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.

Japan

I am going to blog a little out of order since Japan is fresh in my head, then I will write to you about China and all of the fun me and Katie had traveling China. So anyway, Japan.
Well it is the height of Cherry Blossom season, there are official scientists who declare each year when the blossoms are all at their best, and it just so happened that that was exactly while we were there. It is the peak travel and tourist season in Japan. I can see why, it was beautiful, the striking yet mild colors of the blossoms adorned the trees of each zen garden we visited and path we walked down, it created a world that was peaceful and uniquely gorgeous in its simplicity.
A major part of my time in Japan however was rain. It rained all the time, it didn't stop, but it was still fantastic and I have travelled for months with amazing weather so it was about time we had rain. Oh and it was cold, so rainy and cold, but still unbelievable. Now for what I actually did. I hope that is of interest to all of you, because I feel like it is all I talk about on this thing. If anyone has anything they would like to say about what they have been up to, feel free to comment or just email me at joshua.best.s12@semesteratsea.org, I would like to know what is going on in your lives. Anyway back to Japan.
I travelled with two of my good friends Adam and Emily. We backpacked from Kobe, to Kyoto, to Tokyo and finally Yokohama. I am not really sure if "backpacking" has any requirements, but we traveled to those places and we had backpacks on so I think it counts. We left Kobe on the first day. They do not have Kobe beef because they had to kill all of the cows because of a disease that was spreading among them. Too bad but apparently it is like 300 dollars for a steak so that was not going to happen anyway. For those of you who do not know, Kobe beef is beef that comes from fancy cows that get massages everyday and eat the best grasses and are fed beer and wine, apparently it is delicious. We ended up in Kyoto the fist night after figuring out the train system which is fun since all of it is in Japanese. This was really the first time that there was important information that was not doubled in English, some of it was, but not all of it, and we looked lost a lot of the time, but we got everywhere without much trouble, my Mom's and Grandpa's intense training of map use came in handy quite a bit on this trip. My first night was in a hostel, first time I have ever done that and I would do it again , it was clean and the atmosphere of a hostel is much more fun than that of a hotel, it didn't hurt that it was only 40 bucks a night.
The next day was intense. My friend Adam is also a film major and decided to make a travel show / travel log of our adventures and so for most of what happened both Emily and I are wearing microphones under our shirt and have a camera on us.
We started out by getting ourselves to the golden pagoda. This is a three story pagoda that is entirely decorated with gold leaf, it was the home of the third Shogun, but after his death, and upon his request it became a zen temple. I know that because I was the host of a travel show when I was there. It is amazing how simple everything is. It is awe inspiring to see the ponds and the trees and the zen temples that are all built with the idea of controlling nature and using empty space as an art form. The concept of shibusa was very evident, that is the style of simple, subtle beauty. After that we went to one of the most famous zen rock gardens. People spend hours looking at these 15 larger rocks surrounded by white gravel. I must admit I do not know why contemplating these stones was so interesting but we sat there for a long time just looking at them. It had been raining all day, but it was really pouring then and it just looked so beautiful. For most of the time I was there I could only count 14 rocks, so I spent most of my time contemplating over why they said there were 15.
We then traveled to the Philosophers path, this is a small path that runs along a winding stream, along it are homes and little shops, as well as a plethora of temples. The most stunning aspect of it however were the hundreds of cherry blossoms that lined the walk way. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was raining hard, and we were soaked. We had our bags with us the entire day and everything we owned was wet, I mean everything. So we were huddled in the entranceway of this little flower shop and this florist came out and handed us all umbrellas, when we asked him how much he just signaled for us to go without paying, it was a gesture that made our day, we were pretty down about having nothing that was dry, but this one stranger turned that around for us.
We took a bullet train to Tokyo, a two hour ride going nearly 200 MPH, it was an expensive ticket but worth the ride if you're ever there. Sure enough we got to Tokyo and it was raining, We ate McDonald's, since it was the food that was in the station, (FYI a Big Mac tastes like a Big Mac). The station was like a maze though and it took us a long time to figure out how to leave. We found our way to a hotel, thinking we could stay there, as we walked in however Adam pointed out the chandelier in the elevator and it was clear we could not afford it. We ended up taking a train to Shibuya which is where the famous scene of the crosswalks in Tokyo are. No surprise there were no open hotels there either, (again, the height of Japan tourism). I don't know who's idea it was to wing it, but it lead to some interesting turns that ended with us in a small room in a hotel far from downtown.
The rest of Japan was great, and mostly dry. We ate the best sushi ever, complained about how expensive all the gifts were, but it was really not that bad, we are just used to things costing around 50 cents. We met up with friends to do Karaoke, and then we ended up on the ship bound for the US. I can't believe it is almost over, Only two weeks left of my voyage, and then I get to see all of you for real. Take care, make it count.
P.S. one of the most noticeable things is that people in Japan are quiet. No one makes noise. We were in a crowded intersection, and it was silent except for cars. In the trains and subway cars, no one made a sound. Even the announcements that told you where you were were in a whisper. very calming, but kinda creepy. Think about being in a full subway, you are shoulder to shoulder in the entire car, professional pushers are shoving people onto the train, and it is silent. Very odd.

Sorry it has been a while

Hey everyone, sorry i haven't written About China yet, I had a blast with Katie, it was awesome to see her and catch up with some family. I will not be able to blog now either because I'm on my way off the ship to Japan, I will be going from Kobe to Kyoto (it is the cherry blossom capital of the world and it is peak season). Then we will be going to Tokyo and doing big city stuff, then finally meeting up with the boat in Yokohama. It will be awesome, it is too bad that my cousin Andrew already left, he was here for two years, it would have been nice to see family in two countries! I will write more about my amazing time in China after Japan, but I also have 6 papers to write, and I have to edit my film, so it may not be very fast coming. I hope everything is well with everyone, I will be home in about three weeks, this trip is flying by. Take care, make it count.

big mistake

I just deleted all of the pictures from my Safari in South Africa..... I just thought you all should know.....

