Day 4: Kyoto, Japan and my blue pants

The next day Kate, Brian, Alden and Danelle took off to head back to Kobe and Nam and I rented bikes for the day to explore Kyoto. This was definitely the best way to easily maneuver around the city. We took off in the direction of the imperial palace, stopped at a number of shrines and temples along the way and avoided getting hit by a car/biker like nobody's business. About an hour into our riding I climbed back onto my bike seat and snagged my pants on the seat. I checked and I had nice 2 inch rip in my pants... three guesses where. Well, we were pretty far form the hostel so I just decided to ride on it instead of going back and changing, figuring I'd just fix it later. THe rest of the day was amazing! I loved biking all over the city and we saw some great things!

a huge tree and me at the imperial palace

Well, 8 hours later (after a full day of bike riding) the rip was about 10 inches in length. I couldn't even get off the bike for fear of giving Kyoto a show. We arrived back at the hostel where I learned that my pants were shot. There was absolutely no hope of repair for them. This wouldn't have been a big deal, except for the fact that I packed really light for this trip. I had only brought 4 pairs of pants....and this was my best travel pair. Nam assured me that I could get some made really cheaply in Vietnam, so I didn't panic too much!

One of the highlights of the day was that we were at a temple and had accidently wandered off the beaten path. We pulled over and were peering into this beautiful Japanese garden through a gate and figured it was part of the temple grounds. It actually belonged to a wonderful 90 year old woman who invited us in to see her garden.
She took us to the back part and showed us a small door and told us to go through it while she took a small break. We walked through the door (yes, we felt just like Mary in the Secret Garden) and into an absolutely huge and beautiful garden. We chatted with her for a bit and then left and headed back to the hostel for a shower and to return the bikes.

That night we had the best dinner from a small street vendor and took it back to the hostel. We were both sleeping by 10pm and had a great/quiet night of sleep! The next morning we headed to a small town outside of Osaka for one of their traditional festivals before on-ship time.

Day 3: Hiroshima and Kyoto, Japan

After the insanely long night with students we got up to catch an early train to Hiroshima. Nam and I were both thrilled that we were going to be staying off the ship for the next two nights! We got to the train station and ran into a group of about 60 ship folks all heading to Hiroshima, sadly, that was the last thing we wanted. After the previous night, we just wanted to get away! Luckily, they ended up being on a later train and we didn't even see them the rest of the day. I was unable to sleep on the train (yes, narcoleptic Kate was not able to fall asleep - even on a moving object). This was due to the annoying man sitting one row behind us who insisted on clicking his pen over and over. Augh! I couldn't even drown it out with my iPod and the train noise. Someone finally asked him to stop (why didn't I? I don't know.) There was an Australian group of teenagers on the train car and shortly after the pen clicking stopped, they got really loud! Great. No sleep for this girl.

Hiroshima was everything I'd expected and more. We got there and headed straight for the peace park and first saw the A-bomb dome. This building was pretty much under the epicenter of the first atomic bomb. The steel dome survived, but as you can see, the building was destroyed. There was an eerie, yet hallowed, stillness to the surrounding area. The thoughts and feelings that ran through my mind at this time were minimal compared to what came when walking through the museum and learning more and more about this historical event.

a-bomb dome

As we walked through the area and later, the museum, I saw people and trees that had been affected by the radiation of the bomb. Some of the displays inside the museum were extremely graphic and all were difficult to register. The whole experience was very moving and emotional. One of the things I noticed (and was surprised by) was the lack of anti-US sentiments. In only ONE place did I see or hear anything about the bomb being an American bomb/attack. In every other place it was referred to as the "first atomic bomb." The whole area is really geared towards remembering the event as an effort to create peace and destroy all atomic weapons. I'm told that the Pearl Harbor exhibit is quite the opposite, I'm really disappointed that we weren't able to get over there the day we were in Honolulu. It would have been very interesting to see and compare the two with only a week between.

a-bomb dome

We checked out a few other things after the museum and peace park, but were both pretty drained. We'd planned to meet up with Kate, Alden and Brian in Kyoto that night so we headed off for the train station.

a mound created by the ashes of the deceased from the bomb


a tree mixed with radiation next to the mound

We arrived in Kyoto with no trouble, got off and started looking for our hostel which was actually a traditional royokan. Brian and I had found this great place, which was supposedly an easy 9 minute walk from the train station. Well, couple the forgotten map with darkness and a lack of ability to read street signs, and Nam and I finally found the hostel about an hour and a half later. =) The other three had arrived and had gone to a nearby public bath before we met for dinner. We had about 30 minutes before they got back to clean up and settle into the room. The past 30 hours had been rough - with the drunk guy at the baseball game and all of the issues the night before - we were hot and frustrated from getting lost and I had a small breakdown. Just needed a good hard cry and a chance to decompress from the past couple of days.

