A final comment

So after three and a half months, my journey has come to an end. This is my final post to a blog that has been a joy for me, and I hope some of you as well.
This trip has been a unique life, when you start to measure time by country, "that was way back in Ghana" or "I think it is after Japan," you know what you have been doing is epic. When the crazy and the once in a life time become everyday, you know you are part of something special. We have learned to take risks, calculate rewards, and make the best decisions. We have learned more than we know we have and the best part is that we have learned how much more we have to learn. At every turn we had the opportunity to learn and grow. We tried to live up to Mark Twain's idea that "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." We most certainly explored, dreamed, and discovered. We have seen things that few people can say they have witnessed, but though we have seen many things that have shocked and surprised us, it has not changed our love of the world. Though we may not be phased we are still impressed.
I have spent a lot of time thinking on my voyage, a lot of time pondering about what it all means. In the end it keeps on coming back to the fact that with great opportunity comes great responsibility. As William Butler Yeats put it, "in dreams begin responsibilities," and this has certainly been a dream. A dream that I will never forget. The time that I have spent aboard the MV Explorer has been a highlight of my ever evolving journey through life. That is the part that is so hard now that it is over, as one of the people in my class put it, "how do we make this the beginning and not a pinnacle of our lives." That's a hard question to answer. We have traveled the world, climbed mountains, swam with sharks, repelled off cliffs, prayed with monks and kicked soccer balls with kids in innumerable streets. We have learned from physicists and poets, anthropologists and biologists, and most importantly we have learned from experience. So how do we make this a beginning? That's a hard question to answer. We have been to three wonders of the world, crossed three major oceans, four continents, and a total of nearly 30,000 miles, how do we make this the beginning? That's a hard question to answer, and in the end I think it is about responsibility. We have done these things, we have connected the world, in ways that few can say they have had the privilege to do, and now we need to do something with that. We have had this dream, and seen what needs to happen in the world, and now we need to wake up, and actively use our insights to help others. I can assure each of you that this has been the beginning for me, it has given me new perspectives and new ideals. I have a responsibility and I will not ignore it. I have tried to make each moment of this voyage count, I have tried to learn all I can and absorb everything around me.  I would like to think that I have been successful at that, but only time will tell, so I will let you know in a few years.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the extreme love, gratitude, and respect I have for my friends that were on the ship. What I have learned has been because of them, they helped me through everything, be it confusion over languages, shock at starvation, or stress from rain, I would not have been able to do it without them. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, it has been an honor to share this experience with each of you.
To everyone who reads this, I can only hope that my words have been able to explain even a tenth of what I have learned. Books and movies can take you so far, but it is not until you experience the world that you get the visceral response to what it is you think you understand. I hope that I have been able to vicariously provide even a small amount of that deeper understanding, and perhaps entertain you at the same time. Thank you for reading along, and thank you for your many comments. It is sad that it is over, I will miss the time and my teachers and friends, so deeply that it can only be felt by the heart, and any attempt to explain it would be fruitless. This earth is our only home, so let us take care of it, and let us take every moment that we are blessed to be on this beautiful home and make it count, for we are not here long, and every second is a precious experience. I know that I will always be sad the trip ended, but I am hopeful for the great things that it has set in motion, and as Dr. Seuss said "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." So for the last time, take care, and make it count.

Film Competition

There was an event on the ship similar to the 48 hour film contest, that is when you have to write, film and finish a movie within 48 hours, you draw a genre out of a hat, and you must incorporate specific elements. We did that, but it was 120 hours because we had to do it between classes, and then because of further issues with time it became the 168 hour contest and ended with the 192 hour contest. My team picked action, and the competition was lat night. We took home best production, best picture, best actress, as well as fan favorite. It was really awesome to make a film that we thought was good and then have other people enjoy it just as much. definitely reassured me that I want to be a filmmaker, take care, make it count.

Hawaii

Hawaii was a blast, only a few short hours, but we made them count. we went up and saw one of the volcanoes. No flowing lava, but maybe that was a good thing. We also ate some local food and shopped at Walmart and Macy's, it feels good to be back in the US. It was funny to realize how excited I was to see Philly cheese steaks on menus, and speed signs in MPH. It felt good to be closer to something that is home. I wont get into the break down of my trip yet, I still have a week left on board and I am not about to write about how I feel now that it is over, I don't even know if I will be able to write about it, but that post is coming so stay tuned, the break down of the most life changing experience ever is still to come. Take care, make it count.