Good Morning Vietnam

For some reason every port we visit is my favorite port and vietnam was no different. It is a beautiful country with a very unique culture.
One of my good friends on the ship, Chi Chi, is from Vietnam and she took me as well as 15 other kids to her house on the first day. Her mom made us so much food it was insane how much we ate. Fruit is a big deal and just about everywhere we went including Chi Chi's house they had us try all of the unique fruits of the area, such as dragon fruit, jackfruit, rose apples, durian, and a very interesting fruit called breast milk. Food was an adventure here they serve dog and rat as well as many snakes, unfortunately I did not find a place to eat dog or rat, and I really wanted to eat a cobra heart, but Chi Chi said I had to go down a dark ally to find that so I thought it best to leave that for my return visit. I did however try the snake wine, this is a beverage that consists of rice wine, or rice moonshine that ferments for three years in a jar that is full of dead snakes. It wasn't terrible, someone else described it as a whiskey flavor, but I don't think I will be drinking a snake-and-coke any time soon.
I had no idea but apparently getting a suit is just a thing you do in Vietnam so while we were at Chi Chi's house they had their personal tailor stop by and all the guys got suits made for us, I got a navy blue suite, it's pretty awesome.
Before I get to far into what my trip was like I should describe how one crosses the road here so that you can picture how exciting it was to even walk down the street to go shopping. How it works is that the cars never stop, and the majority of vehicles are motorcycles and scooters. What you do is simply start to walk across the road slowly and never changing speed. The motorcycles and cars part around you as you cross and you find yourself in the middle of a four lane road during rush hour as vehicles fly past you and you are terrified hoping that everyone gives you enough room, it is actually really fun once you get the hang of it, and it is nice because you never have to wait for a light to change, you just cross when you want and where you want, very different from Singapore where there was a 1000 dollar fine for j-walking.
On the first night we decided to go to Karaoke, but half the group got caught up at Chi Chi's house so me and three friends decided to go do our own thing. We ended up having a very interesting night. First we stopped by the wedding reception of two students who got "married" really they just wanted the cheap open bar that accompanied a wedding ceremony, it was not exactly our crowd so we left rather quickly and went in search of another place, little did we know that we would be leaving the next place even quicker.
We were walking down the road and saw "billiards" outside this little bar, so we thought we would go in and see what it was like, we all liked to play pool. Well, funny how it works, because it turns out that we walked into a brothel. Ya, all we wanted to do was play a game of pool and have a beer, but this institution was designed for much more than that. Being the naive people we are we didn't get the hint until several girls asked us if we wanted them to go back to the hotel with us, and we quickly caught on. None of us were interested in what they had to offer but as we stood there I asked them about their life and how they got involved in this job, did they like it, were they happy, that kind of thing, but apparently one of the girls started answering to honestly about her "boss" and another girl started yelling at me, so we quickly made our way exit and avoided the three "bosses" that were at the door. Just so you know, Vietnam is one of the largest countries for human trafficking in the world. The rest of the night was much smoother and we all made it safely back to the ship.
I went on a trip to the Mekong Delta, There we stayed in a local house on the water and visited the worlds largest floating market. It was amazing to see how similar life was to the backwaters of India and the small tributaries of the Amazon. One night we had dinner on a river boat, there were professional singers entertaining the whole boat which was filed with not only our group but several other Vietnamese groups celebrating an occasion, somehow I ended up on stage singing "as long as you love me" by the Backstreet Boys, it was a pretty big hit, the funny part was that there was a piano player who didn't know the song, and he was the only accompaniment, so it sounded nothing like the song and I could not even think of the words or tune because he was just playing whatever he wanted on the synthesizer, nothing like embarrassing yourself in foreign countries. We visited a brick manufacturing facility and I helped put the mud into the machine that shaped the bricks, it was a good time, very messy and hard work, I could not imagine doing that for 10 hours straight.
We did a lot of shopping, Vietnam is a big place in the knock-off industry. You can buy anything you want there. One of my favorite stories happened on the last day. I had been looking for dress shoes for two days since I didn't have any to wear with my new suit. Shoes here are very European and come to a very odd point, shoes should be shaped like a foot in my opinion. I finally found the perfect shoe, I tried on a size 42 but needed a 43 (european sizes). As the woman was talking to us trying to distract us you could see in the back another worker stretching out the 42's with a piece of wood, really working the shoe to make it bigger, and then they brought out the same pair of shoes with a sticker over the original size that said 43. We all started laughing and even the workers laughed when they knew that we had caught onto their game. I almost bought them because of their ingenuity, but 40 dollars for a knock-off shoe that didn't fit was just to much.
The trip was not all fun however. One thing that caught me off guard was how prevalent the Vietnam, or as they call it the American war still was. Kids are still being born with birth defects from the agent orange and other chemicals we dropped over the land. Whole areas of farms are still toxic and the effects of the war can still be seen everywhere you look. Just a few years ago someone was killed by a land mine that was left over.
I visited the war remnants museum on the last day. I have never had a physical response to movies or sights, but I felt like I was going to throw up the entire time I was in this place. It was honestly sickening to see the images, the preserved fetuses and the rubble from the war. We dropped millions of gallons of toxic chemicals, the effects of which are still felt today. Seeing what happened from the other perspective was very emotional. Seeing language like American Imperialists, and other choice words used to describe the USA made me step back and think about everything in a new light. One thing I found interesting was that throughout the entire museum they made it very clear that it was not the American people, but the American government that was to blame, on ever wall was another example of how Americans protested the war and disliked the war. Generally we don't think of the government and the people as two separate entities, we are a government of the people, by the people and for the people, we are the government, at least that is how I generally see things, but from their perspective of their own relations between government and peoples, they could easily draw that distinction.
I learned a lot in this port and I will always remember what visiting here made me feel. One of the big things I have been trying to do is to make it count, in everything I do I want to make it count. Each experience and every moment can teach you something and make you realize something, it is very easy to let things flow over you and not think twice about them, but I have made it a point in my trip and now in my life to have all of my experiences flow through me not over me, and by doing that and by being present in the moment and paying attention to what every minute can teach me I am trying to make it count.
So I will write again after China and after I see Katie! ( I am so excited she has a lot of stuff planned), take care, and make it count.

This ship is awesome

Before I talk about Vietnam I just wanted to point out one of the reasons why this ship is awesome, I am sitting down in the piano bar attempting to write eloquently about Vietnam, and all around me there are people talking in Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, a South African and a guy from New York are talking about chess, and other people are passed out on the couches, a kid from Texas is teaching a man with multiple Ph.D's to play cribbage and a Pulitzer Prize winning poet just agreed to be in my documentary. It is such an awesome experience just to be on the ship, not even considering the ports we stop at. I love this trip.

Singapore

Singapore is very clean. It is incredibly modern and developed. The big thing everyone knows about Singapore is the rules, $1000 fine for chewing gum, fines and caning for littering or jay walking. It is pretty strict country but you can easily see that it works. The roads and sidewalks are impeccable and the MRT or subway system is very clean, it is like the train in the Atlanta airport, but it goes all over the city. We were only in Singapore for a few hours, so we had to make our time count. We walked around the downtown area, we found the merlion after a long and hard trek around the city, it is a statue of a half lion half fish that spits water, it is a big spot for pictures. I had some amazing food, that was a fun experience too. The street vendors were all taken off the street and put into areas that look like food courts, called hawker centers, they are very cheap and very good. Each place has a letter grade given to it by the government that denotes its cleanliness, so you know what you're eating. While we were there we had the first thunder storm of the trip, it was a good one too, plenty of thunder crashes and lightning strikes. For dinner we went to an American bar, I had pizza and we played pool, it was nice to have a little shot of home in the middle of a major asian city. Vietnam tomorrow, as you can probably tell I am a little distracted while I write this. I will write again in a week when I'm back on the ship. Take care.

