

8:32. The girl next to me asks if I saw myself on television Saturday night (she thinks I look like one of the cast members on Saturday Night Live). I say “no, but thanks for asking.”

9:25. As I’m filling out one of these escalation sheets, I realize that the word “institute” has way too many ‘t’s in it. 1/3 of the word is taken up by ‘t’s. This troubles me.

9:43. Almost every girl working in the room sneezes at about the same time. This is weird. This occurrence causes much laughter throughout the office as many snot germs fill the air.

10:50. I have to call numerous places and people to confirm addresses, and some really don’t like to disclose this information. For example, it’s the second time in the past week that I’ve had to verify an address with a secret “WMD Warehouse” on a military base in Colorado. The feds are gonna bust through the door soon because I know too much.

12:00. I’ve always thought that I was very good at understanding different accents…until I talked to someone on the phone from southern Texas.

12:02. Lunchtime at my desk, except both people who sit next to me are at a meeting, so I have nobody to talk to :(

13:11. This is how sad I am: My computer clock is one hour behind, so I look at the time and I’m like “aww it’s only 12:10,” but THEN I look at my watch and I’m like “yea!!! It’s really 1:10.” Quite simple, yet quite refreshing every time.

13:33. I’m gonna make a shout out to the Westchester Medical Group. "Holla!" All I need from them is a suite or building number, but they’ve put me on hold for the past 10 minutes. After listening to a recorded loop of information at their number while on-hold over and over, I now understand that I should schedule a physical appointment at their office at 3020 Westchester Ave, Purchase, NY 10577. “When was YOUR last exam?” Did you know that people with high anger problems and high blood pressure are prone to heart attacks or sudden cardiac death? High blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and physical exhaustion can all predict heart attacks. So says the Westchester Medical Group on-hold radio station.

13:43. Sign onto http://www.westchestermed.com/ where you can register for their new feature messaging services! Brown or multi-grain bread isn’t necessarily “whole grain.” It must be made out of 100 % wheat flour for it to be considered “whole grain.” Check the nutrition facts for more info.

13:45. If you have diabetes, then walking barefoot or with sandals can be a hazard. Schedule regular podiatry exams if you have any further questions. The Westchester Medical group cares for YOU!

13:46. I hang up.

14:14. I try calling this “medical group” again, but now the number’s apparently been “disconnected.” They’re trying to avoid me. I can play this game.

14:56. Looking through shipping addresses, I magically discover that there’s a street in Kentucky named “Cinnamon Children Road.” That’s right folks. I’ve discovered that there’s something cool in Kentucky.

16:03 I finally get in contact with the bitches at Westchester Medical. They gave me my information…good thing for their sake.

16:15 I’m posting all of this stuff up on my blog. Shouldn’t I be working? Yes, but every time I walk past almost every girl in this room, they’re either on their facebook or myspace page. At least I’m working with people my age I guess.

And at 16:30, I’ll leave a half hour early, because I ate my lunch at my desk.



So yeah. The blog has suddenly taken a turn for the worst, because life is back to normal.

SAS Conclusion

So I wrote this little blurb on my laptop while sitting on the floor at a Chicago airport while my flight was delayed—May 15th. Sorry for the INCREDIBLE delay, but I still feel like posting what I wrote:


This sucks.
I just realized that for the first time in the past three and ahalf months, I’m truly alone. I’m all by myself. I’m waiting on the dirty floor of this airport for my flight to take me back to Pittsburgh …back to the place where I was honestly trying to run away from. It looks like hell outside—thunderstorms, lightning, my kind of night I guess. Sure, while on this global journey there were a few times where I’d travel to a store, a movie theater, or an Indian museum by myself; I always hated traveling alone for brief periods of time, but I’d also always make it back to the ship where I’d meet up with familiar faces Not this time. I surprisingly loved being around people all the time, and honestly never got sick of it.

I’m not too sentimental, but I’d be lying if I said that I’m not going to miss the experiences, the countries, the laughs, the ship itself, and the people. I’m going to miss sitting in that global studies class. I already miss the many inside jokes that no one at home will understand. I’m even going to miss getting hit in the stomach with a pillow in the middle of the night in my cabin because I was snoring. I'm going to miss those milkshakes they made for me up on the 7th deck. I’m going to miss the wonderful peanut butter and cheese sandwiches I'd make and ALL of the positive praise (and some jealousy) my friends had for this fantastic sandwich. I’m REALLY going to miss walking off the ship the morning we enter a new country, excited for new adventures; new plans; meet new people; etc.

So yeah. It’s weird. Actually…have you ever had a really awesome dream? I mean, an unbelievable dream. One of those dreams where you know you’re dreaming, and you never want to wake up. Maybe you’re living in a perfect world, where you work at a perfect job and have that perfect house you’ve always wanted. Maybe in your dream you’re kissing that person you’ve always had a crush on, but never had the guts to express your feelings to him/her. Maybe in the dream you’re talking and hanging out with a loved one who passed away years ago. I love those dreams, but the worst part; the part that’s really horrible and depressing is when you wake up and realize that it all wasn’t real. It never happened. It was a dream and you’re back in reality, and reality bites. I’ve honestly just awakened from a 3 ½ month perfect dream…and I have a feeling that reality’s really, really going to suck from now on.



Just thought that I’d share that. Honestly, it’s been a few weeks, and at this point, I just have to deal with it. Sure life’s boring. Sure the summer’s going to suck working a job I dislike, and of course I still miss everybody and miss everything…but there’s nothing I can do about it. Oh well. It’s ok.
I actually feel like writing a lot more. Maybe I’ll try and write some short stories or something if I have free time, but I also feel like making the most out of this summer. So hopefully, my free time will be limited.

If you're really bored and feel like reading about Japan, then do so!

Sorry I haven’t posted anything recently. My internet minutes were up while on the ship the last couple of weeks, and I didn’t even think about posting this until today. I’m sure nobody’s reading this anymore since I’m home, but I don’t care. I wrote this about 2 weeks ago, so I might as well not let it go to waste. …

JAPAN! I’ve been waiting for years to visit. Here’s a quick recap:

Taiko Drumming

During the Japan pre-port, we experienced a taiko drumming performance. I was happy to cross that off the list of things I need to see in Japan…but that wasn’t the last taiko drumming I experienced.

My friend James and I stopped at probably every arcade (they called them amusement parks) we passed (A LOT of arcades). Some places were literally towers with floors and floors of games. They’d have a different theme on every floor (crane games, pachinko machines, action games, photo machines, etc). some of the games were incredibly hi-tech/advanced; any gamers dream come true. The objects one can grab in the crane games are ridiculous in itself. We literally spent tons of money trying to get a few souvenirs, but all I ended up grabbing were 2 weak little yellow birds, and James got a small Mario doll.



Anyways, there’s this taiko drumming video game where two people each have a large drum and hit it according to the spots/times indicated on the game. Think Dance Dance Revolution with drums instead of dancing.
Because of the sheer quantity of Japanese video game buildings, we slowly became expert taiko drummers. We engulfed our money into these games. No regrets.

Also, seriously, when you’re in Japan, visit a pachinko machine building (they’re on every damn corner) and watch the poor souls who just sit and stare at the tiny balls dropping down the machine. These guys must all be single…

Japanese Toilets

After my many crazy adventures in Japan, here’s what I’ve come to tell all of America: the Japanese toilet is the single greatest invention ever.
Granted, after the holes in the ground in China (I’d have to “hold it” until we made it back to our hotel everyday), anything would seem nice. But come on… the lid automatically opens for you when you walk up to the toilet…just like magic (just like the taxi cab doors do too). The heated seats. Spurts of warm water that…well…you know…and well, they shoot…up (alittle discomforting). A whole little computer console next to the toilet with other buttons that I didn’t even dare touch…I was too scared after the spurts-of-water button. You’ll probably end up detonating a nuke or attacking some random Asian country if you press the wrong button on the toilet computer console. I’m sure the Chinese would rate almost every toilet as a “5 Star Toilet.”
Pardon my French, but after you use a Japanese toilet, you’ll seriously never want to wipe your ass again. There was another weird contraption that we didn’t recognize. It took me a whole 2 minutes to figure out that it was a hand dryer. After placing both arms in this plastic torture device hanging on the wall, ones hands get dry within 2 seconds.

SOOO efficient; so energy-saving too. I mean, the Japanese have nailed down energy efficiency. Even the escalators won’t move until you walk up to them. They sit dormant, until they actually NEED to be used. I love Japan. Let’s get started:


Day 1: Tokyo

I was so happy that I got a Japanese Rail Pass way back in Vietnam. We were ahead of the game. Not only that, but James and I knew exactly where and when to catch our trains to Tokyo, because we did the research the night before (I seriously think we were the only ones on the ship who figured all of this out ahead of time). I also definitely took advantage of using the Japanese that I’ve been taught. An older man surprisingly complimented me on my Japanese accent, so of course, I felt really proud of myself. Maybe he was just being nice.

The shinkansen (bullet train) to Tokyo was smooth, fun, and FAST. The US can seriously learn a thing or two about transportation from the Japanese.

Tokyo was unbelievable. Some of the activities on the first night included traditional Japanese food, meeting up at the Park Hyatt Hotel (the “Lost in Translation” hotel) and completely denying the insane $20 cover charge + $30 drinks at their bar. Just walking around Tokyo and visiting some of the crazy stores is an adventure in itself.

Eventually, James and I met up with others in our group of friends and we had a rather boring night at a karaoke bar. Halfway through the singing, a couple of us left and searched the area, which turned out to be the talked-about Red Light district of Japan (I swear, I don’t wonder into the red-light districts on purpose!). Just roaming the streets proves to be more than enough of an adventure. All of the colors everywhere…wish we had a place with so many colors in America. I love lights! Some of the characters we met were also rather…ahem…interesting. I’ll leave it at that.