China...Finally

Hey, so sorry this is so late, It is exam time and things are a little nuts again (like most times on board). I need something to distract me from writing other essays so I thought it was a good idea to finally write about my amazing time in China.
First off, I met up with Katie in Beijing, it was late because my plane came in at midnight, but we stayed up and talked for a while. It was so great to see her, a shot of family in the middle of the trip was really nice.
She had everything figured out with the tour guides and what not which was amazing. The entire time we had our own guide and driver who took us anywhere we wanted to go. We visited Tienenman square, which was huge and had a lot of under cover police, ready to take down anyone with a "free Tibet" shirt. Right across from it is the Forbidden City, which was amazingly beautiful, you could see exactly where Mulan fought the Huns in the final scene of the Disney classic. It was crazy to think that such a massive area with such amazing architecture was only for a few people to see. It was interesting how important it was that things be only for the Emperor, like the dragon as decoration or an entire city, and it seemed like the punishment for doing anything the emperor didn't like, was death, and not only that he would kill 9 generations of your family. That was back in the day of course, but still, pretty intense. We also visited the Temple of Heaven which was one of my favorite sites, because it was just so amazingly designed, it was a circle but it was really cool. We were also introduced to amazing food. We kept on saying that no one mentions how fantastic the food is, but literally everything we ate was unbelievable, even though most of the time we didn't know what it was. Also they just kept bringing us food, we would be just finishing up and then two new plates of food would be brought out, it was nuts. The Great Wall was, well great. It is crazy to think that something so big was built up on top of a mountain, I can't imagine being on top while thousands of warriors are trying to attack it, We flew to Xi'an and saw the Terra-cotta Warriors, which was fantastic, there were so many of them, and each of them with a different face, modeled after the artists who made them. We went to the Big White Goose Pagoda, where BUddhism was brought to China, it was surrounded by gorgeous gardens that had caged birds in the trees, which we found peculiar. We also went to Shanghai,which was our favorite city, it was like New York, only 10 times bigger and if you put LED lights on the outside of all the buildings that created a massive light show every night. It was a great place to see, It was here that we had our most interesting dish, we had pizza, with tuna and mayonnaise on it. We had to try it, expecting it to be horrible, but it was actually quite good, maybe we were just hungry. I was sad when I had to leave Katie at the dock, I had had such an amazing time with her. One of our favorite things was all the planned shops we went to. In every city they would take us to a place to see how something was made. Be it pearls, Terra-cotta warriors, Cloisonné, or jade, it seemed like they would run us through a work shop and then drop us in the gift shop, Americans without a doubt, always exit through the gift shop. We thought is was funny, and things even came with an official government approved souvenir card. We also had a great time looking at all of the attempts at English on signs, it was funny, some of them actually inappropriate, by mistake of course, but still funny. I loved traveling with Katie, it was great to be with someone who knows me better then three months. Our family is awesome because no matter how long or far we go, we always have the same sense of humor and when we find each other, where ever it may be in the world it is like no time had passed at all. This trip made me appreciate that much more than ever before, my family rocks. Right now I am on my way to Hawaii, I will land in Hilo tomorrow. I am sure that I missed a lot of stuff, so Katie if you want to add anything please do. Till next time, Take care, and make it count.

Sad News

I just heard that Mr. Frank Anselmo passed away after a long battle with cancer. Mr. A was my band director from 3rd grade up to Aquinas. He was the one who gave me a love of music and percussion. He was a great man who taught me a lot, not only about music, but also about life, he was always willing to give a wise word and also an Altoid. I specifically remember him being there for me when my Dad died, which says something about him, because he knew how to help an eight year old who just lost his role model. He will be missed, please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

Happy Birthday!!!

I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to Grandma, Debbie, Sarah and little Allie, I wish I could have been at your party, I hope it didn't rain to hard. See you all in only a few days now. Take care!

Fun with time

So I just wanted y'all to know a fun fact. Tonight I will be crossing the international date line, so today was April 20th, and for me tomorrow will also be April 20th. Just a fun fact, and because this year is leap year I will be living 367 days this year. For those of you who are doing math and thinking "but Josh didn't you lose almost an entire day by traveling around the world," you're rightish, but it doesn't sound as cool, so keep that to yourself, and anyway we only lost 15 hours, so I still got a few extra hours into this year. Take care, make it count.