India

Hey everyone, I am sorry you haven't heard from me in a while, I had a lot of school work all due at once again and I had to make sure I got all of it done before I did this.
India is an incredible place, honestly everyone should go and spend at least a few weeks there.  It was probably one of the most transformational places I have visited because it is so different.  All the other cities had western influences, the food, clothing, movies and music were all westernized.  India however was much different.  Bollywood, Indian music, Indian food and dress were everywhere.  It was fun and interesting to be in place so very different, especially at a time when one of the major things we were realizing is that a lot of the world is similar.  We docked in southern India in the port city of Kochi.  Here the backwaters are a major attraction.  Small canals and streams that connect lakes and estuaries along the south west coast of India.  Fishing was at one time the biggest business here, chinese dip nets and specialized boats were all over the place, but now very few people actually make a living fishing.  Now tourism is the major industry.  The area has been majorly effected by environmental degradation as well as overfishing.  They say that at one point the nets were used to make money, but now people coming to see the nets is what makes money.  I went on a river boat cruise down the slow canals of the "Venice of the east" and I didn't see a single fisherman, but I saw plenty of tourist boats.
I went on a big trip with SAS while in India.  I flew from the south all the way to the north to visit Delhi, Agra and Varanasi.  Delhi is a big city, it is the capitol and actually very similar to Washington D.C. in fact our guide had spent 6 months backpacking the U.S. and knew all about our major sites and related it all back to what we were seeing.  There actually is a lot of things that look identical to Washington.  the capitol and that white house, the washington monument complete with reflecting pool were all there, with different symbolic meaning and made out of red sandstone.  New and old Delhi are the same place and there is no real difference, it is just a way of explaining the city to tourists.  The old Delhi is the area that is within the ancient city walls, and new delhi is built around the wall, also the new one has a lot to do with the British.
We took a train from Delhi to Agra, where the Taj Mahal is.  The train was awesome,  We sat with a lady who happened to teach english in a university and knew all about storytelling and folklore, everything I was interested in.  Also the bathrooms on the train were labeled, Indian style and Western style.  The western style is the throne we are all used to, the Indian style toilet, which was very popular in every public place was a hole in the ground, it was a modern hole, that flushed, but it was in the ground and you squatted over it to use it.  Apparently this is healthier for your bowls and creates less pressure than the western style.  Another interesting bathroom feature was similar to a european style bidet, but it was just a hose next to the toilet.  I know many of you are thinking it, but no I did not use either of these bathroom features.
In Agra we visited several sites that were incredible.  We saw Fatehpur Sikri.  THis was a marvelously built palace constructed by Akbar (his grandson would build the Taj Mahal), the palace however was abandoned after several years of use and no one really know why, several reasons may be possible, for starters the water was not drinkable, and it was crazy hot.  All we know is that once Akbar left, he never returned.   We also swung by the Agra fort, a place that I would have sworn was impenetrable, until I was told that it had been taken over 6 times by various groups the last of which was the British with muskets and canons, I would call that cheating, but I guess imperialism doesn't play by the rules.  A fun fact about it, from one of the rooms you have a beautiful view of the Taj Mahal.  The man who built the Taj Mahal was over thrown by his son, and his son was not happy with all the resources his father put into building the Taj, so he had his father imprisoned in the fort (in extreme comfort) in the room that had a marvelous view of the Taj.  This kid had some daddy issues.
Our next stop in Agra was the Taj Mahal.  The Taj is a mausoleum for the wife of one of the rulers of India.  THe pictures of the place do not do it justice.  The size is immense, when we first walked in through the gates and saw it, I was taken aback by its beauty, but not by its size, until I realized that we were still really far away from it and I could only see dots that were people on its steps.  It is a massive structure, and at the same time it is so graceful that you do not feel threatened by it.  Inside the ornamentation is incredible.  There is not much inside, just the tomb of the builders wife, and he himself was laid there after his death.  The art work is incredible, millions of semi precious stones are laid into the marble.  We visited a workshop where they do work identically as how it was done in the Taj and the process is painstakingly difficult.  pieces of stone a tenth the size of your pinky nail being filed and shaped to be laid into the marble as part of a flower, it was really incredible.
The Taj was beautiful, but my favorite place by far was Varanasi.  Varanasi is the holy city of Shiva, the destroyer.  It is a city where thousands of pilgrims travel to each day.  We went to the Ganges early in the morning to witness the ritual bathing in the Ganges.  We lit candles and Placed them into the warm Ganges river as the sun began to rise.  people lined ever ghat, or staircase going into the river.  People meditating, washing, praying.  It was so interesting to see religion displayed so proudly and openly, especially coming from the U.S. where most people do not publicly display their beliefs.  In Varanasi however people paraded down the streets singing and beating drums to worship their god.  We also went to the most holy of the ghats and watched a ritual in which 7 brahmans pay homage to Shiva, it was a beautiful ceremony that happens every night, and 4,000 Hindu pilgrims traveled to see it as well.
Varanasi was very crowded.  People everywhere.  It seemed like you could do anything on the streets, get a hair cut, a shave, cook, eat, buy and sell, urinate or sleep.  It was as if you took Time Square and filled not just the sidewalks but the streets, and alleyways with people.  We took a rickshaw ride to the ghats the first night we were there and it was chaos.  The rules of the road are drive on the left...most times.  Some cars but an endless supply of motorcycles and bikes, rickshaws and people.  The horns never stop sounding and when you want someone to move you just grab their bike and move it.  Our rickshaw was hit by a motorcycle, smashed between two other rickshaws and nearly ran over a small child.  I'm just saying that I'm glade I wasn't driving.
Another shocking thing about Varanasi is that dogs are everywhere, hundreds of dogs everywhere, they are not seen as pets and they roam the streets, with plenty of food from garbage heaps.  Another animal reigns supreme in the area however, the cow is sacred.  No one eats beef.  The cows literally walk anywhere, they are allowed anywhere.  They walk down the streets, down sidewalks.  There was a cow in a store, a cow nearly ran me over  on the ghats, and we had to divert our route back to the rickshaws because cows were in the alleys.  It was insane to see so many cows just doing whatever they wanted, and no one thought twice about the cow in the store.  Over all India was amazing.  I'm sure there is more but I'm out of time.  Tomorrow I will be in Vietnam, so I still have to tell you all about Singapore which was awesome and really clean.  Take care.

The aftermath of Apartheid

For those of you who don't know and did not watch Invictius or Skin, South Africa has had a long and difficult struggle with race relations.  In 1950 the population registration act required all people to be classified by physical features into three categories; White, Coloured, and Bantu.  This system became more and more complex and confusing until there were over seven categories to be put into and how you were classified changed from what you looked like, to what your parents were, to what group accepted you.  It was quite a mess.  Anyway as I am sure many of you know this institution lead to extreme racism, those of Bantu or Coloured classification had to carry their passbooks around with them, in this book was their classification, police records, job history, and clearances to be in specific areas at specific times.  Inter marriage was strongly forbidden and any intermingling with another race was to be avoided at all costs.  This system also limited where people could live and what education and jobs they were allowed to have.  Apartheid policy carried on until it officially ended in 1989 which was the last year in which the South African population was classified in the register, but this did not end the long established relationships built between races. 