Dinner.....
We went out to find some dinner, and ended up in this little joint in a back alley. The whole place had seating for 8 people and we brought in 6 (one of the other RD's, Danelle, had met up and decided to stay another day in Kyoto as well). The couple that owned the place was super nice and didn't speak much English. Well, as you know, we don't speak much Japanese. We were hopeless at trying to read the menu and knew at that point that the meal would be an adventure. Ordering dinner proved to be rather difficult and we settled to just let them surprise us! It turned out to be a sashimi place (raw fish, not served with rice). We had some things that were great (the tuna and squid) and some others that I don't ever need to try again (i.e. octopus). We shared our sake that we'd ordered with the couple and at the end of the meal they gave us a "special treat." It is considered very rude in the culture not to try things like this when they're given to you, so, down the hatch it went. It turned out to be frozen and we all figured it was some sort of fish liver (another thing I don't ever need to eat again.)

Right as we were getting ready to leave the guy pulls out another plate with something else for us to try. Well, now this was the catch of the night. They were whole fishes, about 6 inches in length and dried - heads, eyeballs and all. He chowed down on one, demonstrating that we were supposed to eat 'em up whole. (Seriously? Augh. Eyes and all? I thought, "here's to being culturally sensitive") As we started, most of us went for the tail first, however, we were corrected and told to eat it head first. When it was over, I was gracious and thankful to them, but pretty much made a beeline for the door - before anything else came out (either on a plate or otherwise!!) =)

these are the same type of dried fish that we ate.

We then headed out for some traditional and ever so popular karaoke. It is unreal at how popular this is in Japan! The best part is that most of the karaoke places have small (soundproof) rooms with a couple of couches, a television and a karaoke machine. You rent the room by the hour, pile in your friends and have a blast. We could have maybe fit 10 in the room total that's how small they were. We had an absolute blast that night - I loved it and it was a great release from the past two days.

ARRRGH.

We left Singapore this morning and set sail through the Strait of Malacca. Now, I was unaware of this until coming on the trip, but this is one of the areas most populated by pirates. Yes, pirates, no joke on the open seas. We're told that an SAS trip in the past has been attacked by pirates. Seriously though?

We have students who have been recruited by the crew to assist with "pirate watch" today and tomorrow. They are thrilled. Actually I think it's pretty great as well, but didn't get a spot on the watch crew this time....something about students first. =) We will have a couple of other opportunities for this throughout the semester, particularly in the Red Sea, so I may get my chance.

We are lucky because our ship has a maximum cruising speed of about 32 knots, which is enough to outrun a majority of pirate ships. However, should pirates attack our ship, we first use the fire hoses to knock them off and then up the speed. That's the grand plan!!!

Is it bad, that for the storytelling value, I would love it if we at least saw a pirate ship and/or pirates? (Even better if they all looked like Johnny Depp). I don't really need them to attack or climb up the sides of the MV Explorer, but wouldn't that be a fun story to tell you all!

One of my favorite students on board and I were talking last night and he was shocked that pirates existed. We had fun joking about it but, he said that if he does encounter a pirate he's going to have to tell them to get a real job. Apparently he doesn't think that pillaging is a real career.

What makes the whole day better is that there is very low visibility as there is a ton of fog all around us. It has been gray and eerie all day! And I can't tell you the number of people who have told me pirate jokes and how many people think it's hilarious to talk like a pirate today (yes, this includes me).

Day 2: Tokyo, Japan

Nam and I had both purchased rail passes for Japan which work similar to the Eurail passes in Europe. One flat rate, unlimited travel for a set number of days. It really is a beautiful thing. We decided to take full advantage of these passes and trained to Tokyo for the day. We left in the morning from Kobe, took a 3 hour bullet train to Tokyo and left that evening. Hotels and such are really expensive in Tokyo, so by doing this we were able to save a lot of money by staying on the ship. It was a long day, but well worth it.

