this is going to be a really random post. i don’t get on here much because it’s not really my thing, but i need to write this down because it’s important.
the changes that semester at sea caused in me were palpable. i could articulate them, i had a sense of them, i could feel them as new, raw parts of me that had yet to be explored.. as the time goes by, i can feel them closing up. i am moving further and further away from the person that semester at sea made me, and that is a terrible thing. semester at sea opened my eyes to the world, yes, but also the the person that i am. perhaps its because SMU is such a harsh reality- everyone dresses and acts just the same, and to act any differently puts you outside the norm. the truth is that semester at sea broadened my perception of that was important in life.
i still firmly believe that those of us who are lucky enough to live as we do should feel the need to give back in some way. my way of doing this is to do international development work in whatever field will have me.
what has changed within me is the willingness to be myself regardless of what those around me tell me to be. on the ship it was easy to realize this and to stick to the truth of it. i believe my amazing friends had much more of a sense of this before semester at sea, but the communal allowance of being able to be oneself allowed everyone to grow closer as a group of friends who might not become so close on a home campus. at SMU its not so easy to be yourself, and semester at sea liberated that part of me.
semester at sea, and my friends there, also taught me to be less worried about the small things- to enjoy life as it comes and see the good in everything. every day last semester after we had left an overwhelming port we would discuss the negative aspects of course but also the amazing ones- the smiles on the children’s faces and the happiness of a supposedly impoverished people. the people were in poverty certainly, but in many cases they are greater lovers of life than the richest person back home in the U.S.
SAS created at atmosphere of learning, not just facts and figures but also for learning about oneself. i felt the security there to really think about what i was and what i wanted to be. i don’t want the revelations that i had about myself and my life to be something that slips away as time passes- i am determined to hold onto those feelings and make them a part of me forever. who i was on that ship is who i am meant to be, and being home will not change that.
my friends Molly Fleet, Meredith Voss, Haley Haertl, Jenna Meyer, Kelly Kennard, Cassie Catto, Marge Eldred, Lisa Pascuzzi, Kimberly O’Donnell, and Jenny Uphoff knew the real me, better than anyone of my friends at home did. i was able to change with them, and to grow with them. the bond that i have with these girls, i will have forever. we may not speak every day or even live in the same part of the country, but i will love them and consider them my best friends until the day i die.
maybe all of this is just sappy shit, but it is important. we need to recognize the changes within ourselves and work hard to ensure that we do not revert to what we were before- a fine person, yes, but not a changed one.
The first half of my trip around the world in video!
Apr 13, 2011 So weve been stuck on the ship for what feels like years. Ive been busy though- in the past 3 days Ive written 12 journal entries, 2 four-page papers, 2 two-page papers, 1 ten-page paper, and completed one interview assignment. That leaves me with 6 two-page papers, 7 journal entries, and 2 finals before the semester ends. Sounds great, right? We have had time to be silly, though, so I wrote some descriptions of my friends one night after taking my Ambien to go to sleep, and theyre too funny not to share. Haley is a gentle, loving hippie lady with sensitive ears. Molly is a feisty little gal with lots of love to give. Meredith is loud, clumsy and unfiltered, a great friend and the most hilarious gal I know. Jenna is a tiny little peas who never stops laughing. Kelly is the nicest Polly Pocket I’ll ever meet. Marge is in charge, and she always gets shit done with a smile on her face. Cassie is so kind and genuine it would be hard to fake, but watch out for Sassy Cassie once in a while! Yea, were going a little crazy.
Apr 9, 2011 So weve been just stuck on the ship for the past 3 days since we left Taiwan. Weve had this long on the ship before but this time it feels different because there is so little to look forward to. We have 8 days left until we reach Hawaii, and I know Im going to go stir crazy with cabin fever before we get there. Classes are plugging along, and work is just heaped on right now but I cant seem to make myself do it. Dont worry mother, Ill pull it together, and at least Im not the only one. We heard yesterday that another earthquake hit Japan and I was a little freaked out for a while. But then we got an email with a message from the captain letting us know that a tsunami wouldnt affect us when were in open ocean so I felt better after that. I havent felt homesick this entire trip but I think its finally hitting me a little. Ive spent the past couple of days figuring out what my plan is for the summer since none of my internship options ended up working out, and I think Im at the place now where my mind is no longer on my present, it has moved on to my next endeavors. None of this is to say that I am not going to make the most out of the time remaining on the ship, as most of you know Im a very sentimental person so I always dread the end of things. I think its a blessing that now is the time when Im starting to long for home and to see my friends and family because all of that is in my foreseeable future. Ill be home in about 2 weeks and I cant wait to see everyone! Sorry for the semi-depressing post, sitting on the ship with nothing to do makes me think a lot, but Hawaii is coming up in about a week and I know thats going to be a crazy 2 days, so something more upbeat is on its way!