The aftermath of Apartheid is still very strong today.  Most lower level jobs are filled by those of color and higher positions are filled by white Afrikaners.  As you go around the city you can notice the huge disparity between the rich and the poor, and you can also see that for the majority that line follows racial lines.  Looking around it is only white people in the malls, and black people on the park benches.  In South Africa the term Black means something much different than in the US.  The term that would be equivalent of "black" in the US is "Non-white", but that is changing since there is a push to recognize that you cannot be a "non-person."  Being black in South Africa means that you were born speaking a Bantu language, since there are many other classifications for those who were not.  

I want to be clear that my observations are only representative of Cape Town.  You could walk around the city for days and never see the disparity.  You could drive all around the Cape Town area and never see a place below middle class.  The poverty is very well hidden.  Separated from the city by golf courses and freeways the Townships are where the poor are concentrated.  The Townships are shantytowns,  miles and miles of shacks.  Places run by ganges and thugs.  The largest one was recently known to have over one million people living within its ever growing borders.  Many people who live here do not work, unemployment is somewhere around 25%, and the population is almost exclusively "non-white".  

You may be thinking to yourself, "this is horrible" or "how sad" but I would ask that you remember, the recognition of equality only started some 23 years ago, they have come a long way in such a short time, even though there is much more work to be done.  I also urge you to look at the United States, 236 years ago we said that "all men are created equal."  it took 89 years for African Americans to be considered human, 94 years for them to get the right to vote, 144 years for women's suffrage, and 233 years for a non-white male to be elected to our highest office.  We are still not at a place of total equality but it has been said that the beauty of the United States is not where we are but at our constant struggle to reach the ideals set forth by our founders.  

I know that my experience in South Africa has made me take a closer look at my own country and my own life.  Let us remember that we are all alike, the differences between race are only skin deep.  I know that most people reading this already know and agree to this, but not everyone understands, so let's make it clear, all people are created equal.  Spread the word.  

Safari!

One of the coolest things I did in Africa was a Safari up in Kruger National Park. There were two trips to Kruger, they were the same safari, and the only difference was the accommodations, Explorer and Deluxe. I ended up in the Deluxe accommodations, and I learned that I am not a deluxe person, I am much more of an Explorer. One of the guys on my trip ordered a bottle of champaign with our gourmet lunch... that is not my kind of traveling, but it was good to experience that too, it made me realize that I like tents and campfires better then champaign and 18 hole golf courses. But anyway onto the cool part, the Safari.
We had a game driver named Happy, he was incredibly, well, happy. The head game driver was an amazing character, try to picture this man; a bushy grey beard, a strong South African / Australian accent, he wore a floppy wide brimmed hat and a khaki button-down and shorts. to top it all off he had a peg leg, a legit, pirate looking peg leg, and that is the leg he used for the gas and brakes! I was blown away by what stories this man must have, and I was even more amazed when he pulled out a pipe and started smoking it. Anyway we pulled into the park and the first thing we see is the most rare sight in the park, the Leopard. Not only did we see it in the first 10 minutes, but we saw it leap out of the bushes and attack a wild boor. It missed the boor but it was still amazing. After that we were pumped for the next two days. We saw everything we could want to see, the big five, which are the 5 most dangerous animals: the lion, elephant, buffalo, rhino, and leopard. We saw giraffe, zebra, impalas, hippos, monkeys, baboons. Literally everything a zoo would have, but they were in their natural environment. I was is a game truck with a bunch of people who were avid birders, which was actually really good, because it gave us stuff to look at when we could not find any big game, I saw dozens of birds, my personal favorite was the lilac breasted roller. The way a safari works is pretty cool, anyone can actually drive through the park, and no one is allowed to drive off of the roads and paths, which at first I thought would make it not as cool as a private game reserve, but it was amazing because all the animals come right up to the road anyway. All the drivers have radios so that when one finds something cool they can call and make sure everyone gets there. It was just like the safari drive at Disney, seriously Disney does a great job.
One of the major issues in the park and in all of Africa right now is poaching, not of elephants but of rhinos, since their horns are thought to be an aphrodisiac and panacea in Asiatic countries. In fact while we were there they found two rhinos who were killed. It is a sad thing, but one rhino horn can bring in over 100,000 US dollars, and that makes it a very attractive option for many people. It is a very risky thing to do though because there is a shoot to kill policy when the army finds a poacher. Thats right, they brought in the army to patrol for poachers. The Safari was by far the coolest thing I did, but it is not the most important thing to talk about, tune in tomorrow-ish, same place, same-ish time for a commentary about post apartheid race relations. Take care.

South Africa

Cape Town rocks!
This place was so amazing, the sights and experiences are out of this world. On the first day I went to the shopping center near the ship, which made me realize that South Africa was the same as any big city in the US, literally identical in the wealthy areas. It was a nice shot of home between Ghana and India. For me it was an extreme activities port. I woke up early on day two and traveled two hours to go diving with great white sharks. It was the coolest thing ever!!!! We got on the boat and went out over the crashing surf, for about 20 minuets we just chummed the water putting in pieces of tuna and ground up fish for the scent. Then we saw our first shark only about 5 ft. long. By the time I was in the cage we had five sharks taking turns swimming around the boat, the largest two were about 12ft long. Massive massive animals, and they moved so gracefully and attacked so efficiently there is no doubt why these sharks are kings of the oceans. I had my underwater video camera with me so I got some pretty awesome footage, you will all have to see it because you would not believe how big they are and how close they came, one nearly bit the cage. After diving I continued my adventure quest by climbing up Table Mountain, it is a very tall mountain that creates the bowl between itself and the ocean that Cape Town sits in. Me and a friend, Adam, hiked up early in the morning (the rule is that you don't sleep in port). It was amazing to see the clouds move in beneath you, the view from the top was breathtaking. It is unlike any mountain I have been on because it is straight down on all sides, sheer rock faces everywhere, (we climbed up a gorge), which makes it ideal for abseiling, which we did. This means that we repelled down 324 ft. of the mountain. It was terrifying. Honestly more nerve racking then sharks. I have video of this too to prove it. The lack of a safety briefing was even more terrifying and then when we were a third of the way down they told us there was a surprise half way down, which really didn't make me feel to good. Turns out that the surprise was that the rock face cuts back and you have to hang in the air the rest of the way down as you slowly lower yourself. It was so cool, the view was amazing and my heart never stopped racing. The repelling only took us about half way down the mountain and so we had to climb back up to get the cable car down all the way. The hike up was even more terrifying then the repel down because we had no more harness. This trail (if you could call it that) is the most dangerous, killing more people then Everest. It is suggested only for experienced climbers, and the only other person we saw on it had a helmet and rock climbing gear... There were sheer rock faces inches from my feet. The path was only about three feet across between a rock wall and a 1000 ft drop. At times there was absolutely no path and we were pulling ourselves up and over boulders on the edge of a mountain. Needless to say I was thrilled when I made it to the top, and it was the coolest thing I had done... up until the Safari. That is for a later post. take care.