The day was gray and drizzly so it would have been a great sleeping day on the train; however, Nam and I chatted pretty much the entire way up there about what we wanted to see/do. When we got to Tokyo we decided to figure out how to get to the temple that we wanted to go to later in the day. We were struggling to read the metro maps and find the station the AAA book said to get off at. After we'd been trying to do this for about 20 minutes, a really sweet Japanese woman, who spoke English, came over and offered to help. We gladly accepted and after she spoke with the station man we were told that it would be very difficult to get to, but she gave us the easiest route. It's SO hard not to be able to READ!!!!

We decided to go to the temple later and went off in search of some lunch. Walking down the streets you could see that we were in a huge city (12 million people) based on the buildings, bright lights, traffic and massive amounts of people. However, you wouldn't have guessed you were in a huge city as there was relatively little noise pollution. No car horns honking, no people shouting and no loud construction etc. It was drizzling in Tokyo as well so it was good that I had brought my rain jacket and Nam had both a jacket and an umbrella - so we thought we'd be set. It was one of those rains that you're not sure if you need a hood or an umbrella because it's so slight, but let me tell you...umbrellas are the "in" thing in Japan. Everyone we passed was using one (we found that many folks used them on sunny days as well). More on this is later...

One of the professors had told us to check out the Ginza district of Tokyo. Well, we unintentionally wandered into the area and laughed at where he told us to go... it was chalk full of shops and restaurants that were WAY out of our price range. We're talking Gucci, Louis Vitton etc. Please. I don't think I own anything designer and that's not why I'm in Japan! =) We were trying to wander out of this area and in the process were looking for a place to grab a quick/cheap lunch. We were hunched over a menu looking at the pictures and plastic food models (there are a ton of places that have plastic models of the dishes... it's great for the travelers!) to see if anything looked good/in our price range (and our jackets and Nam's umbrella were in our bags) when a young Japanese couple came over to us and offered us one of their umbrellas. They had three between the two of them and were insistent on giving us one of them. Seriously, how often would you see an American doing that for a tourist? We were both in shock at their kindness and I was quite grateful later in the day when the rain picked up! Just another example of the kindness of the Japanese people!

Often, when I travel I find that I kind of "luck" into situations or manage to be in the right place at the right time. Our day in Tokyo was no exception to this pattern. It started with the nice lady in the train station, was followed by the umbrella folks and continued for the rest of the day. We wandered into a store, still looking for lunch, because someone on the ship had mentioned that department stores in Japan will often have cheap eats in the basement...and that they were usually tasty. We headed down and realized that we were actually in a metro/subway station. We found a great little sushi bar and stopped for a bite. We sat down at a long counter, pulled down tea glasses and right in front of us plates of sushi started to pass by us on a little conveyer belt. We pulled down the plates that looked good and wow - it was great!!! Got to love the subway station sushi. It ran less that $1 USD per item. What a find.

When we left, I suggested we figure out what station we were in and see if we could try our luck getting to the temple from there instead of going back to the other station what was now full on rain. Well, we found a map and, as luck would have it, we were just a few metro stops away (on the same line) from the place we needed to go. We hopped on and took an easy ride to our stop. We came out of the station, walked a bit and found the area where the temple was without trouble. This are was the first that we found that seemed "touristy." We plowed our way through the souvenir booths to make it to the temple and I was amazed by what I saw. It was particularly interesting since Nam is Buddhist and could really explain the symbolism behind certain things and practices.

Me at the temple

One thing that is very common at many of the temples and shrines and in the tradition, is to have your fortune read. You shake a canister until a small stick falls out. You are then supposed to take the stick and have it read (your fortune is based on the sign/number on the stick that fell out.) Well, in keeping with tradition, Nam and I both shook the canister and when the sticks fell out, we opened the small drawer that had the matching symbol on it. Inside were small pieces of paper with our fortunes printed on them in both Japanese characters and English. My fortune read:

No. 9 BEST FORTUNE
"If you try to be famous, it will come out as you hope. For example, if you have three kinds of hopes, three will be completed. Gods will come and where he points to, flowers and fruits grow timely. Good fortune will come and it brings you happiness. Your wishes will be realized, a sick person will recover, the lost article will be found, the person you are waiting for will come, building a new house and removal are good, marriage and employment are all good and making a trip is all right."

my fortune...