Apr 4, 2011 Taiwan felt like a vacation. I know what youre all thinking
Ive been on vacation for 4 months. But it hasnt felt like it. When we get to ports its almost like were crazy people. Since we only have a few days to explore an entire country we try to cram everything in, which equals very few combined hours to sleep. As you know we were originally scheduled to go to Japan, and many people had done tons of research about the best things to do there. When we found out we were going to Taiwan instead, even the most prepared SASers were thrown off because its impossible to plan for something when the internet crawls and you have to pay for every minute. So we decided to do something weve never done in a port- relax. We booked a nice looking hostel and decided to just wing it. We tried to leave at around 9 but it ended up being later because people kept forgetting things. Wed seriously be off the boat and up the road towards the bus station and someone would be like oh wait! and have to run back on. It would have been hilarious if it hadnt been raining. We made it to the bus station to catch a bus to Taipei, the capital, right as it was leaving which was nice that we didnt have to wait. The bus was about 40 minutes and the first thing we saw when we got there was a Dunkin Donuts. I dont ever remember liking Dunkin Donuts, but Cassie is obsessed with it so we had to make a pit stop. As soon as everyone got their fix of coffee and donuts we hopped into two taxis and set off for our hostel. After the last hostel disaster I was a little hesitant about this one, but my worries turned out to have no basis. From the outside door (in an alleyway right next to a tattoo shop) we were a little nervous, but once we got inside we were thrilled. It was a cute little 4-story hostel called JVs Home, run by a woman who couldnt have been more than 40. Our rooms werent ready yet but she showed us where we could store our bags and told us there was free WIFI throughout the place. We fell on that like fiends, everyone got out their computers and there we were- 7 girls on 7 Macbooks sitting in the family room of the hostel. There were 2 guys already staying there, both from England and both backpacking alone throughout Southeast Asia. We started talking to them and joking around about our internet addiction. We were trying to get everyone ready to leave for lunch, but no one could be pulled away from facebook. They were really friendly and we invited them to come to lunch with us. There we were divided. Some of the gals wanted dumplings, and some of us wanted Mexican. Jenna, Kelly, Molly and I, along with the two English boys, decided to go to Mexican food while the other girls went and got dumplings, and we agreed to meet at the Taipei zoo after we ate. The owner of the hostel, Vanessa, gave us a sheet of paper that said please take me to Tequila Sunrise in Chinese so that we could show it to the taxi driver. Jenna and I cracked up at this because we imagined it to be similar to a dog tag that says please take me home with a sad face next to it. Anyway we got our fix of Mexican food, and a good one at that. Good Mexican food in Asia? Yep. Jenna ordered a shot of tequila, which Chris (an English boy) thought was hilarious. Im pretty sure we embodied every part of the obnoxious American sorority girls he had pictured in his mind because we were laughing really loud and telling funny stories and having margaritas at 11 am but whatever- we were just having a great day. We split up with the boys after lunch and took the metro to the zoo. Almost a miracle, the other girls were actually right at the front when we got there! Reunited, we made our way to the panda exhibition. Pandas are so adorable! They are so much bigger than I was expecting and much fluffier. I bought panda playing cards and a cute little stuffed animal to commemorate our 15 minutes at the zoo and then we headed to the gondola up into the tea-producing region of the countryside. We had an awful time figuring out how to buy tickets, though, so we ended up asking a nice man who spoke English to ask a cab driver to take us up there. We had to take two taxis so we were just hoping we ended up in the same place. Our driver was hilarious, he barely spoke English but he desperately wanted to talk to us. He kept saying American? Ya! over and over again. When we got there, he told us the price with a huge grin on his face and said BYE BYE! with a big thumbs up. As he drove away he rolled down his window in the rain to wave until he was out of sight, it was so cute. We made our way to a teahouse to try some local tea but it ended up being a disaster. The woman just gave us a tea set and let us make it on our own with poorly translated English instructions. We totally messed up the instructions and the tea was so bitter we could barely drink it. We wandered around a little throughout the streets and we came upon this little meat stand on the side of the road. We were wondering aloud what type of meat it was when Cass goes guys its rabbit! We were all horrified thinking that when a man waiting in line turns to us and says its pork. After that we couldnt stop laughing because of the huge idiots we were. It was about dinnertime and we all wanted to go out that night so we took the gondola down. It was about 20 minutes in the gondola and during that time I tried to learn how to thizz. For all you old folks, thizz is a dance done by rappers where you make a terrible constipated face and wave your hands in front of your eyes. Apparently Im terrible at it, guess Im missing a few life skills