Ghana part 3

The rest of my stay in Ghana was in a small village north of Accra in the Volta region. Torgorme Village is a little place of varying population depending on who you ask, anywhere from 500 to one million (Closer to a thousand I would say). This village is one of the places that made me really think about who I am and what kind of person I want to be. We drove a few hours outside of Accra and the change was dramatic. There was room to breath, farms and open space rolled off into the distance. There were small huts and houses spread out, people did not have to live on top of each other like they did in the city. We pulled into the center of the village and children ran out and chased our bus down the dirt road, singing and dancing, like a scene from a movie. We got out of the bus and we shook hands with all of the village elders and sat down to go through a naming ceremony. Traditional names are based off of the day of the week you were born, mine is Kofi, since I was born on Friday, and my last name is that of my host family, Elolo. The ceremony was cool, they did a few names and then had the kids dance and sing and play drums in a traditional style, it was like going to one of my sisters dance recitals when they did their african dance, but a little more authentic. The whole thing was really cool and felt very real, but when I thought about it, it made me think twice about what it was I was really experiencing. Several years ago the Volta dam was built, forming the largest lake in Ghana. The main income for the people of this village was the export of shells that flowed onto their river banks, but because of the Dam the shells stopped coming and they had to move to tourism for income. Their most marketable tradition was the naming ceremony, everyone is given a name, a bracelet and a small pot with your new name on it, so that is the new way to make money, and later when I went into a building I could see the pots of the next five groups that were going to go through the ceremony. I learned that just before the ceremony they had gone through a funeral rite, but tourist money means a lot, so they acted as happy as they could for our new names. All of the elders were in their traditional garb, and half way through the ceremony one of the old men pulled a cell phone out of his robe and started texting. It just shows that they don't really want to be in this situation, but they have to be. You see I was still experiencing the culture, but the naming thing wasn't the real culture, the fight to make money and adapt was the real culture. Later on one of the men asked me if I would tell my friends about this so that they would come and spend money. I don't want it to sound fake because the two days in the village certainly were not but the one ceremony felt forced.
I met my host family and their nephew, Wonder, showed me and another SAS kid around the village. We learned all about pottery making and watched their team play soccer. We had a dance party after dinner and we all learned how to dance like a Ghanaian, we even taught them some of our moves like the snaky leg and the soldier boy. The village story teller told us tales around the bonfire, and we had some amazing food. One thing that really stuck out was something that happened at dinner. The food for the SAS kids was catered so that the families would not have to make food for us. I had too much chicken and I couldn't finish the piece that I had started, so the father took the uneaten meat and saved it for later, because meat is not something they have a lot of. That just made me think about how much we wast in the US without even thinking about it and this guy was saving the leftovers of a stranger.
Ghana meant a lot to me. Many of the people on the ship have no interest in returning to Ghana because they thought it was dirty and they didn't like being harassed on the streets, but I liked it because it was the first port that really countered my culture and put me way outside my comfort zone. Accra and Torgorme were the kind of places that just knock you off your feet. I don't think that I will ever be able to put into words how it effected me, I don't even think that I fully understand that, but I do know that this is the kind of thing everyone should witness. Take care.

Ghana part 2

Sorry for the delay again I just got back on the ship from South Africa, I will write about that in a later post.
On the second day in Ghana I woke up, stretched out and looked at the clock, and to my horror realized that I was two hours late for a trip I had planned. I rushed to the tour busses and of course they had left, so I spent several hours trying to figure out if I could get to the slave castles on my own with a few friends. Unfortunately it was four hours away and Biggie, the cab driver, wanted to much money. On the way back from the ship we ran into some friends: Destiny, a deaf student, her interpreter Kara, and three other girls, Tori, Alyssa and Nicole. They were headed to a deaf school so we decided to tag along. once we got there it was amazing. The kids were so excited to see visitors. They ran out of the school as our taxi pulled into the parking lot. The school itself was not in the greatest condition. There were desks and black boards, but no text books, and interestingly none of the teachers knew how to sign, so you can imagine that these kids are not being taught to their fullest potential. In Ghana they use American Sign Language, so these we were with were able to communicate with the kids and I got along using some of the signs that I picked up in the cab ride there. They kids wanted to have their picture taken over and over again, they would pose and then get more people and pose again and then garb the camera and take their own pictures. I don't think I took half the images that I have from that day.
An interesting fact; story telling is a major part of sign language culture. This fit nicely with the documentary I am making and I was able to have one of the kids tell me a story in sign language about the history of Ghana. We were at the school for a few hours and then it was time for us to leave, I taught all of them the exploding fist bump, which they thought was hilarious, and we drove off with smiles on our faces. Several of the girls I was with are Mormon so we stopped and visited a Mormon temple that was just built. It was cool to see other Americans there working and doing their Missions. After our temple stop we decided that it was about time to get some food. Now is a good time to explain a concept known as Africa time... this is an idea that time does not matter, and there is no rush for anything, no dead lines and no worries. We are a group of very hungry Americans running on American time, you can see the problem. We go into a "To-Go" pizza place. We each order our own pizzas since we were told they were small and sat down to wait for them. We waited and waited. We saw pizza after pizza get carried out, and none of them were ours. We waited three hours, sitting hungry in a pizza place and finally a man brought us our pizzas, and they kept coming and coming and coming. Some how we had accidentally ordered ten full pizzas for our small group of five girls and myself. There was so much pizza that it could not fit on the table. A possible reason for the three hour wait time, we looked around and all the Ghanaians had one pizza for a family of five and we were huddled around TEN, definitely the fat American stereotype. The sad part was that we ate it all, it was a challenge that we happily accepted, I was sweating by the time it was all gone. That night the ship sat uneven in the water as I slept , very full, in my port side room.