Day 2: Tokyo

We slept rather uncomfortably in the karaoke bar. I was awaken at 5:30 in the morning when the employee knocked on the door where Mark and I were sleeping, and informed us that it’s time to leave. At 5:30 in the morning, there’s absolutely NOTHING to do in the Shinjuku part of Tokyo.

Me and James stopped at an internet café for alittle while to waste time. We then got some early morning food/coffee, and visited the Godzilla statue, spent some time at the Imperial Palace/Imperial Palace Gardens, walked through the Sony Building/Spiderman exhibition they had set up (Spiderman was EVERYWHERE in Japan), explored Tokyo Dome City, visited a Disk Union (a 7 floor cd shop with a different genre on each floor. We both loaded up on some goods), and did a bunch of other stuff along the way. That night, we went to a Tokyo baseball game. The game was one of the most interesting experiences I’ve had on this trip. I never want to go to an American baseball game again…it just doesn’t compare. You have to see the video footage I got!


That night we walked around the city again, then decided to settle in at a manga café for the night. At the manga café, I had my own little booth with a computer, a flat/cushiony Japanese-style floor to sleep on, and an endless supply of manga, internet, DVDs, coffee/drinks, blankets, and ice cream. So much better than a hotel.


Day 3: Kyoto

We woke up early in order to catch our shinkansen to Kyoto. We were told by all of the people we came in contact with that Kyoto was the greatest city in Japan. It was certainly an unbelievable city, where the old, traditional Japanese culture mixes in with the new (for example, there’s at least 2,000 temples in the Kyoto area). We began the day visiting a temple right near the train station. One temple down…1,999 to go!

Soon enough, we met up with a group of friends, and the rest of us traveled together through the rest of the day.

Japanese schoolgirls and older businessmen monopolize the streets all over Japan. This was especially true in Kyoto, for we were stopped various times by young, trendy groups of girls who waved to us with bashful/awkward smiles and/or wanted us to take pictures of them. The older businessmen obviously didn’t show the same kind of interest in us, but still, a nice contrast.

While in Kyoto, we visited a bunch of other temples, gardens, and shrines. We also tried some sushi, and even spotted some geishas walking to their appointments while in the Gion district! Not only did we spot some geisha, but also came in contact with THE Peter Macintosh…the famed geisha expert from the Lonely Planet books! I could easily write an entire story about our “geisha hunting” shenanigans, but I’m worn out and don’t feel like writing too much. Ask me about it, and I’ll guarantee a good laugh or two.

The night was spent wondering around the crazy shops around the city and visiting a few amusement parks (arcades).

We searched and searched and searched for a place to stay that night in Kyoto. Keep in mind, hotels are really expensive in Japan. None of us wanted to waste cash on one, but after some intense searching, we split up and found another manga café. While walking around the café, we ran into this Asian dude from California who’s backpacking all the way across Japan. I was insanely jealous of him. That be sooo much fun….but I’m on a ship. Guess I can’t complain. I surprisingly got around 5-6 hours of sleep! Finally!!!

Day 4: Kyoto/Kobe

We woke up and explored some more gardens and temples around Kyoto before leaving for Kobe.
The train ride back wasn’t too long, and it felt good to stop back at the ship again and FINALLY take a shower.

James and I then began our journey to Kobe’s Home Stadium (a stadium designed specifically for the 2000 Japan World Cup), and experienced a soccer game. It was Kobe vs. Tokyo, and in the end they tied. Just like the baseball game, the fans were totally mad. We had seriously been trying in the last few countries to find a soccer game, and folks, Japan is the place where dreams definitely come true.

After the game, we walked around for a bit around the city. There were tons of street musicians playing along the streets and tons of kids shopping. There were ALSO tons of drunk SAS guys and girls making complete asses of themselves. I totally witnessed the term “Ugly Americans” in action that night. After 1 AM or so, I made it back to the ship. Keep in mind that within the last 4 days or so, I maybe got about 12 hours of sleep. I was very, very tired.

Day 5: Osaka, Nara, Kobe

I left early for Osaka. After arriving I met up with some friends for an early lunch. Afterwards, I made my way to Nara. Nara also has tons of temples and interesting sights. One of the most interesting sights was the tons of deer that just walk around everywhere. You can feed the deer anything, and they also bow when they walk up to you. Pretty shabby...even kids in wheelchairs like the deer!
(are they screaming in terror or are they happy?)

Among other things seen in Nara was the world’s largest wooden building and other gardens (I could literally take an entire tour of Japan just to visit all of the gardens).

After Nara, I wondered around Osaka for a bit, and appreciated the city that has brought us all probably the greatest Japanese band in existence…Boredoms!

Osaka was pretty cool, though it was huge, so I didn’t get to see tons of sights. I arrived back in Kobe, and went out for some sushi with a big group of friends. After that, we stopped at an Ice Cream Sundae shop. Delicious!
(somehow Eric, me, and Natalie ate this without creating a mess and making fools out of ourselves)

I shopped around for another half hour or so, and then boarded the train that took us back to the ship. I really wanted to catch an anime at the movie theater, but didn’t have enough time. Theater tickets are about 15 bucks anyways, so at least I saved some money.

That night, I was incredibly pissed off and truly sad that we were leaving Japan. It was the country that I was most looking forward to on this trip. It was the last foreign country that we visited, and it was definitely my favorite country. I’m considering traveling back in the near future…hopefully to teach English or something.

Out of all the countries we’ve visited, the people here were the friendliest. They had the greatest fashion (though the India youth were pretty stylin’ too). The music/movies/comics are all awesome. The art is enriching. Their history is SO interesting. And the language is great too.

Let’s all move to Japan!

I have one more blog entry that I wrote while at the Chicago airport on my way home from the ship. I'll post it tomorrow. Sorry for the delay.

May 2nd

So I wake up. It oddly feels the same as yesterday…I mean it REALLY feels the same as yesterday.
Crap! It’s 9:17…Global Studies begins in 3 minutes. My roommate’s still asleep, so at least I won’t be the only one late.
I get dressed, find my notebook, brush my teeth, ignore my contacts and just make do with glasses for the day, and leave the vicinity of my room. I pass my cabin steward in the hallway and he says “good morning Rick” as he always does.
“Good morning Kenton. How are you today?”
“Ohhh…alright.” He always has a sad tone to his voice in the morning.

I walk up two floors and scramble into the union…it’s the same speaker as yesterday. Everybody’s sitting in the same exact spot. It’s also the SAME EXACT LESSON! Seriously, what’s going on?
I failed to notice a few minutes ago, but when I reach into my pockets to find a pencil to take notes, I notice that it’s the same pair of pants I wore yesterday. Well, that’s not a big deal, especially when you’re living on a ship and only have a limited amount of clothes. What IS a big deal is the fact that I’m also wearing the same shirt, socks, underwear, and shoes as yesterday. Hmm…I’m never THAT dirty while onboard.

I want to run back to my room to figure out what’s going on, but when I get down to the 4th floor, my cabin steward’s cleaning my room. Damn, I hate it when that happens.
I’m wondering why I’m so tired. Did I sleep last night? I honestly can’t remember. I need fresh air.

I dash out to the 7th deck and lean over the rail while viewing the beautiful water. It’s surprisingly cold out…aren’t we traveling south? Why’s it so cold? It feels exactly the same as it did yesterday.
It becomes too cold for me, but before I walk inside, I spot some activity in the water. Dolphins! Nice! It’s been a few weeks since I’ve seen dolphins in the water, but these weren’t regular dolphins. These dolphins were the most freakish beasts I’ve ever seen. They LOOKED normal, but they were jumping out of the water backwards. Literally..backwards. Rather than leaping out with their heads first, they jumped in reverse, with their tails leading the way back into the water.

My watch beeps. It’s 10:00 now. I turn the sound off, but while doing that, I notice something very peculiar. The date is the same as yesterday’s date. May 2nd. It’s May 2nd again?! What the hell? Is my watch broke?
No. It’s not broke at all. I’m simply in a time warp (cue Rocky Horror Picture Show song). This is what happens when you cross the international dateline. You repeat the same day…the same exact day. At least I knew what to expect for lunch.
In conclusion…time warps suck. I hope we’ll make it out alive…





Umm, yeah that was my journal entry for today for my writing class. It IS May 2nd…again. It’s very odd, but definitely much more subtle than my story.

Here’s some pictures of yours truly from China and Japan. The next two weeks are going to be spent getting TONS of pictures from friends on the ship before we leave. It’ll be fun.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

Ohhhh yes. Cue the awesome English overdubs.

It's the end of the game at the Kobe Home Stadium (a World Cup stadium by the way). That's why there's so few people in the stands behind me. Kobe vs. Tokyo. They tied by the way. I still have to get my baseball game picture from James.

By the way, Global Studies has become much better. They started doing things completely differently and they honestly should have been doing it this way all along. We’d definitely learn a lot more and think much more critically about things.


Ok, I have some more journal entries to get caught up on. Hawaii in a few days, but after Japan, it’ll definitely be underwhelming. I’m still excited though.

I'M A CAT!!!!

CHINA


I woke up bright and early in Hong Kong and met up with the 72 other people on my trip. We left the confines of the MV Explorer and took a motor coach to the Hong Kong Airport, where we caught our 3-hour flight to Beijing! On the flight they played these odd tv shows including Chinese clowns galloping around a stage, a Chinese game show, and Tom & Jerry. They also gave us a surprisingly good meal. I didn’t get much sleep like I was hoping for, but still enjoyed the relaxation.