Well now.... I read this and was thinking wow... sounds good to me! Then I got to thinking a bit more and thought that maybe they all said this since there were a lot of tourists that came through this temple. Well, friends, they didn't. Nam had a pretty good one as well, but we read some others that were not so positive. Uhoh. =) The next step in the tradition was to tie the fortune onto the wire so that it didn't go away. I really wanted to take it with me, but resigned to tying it on and taking a picture of what it said instead. Didn't want to risk losing that fortune right?

We stopped at a couple of the tourist stands looking for postcards (which are hard to come by in Japan so if you got one, feel privileged). Someone was making these things that looked and smelled like waffle pockets and they had a red bean filling so we tried one (they were quite tasty). On the way back to the station we checked out the 100 yen store (Japan's version of a $1 store) to get a couple of things for the ship. At the train station we grabbed some dinner before heading back to Kobe.

The pagoda near the temple

Had a great train ride home, laughing and loving our luck and timing on the day. It was a great day - hadn't seen any other ship members and just had a lot of fun. We didn't sleep at all and were getting excited about the next day and planning it out. I absolutely love traveling with Nam - we always have fun and get along beautifully!

We arrived back to the ship about midnight and I went to go grab some water before heading to bed. I wish I could say that was the end of my night, however, I ended up being up for the next three hours dealing with some residential issues. (This isn't just a trip around the world - we do work as well!)

After leaving my room I ran into one of my residents (who was intoxicated) and she was freaking out about her friend, another one of my residents, who had shoved his way into a room (that he thought was his). Due to the massive amount of alcohol he'd consumed that evening he was one floor below his room and hadn't realized it. In the process, he pushed the woman who was in "his" room. She (rightfully) freaked out about this guy in her room pushing her and yelling at her. Another RD was downstairs and handled this situation. The aftermath became mine though.

The girlfriend of the guy was incredibly upset so I met with her and the girl who had found me initially and tried to settle them down. In the process of these conversations, it came out that the other guy they had been hanging out with that night was passed out in a bed. The first girl (remember, really drunk) insisted that he was ok and that she'd taken care of him. Well, it all sounded suspicious to me and I insisted on checking in on him. Glad I did. I couldn't wake him at all, couldn't get him flipped on his side and ended up calling our ship doctor. He couldn't wake him up -- even after running his knuckles down his sternum -- and we got him flipped over just in time - (oh so pleasant.) I left him in the good care of the doctor, settled the women down again and finally went to bed for some much needed sleep. We had an early train to catch the next morning so you better believe I was looking forward to the next 3.5 hours of sleep. Blasted. Oh well, I figured I could just sleep on the train the next morning.

Almost to Singapore?

Yes, you read that right. We are now en route to Singapore. If you've been following this since the beginning, you know that Singapore is not on our list of ports, however, it is actually one of our stops. I've only known about this one for a little more than a week and the students didn't know until yesterday. We will port there tomorrow morning and will stay for nearly a day. Here's the thing... NO ONE is allowed off the ship there. AUGH! We seriously have to sit on the ship and look at Singapore while we refuel. Torture I tell you. =) Apparently this is not Semester at Sea's decision, rather, Singapore's decision. I suppose it will be good to catch up on things like journaling, the blog and work stuff...but I'd rather go exploring!

I'll be posting more on Japan later today!

Good morning Vietnam!

Well, in just a few short hours we are going to sail up the Saigon river and port in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). I'm told it's one of the prettiest sights we'll see. We have to go up the river in the daylight to avoid 1) land and 2) fishing boats.

I've been trying, to no avail, to upload pictures from Japan and am having trouble with blogger.com. I'm not the only one around here having trouble with the photos so I guess it will have to wait until after Vietnam. I've got a few more posts about Japan and Hong Kong yet to give you, but that too will have to wait a few days. =( Funny how much I want to do this, yet it always seems to be the last thing I get to in my day. I keep getting pulled away from it and I'm so eager to tell you about everything! I'm trying to edit my journals down into manageable topics and lengths, yet still fill you in on the experience.

The waves settled down, but it was a rough go for awhile! Deck 2 had their portholes locked shut and folks (including myself) were not doing well. There tends to be a "rumor of the day" on the ship (often started by the RD's) and the most recent one was that the size of the "sick bag" was directly related to the size of the waves. This came about because the crew put bags out that were about three times the size of the last ones! Ahh.... glad it's over and I'm really glad to be porting soon although, two days at sea was a tease in trying to get things done around here!