Ghana Part 1

Hey everyone, Sorry this is so late I have had exams and papers due, things got a little crazy, and I just couldn't get time to write. I will not be able to write all that I learned and felt tin Ghana but I will do my best to hit all the highlights (I need something to tell all of you when I see you in person)! I figured for this trip I would break it up by activity, since I could write a book on each experience.
Accra was, in all honesty, dirty. I don't want to make you dislike Ghana, because I fell in love with it over the week, but I want to paint a vivid picture of what people live with here on a daily basis. Trash is everywhere, you cannot look on the ground without seeing some form of plastic bag or bottles. to add to this the winds from the north were strong and the dry dirt flew through the air, tinting everything the same shade of red. Plumbing is not standard and drawn upon walls are arrows saying "Urinate here" or "Do not urinate here" The gutters are wide and open to handle the water during the rainy season, but now black sludge flows and refuse threatens to fill them. There are fires everywhere, along the roads, in front of shacks, on the beaches. They burn the garbage as a way to get rid of it, the fires give Accra a constant haze and a strange odor. This is the world I stepped into, and this is the world the people of Accra live in each day. The first day went by so fast. and it was a constant mix of excitement and sadness. It was so cool to be in such a different place, but then I would remember that this is not a movie but how people actually live. We got into a taxi to get to Accra, since our dock was in Tema about an hour drive away. A Rastafarian, Kwasi, got into the cab with us and even though we told him we would not be paying him he became our guide and was with us for 9 hours as he showed us all around Ghana. The first thing you would notice when you arrive in Ghana would be the sea of humanity at all the stop lights. People walk through traffic selling anything you could possibly want, from combs, and baked goods to belts, books, sunglasses and chickens. Also you would notice the insane amount of goats and chickens that are just walking around, and then a cow behind the bush. As you can imagine it is a little intimidating to walk through such a place. Luckily we had our guide. He took us to Mekola market, a market that was for locals and not visitors, which got us some odd looks, but it was one of the most interesting cultural experiences of my life. A place where there is stuff everywhere. The path to walk down is just wide enough for half a person, yet two way traffic is not stopped, people just shove and push through. There were pots stacked up 20ft and pans as far as you could see. The textile area went on and on, with thousands of different cloths to pick and then have a lady make you anything with a foot pumped sewing machine. The meat area was my favorite though. Pig hooves and raw pork, and chicken just sitting in bowls. Fish, some smoked others raw laying on trays. I just narrowly missed a lady who had a massive plate of fish balanced on her head as she moved between stalls. Live crabs clawing out of pots and flies on everything. If you tried to take a picture anywhere in the market you would get yelled at, so don't ever do that. I have to go to bed because I am waking up early tomorrow to watch us pull in to Cape town. More will follow as soon as I can. Take care.

Project Update

Katie told me that I should tell everyone about my project so I thought I would take this time to do just that. If you don't know, I am making a documentary about folklore and story telling traditions around the world. We have been telling stories since we were cavemen and I want to understand why story telling is important to different cultures and what the purpose is, to teach a moral, explain nature, etc. So far I have interviewed a librarian in Dominica and a village elder in Brazil. Both told great stories about spirits in the forests and how one must respect each other and nature. I found it interesting that the same character showed up in both places. An evil spirit that has his legs on backwards, so it can trick you and kill you from behind. I want to find out why both places have an identical spirit, and I think it may have to do with the slave trade, so in Ghana I want to find out if they have a similar character. Also interesting is that in many cultures the devil is seen as half man / half goat, and the legs of a goat bend backwards... just another possible connection.
I have set up interviews with people on board the ship to serve as my experts. One is a pulitzer prize winning poet, a man who has written a text book involving cultures. Another is a woman who's accomplishments in English and literature made all of my other very impressive professors want her signature. I think that these people will be more than qualified to speak about folklore.
Thats all I got for now, and I'm happy with where I am, it seems to be taking shape and getting it's focus. Hope everything is good in the States. Take care.

Amazon Continued

     Ok,   so on the second day of the Amazon river boat extravaganza we started out with a hike through the Rainforest.  We hiked with two guides who were born to tribes in the jungle and the man who owned the land we were hiking on who also knew everything that the forest could do.  They showed us how to make rope out of palm leaves and use them to climb up the trees to get the fruit at the top.  we saw them point out poisonous plants, and right next to them something that could cure it.  Every plant there had a purpose, they used everything they could to help them survive.  Including a large tree that was hollow on the inside and they would hit it with a stick and it would resonate for a mile in the jungle to help you find your hunting party, or to alert a nearby tribe that you were passing through.   As we were walking they would grab these palm leaves that were like plastic and make crowns or little animals, one kid got a pipe and there were more than enough whistles.  We licked the gum of a gum tree and ate quinine, which was incredible strong.  They also made some of the local wildlife angry to show them to us.  They gathered us around a tree, and then scraped the tree with a knife.  soon after hundreds of bullet ants, about the length of a quarter (none of my estimates are exaggerations, seriously) came running up the tree.  These ants are called bullet ants for a reason, and when they bit you it feels like you have been shot, and it does not go away for three days.  Everyone was more than happy to get far from that tree. We then took turns screaming into a large nest like object on a tree, and millions of tiny little ants ran out and made the nest look like it was vibrating.  It was explained that hunters use them to mask their sent so we put our hands against the vibrating mass and thousands of ants would instantly bury your hand.  Then before they could get up your arm you smashed them all and rubbed them into your skin, which created a pleasant and natural odor.  Luckily I didn't miss any, but there were plenty of people still finding little ants hours later. The jungle this time was even better than the first time.  Tiny paths that you could barely fit through, the sounds of tropical birds and a few monkey calls that made it feel so far from reality and created an environment that definitely felt like humans shouldn't be there.  They made torches from flammable tree sap and showed us how the natives would make an early form of gun powder that they would use to kill fish.  On our way out of the jungle we got lost and ended up by a swamp.  we hung out there for a bit trying to figure out where our canoes were, all the local people do not get each others attention by calling their name they make animal sounds.  The same for trying to get the boats to us, little screeches and hoots.  We finally walked another half a mile to another area where t he boats found us, and when I asked how they finally got the captains attention the guide just pulled out his cell phone.  We were so far from civilization, but you can not get away from modern life.  

What happened next was probably my favorite time of the voyage as of February 8th at 15:49, I have to be specific because every second provides an opportunity to surpass my wildest expectations.  We went to a small village that does not get many tourists or visitors, just Semester at Sea once a year.  This is a village of about 200 people living mostly from fishing and small farms.  It was such an amazing  time.  First I interviewed the elder of the village, he was only 67 and already the elder, he talked about spirits of the forest and how respect and moderation is how one survives the difficulties of the jungle.  Just as we finished it started to down pour, a real rainforest storm.  This is a normal part of life in the wet season and it did not stop anyone from playing soccer or walking around.  I ended up playing for hours with the little kids of the village.  We couldn't say anything to each other but that didn't seem to matter.  Me and three other SAS kids just ran around in the rain with them.  We played tag and then invented a game where they would get on our backs and we would run after each other and tickle each other as soon as we could while screaming "Attack" in Portuguese.  Then we swung them around and around making their feet leave the ground and they would fight over who was next.  I chased bikes and learned to count and tickled and was tickled more than ever before.  The smiles and the laughter never stopped and it was amazing to be with these kids and have such a great time and understand each other so well even though we could not speak.  It was an unbelievable experience.  Then we had to leave, muddy and sweaty and tired we had to just go, I wish I could have spent days there.  As we left the kids asked us when we were coming back.  It was hard to say that I didn't really know when, but I said someday in the future I would visit.  And I will, there is no way that I could not go back to this small village that opened its doors so readily for us. 