We arrived at the Beijing airport. It only took minutes until we were bombarded with “Beijing 2008 Olympics” banners, other odd signs displaying what one can/cannot do, thousands and thousands of people in spaces not big enough to hold hundreds, scrolling messages written in broken English, and small pieces of cotton-looking dust that flew around throughout the air in Beijing. These specks of cotton obviously spread germs; most of which cause ones body to break out into so-called “Communist rashes.” If one doesn’t seek medical help quickly, he or she may be completely red in a matter of days.
One cannot see far into the distance around the city because of the incredible pollution problem. They’re apparently working on ways of improving the air quality before the Olympic games, but I’m thinking that they’ll need Gandalf or someone with some wizardry powers to do a feat like this.

Even though there were 72 people on this trip, this large number didn’t affect me having a good time. Many friends strategically signed up for the same trip together, so we luckily had a really good travel group.

We stayed at Tsinghua University, located right outside the city. The university is the largest in the Beijing area...huge! When I learned that we were going to be staying on campus, I figured that we’d be lodging in the leftover crappy dorm rooms, but oh was I wrong! We were staying in the university’s guesthouse. This was literally a hotel on campus.

After the 40-minute bus ride to campus, we crowded in the guesthouse lobby to pick up our room cards; they then gave us roughly 10 minutes to check-in and inspect our rooms.
James and I walked into our room and laughed at the many accessories offered to us including slippers, a sewing kit, “shower shoes,” a hot water maker WITH teacups, and a television with at least 60 different stations. Oh, and I forgot to mention the sweet doorbell located outside each room that we definitely took advantage of. All of these accessories kind of lost their touch when later that night we noticed all of these weird stains, spills, and blemishes all over the bed sheets and the carpets. THAT’s why they provided us with the slippers!

Staying on campus was a blast, because we got to interact with other Chinese students directly, and everyone was super kind. After a student gave a few of us a tour of the university, they treated us to a Peking duck dinner in the guesthouse’s restaurant. Starting with this meal, every meal in Beijing followed this trend:

1. The waiters/waitresses bring out food as soon as we sit down and place it all on the lazy susan located in the middle of the round table.

2. We begin questioning what we’re eating, but continue to try new things.

3. Every time someone slowly spins the center circle around to get their food, I begin humming carousel music or at least “The Final Countdown” in my head.

4. We’re only given small plates to place our food on, along with a set of chopsticks, but by the end of the meal, someone always makes some type of social blunder with the chopsticks. The funniest was when Kyle insisted that one serves the food with the top of the chopsticks, but only eats with the bottom sticks (this IS true in Japan though). The two Chinese students sitting at our table began laughing hysterically at this.

5. Eventually so much food sits on the table that the waiters begin pilling plates on top of plates, creating this collage of different cuisine.

6. One cannot judge a food by the way it smells. The taste is always completely different. This also holds true with the food in Vietnam, except all of the Vietnamese food I tried was actually good.

7. The meal’s main course is usually brought out 2/5 of the way through the meal; the dessert is always brought out halfway through the meal; the rice and/or noodles are always brought out 4/5 of the way through the meal.

8. I only end up liking 2/5 of the actual food.

ACTUAL Chinese food is much different than the stuff they serve in America. Some foods were really wonderful, but most of it wasn’t very filling.

After dinner, a bunch of us decided to spend our night walking around the beautiful campus. A couple of Chinese students joined up with our small group, walked around with us, and showed us the interesting hangout spots. We spent the night telling ghost stories (most of which were very lame) and talking about “college stuff.”

Back in our room, I found that flipping through the television stations was so much fun. China seriously has at least 5 or 6 American Idol-esque shows. The main difference is that, unlike in America, these performers actually have genuine talent. Other interesting observations concerning Chinese television:

- I’m often disappointed how no news source in the US is completely truthful, because everyone throws in their own opinions/propaganda throughout the newscasts (examples include the Fox News Corporation, as well as CNN and CNBC), but when you watch men in military uniforms delivering the newscasts on Beijing television, at least you can appreciate their complete lack of subtlety.
- Jackie Chan is HUGE here. Within a half hour timeframe, I saw him advertising 3 different products on three different commercials…two of which were competing credit card companies.
- The lack of western influence is awesome. The only westernized thing I saw on television was some random Michael Keaton comedy that I couldn’t remember the name. It was dubbed in Mandarin of course.
- Chinese opera is amazing to watch and hilariously unique at the same time…I don’t care what you say.

I woke up early the second day and took a long shower, for I don’t want any communist germs turning my skin red (please appreciate the sarcasm in this post…don’t take anything too seriously).
A couple of us joined up outside the hotel for a session of tai chi before eating a breakfast unlike one I’ve ever eaten before. Let’s just say that my breakfast the following two days only consisted of bread and cookies.

We took an hour bus ride and soon enough, I saw a long wall running along the mountainside. We visited the Great Wall of China that morning, and yes, it was pretty great. I’m still kind of confused on how the Mongolians couldn’t find ANY way past this wall, but still, it certainly deserved its “great” title. After walking up the hill and being bombarded with dozens of men and women selling products, we made it to the actual wall. Most of the people were taking a right and walking up to the more picturesque part of the wall, but four of us decided to make a left, solely because there were A LOT less people this way.
The path we took was still rather steep, but still offered us a wonderful view of the surrounding mountains. While at the top, a woman started pestering James about buying this warm Russian-looking hat. Long story short, James, Noopur, and I all ended up buying one. VERY warm hats indeed, which did come in handy because it was rather windy up on top of this wall. They also make for some really hardcore pictures.

After our wall trek, we visited a restaurant that served the traditional dish titled the Mongolian Hot Pot. Cooking food in my hot pot was exciting, especially when I began getting bored and got creative, as I just threw every kind of food on the table in my pot at once.

We then went to the Beijing zoo where we had the opportunity to visit the ultra cool Giant Pandas, who had their own wing of the zoo. These giant pandas were HUGE. I naturally thought that they’d live up to their name, but they far exceeded my expectations. These pandas seriously measured up to the size of a small building. You could probably fit a small child inside one of its ears. Hell, these pandas could battle Godzilla if he so challenged them. Why didn’t the Chinese just release giant pandas on the Japanese when they invaded their country during WWII? Makes sense to me.

Actually, sorry; that’s all quite a lie—just like the Chinese lied to us by referring to them as “giant” pandas. They weren’t that big at all…but they were still cute. I had the Deerhoof song "Panda Panda Panda" in my head for the rest of the day.

After viewing the No-So-Giant Pandas, we decided to check out the rest of the zoo. The zoo was incredibly spread out…you seriously needed a shuttle to take you from one side to the other. We learned this when we tried to walk to the other end of the zoo to see the penguin exhibit. That’s right…I was FINALLY going to see some penguins on this trip! We made it to the building, walked up to the front door, but we were sad to learn that you had to purchase tickets in order to catch the penguin exhibit. I didn’t want to see penguins THAT badly. Still, we enjoyed our time walking through the heaps of cotton dust (probably a panda shedding somewhere), viewing catching some reptiles, and trying to figure out why some Chinese guys were laughing at us (always a fun pastime).

For dinner, we were promised Pizza Hut. Pizza Huts in China are not fast-food-like establishments. They’re actually really nice restaurants. Unfortunately, Pizza Hut actually meant the university’s pizza restaurant, which was ok, because the pizza still tasted like Pizza Hut.
Before we ate though, we were brought to the university’s basketball/volleyball courts so that us Americans could play some basketball and volleyball with the students. As you can imagine, I chose not to play, along with everyone else in my group of friends.

After James, Haley, and I left to watch some students play soccer for 20 minutes or so, we met up with this girl named Jenny. Jenny was awesome! She asked us if we wanted to learn a new game, and we all said, “sure,” so she taught us “I’m a Cat.” Basically it’s freeze tag, except when the tagger’s running up to you, you can just scream, “I’M A CAT” and he/she can’t do anything. About 15 of us played, and we had soooo much fun! You’ll have to see the video. After everyone grew incredibly tired, we thought that we’d teach Jenny and a few other students an American game. That’s right, we played Red Rover until they made the announcement for dinner. The game, of course, ended with half of us in pain, but that’s how it’s supposed to end, right? The Chinese students were very bewildered why we would play a game like this when we easily could just play a real game, like basketball.

We ate dinner at the Pizza Hut restaurant on campus, but a bunch of us felt like going out afterwards…possibly hit up a karaoke bar? Our good friend Jenny helped us out, as she took us to this incredibly nice karaoke club. When leaving the campus, we had a lot of trouble securing three separate cabs that could transport us all to the same place. Apparently, nobody knew where the club was! In the end, Jenny’s Chinese skills really helped secure us three drivers that took us to the really posh, underground karaoke club.

We spent the next 2 hours or so in our own VIP karaoke room with a huge projector screen, comfy couches, crazy neon lights, and some dancing space. Me, Steph, Kate, Mark, Matt, Kyle, Katie, Caitlin, and a few others sang the night away in true karaoke style. Some of the highlights included Kyle’s stunning/hilarious renditions of “My Heart Will Go On,” and “Do-Re-Mi,” Caitlin and Katie’s Spice Girls dance moves, Matt and I bringing life to “These Boots are Made for Walking” with Kyle dancing around the room/filling in on tambourine, and everyone joining together for many Disney sing-alongs throughout the night. The night ended with Jenny and her boyfriend singing a popular Chinese love song. Of course, the video played behind the lyrics had none other than movie footage of Mr. Jackie Chan doing his thing. I’ll be honest, and say that some of the English translations were pretty funny, but still, it was a beautiful moment and a perfect way to end the evening. My first Asian karaoke experience was a success! I only wish I brought my video camera with me.
Even though we all pitched in for the karaoke room, Jenny and her boyfriend refused to let us pay for anything else. This is a Chinese custom…since they were our hosts, they couldn’t let us pay for anything. I still felt bad that I couldn’t throw in a few bucks, but didn’t want to make a scene (something my dad would probably do because he’s too nice).