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Day 1: Kobe, Japan

Japan was never a place that was high on my list of places to travel. I think a big part of this hesitation was that I like to try and blend in as much as possible when I travel and I have always known that my traveling in Asian countries would not allow me to blend at all. Checking in at 5'11'' and blond, I knew that my hope for blending was asinine. Knowing this, I mentally prepared myself for the first of a number of countries in which I would have no hope of blending in.

Although Japan was not high on my list initially, it is now one of my favorite countries that I've ever traveled in and I'm eager to go back someday because five days was only a tease. I cannot tell you how many friendly, polite and helpful people we met - it seemed as though everyone was genuinely nice. I know it's shocking, but folks could tell were tourists. I can't tell you how many people went out of their way to help us, make us feel welcome and genuinely wanted us to enjoy our time in their homeland.

Our arrival to Kobe

We had an indication about the welcoming nature from our arrival in port. As we sailed into the harbor, led by the pilot ship, we were greeted by a fire boat launching water out in celebration and, as we neared the dock we were greeted by a band in full uniform playing John Phillips Sousa music. There were "welcome to Kobe" signs and seeing all of our students on the decks of the ship waving and cheering provided an emotional welcome to our first "real" port - especially after 9 days at sea.

The band welcome

The fireboat welcome!

I spent the first afternoon walking around Kobe with Nam and Gail. Kobe is a bustling and beautiful city. I began to feel very illiterate as we walked around and especially as I looked at the menu when we stopped for some lunch. This is a feeling that stayed with me throughout the stint in Japan. I began to have a much clearer understanding of how so many people feel each and every day. Looking at the Japanese characters that meant absolutely nothing to me and that I knew meant something to others - characters that have meaning and valuable information - information that I couldn't get on my own and that I have to depend on other people for - what a feeling. How blessed I am to know how to read. Unfortunately I think this is something I often take for granted. I couldn't believe the feeling of disempowerment from not being able to read anything. I felt very helpless and realized how much we can do for ourselves when we have the ability to read.

Gail and Nam at lunch our first day in Kobe

That evening we headed to a Japanese baseball game in Osaka. There was an official SAS trip that went to this game, but we decided to go on our own and attempt to get tickets at the gate as many of us were ready for a break from the students (although we love them). All in all, it was a fun experience. The stadium was this massive round building that looked like the starship enterprise on the inside.

As we approached the building, we noticed that there were folks running into it from all directions. It was a Tuesday night and I was amazed at how many business men were coming into the stadium directly from work - still in suits and ties. You were allowed to bring in your own food and drink so a lot of these businessmen had grabbed bento boxes, sushi and the like and were chowing on that during the game. Sushi, bentos, udon and ramen were sold at the stadium as well. It was interesting to see that sold right alongside hotdogs, ice cream and beer. We were all surprised to see one of the stadium employees selling the infamous St. Louis brew, Budweiser. In Japan? Who would have guessed?

The Baseball stadium


The stadium? Or the starship enterprize?

The baseball game

The crowd was amazing and was very into the game and there was a lot of cheering and music! The Japanese culture is one in which people are typically very calm and polite, their behavior at the game reflected this as well. I only saw cheering for the teams - no booing, yelling at the umpires or anything of that nature. It was so nice to watch a game without fans demonstrating that behavior.

There were a few work-related issues at the game. We ran into some students who (shocking I know) had consumed way too much alcohol. It was our first "day off" and none of us (the staff) wanted to deal with this; however, that's not the nature of this job. There was one student who couldn't be ignored and I don't know if I've ever seen anyone quite this intoxicated. A professor who was leading the SAS trip, another staff member and I were the lucky ones who got to deal with this student (yay). I was so embarrassed to be standing in the stadium with this young man who couldn't control his bodily functions. His behavior was so against cultural norms and he was attracting a ton of attention. By the time we sent him back to the ship in a cab with his trip leader, we'd missed a lot of the game. He needed to get back in order to see our on-ship doctor. Blasted. We were all already sick of dealing with alcohol issues on the ship and were ready for a break from it. Not so much. All in all though, it was a great first day!

Back on the open seas...

Well, we left Hong Kong tonight about 2300. It is going to be a long and rough two days before Vietnam. We are heading into some storms and I've been told that the storms are creating 15 meter swells. Should make for an enjoyable night eh? The ship is a rockin' already.

Tomorrow there will be some new updates on the blog! I'll be posting about Japan and Hong Kong along with some stories from the ship. The goal is to finish all of these before arriving in Vietnam in 2 days. I've got some great picts, some funny stories and of course a few "kate moments."