my pinkies are way too refined and elegant to do the appropriate hand movements and my face couldnt ever be as ugly as required. I kid, I kid- Im a little bitter about the amount of flak I took for not being able to do it. Moving on, we decided to get McDonalds for dinner. Then we got on the subway and got off in town to head to a 7 Eleven and get some liquor. We managed to find our way back to the hostel with drinks in hand and immediately everyone was on their computer again. After a couple of hours of internet and talking to the other people in the hostel we were all ready to head out. We went to a place called Roxy Rocker, which would have been really cool if there had been people there. It was this old school American-style dive bar where they had hundreds of records you could choose from and the DJ would play your requests. It was soon pretty full of SASers and we decided to move on to a more upbeat dance club called Luxy. We got there and found out that they wouldnt let us in without IDs. That has not been a problem in any other country and we were unprepared, plus it was already 2 am, so we went to McDonalds and then went home for the night.
Apr 5-6, 2011 This morning was a slow one. Everyone slept in pretty late and we got up leisurely. The morning and night time is the best for us to talk to people back home because were 12 hours ahead, so lots of people were Skyping or facebook chatting with friends, so we didnt get out of the hostel until about noon. Molly went on a blog about Taipei and found the address of this adorable diner called The Diner that served brunch so we decided to do that. It turned out to be pretty close to the hostel so we got to explore the neighborhood a little on the way there. It shocked me- it was similar to the Deep Ellum area of Dallas for those of you who know what Im taking about. Really cute and eccentric, and the food at the Diner was delicious- eggs Benedict and bottomless coffee. After brunch we headed out of town to a suburb called Beitou, which is filled with hot springs. It took us a while to figure out where to go but we eventually made it to a placed called the Spring City resort, which has 7 different temperatures of hot springs. We got into our bathing suits and robes and hairnets and prepared for some relaxation. It was pretty chilly outside so the springs felt wonderful, and at the end we laid on this hot stone on the ground, which was probably the most relaxing thing Ive ever done. We spent about 3 hours there then took showers and blow-dried our hair. What a luxury! We only have teeny little hotel-like blow dryers on the ship so it was really nice. Molly combed my hair and blow-dried it for me and it was amazing. After we got dressed we got back on the subway to get ready for dinner at the night market. The night market was huge, and amazingly pretty tourist-free. We had delicious boba juice and some ice cream desert-y thing, and I tried the signature oyster omelet. Dont know if it was my favorite thing in the world but I thought my Faj would be proud of me for trying. After that we went over to the shopping part of the market. There were the cutest little shops and we ended up staying until about 1 in the morning. When we got home I got to Skype with Jojo, which was AMAZING! I havent heard her voice this entire time, and it was great getting to catch up. We Skyped until about 3 am my time and then I crawled into bed to go to sleep. After another leisurely morning we packed up all of our stuff and left it in the office of the hostel so that we could explore on our last day in Taiwan. The whole day felt a little like a dream since it was our last day in a foreign country. Its crazy- to be looking forward to something for so long and then having it end. Granted, we still had 11 days, then 2 days in Hawaii, and then 5 days on the ship but still, it really felt like the trip was coming to an end. A lot of the girls wanted to explore a different area for a while but Jenna, Kelly and I went to a cute restaurant and had a long lunch and then shopped around the area where our hostel was. We did some toiletry shopping at the body shop and at a place similar to Walgreens where I made best friends with a little dog for like 15 minutes, and then we met up with everyone else to get our backpacks and head back to the ship. When we made it back to Keelung (where our ship was docked) we sat on the boardwalk area and had some beers and hung out. It was really nice, sitting there with everyone just enjoying the nice day. We slowly made our way to the ship and then said goodbye to Taiwan as we pulled out at around 8 pm.