We woke up the next morning and left straight for Tiananmen Square. It’s been hailed as one of the biggest squares in the world…damn straight. It was huge. It was rather odd that the entire center of the square was filled with trailers, campers, and some gift shop stands. I can’t tell you how many sellers approached me with hopes of selling me a Mao Zedong watch. Still, the historical relevance of the area made it an intense experience.

Afterwards we were given a few hours to explore the Forbidden City.
I just LOVE the Chinese’s use of adjectives in their titles: the GREAT wall, the GIANT pandas, the FORBIDDEN city. It makes each sight seem more grandiose than it really is. Still, the Forbidden City was incredible. It didn’t take us long to walk through the whole thing, but some interesting sights WERE observed:

- We were told that there was a Starbucks hidden inside the Forbidden City, and that many Chinese historians weren’t pleased with this addition to the historical sight. Matt and I spent over a half hour trying to find this Starbucks for him to shoot for his video. Eventually, we did spot some friends drinking some cappuccinos, and behind them was a building that housed none other than a Starbucks. The search was a success! Unfortunately, the line was at least 20 feet long…the whole line occupied by white people by the way. Figures. Luckily, Haley was near the front, so she got me my Banana Chip Java with success! Thanks again Haley!
If you would have asked me beforehand what I thought about a Starbucks located within the Forbidden City, I would have probably said that it’s ridiculous, but I definitely don’t think that anymore. Considering the fact that there are souvenir and gift shops located EVERYWHERE in every sight we’ve seen, the fact that Starbucks sells some coffee in the middle of the city isn’t really THAT big of a deal. All of the gift shops are ruining the authenticity and historical mood of the ancient places, but hey, if there’s money to be sold, one might as well go for it.

- They grade the bathrooms in China! Fortunately, for our sake, all of the bathrooms located within the Forbidden City were all 4 star bathrooms! Woohoo! The best part is the fact that they proudly display all of the ratings outside each building with a plaque, as if they’re bragging or something. Later on in the trip, I ran into some 3 star bathrooms…I’m not going to discuss the details of those. I’m sure that the 2 star ones don’t even have a rating in front of them. How embarrassing.

We ate lunch and then spent time at the Temple of Heaven. This was also a very picturesque area, filled with shrines, temples, and gardens. While on top of the temple’s main structure, I saw a Chinese teenager wearing a Pittsburgh Pirates shirt. I walked up to him and asked if he’d ever been to Pittsburgh. He didn’t speak English very well, but he still enthusiastically shook his head “yes.” I told him that I’m from Pittsburgh, and he ran to his father and younger brother and started pointing at me while smiling. The two others soon smiled after.

Rather than choosing a place for us to eat dinner, they agreed to give us some money and let us go in this market area and buy whatever we want. Instead of eating, I choose to shop. The women in this market area were the worst I’ve encountered so far. They seriously heckle you, grab you, and won’t let you go until you go inside their booths. I’m going to miss all of this bargaining when I get home. I’ll walk into a Best Buy and try to hassle them to lower the price…yeah, that’ll work.

That night, we had a trip to the theatre to catch a show put on by the Chinese Acrobats. These were mostly kids and teenagers…except they weren’t real children…they were mutants. If you’ve ever seen X-Men, you’d understand where I’m coming from; these kids could do things that are clearly impossible. If I was working for the US Secretary of the Defense, I’d seriously look into the Chinese scientific community and make sure that they’re not breeding superheroes. I mean come on! Have you ever seen anyone fit 14 people on top of one bicycle WHILE someone’s still pedaling or watch men climb up smooth walls with their bare hands or watch women catch umbrellas with their feet or walk down the street and see children jumping rope…10 different ropes at one time.

My mind was blown away by the acrobats, but we still wanted to go out afterwards. James, Haley, Matt, and I tried to catch a cab to KFC (not too far away from the campus). Somebody brought up KFC earlier that day, so all of us developed this intense craving. The problem is that no cab drivers in Beijing speak a word of English, and none of us spoke a word of Chinese. Even writing “K F C” on a piece of paper did nothing, so they ended up eating some convenience store snacks while I went back to my room because I wasn’t feeling well (the Chinese food was probably destroying my digestive system or something).

Our last day in Beijing started with another breakfast, and then moved onto the Summer Palace. I thought that the Summer Palace would be this big castle-like structure that would take us about an hour or so to travel through, but I was wrong. We spent 3 or 4 hours exploring the area surrounding the Summer Palace, and still didn’t have enough time to see the entire place.
Mark, Kyle, and I paid the extra bucks to actually travel inside the palace, and boy was it worth it.
After a nice final breakfast, we made our way to the Beijing airport and said goodbye to the cotton flying throughout the air. Make sure to watch out for the cotton while watching the Olympics next year.

We didn’t fly back top Hong Kong. While away in Beijing, the ship moved onto Qingdao, China. The bus picked us up from the airport, and took us through this murky, creepy, foggy, crappy-looking town known as Qingdao. This was the ugliest, least-attractive port on our trip so far. Seriously…why go to Qingdao? The only decent thing about the bus ride back was the fact that the bus driver was crazy, and was racing the other bus back to the ship.

We spent the next day walking around the shopping district of Qingdao, which was somewhat interesting, mainly because not one person in the entire city spoke a word of English, and I rather liked that. This was also the first place where no ATMs took our credit cards…though a few found some select ATMs that worked. We did end up getting our KFC that we were craving.
I did catch some distinctive things around the city. For example, I saw this odd-looking building with Spiderman and Lord of the Rings posters surrounding the door, so I voted on going inside. I walked through the meat flaps (many, many buildings have meat flaps instead of doors), walked down the long staircase into the basement, turned to my right, and there were literally hundreds and HUNDREDS of computers. This internet café was huge. The computer monitors were enormous, they had separate rooms with leather reclining chairs for a few select people, and nearly every kid at every PC was either playing World of Warcraft, Age of Empires, or some random soccer game.
While on my computer, I googled “Tiananmen Square” and was actually surprised that 3 sites were found…I figured that it wouldn’t list any of them. Ohhh government censorship!
I bought a few cds because they were so cheap, and then we made our way back to the ship, narrowly avoiding any dock time.

China was certainly the most different country we’ve visited on this trip. Like every other country, I wish I could have seen more, but still, I saw a lot of important sights and sounds. I was mostly excited for Japan, for it was only two days away!
I’ll try to write about my Japan experience sometime before Hawaii.

Did someone say "Disney pictures?"

sorry about that. Just as i was about to post I ran out of internet minutes on the ship.

Anyways, I`m at a manga cafe in Tokyo right now. Tokyo is...well...incredible to say the least. I`m surprised that I`ve remembered so much stuff from my Japanese classes.
I hope these pics work this time. It`s hard to tell because EVERYTHING is written in Japanese font on every website AND on the keyboard.

We took this on the subway. The official start of our journey.

Tomorrowland.

Kyle, Mark, Alice, Kate, yours truly. This is our favorite. The woman who played Alice was SUCH a good Alice. Literally, even when she was by herself, the girl didn`t break character.


Myself, Noopur, Kate, Jess, and Kyle on top of the peak in Hong Kong.

sorry about that. my internet minutes on the ship ran out as soon as i tried posting the pics.

Now I`m at a manga cafe in Japan, and HOPEFULLY it`ll work....everything`s written in Japanese characters, including all of the fonts on every webpage.

Let’s Talk About Global Studies, Shall We?

I wrote this about a week and a half ago immediately after taking the third Global Studies examination. Read on, it’s pretty fun:

So we all have to take Global Studies. We must attend this class everyday while at sea (though many people DO skip it, since it’s so easy to just stay in your cabin and not come out). You’d think that traveling around the world would provide an easy backdrop for this class be a wonderful experience. Well you thought wrong.

I’m not sure if other students have commented about this class in their own blogs, but I’d like to throw in my two cents concerning this course.

We just had the third test yesterday, and I must say that I’m not doing so well. Now keep in mind, I’d consider myself a good student. I make the Dean’s List every semester; I’m a member of my school’s honor society; I’ve received a few English/writing awards, and I usually take a full workload every semester (just last semester I had to take 7 senior-level classes, because I’m doing this study abroad and can only take 4 while on ship). I’m not bragging; I’m just trying to make the point that I’d consider myself a good student and do plenty of work each semester, but even though I’ve studied for every one of these Global Studies tests, I haven’t done well on them.

Why?

Well first of all, the class itself is pretty horrible. Mr. Dan Christie. He’s the man of the hour on this ship, for he’s the one who teaches this class. He’s a psychology major, and he teaches the class like a psychology course. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a nice guy, and he’s intelligent, but when it comes down to it, he shouldn’t be teaching a class like this. Not only is he a psychology major, but he’s poor public speaker, especially when he’s required to hold the attention of over 700 students, faculty, and staff. Maybe a history or social science professor should have helmed the responsibilities of this course? Just an idea.

Some of the other professors that speak time to time are really good speakers. Heck, my English professor hasn’t spoken once in Global Studies, but he’s an unbelievable speaker and could easily hold the attention of all the students. Even many of the interport lecturers (people from the specific countries and lecture about the specifics in each country) aren’t very good and talk about things that don’t/won’t pertain to us. For example, on our way to Vietnam, the Vietnamese speaker had an entire lecture on how one can make successful business deals in Vietnam. Granted that’s great and interesting for a business student, how does it pertain to the rest of us (especially when we only have 3 days between Malaysia and Vietnam to learn as much as possible about this country)? I honestly have no idea what the Chinese interport lecturer was talking about today. He skipped around so much and didn’t talk about ANYTHING relevant. It’s a waste of our time.