Miss you all! Seems like there's lots to celebrate at home these days - congrats Sus/Steve and Matt/Gena on your weddings! Happy birthday grandma! And congrats on the new baby Jon and Janel! I LOVE getting mail/e-mail and picts about what's going on in your lives. Please write!

Hello from Hong Kong!

Hope you are all doing well. We arrived here safe and sound this morning and I've been out exploring the city all day. It's about 12:40 AM here and I'm back on the ship for a good night of sleep and then I'm back at it tomorrow. I'll be sleeping on the ship each night I'm here to save some money, hopefully it will be much more low-key than it was in Japan.

On Saturday, Tim, one of the other RD's, and I are heading to mainland China by train. I'm going to do my first SAS trip on Sunday... so things should be pretty good for the next few days. I've been journaling about Japan and will post about that before I tell you too much about Hong Kong! But I will let you know that I love them both and if you ever want to travel to either - I'll go with you in a heart beat.

Where to begin?

Japan was AMAZING! We had some challenges (work related) but all in all I loved it. I'll be posting some of my reflections at another time.

We had an earlier on-ship time than planned and busted out of port exactly at 2000 hours last night. We had to get out quick because, as some of you may know, a typhoon was predicted for the area. Our plans have changed due to that typhoon and we are now in route to Hong Kong. Unfortunately, we will not be stopping in Qingdao, China because of this. =( We are moving at a pretty good speed tonight (about 20 knots) and are trying to get out of unsafe areas. So Mom and Dad, you can rest easy!

We were lucky on the way to Japan...had such smooth waters! With the change in weather we are experiencing some new ship life. I wasn't able to sleep much last night due to the movement and it's been hard to walk today. Everyone keeps running into walls and appears to be inebriated. There's a lot of rattling in the ceilings and many folks are not feeling well. I'm managing okay right now, but it varies hour to hour and is dependent on what part of the ship I'm in.

The good stuff on Japan later. Just wanted to let you know the change in plans and that we were safe! Have a good day!

Some recent photos for your viewing pleasure


land ho! We saw land today from the bridge! First time in 9 days.


I still can't get over how BLUE the ocean actually is!


One of my favorite sunset photos.


This is Brian enjoying one of the sunsets and a good book.


Curious where I am? Here you go...straight from the bridge. This was at about 11:00 today.

Mission accomplished.

So, one fo my goals for this voyage was to get a photo of me driving the ship. Well friends, we've not even made it to Japan and I've reached the goal! One quick turn and we could have listed. Whew.


"Steering the ship" sort of...


Cap'n Kate

Japan plans....shaping up!

Today we finished some of our planning for traveling in Japan. I canNOT believe that in just about 30 hours we will be docking in Kobe. Not surprisingly, plans have changed a bit (already). I'll be curious to see what actually happens while we're there as those of you who've travelled with me before know, it never quite turns out the way I plan, but that's why it's fun!

Nam and I are going to explore Kobe on the first day we're there, meet up with a few other folks and go to a Japanese baseball game that night. We're going to head to Tokyo early on Wednesday morning (3 hours by bullet train) and come back to stay on the ship that night. Thursday we're heading to Hiroshima and going straight to Kyoto after. We plan spend the last 2 days in Kyoto which is the place I'm most excited about - plus there's a huge traditional festival in Kyoto those days! We're going to try and stay the last night in a Buddhist Monastery, but we can't make those reservations until we dock - so here's hoping we can get a spot! I'm told we will get to participate in the morning rituals after staying there! We're staying in a traditional ryokan (Japanese inn) with 3 other folks (Kate, Brian and Alden) on the first night. We got a great deal and the five of us are staying for about $40 each. As we're quickly learning, Japan is the most expensive port we're going to and we were ecstatic about that price! There is a traditional public bath just down the street and I think we're going to try and participate in a tea ceremony.

Absolutely amazing....

Today, all in all was a great day! We had our first morning "off" and really ate it up.

My typical day on the ship consists of (in this order) working out, breakfast, getting ready, going to global studies, work, lunch, meetings, work....etc....

The entire shipboard community (students/faculty/staff/kids/adult passengers etc.) are all required to take a "global studies" course. I don't mind going to class everyday and the readings are interesting - but I don't have to take the exams!!! Yahoo! I have longed to audit a course and finally I get to do so.