It was odd to go from this back into the boat and then they took us to a surprise Luau on this secluded beach with music and food and dancing and games.  It was a really fun party but it felt odd, we were just playing with kids who's houses, up on stilts, were missing roofs and had floors with holes that dropped to the water below.  To go from this to a beach party just brought up a lot of thoughts about what it was I was doing and it reminded me that this adventure was for us, which I didn't like.  So in the future I want my excursions to be about the people who I meet and getting to know them and what life is for them, and not just stopping in, playing for a few hours and then leaving to go to more comfortable settings.  

On the last day I swam with the dolphins again in the same location, just as cool.  Then we went to a mans home and saw what life was like in the jungle.  He had 15 kids all with the same wife.  And they showed us how to process manioc, which has cyanide in it, but edible after cooking.  We learned about the medical plants they use and the crops that he has including cocoa and Acai berries.  It was such a cool time.

     I will never forget my time in the Amazon and I will never forget my experiences.  They say that people may forget what you say but they will never forget how you made them feel.   I know that I will always remember how blessed and joyful the people of the Amazon made me feel, and I hope that my presence was able to do that for them.  Take care.

Neptune Day!

Today was Neptune day! It is the day that you cross the equator in the Ocean. You have to ask Neptune for permission to sail in the southern seas. So they woke us up at 7:30 with drums and whistles and cymbals then marched us all out to the top deck. There we met Neptune, (Our Executive Dean in green body paint) and we had to prove our worth. So fish guts (yes real ones) were poured over us, then we had to kiss a fish and Neptune's ring. Then we officially went from being Pollywogs to Shellbacks.
Another activity of the day was to shave your head. A ton of guys did it, and 7 girls shaved their heads. Unfortunately I was not able to do it because of continuity in SAS's videos (it would look weird for me to have hair in one shot then not in another). Also I have to go up to pulitzer prize winners and Harvard professors and ask them for legitimate interviews for my project, and it seems more professional if I have hair. Oh well, I'll just shave my head later I guess.
It was also my roommates birthday today, he turned 21 on the high seas. So we had a pretty good party for him, we went to the fancy diner that you have to pay for. It proved that they are capable of feeding us delicious food, but don't.
Right now I am in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, this morning we crossed over the Mid Atlantic Ridge. This is crazy!

The Amazon!

This place is amazing! There are so many things to talk about and so many amazing experiences that I am going to take it one day at a time and just throw out the highlights. On the first day in the Amazon I went swimming with pink river dolphins. These dolphins are one of only four fresh water dolphins in the world and they do not have a fused neck vertebrae like bottle nose dolphins so they can move their head allowing them to eat in between the roots of trees in the flooded forest. After that I was able to fish for the Pirarucu, the largest fresh water fish that can get over 9 ft. long. I was able to get one, but they were in a cage underwater, and they are protected so we didn't have any hooks, but it was still cool to feel the power of a 9 ft fish. That night for dinner we went to a Brazilian steak house, apparently they have these amazing places in the states, so I would check it out, but there is unlimited meat and all kinds of delicious foods that had us eating for three hours. Manaus is a unique city because it is a huge urban center right in the middle of the rainforest, it is duty free so a lot of companies ship their raw materials there to be manufactured. It can get a little sketchy but all in all it was a safe time, especially because I was with one of the three people who spoke Portuguese in the ship. On the second day I got on my river boat which was to be my home for the next three days. There were 34 of us on this river boat. The layout was as follows, One big empty area on the first deck, a small galley in the back and and a wheel house in the front, and the top deck was covered and just one big open deck where we all hung our hammocks to sleep in. It was so much fun. We had two fantastic guides Antonio and Coronado. We went to the meeting of the waters and saw the two rivers come together but never mix until miles and miles down river. After we witnessed that wonder we went and walked through some jungle to find the giant lilly pads. They really were giant. they can get over 6 ft in diameter and create a haven for Caiman, a close relative of the alligator. I was able to see several adult caiman eating and swimming around, and dozens of vultures up in the trees waiting for their turn to dine. What I found odd was that we had traveled two days up the Amazon, and another 5 hours up the Rio Negro, where peoples houses were floating and the nearest village was miles and miles away, and yet at the small floating souvenir shop, they still took VISA.
Later in the day we went fishing for Piranhas. Don't get your hopes up, I didn't catch anything, but a girl in my boat was able to get one! On our way through the winding canals and tributaries that form a small lake one of the guides saw a Sloth in a tree. SO we floated quietly up to the tree and we were all looking at it and taking pictures. Then the guide jumps out into the tree, climbs a good 50 ft up and starts to wrestle with the sloth trying to tear it from the branches and bring it down to us. Through some amazing acrobatics he was able to get the sloth in the boat after a few close calls of dropping the sloth. It wasn't to happy about this, but sloths are pretty easy going it seems because he just sort of hung out on the front of the boat as we cruised away and he finally got off at another tree when we were fishing. The boats that I am talking about here are actually canoes with motors on them and there were four of them that carried us around to the different Piranha hot spots. I was in the last boat, that also was lucky enough to have the defective motor. So as we are careening through the ever narrowing paths our engine stops, and the other boats carry on into the distance. The smoke coming from the motor was so thick you couldn't see through it. So we were in the middle of the Amazon, it is starting to get dark, and the motor dies, who know how far from anything. I don't know why but for some reason I was less nervous about being stuck in the middle of the Amazon at night then I am when I get lost in Rochester. Quite a while and a few Portuguese cures words from our navigator later and we were on our way to looking for caiman. I was able to hold a speckled caiman, about one year old. The speckled caiman are smaller than the black caiman also found in the area, but I was cool with that since the black caiman get over 9 ft long. Everything in the Amazon can grow to over 9 ft long. When we got back to our boat we had delicious food that I will never be able to pronounce, or spell. When you asked what something was the answer was usually, it is a fruit/fish/spice from the jungle. We all slept in our hammocks. which were a little close for some people. It was like a giant Newton's Cradle, and if one person swung a little, they hit the person next to them and it carried all the way down the line. But it was very comfortable, and I didn't get a single mosquito bit. I will talk about the other two days in the next post. Take Care.

Lets talk bugs.

Before I go ahead and post anything about how fantastic and amazing the Amazon is, let me say a few words about bugs in the Amazon. Bugs in the Amazon are massive. I am not talking about "oh wow look at that beetle isn't it large." it's more like "WHOA, that bug just knocked that guy over!" They are the biggest things I have ever seen. There was a moth larger than my hand. The beetles, ad there are many of them, are twice the size of my thumb. These things are no joke. There are motion sensors on the doors to the outside dinning area, and I saw a bug fly in front of the sensor and open the door. Some of these creatures I have never seen before and they look like some sort of alien or science project gone wrong. Luckily we spent most of our time on the Rio Negro which is to acidic for mosquitoes to lay eggs, so there were not to many of those around. But hundreds of beetles and billions of gnats. It seems that most things in the Amazon are either huge or tiny, anything normal sized is just not here. I just had to get that off my chest to start with.