Like I said, we had our third test yesterday. Each professor who lectures apparently writes his/her own questions for the test. This makes for a very imbalanced/incoherent test. Not only that, but the answers are always worded differently than the notes that were taken during class time. That wouldn’t be a big deal if it was just a normal class, but when we’re bombarded so much information everyday, AND we’re learning it all when traveling in-between countries, it’s very difficult to memorize everything.

Finally, what ticks me off the MOST, is the fact that the information taught in this class really isn’t relevant to us at all. Our lessons should concern issues and elements of the countries that we SHOULD know before arriving. So many times when wondering around countries, I learn something new and think, hmmm, maybe we should have been taught that in Global Studies.

For example, after traveling to Mauritius, we spent an entire day on CORAL REEFS. Coral reefs? This isn’t a science class. Another day we had three of the female professors talk about “gender studies.” As soon as they said “gender studies,” and I saw these three women, I KNEW it was going to be the same, old, generic, feminist critiques on how all women are persecuted and hated around the world. Don’t get me wrong, I’m for equality and care very much about issues surrounding women today such, but I hate the fact that they just used the lesson as feminist propaganda, rather than concentrating on the facts and issues that may help us understand the issue in more depth.

This class seriously COULD HAVE been incredibly powerful, very educational, and easily could have been the greatest, most meaningful class any of us have ever taken. Traveling around the world while learning about the countries we’ll be exploring…that sounds awesome. Instead, we get Dan Christie saying awkward things, professors bombarding us with their own beliefs, and every other student sitting around bored to death as we discuss “structural violence,” “negative peace,” and other random subjects that just don’t have any context.

So yeah. I wrote that awhile ago, but still hold roughly the same opinions. I also have a problem with the pre-ports for the last couple of countries. Through most of the trip we’ve had a cultural and logistical pre-ports the two nights before entering each country; each meeting was mandatory and lasted an hour each. These pre-ports provided us with the basic information that we needed to know for each country, but for the past two countries we’ve only had one pre-port that lasts alittle over an hour each. The reasons they combined both pre-ports was because, OBVIOUSLY, there’s not too much culture in Vietnam and China.

Seriously, why rob us from valuable information because A) the instructors/staff are too lazy to create two separate presentations for us or B) they think that we don’t care enough? Not even that, but the information they give us is alittle ridiculous. For example, during the China preport, they cut out the interport lecturers presentation of the “Dos and Don’ts for China,” but still had a 10 minute presentation on the pop culture/music around China. Hmm…maybe, just MAYBE those do’s and don’ts could be relevant to us all.

They think that we don’t want to sit through and learn all of this stuff, but most of us do! Most of the “7^th deckers” don’t really care about this valuable info because they certainly have more important things to do.

Ok, enough negativity. We have less than a month left, so I’m honestly trying to appreciate everything and remember as much as I can while on this ship. It seriously has become a home to me, and I’ll definitely miss it. I apologize if there was too much bitching in this post, but I just finished this test and needed to vent.

Hong Kong Escapades

So we were docked in Hong Kong. It was my first and only full day in the crazy nation that’s made up of over 200 islands. We were actually docked at this very posh/expensive mall. That’s right…a mall. Hong Kongians are major consumers, maybe even more so than Americans. So once you walk off the ship, you’re inside the labyrinth of a Hong Kong mall. Very odd indeed. Expensive clothes done the racks of the stores. Immense televisions occupy the lobby with newscasts concerning Virginia Tech students. And signs written in Mandarin characters line the ceilings.

Me, Kate, and Kyle made our way out of the mall, and were waiting inside of a hotel lobby as Mark was trying to find information on obtaining a Japanese Rail Pass. We were flipping through brochures with hopes of finding the most perfect activities to do while in Hong Kong, since we were all leaving the next morning for Beijing, China. Kyle suddenly mentioned “Hong Kong Disney,” and I laughed as I saw the excited look on his face; I instantly shrugged off this preposterous idea. After thinking about that idea for about 10 seconds, I began second-guessing it, and when Kate enthusiastically agreed, and Mark mentioned that he’d never been to Disney World before, I was totally for it! Why not do something crazy and totally fun? I rode an elephant in Vietnam; went bowling in Malaysia; visited a movie theater in India, so this seemed completely natural. Plus I love randomness!

After a quick lunch, the four of us hit the very clean Hong Kong subway, and found the route that led straight to Hong Kong Disneyland. The subway was seriously the exact opposite of a New York subway; it looked brand new and didn’t smell like dried urine. We had to transfer twice, and when we made it to the third subway station and the train came in to pick us up, we were amazed and excited that all the windows were in the shape of Mickey Mouse heads...very rad. We danced onto the train and found the entire cars decked out with fancy Disney decorations and crazy blue seats. The train took us straight to the front gates of the park…very efficient travel indeed.

“Please exit the train, watch your step, and have a magical day at Disney’s Magic Kingdom.”

We were so happy and enthusiastic to be there. To their shock, Kyle even hugged a few of the ticket ladies while passing through the gates. Yea for enthusiasm! It was surprisingly not very expensive; the crowds were surprisingly absent; I was surprisingly excited as hell. Like the subway, the park was very clean and fresh. It only opened 2 years ago, so everything was still brand new. We took TONS of pictures, rode tons of rides (including Space Mountain 3 times, since there was no line), ate some excellent Chinese food, and saw this AWESOME Disney 3-D show in one of the theaters. To anyone reading this who was with me during our last Disney trip, yes, there were still briefing rooms at the start of every ride. And yes, “no raving on the rides.” All in all, it was an incredible afternoon of fun. All four of us were in need of a day without cares or worries, and we definitely got that while at Hong Kong Disneyland. We should star in our own Disney commercial


Afterwards, we made our way back to the main city. In case you’ve never been to Hong Kong, it’s seriously the NICEST and most beautiful city I’ve ever seen. It’s HUGE. After stopping for some coffee, we caught a 2-story bus and enjoyed sitting in the very front of the second floor with a full view of the city out the large window and saw everything, including the colorful buildings, the giant ferris wheel, and a soccer field WITH a game going on. I was ready to leap off the bus to catch the game, but figured that I’d hold out, because we were traveling straight up to the peak of the hill overlooking the city. In case you haven’t read my earlier entries, soccer (football) is the only sport I really give a crap about.
The drive up the hill kept getting higher, and HIGHER, and HIGHER, until we were so high that we saw nothing but fog and mist. We were traveling to the top of the peak in order to gaze over the city AND see the awesome laser/light show that happens every night at 8 pm. The bus left us at this mall/shopping center that had a viewing spot on top of the roof. We made it to the roof, but there was NOTHING but fog, and more fog. Seriously, it looked like a scene from a horror film.
In order to still make the trip worth it, we decided to shop around the mall for awhile. After buying some cheap t-shirts, we soon walked back to the front entrance and saw another separate mall across the lobby (Hong Kongians LOVE their shopping apparently). We made it inside the mall, made it to the second floor, looked out the giant window, and there, my friends, was the city. Of course we couldn’t see anything earlier…we were on the wrong building! After traveling up at least 5 or 6 more escalators, we finally made it to the very top, and had a few minutes to gaze at the spectacular view of Hong Kong. It’s seriously the most gorgeous city I’ve ever seen. Simply spectacular. We only had a few minutes because it suddenly began POURING rain.

The night was still young. Kate had read about a Men’s Market and a Women’s Market near each other with clothing and other stuff that would interest each gender. Not only that, but they were both open really late. Excellent! On our way down the giant hill, we met this guy from Chicago who would win in a Paul Giamatti look-alike contest. He’s apparently responsible for opening all of the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurants/stores all around the world, and he had just opened one in Hong Kong a few months ago and was still in charge. Anyways, he was on his way home from work, and knew how to get to the market, so he offered us some other travel advice and kept us company until we made it back to the subway.
The subway train took us to the center of the madness…the center of the city. Lights everywhere. People everywhere. Crazy noises and sights bombarded us as we continued to search for the market. This wasn’t a nice neighborhood though. Very sketchy people and really sketchy streets indeed. This, of course, added to the enjoyment. It’s also worth noting that we spotted a 7-Eleven every 5 minutes while walking. Don’t fool yourself though; even though there were abundant amounts of 7-Elevans, don’t slurpees in sight.

Instead of finding the market, we found a restaurant (we hadn’t eaten since Disneyland). Actually we found many “restaurants,” but this one seemed like one of the classier places in the area, but that really wasn’t saying much. Most of the restaurants looked like they served cheap street food out of garbage cans, but at least this place looked decent and had carpeted floors and televisions. The food WAS decent, but it was still an experience. It’s really odd ordering food when there’s a language barrier between you and the waitress. You literally have no clue what they’re going to bring out for you…you simply hope that it’s somewhat close to what you actually ordered. I also thought it was funny that they served all Chinese food, yet they didn’t have chopsticks. Only forks…..booooo. As long as it was decent food though, who cares?
At this point it was around 11. We decided to just walk back to the ship…though we had NO clue how far away the ship was. Along the way we crossed some crazy parts of the town. At one point I saw a bunch of bootleg DVD stores just like we’d seen in Vietnam. “Hey guys, can we stop here and check out what they have?” Everyone agreed. We made it up to these five stores lined up in a row, but every single one had nothing but porn, and porn, and more porn. So of course, I totally loaded up on supplies.

Ummm…yea just kidding.
We walked away, and began walking faster as we noticed where we were. The term “men’s market” can be interpreted many different ways. The streets were filled with nothing but “saunas”, XXX clubs, and vendors selling sex toys. At least it was a well-lit area.
Soon we made it out of this district, but entered a new territory…the very dark streets. Our small map told us to keep following this one road in order to make it back to the ship, so that’s exactly what we did. After a half hour or so we saw the mall, walked through the empty hallways, and boarded our ship.
Our only full day in Hong Kong treated us to Disneyland, some traditional food, a spectacular view of the city, meeting some fascinating people, and some adventures inside the city as well. I feel like I saw everything I needed to see.