Anyway, today was the first (of 4) global studies tests which meant that we (the RD's) didn't have to go to class and the ship was quiet!!! We all slept in until about 8:30 AM, went to breakfast, went swimming at the pool and then went to workout. It was so relaxing and provided some much needed down time. To top it off, the weather was gorgeous. ahhh... so much fun to be in the pool and looking out over the ocean.

The rest of the day was back to normal with meetings but the evening hours were phenomenal. I was up in the fishbowl (forward, deck 7) at the end of the day sorting some papers and went outside to watch the sun set in front of us when I finished.

The water was like glass, I've never seen an ocean as calm as it was last night. It was almost eerily calm. I took a video of it and will try and upload that to the blog, don't know if it will work. After one of the prettiest sunsets we've had I headed down to dinner (on the aft) with Dr. Bob (physician on board) his wife and one of the profs. During the course of dinner we got to see the moon rise and holy cow, It was incredible! The moon popped over the horizon and was full (or nearly full) and fiery orange. Pictures wouldn't turn out, but it lit up a path on the ocean like a subtle sunrise. I've never seen anything like it, absolutely breathtaking. What a day. I look at these things and still can't believe that this is real.

We are two days from Kobe, Japan and I'm getting very excited for our 5 days in Japan! I had a few Japanese language lessons yesterday and am hoping that I can meander well enough.

Funny, but true....
So, on the seventh deck of the ship is what is known as the fishbowl. The fishbowl is actually a very posh hangout/bar/work area for faculty and staff members and is off limits to students. It is a large, circular room and most of the walls are huge floor to ceiling windows. There are cushioned window seats all along the windows and its location on the forward of the top deck of the ship provides wonderful views! The deck is not off limits to the students so they can walk around/enjoy the view etc. However, when they do that, they can also look in the windows and see whatever is going on inside, hence, "the fishbowl."

This, and the deck around it, has become one of my favorite areas on the ship as it is a great escape from the students, which, at times, is needed. A few nights ago, about 8 of us were hanging out in there at about 00:20 someone glanced up and noticed that there were two students doing a bit more than smooching on the deck right outside the windows, completely oblivious to the fact that we were all sitting in there and had a clear view. A few minutes later when they looked up we all started whooping and clapping for them. They were embarrassed but just waved and headed elsewhere. awwww..... young love on the open seas.

Greetings from the future!

So, tonight we sailed over the International Date Line. It’s now September 8th in my world. It’s so weird that we just went from Wednesday the 6th to Friday the 8th. What happened to Thursday? Where is it? Do I get it back?

Aloha!
Ummm...so, did y'all know that Hawaii is absolutely amazing? This was my first visit (first, but definitely not last) to the 50th state. If the day was any indication how the voyage is going to go - I'm even more excited than I thought.

To start things off.... we have 5 Hawaiian students on board who shared a lot about the culture on the Islands the night before we ported. One of the students (Pua, one of my residents) even did a hula for everyone!

I woke up early (along with many folks on the ship) and went out to deck 7 to watch the sunrise and watch us sail into the port. Like many, I was excited to see that I had cell phone service! It was nice to be able to share that sunrise with some of you!

The process of clearing customs and getting everyone off of the ship was a long one. We docked at 7 am and I wasn't able to leave the ship until almost 10 as we are the last ones off. I was ready to run off the ship at about 06:15 though. =) Surprisingly I wasn't sick of being on here (it had only been 6 days), rather, just excited to start my day in Hawaii.

This process should be even more interesting at the other ports. Who knows what customs is going to be like and how long it will take to clear the ship. It will be a good test in patience as I know I'm going to be ready to bolt into Japan and it will be after 10 days at sea! I'm surprised that I'm not stir crazy on the ship yet. A good thing eh? I did think that I would be by this point, but it really doesn't bother me. Once we hit Japan there are only a couple of days at sea between countries until we go from India to Egypt.

Anyway, I digress....back to Hawaii.