The Ship

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated this in a while, its just that time flies on board. It seems to me though like I have been on the MV Explorer for months, but it has only been a little over one week. It is amazing how quickly people become your close friends when the farthest you can get from them is 590 ft. Right now we are sailing up the Amazon river for two days until we get to the port of Manaus. It is a pretty large city that grew out of Brazils drive to industrialize the Rainforest. I figured I would take this time to tell you a little bit about ship life, without boring you to death. First of all time seems to just melt away. It is funny because everything is so scheduled, meals are only two hours long, classes start, meetings all the time, but as soon as all that is done or not yet started, time seems to disappear, I could be laying out watching the ocean go by for minutes and it feels like hours, or watch it for hours and it feels like minutes, it makes no sense, but I think it all has to do with how dedicated you are to the moment, looking out over the rolling sea, or now the beautiful rainforest at our sides, your mind goes blank, and all you can focus on is the beauty that lays before you and you constantly try to figure out how you fit into this massive, landscape. That contemplation is just the first week! So as you can imagine there is not to much to do on board. Internet is out of the question (Email is free though), so you spend lot of time getting to know people, we play a ton of cards and board games, and when you are not thinking about your place in the world or eating or going to classes or playing board games, you sleep. We sleep a lot. I was told that being sleepy is a form of seasickness that everyone falls prey to. The gently rocking of the ship and the constant rumble of the engine just relaxes you until you wake up and realize two hours have passed and you haven't read the first page of your homework yet. There are 50 clubs on board, we have a filmmakers club (That major makes up 3% of the shipboard community), and I also do lawn games, tricky on a ship, star gazing, extended family and Ambassadors club. The last one is a program where I introduce visitors to the ship and generally help them while on board. There are a lot of influential people who come to check out what this floating campus is all about so it is really awesome to meet them. I can't remember if I have told yo or not but the food is good. Pasta and potatoes... a lot of pasta and potatoes, but they are always good and they fill you up. You can also buy more interesting food at the bar for like 2 dollars, but I'm trying hard to save what dollars I can. The rooms are comfortable and plenty of space. You take ship showers, where you get in, get wet, turn off the water, soap up, and then turn the water on and rinse, then off with the water again, they are short but the water pressure is amazing. Our toilet was clogged the other day. If one person messes with theirs then it stops up the whole deck. So far two people have flushed hand towels down the toilet, the reason to this is still unknown since it clearly states "No foreign objects" just behind the lid. Thats all I have for you right now, if you have read this whole thing then congratulations, I don't even think I will read it to spell check. If you have any questions just comment below, I get an email update and then I can respond to them, I think. On the 31st I will be going on a river boat farther up the Amazon, past the meeting of the waters (Which you should look up) , and I will be sleeping in a hammock for the about three days, so the next update won't be till after that, hopefully I won't get eaten by the multitude of things that we were warned about in our "What can kill you in the Amazon" conference. Take care.

Dominica

Today was the last day in Dominica. I wish we could be here for longer, it is an amazing country that everyone should visit. 65% of the island is uninhabited and inaccessible. There are 9 active volcanoes that create an absolutely amazing landscape of towering mountains and endless valleys. It looks exactly like Jurassic park once you get up into the rainforest. Right off the bat I had my first and hopefully my last "tourist" moment. We got a taxi and I had to ride in the passenger side. So when I went to get in I opened the door and found a steering wheel, If you every visit, they drive on the left. On day 1 I went snorkeling on Champaign Reef. They call it that because of the sulfuric gas that seeps up through the ground along the edge of the continental plate, gotta love plate tectonics, thank you Earth science! The Reef was amazing, I saw octopus and puffer fish as well as all the Finding Nemo characters, say for the clown fish, since they do not live in this part of the globe. There was even a drop off that fell to over 75 ft. Later in the day I walked around the town and was able to meet the local people. They are very nice and willing to help out, I think it helps that they love their country so much and just want everyone to love it as they do. They are very much into dominoes, A man named big Jeff explained that they play it everyday and have leagues that have gone all the way to winning the world championships. So all in all, it was a pretty good monday. On day 2 I filmed for my documentary. It went very well and I think I got enough to work with which is an amazing accomplishment, luckily I had several people there to help me out. Later I went to the Emerald pool, which is by far the most exotic and beautiful places I have ever been, it is a water fall in the middle of the rain forest that plunges into a crystal clear pool perfect for swimming. It was very cold, or as the locals say "refreshing." The forest seemed like something straight out of a disney ride or a movie, in fact Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed here. I'll post pictures when I can, but I can't do that from the ship. All in all a great country with great people. Just make sure you know Bob Marley because for some reason all the cab drivers insist that you sing along to their renditions of his least popular tunes. Take care.

First day of class

Today was the first day of class, It went really well and my teachers are awesome. They are super smart and are all actual experts in their fields. This is going to be a tough semester, no joy ride on this ship. The hardest part of the day though was trying to find the classrooms, it is even harder when you are moving around a ship that is rocking pretty good. We have smoothish seas but they turned off the stabilizer system so that we would get used to what it will be like in rough seas, even with stabilizers. Apparently it is a hydraulic system that does all the stabilization of the ship to minimize the movement, but as of day 3, no sea sickness, but I don't want to jinx it. Take care everyone.

The Voyage Begins!

Today we finally pulled out of Nassau Bahamas! We were waiting for 23 students who could not get there Brazilian visas until today, but they finally got them and SAS flew them to Nassau and we all gave them a warm and loud reception. The ship is awesome, pretty easy to get turned around since it all has the same look to it. The food is good and the people are unbelievable. Everyone is so nice and eager to talk and get to know you. right now we are hauling it to to our fist official stop since we are a day late in leaving, and tonight will be the first night I am rocked to sleep by the gentle role of the ship. Take care.

The Bahamas!

     Right now I am with my Mom and two of my sisters is a beautiful resort in the Bahamas, Atlantis!  This is definitely a comfortable way to see paradise,  and it is awesome!  The tough part is that it is hard to get a picture of what the real Bahamas is like for those who live here.  That said, the aquariums, water slides and sandy beaches are definitely the perfect vacation before I set sail for the 105 day voyage of my life, I wish you were here Nicole! 

A Message to my Family

     I am sitting waiting to go to the airport and get a flight to the Bahamas so I can catch a ship that will take me to places I can only dream about, all I can think about is what I want to say to each of you so I thought this would be an appropriate place to say it. Thank you.  My immediate as well as extended family, and especially Mom, thank you.  Your love and support means everything to me.  I want you all to know that I am the person I am today because of all of you.  You each have taught me and helped me grow to be who I am today.  They say it takes a village to raise a child and you have all done well in raising the youngest in the compound.  Uncle Curt once talked about writing a book call Raising Joshua, because it was truly a group effort.  I want you all to know that I am taking this blessing to heart and I will not wast a minute of it.  I will learn everything I can and put to good use all the things I have learned from you.  Thank you again, you are the reason the world is now my classroom, and I just wanted to tell you that I will be making the best of it.