So I served my time in 'nam

I’ve traveled by many modes of transportation on this trip so far: a ship (obviously), smaller boats (lifeboats, water taxis, river boats), cars, motorcycles (thanks to Vietnam), a train, rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, kayaks, subway, giant elevators, airplanes, buses…and now…I can add ‘elephant’ to the list. That’s right.

The Elephant Monologues



Wednesday morning, our 3rd day in Vietnam, James, Ben, and I boarded a plane that took us to Buon Ma Thout. This is a small town in the middle of the country…in the middle of nowhere. The reason we chose this town to fly to was because it was only an hour away from Yok Don National Park: the national park in Vietnam where one can ride elephants. At the beginning of this trip, I made a couple of goals for myself. One minor, yet more fun goal was to ride an elephant…cross that sucker off the list. Unfortunately another goal was to see a soccer game, but you can’t win them all!

Anyways, we arrive at the airport in Buon Ma Thout after an hour plane ride from Saigon. We got swarmed by taxi drivers, but found a guy who spoke somewhat decent English. He drove us to the park office and meet with a park official in town. After a somewhat useless chat with this woman, our driver then drove us out to the actual park (about an hour away). The park was pretty rundown…kinda like I was hoping my safari would be in Africa. The guy in charge told us that we should leave, find something to eat, and then come back, because the elephant was still “crossing the river.”
We visited this very dirty café/restaurant on the side of the road. They didn’t even have menus; it literally looked like somebody converted their large front porch area into a dining area. We told the woman that we wanted “rice, egg, and chicken.” We did get rice, egg, and chicken, and surprisingly, it was decent…and surprisingly, I didn’t get insane amounts of diarrhea from it (thanks Pepto Bismal!).

We then returned to the park, just as the elephant was coming in from its river trek. It wasn’t a HUGE elephant, but it was big, and plenty big enough to hold the three of us on its back. As weird as it sounds, this was seriously an amazing experience. We rode Tiger (we named it Tiger, because we were in Vietnam and Tiger’s the official beer of the country, for the logo’s everywhere) for one hour around the woods, up and down steep hills, and across a river twice. The river was so deep that Tiger had to hold its trunk above the water in order to breath while trekking across. Tiger also did a lot of eating throughout the journey; he also did a lot of farting. Elephant farts literally sound like a lion roaring. I got most of the highlights on video, but all in all it was a completely rad experience.
Afterwards, we asked our driver if there was anything else to see around the area, because we had a few hours to kill until we had to catch our flight back to Saigon. We stopped at a coffee plantation. I forgot to mention that Buon Ma Thout is the area where they grow all of the Vietnamese coffee. This farm was owned by a friend of our driver, and this guy and his wife were hilarious. As soon as he saw James and I holding cameras, he brought us into his house, sat us down in his living room (keep in mind that this was a really old farm, so I use the term “living room” very loosely), and brought out all of his cameras and photos to show us. He was a lot of fun.
When we arrived back in the town, our driver took us to the shop that sells the actual coffee that we saw on the farm. The woman sat us down and made us a few cups of coffee and tea for free. This was an amazing strategy, because the coffee was so good that all three of us bought some beans.

We still had a few hours to waste, because our flight wasn’t until 8:10, so our driver took us to this really nice restaurant in the town. They must not have been used to white people visiting, because the whole staff was obsessed with us. Every time I took a drink of soda, the waiter would come over and pour more in my glass. It got to the point where I would wait until he wasn’t looking and then take a drink. Unfortunately the Tiger girl (the girl dressed in a scantily clad Tiger outfit) usually filled in for the waiter when he wasn’t looking, so my drinking strategy didn’t always work.
The menu to this place was insane. There was even a “Special Live Forest Animal” section that included snake, weasel, rabbit, and other foresty creatures. I was wondering how they prepared the animals in this section of the menu. Like did they own a petting zoo in the back of the restaurant, or did they just have the cook go outside, find a random weasel, club it, throw it in a burlap sack, then cook it to our meat-eating pleasures. I don’t know. All I do know is that I originally ordered rabbit leg (I wanted to try something weird, and the “Cobra stew” was alittle too out of my league). I ordered the dish, but then our driver shook his head “no.” “Don’t order that,” he said. I’m sure his warning benefited me in the long run. I had beef instead.
Our driver was an interesting guy. At some points he spoke English really well, but then 10 minutes later he’d act like he had no clue what we were talking about. He did teach us some useful Vietnamese phrases and such though and showed us pictures of his wife and talked about how he used to be a school teacher. Really nice guy. We ended up giving him over 400 dong for his services (dong’s obviously the Vietnamese currency, in case you didn’t know).
We made it back to the airport almost two hours ahead of schedule. The Buon Ma Thout airport consisted of two rooms: the room where one purchases tickets, and the waiting room. The small plane takes off in the parking lot outside the airport. At least they were punctual, because we ended up getting back to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) ahead of schedule.


Clothes Shopping/The Zoo

On our first day, as soon as we set foot in Saigon (I’m going to refer to the city as Saigon, rather than Ho Chi Minh City, since that’s what most people refer to it as), four of us began searching for a tailor that’ll make suits for a reasonable price. Everything’s pretty cheap in Vietnam; this includes nice suits, so many Semester at Sea people take this opportunity to have suits tailored to their needs
. In the end, we found a store owned by this woman. Her husband makes suits, and she offered us the best price. I planned on getting two nice suits made. The woman’s husband measured us all (very thorough, of course), and we planned on picking them up on the fourth day of our visit (Thursday).
On Thursday, Kyle, Ben, and James, and I stopped in at noon, but we were shooed away by the woman, because the suits apparently weren’t going to be ready until 5 pm. We had to kill some time, and we had already gone shopping and I had already bought my Japanese Rail Pass (all of the goals for the day). About half of the group went to visit the War Remnants Museum, while Kyle, Eric, and me visited the Saigon zoo!!!!!! I know, it sounds very lame, BUT by the 4th day, we were running out of stuff to do in the actual city that didn’t consist of wondering aimlessly and shopping.
Our zoo visit was the weirdest time I’ve had in a long time. First of all, all of the animals were insane. Maybe the zoo was too close to the roads, and the car exhaust messed with the animals brains. Maybe the workers fed them other animals. They were all so violent . The animals liked to fight with each other. I got some awesome footage of bears fighting, crocodiles attacking each other, elephants dancing (yes, I said dancing), a lion pacing back and forth for a few minutes, and a chimpanzee who was obsessed with us and spit at Kyle a number of times. What was cool about the zoo was the fact that we were so close to the animals. Seriously, I could have reached out and pet an ostrich or fed an elephant or stepped on a crocodile. The tourist population was limited to the three of us though. Seriously, there was hardly anybody in the deserted zoo, which also added a certain creepiness to the situation.
The only other group people that we saw were some school children. We assumed they were on a field trip, but began to think differently when we heard the marching snare drums. We walked near the main entrance of the zoo and encountered the group of school children standing in a large circle. Two students were holding flags: one was a Vietnamese flag, the other some random red flag. They were marching slowly to the beat of the drums, as other children were screaming out random sentences in Vietnamese. This weird Communist-esque exercise freaked the hell of out us. I seriously thought that I was going to get shot in the head for videotaping this activity. So that’s what kids do when they visit zoos in Vietnam.

At 5 pm, Eric and I made it back to the woman’s shop. I was the first one there, and her husband had just delivered the suits, so I got to try mine on first. To my honest surprise, they both fit perfectly! I tried them on in the middle of the store, and though it felt rather odd as the old man was trying to help me try my pants on, it was hilarious at the same time.

It reminded me of something that happened on the 2nd day. I was in Ben Thien Market, looking for some stuff to buy. This is a giant indoor market that sells everything from clothes to crafts to horribly smelling food (people walked around with huge buckets of vinegar with odd-looking chunks and bits of food floating on the top) to electronics to shoes to whatever. I thought that the guys selling stuff in India and Malaysia were bad, but these women in the market were incredibly annoying.

I’d be walking down the shallow passageway between booths, and a woman would jump out, dangling a shirt in front of me. I’d dodge her, but then there’d be two other women behind her waving stupid-looking polo shirts in my face. After ignoring them, another lady would reach out her arms in front of me and try to pull me into her booth. I’d say “no” very sternly (I got really good at this), but then she’d smack me in the arm and mutter some insulting Vietnamese phrase. This sort of activity would continue during my entire time shopping in Vietnam. If one makes eye contact with ANY item someone is selling, the seller will run towards you and offer to show you more and give you “best price…best price just for you!” In the other countries, I thought these shenanigans were rather funny and humorous, but in Vietnam it began to get slightly annoying. This is coming from a guy who gets ticked off even when someone in Best Buy offers me an Entertainment Weekly with my purchase. Seriously, just leave me alone people! At the same time, I used this to my advantage, for whenever I was buying something, if the seller didn’t match the price I wanted, I’d just walk away. One minute later the seller would find me, then offer to sell me the item at my price. Works every time!


Let’s get back to the story at hand. I found a really nice pair of pants in this indoor market that I wanted to buy, and I got the lady to sell me that pair and a nice pair of jeans, both for $18 (by the way, almost everybody in Vietnam takes US $1 bills. It’s pretty convenient). The lady looked at my waist and told me that I was a specific size, but I didn’t believe her because the size she was telling me was much bigger than my size in America. Even in India I bought a pair of size 30 pants and they fit the same as at home, but I honestly didn’t believe this lady and asked if there was anywhere in the market that I could try on the pants. She pointed to the center of her booth. You only live once. I tried on the pants in public, and they both fit perfectly! Good job lady! I love my new pants!

Back to the suits (sorry---I know I’m jumping around a lot, but don’t feel like telling stories in order today). My suits fit perfectly, as did everyone else’s. The lady selling them to us was hilarious. On the first day when I was trying to bargain her price down, she got ticked off at how cheap I was asking, and pulled on my ear after smacking me in the shoulder. When we were picking up our suits, the entire time she was trying to get us to buy these kimonos for 10 bucks. When we’d say “no,” she’d smack us on the shoulder. Fun times.


War Remnants Museum

On the second day in Vietnam, two of us visited the War Remnants Museum, a 30 minute walk from where our bus shuttle dropped us off. It was originally called the Museum of American War Atrocities and War Crimes…the original title suited the museum better.
The pictures and exhibits featured in this museum were incredibly startling and very sick: countless dismembered bodies, burnt corpses, photos of innocent civilians getting shot in the head, and other startling photographs filled the walls, while a display with a guillotine that was used to chop prisoners heads off and several prison chambers occupied the outside.
War is not pretty, especially when our own country is causing it. It felt rather odd to be an American while walking around this museum. The effects of the war can still be seen on the streets of Vietnam today. I passed many civilians and beggars who were disfigured due to Agent Orange outbreaks during the war, and I walked past a few people whose faces looked like they were melting off their skulls–this was due to napalm attacks. Pretty intense stuff, but oddly enough, most Vietnamese like Americans. I also learned that in Vietnamese schools, when children learn about the war, they learn that most Americans actually protested and totally opposed the war. Rather than it being the PEOPLE who killed many innocent civilians throughout their country, they learned that it was the GOVERNMENT that was responsible. This, of course, is what the kids learn while they’re actually in school and not out at the local zoos marching around.

So yeah, I’m hoping that journalists and others continue to take pictures and video while in Iraq, because I’m thinking that we’ll have another atrocity museum built in a few years.
I’ve honestly found that most people around the world DO like Americans. Seriously. For example, somebody in Malaysia told me, “I LOVE Americans. Good People! Just Hate Bush.” That’s honestly the general consensus everywhere we go.


Mekong Delta

Remember watching Martin Sheen sailing down the river in Apocalypse Now? Well the river that was featured in the movie was based on the Mekong River, the predominant river in Vietnam. Our ship had already sailed down the Saigon River in order to make it into Saigon, but this trip was different.
We booked the trip through a tour agency we found downtown. The 2-hour van ride to the river was monotonous though…three of us were scrunched up in the very last bench seat in a van with virtually NO legroom. The trip itself proved to be much more entertaining.
We sailed down the river in small little passenger boats, ate traditional Vietnamese food (rice, spring rolls, fruit, banana wine, honey coffee, etc.) in this jungle-pavilion area, took a tour of the jungle while sitting in these little row boats with our awesome rice hats on, and did some other crazy stuff along the way. All in all, it was a pretty incredible day that only cost us a mere $7.

The Food and the Traffic

While writing about India, I made an overly big deal about crossing the street in downtown traffic. Though it was very difficult in India and Malaysia, neither country compared to the traffic in Vietnam. It was SO MUCH FUN to cross the street! We get a packet before each country that has general information that we all need to know before leaving; this is what the packet says about crossing the street:

“Cross-walks do not exist in Vietnam, so in order to cross a busy street in Vietnam all one has to do is step out into oncoming traffic…the motos and buses will maneuver around you until you have reached the other side. Do not run as they will not be able to gage your movement; just keep a steady pace.”

This was so true. For five days I literally walked straight out into busy oncoming traffic, and the drivers would just drive around me. 90% of the vehicles on the road were motorcycles, and at least once or twice the handlebars of a motorcycle hit my backpack…that’s how close they were. Some close calls here and there, but oddly enough the only time I made contact with a motorcycle was when I ran into some lady’s parked motorcycle while walking off the sidewalk. I know…I’m an idiot.
The other thing I’m going to talk about is food. Now I’m not a huge eater (ask anybody I know at home…I only eat when I’m hungry), but I’ve been talking a lot in these entries about food. Why? Well I’ve discovered on this trip that there are two things that make a country unique (especially most third world countries), and these are the food and the traffic patterns. Seriously.


With that being said, the food in Vietnam was surprisingly good. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the traditional cuisine, but it all satisfied my taste buds like no other. In Malaysia I felt like eating mostly American food, but in this country, I ate all local cuisine (even when it looked a bit odd).

There’s a lot more I can say about Vietnam. If anyone has any questions or wants to know about anything else I did while in the country, definitely let me know. This country, like India and South Africa, is very difficult to write about, because I saw and experienced so much stuff, and it’s all often impossible to put into words. SOOOOO many details that aren’t in this blog, but yeah, I can’t make everybody happy.

I’m REALLY excited about China, but can’t really express in words how excited I am for Japan. I’ve seriously waited to visit Japan for a long time, and now, finally, I’ll be able to roam the crazy streets of Tokyo or relax near an incredible temple in Kyoto or maybe, just maybe, catch a football game or a baseball game, or at least find a nice record store with some underground Japanese music. Hopefully. I CAN’T WAIT!!!

P.S. – I bought WAY too much stuff in Vietnam, but got a lot for my buck. SOO many DVDs!!!!

Some last minute India pics

I figured I'd post a few pics from India.
Still none from Malaysia yet, but we'll see.


I'm posing with one of my homestay family's cows.

The entrance to the large Hindu temple we visited. "What do they got in there, King Kong?" (name the movie quote (it's an easy one)).

Me with our host during our homestay. This was in front of their shrine in their prayer room.

Me and the drummers hanging out after everybody left for the night.

The group of kids that asked me 10 million questions, including if I've ever been on the moon. Really awesome kids actually.

Just a few, but i still haven't gotten pictures from other people yet.
That's it.
rick

The Malaysians Don’t Have Easter Eggs in their Stores, but They’re Still Cool in My Book.

So Malaysia’s over, and we’re on our way to Vietnam. The next few countries are probably the ones I’m most excited about, but for now, lets discuss Malaysia.

It’s a unique country with many emerging cultures. It’s mostly Muslim, but there are also Chinese (especially in the area we were at), Indians, some European, etc. Languages include Malay, Mandarin, Tamil, etc.
We docked on the large island of Penang, which is right off of the mainland. Georgetown (the capital) is the second biggest city in Malaysia. It was clean (huge fines exist for littering), safe (prison sentences exist for weapon possession), and the people were overall very kind. Many cultural aspects exist that we had to keep in mind. For example, speaking loudly in public is very improper. Even pointing with ones finger is very inappropriate; instead, people used their whole hand.

Like I mentioned in the last post, we weren’t able to dock at the actual dock. Our ship’s just too damn big it seems. Instead, we were forced to utilize the lifeboats and take them to and from the docks. This got annoying in about…say…5 minutes. The long waiting lines, the hot lifeboats, the fact that they never arrive on time, and I ALWAYS seemed to arrive just after the boat left, so I had maximum waiting time. Granted, I shouldn’t be complaining, because I just spent four days in Malaysia!

I initially escaped the dreaded waiting lines of the lifeboats the morning we arrived, because I had signed up for an SAS trip titled “Mosques and Temples.” Appropriately enough, we spent the day visiting various mosques and temples. We toured about 6 different religious temples; this included everything from Islam to Taoism to Buddhism to Hinduism to a mixture of a few. Many temples were quite extraordinary to view. Just beautiful. Around 3 or 4 o’clock, we arrived back at the dock, but I didn’t feel like sailing back to the ship. Instead, three of us visited this really snazzy bookshop/coffee shop a few blocks down in the city. The coffee was happening, yet the books were all a little too “new age” for my tastes.
That night I did yet ANOTHER SAS trip. This was a Malaysian Welcome Reception, and it consisted of visiting a university and watching a Shadow Puppet performance. The performance was pretty trippy at times, yet it was funny and enjoyable to watch in the auditorium. Afterwards I went up to the stage and talked to the performers/tried out some of the percussion instruments that they used. They fed us some good Malaysian food outside, as well as some tasty tea/coffee (though it had nothing on India’s coffee).

When we returned, about six of us visited an English pub down the street from the ship. They played nothing but Oasis the entire time, and the guys working there were really kool. It wasn’t crowded AT ALL, so the waiter allowed a few of us to jump up on the stage and jam for a bit. He invited us back to open mic night Wednesday.

A few of us decided to travel to the Penang National Forest on the morning of the second day. Chad, James, Kyle, Tina, and I took two separate taxis about 45 minutes away from the ship, and began hiking the woods located near the very tip of Penang. The heat and humidity ensured sweat drenching. We hiked along the trails only for 2 hours or so, but we saw (and almost got attacked) by some monkeys, encountered a giant monitor that looked and crawled like a dinosaur, crossed some fun bridges, hung out at the lookout point that was located STRAIGHT UP a bunch of steps, and followed some incredibly long ant parades. It was surely a fun afternoon in the woods.

Unfortunately our taxis left us there, so we had to call for a van to transport us to the major mall. There’s literally a huge mall in every city we dock in. This mall was pretty large. It had five floors, but most of the stores were either
a) trendy female clothing
b) massage chairs
c) massage parlors
d) foot massages
e) non-massage-oriented places (bootlegged DVDs/computer software)

We ate, then we walked around the mall, then moved on to the city. The major streets, like India, were insanely difficult to cross at times. We strolled towards the ship, met up with two friends, and went right back out.
We hit up an outside Indian restaurant, and then we proceeded to a Malaysian bowling alley.

Malaysia loves their bowling. A bowling league was happening when we arrived, so we had to wait till they were finished. The room overlooking the bowling lanes held some pool tables, so we decided to hang out there. The problem was that these pool tables were monstrous. Not only were the tables built football stadium-lengths, but the pool balls were completely different as well (much smaller than usual), and there were at least 10 more balls than usual. The only guy working up on this level didn’t speak English, and we were the only other ones present in the lonesome room. What does one do in situations like these? You make up your OWN game of pool.
This wasted about an hour. We then took to the bowling lanes. Unfortunately I completely sucked tonight, so after 2 games I decided to quit while I was ahead, and meet up with a few of the girls that were hitting up the karaoke bar.
The karaoke bar was closed (too early maybe…it was only 9 o’clock or so). We found a decent outside restaurant, and came across a band that only knew mid-90s American pop rock songs, so it was definitely a nostalgic evening. The five of us then caught a cab and made it back to the ship in good time.

One thing I forgot to mention that happened on the 2nd day. My friend James and I were both craving a soccer game. Soccer’s really the only sport I enjoy watching, and I really wanted to attend a soccer game in another country. Brazil had Carnival, so I couldn’t find anything there. India had too much other stuff to do. This leaves Malaysia and Vietnam to find a decent soccer (football) game to attend. We found a travel agency, and the guy told us, in broken English, where the stadium nearest to Penang was located. He also informed us that there would be a game the following night at 8:45 pm. How exciting! We were incredibly pumped, and spent most of the 3rd day hanging around the mall and the city, because me, Chad, and James were going to leave early around 3 or so, because the stadium was further away, AND we’d have to arrive early to grab some tickets.

We caught a cab outside the dock. The cab driver hesitated the long distance, so he named a huge price for the trip. We bargained him down a good bit and were off! This excursion also required us crossing over to the mainland. I guess the bridge connecting Penang to the mainland is the longest bridge in southeast Asia, and yes, it was pretty long. As we were crossing the bridge, I asked the cab driver how long the ride will be. He said that he didn’t know…he’s never been to this part of the country before. The cab drier then began calling his friends, asking them where this stadium was. After passing the tollbooths, he also asked the toll guys where the stadium was. Bad, bad sign.

It WAS a long cab ride, and I was very tired, so I actually fell asleep…actually all three of us fell asleep at certain points. Eventually I woke up and began saw some signs for the stadium. Yes! Soon, I was pleasantly surprised to see a pretty huge soccer stadium in the middle of a field with a giant parking lot. It was still very early, but we figured that we’d buy our tickets and let our cab driver be on his way.

He dropped us off in the front. The only other visible sign of life was a small group of food stands sitting in front of the parking lot near the road and a village was further down the street. We walked up to the main gates.
Do you remember the movie National Lampoon’s Vacation, when the family travels across the country and FINALLY makes it to Wally World, and the amusement park’s closed for another couple of weeks? Well…these three security guards stared at us bewilderingly the entire time we were walked down the parking lot.
I asked one what time the game started, already having an idea that the words he was about to say PROBABLY weren’t to be what I wanted to hear. They laughed at us. Apparently the first soccer game at this stadium isn’t until May 2nd. The people around the outside food stand didn’t speak good English either, but we found out through the paper that the closest football game was at least 2 hours away…and we didn’t have a cab…and the bus didn’t drive through this part of the country…and we obviously didn’t have a car.
We were clearly in the middle of NOWHERE. Not only that, but since all of us took naps in the cab, we didn’t even know which direction to backtrack towards.

A small village lay off in the distance, so we decided to stomach the incredible sun and walk towards the homes and shops with hopes of finding a phone and a number to call for a cab. This clearly looked like a scene from a horror film. We walked around small village looking for someone to help us. Nobody spoke a word of English. The adults shot mean looks at us. The school children pointed and laughed at us. Needless to say, we quickly left and walked back towards the stadium.
We walked all the way back to the security guards, and asked if they had a phone # to call for a cab, and they all shook their heads “no.” The one younger guard could speak very limited English. He walked over to his car, waved us over, and told us to get in. Walk in to a stranger’s car? At this point, I really didn’t care…as long as he would take us somewhere near some civilization.
This incredibly nice guy drove us 40 minutes out of his way, and took us to a mall close to the bridge (where we could grab a taxi). Talking with him was kind of difficult. I was trying my best NOT to fall asleep, but was also trying to have a decent conversation using limited English, since he WAS helping us out.

This is just one example of the kindness we’ve been encountering through many people in other countries. Most individuals are so polite and always willing to help, even if they don’t speak the same language. Even though some Americans are the most polite people in the world, our general population doesn’t possess this mentality. Most Americans will point a foreigner towards the right direction, then walk away, because let’s face it, one can’t put his or her life on hold just for some stranger. The people we’ve been encountering won’t point you to the right direction; they’ll stop everything and physically take you there, and probably start a cool conversation with you on the way.

So we’re at this mall, still on the mainland. We ran into another problem. There was a bomb threat on the Penang bridge. Later on, we found out that there WAS an actual homemade bomb sitting on the middle of the bridge, and because of this, nobody could enter Penang, so we just waited around the mall.
Even after the bridge re-opened, most cab drivers wanted an arm and a leg to drive into Penang because of the traffic. After much negotiation, we found a driver who’d take us there for 50 ringgets, which was somewhat decent.

The music this cab driver played was HIDEOUS. Cheesy love songs for over an hour in Malaysian traffic was enough to make me feel sick. When we entered the city, it was quicker to walk than to sit in traffic. Chad went back to the ship while James and I went out to the English pub. The waiter remembered me, and told me to definitely bring my friends out later tonight (it was only around 8ish). I ate a very non-Malaysian dinner…a ham and cheese double-decker. Didn’t care…I had enough ethnic food for one visit.

We then explored the city for a while, and found this really cool night market. It had tons of different food, clothing, live music, and all together a really chill atmosphere. We found a McWaffles stand (it sported the arch and everything). Their menu consisted of only three things: a waffle, one scoop of ice cream, or two scoops of ice cream. Real complex, I know. I had a scoop of some weird flavor, but it was a good enough desert.

We ran into a group of our friends, traveled a 20-minute walk back to the English pub. Two older guys and the waiter were jamming up on stage…but they had no drummer. The waiter waved for me to get behind the kit, so I played about 4 or 5 songs with them, and had an unbelievably fun time. It felt SO good to play again. They all seemed pretty impressed. We played all American stuff, so nothing too crazy.
This was when things began getting weird, because everyone in the group wanted to now go to a club…a club that was in the same exact spot we had just come from 20 minutes ago. They all left, but my friend Jen waited for me to finish up a song, and we met the rest of the group outside the club, located near the nightlife section of town.
Jen apparently made great friends with the owner and general manager a few nights ago, because she got them to let us all in for free. Surprisingly, after about 15 minutes, everyone wanted to leave yet again (don’t ask me folks, I thought it was weird too). Jen and I stayed for a while, because I was getting sick of walking back and forth. We danced with a bunch of local guys on the dance floor to some techno and had a blast.

Alas, I had to arise early the next morning in order to attend a service visit at a home for physically and mentally disabled people. The service visit, though rather long, was really great. The residents weren’t used to visitors, especially American visitors, for most only knew Malay and no English. They were still kind and willing to play some games and draw some pictures with us. I drew them a picture of our ship with Captain Jeremy proudly standing near the front. His presence brought happiness to their eyes.

After the service visit, two of us decided to hit up the botanical gardens, located right outside the city. The gardens were all together pretty boring, except when Matt almost got attacked by a pack of monkeys. We were taking pictures and videotaping near the entrance, but suddenly one monkey bolts right towards us (the last thing I have on video is a monkey sprinting towards the camera), and a bunch more begin to congregate as well. Pretty scary. I began hiding my camera away in my bag, because I had heard stories about monkeys jumping up and stealing peoples cameras, and these monkeys were NOT getting my video camera. They were all following Matt though…following REALLY closely. They also started hissing and yelling, but luckily they stopped and ran towards this little Asian boy that was throwing candy at them. I hope the poor boy made it out alive.
We took a taxi back to the mall where we were able to use some FAST internet! FINALLY! The ship’s internet is so, SO slow, and it costs 40 cents per minute. This is why I usually have little to no pictures to share on here…it takes forever to load them.

I met up with the rest of the group while at the mall. I also bought this sweet little Batman bear that I’ll attach to my backpack zipper. After stopping at the bread store, the grocery store, and a 7-Eleven (I wanted a slurpee), we took two taxis back to the ship, and luckily made it back in the nick of time, because as soon as we showed up, the line for the ferry began stretching out to the road.

We arrived at the ship, ate a horrible dinner (seriously, the food’s beginning to really get old, but we have some good days every once in a while), and then made plans for the evening. A few of us watched a bootleg copy of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in my cabin. I love how it was showing in the theater on the 5th floor, OR someone could just travel down to the 3rd floor and buy the bootlegged DVD in one of the DVD stores. The quality was sufficient on a laptop, though the movie severely sucked.

Malaysia proved to be a good time. I was hoping to buy a copy of the Koran here, just because it was a predominant Muslim country, and it be a great souvenir. Oddly enough they didn’t carry them in the bookstores and I couldn’t find them anywhere else. As far as books go, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code are seriously the most popular books in every country, in every language.

Our ship’s going almost 30 knots at the moment, which is insane. This is the fastest passenger ship in the world, and we’re going really quickly because of pirate attacks in these waters. I must admit though, a pirate attack would be pretty fun.

We’re now docked in Singapore for a few hours in order to refuel. There are small boats circulating our ship; I think they’re seriously pirate ships, I don’t care what anybody says.

We get to turn our clocks BACK tonight!! Such a wonderful Easter present. We’ll be sailing into Vietnam on Monday, and I already have a few crazy plans up my sleeve for this country. I’m not going to give anything away, but let’s just say that you’ll hopefully read about some elephants real soon. I know what you’re thinking…elephants playing soccer…exactly.
I’ll try to post some Malaysia + more India pictures if I can.

Happy Easter folks!