The plan was to go to the travel agency with 4 other RD's as they all needed to buy rail passes for Japan (I'd already purchased mine before leaving). We were then going to head to Pearl Harbor after exchanging some American dollars for Japanese Yen. Well, the travel agent took a lot longer than we thought it would and by the time we'd changed our money, it was 11:30. We chatted with a cab driver who told us that PH would be about a $50 cab ride or an hour and a half ride on the bus. Considering we had to be back on board the ship at 20:00 and realized that it was Saturday of Labor Day weekend we decided not to go to PH as fighting the crowds would have taken our whole day. I was really disappointed that we didn't go, especially since I plan to visit Hiroshima in Japan in about a week, however, the day was great and I can't complain. =)

We stopped for a quick lunch at a place Joy really wanted to try called Eggs 'n Things. When she was here for a marathon last fall it had been packed everyday and she wasn't able to get in. Well it happened to be on our way to the international market, where we were headed so we stopped! It was quite tasty and I highly recommend it! After wandering around the international market for about an hour and a half we headed down to Waikiki beach.

The beach was AMAZING!!!! This is my postcard pict of it! We met up with some of the other staff there and spent a lot of time in the water. I LOVED the beach! The water was so warm it felt like bath water and I have been wanting to jump in since we've been on board! It was nice to finally get in the ocean! I asked someone yesterday if it was bad that I've wanted to jump off the ship about 90 times since we got on - just to get in the water! We laughed as he's wanted to do the same! Can you even believe how blue the ocean is? These picts sure don't do it justice!

After the beach we headed to a hotel down the street as there was a rotating bar/restaurant on the top floor and we figured that most students wouldn't be heading to that one! I had called Amy J and Heather K (both are friends from Creighton) and they met up with us there! Amy and Heather both live in HI and I haven't seen either of them for years! It was so fun to catch up with them and I really wish we'd had more time!

After that we started heading back to the ship - I picked up a small gift for each of the cabin stewards on my deck and a couple of grocery items (good night, Hawaii IS expensive). We got caught in the rain as we were walking...realized that we were a lot further from the port than we thought, attempted to hail a cab, finally got one, and made it back on ship - barely on time! (Yes, faculty and staff can get "dock time" as well.)

The security to get back onto the ship and the students were searched throughly! Naturally, we had a lot who were trying to smuggle on alcohol and we had to be there searching bags, getting them to dump it etc. I was amazed at the ways they thought to sneak it on and saddened that some of them spent so much time figuring out these methods and less time enjoying the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of Hawaii. We probably dumped $500 worth of alcohol down the sink that night. What a waste of time and money. One student had even found a pair of hollow binoculars that doubled as a secret flask. Ridiculous. We saw it all - camelbacks, cases of bottled "water," nalgenes etc. I'm sure some of it slipped past, but I don't think much did.

As we finally got everyone back on board and headed out I was amazed by the serenity of the moon hitting the water and lighting up the sky. I don't think I've ever seen a brighter moon. It was the prefect way to end the day and seemed rather appropriate given the way I'd started the day. No picture that I took even remotely gave it justice

Most of the student life staff


These are some of the RD's at the end of move-in...right before our first all ship life-boat drill.


This is one of our senior passengers doing what I wish I was doing... not yet. Hopefully one of these days!


Me saying hi to you from the 7th deck!


This is from San Diego...when we were still close to land.

So... many hotels will leave a chocolate or a mint on the pillow...we got a life-jacket instead! The rooms are nice huh? This is mine!

"Row, row, row your ship..."

Well hello friends, family and colleagues. I have been aching to write you all and have found that until right this moment, I have had very little free time. I'm so glad to be blogging right now as I have a lot to share! The idea that all of the RD's had about having a lot of free time to read/sit in on classes etc. has proved to be inaccurate. =) I still hope that this will come in time, but it doesn't look hopeful for awhile! I have my first "free" afternoon and evening today and I'm really looking forward to it!

We'll start with the basics... I had very little trouble adjusting to the ship and have definitely found my "sea legs." The first night of sailing I was a little worried, but managed okay. Now, I don't even really notice the movement until we get a large swell. The last few days have been cloudy and a storm seems likely, but we only had a bit of drizzle 3 nights ago - so nothing major yet! When I finally get to go to bed, I am out! It is a great gentle rocking that is taking us all back to our infancy days. I think I'll miss sleeping on the ship when this is over!

As I mentioned in the last post, the decks are one of my favorite things on this ship. I love being outside and feeling the breeze, seeing the sun rises and sets and looking at the stars (when the lights get turned off). I have been getting up early and working out at about 0630 each morning. Afterwards I go stretch on the deck and enjoy the early morning quiet. It is a very surreal feeling to look out in all directions and see nothing but the Pacific Ocean. Yesterday at our "noon report from the bridge" we heard that we were more than 600 miles from any land in any direction. It matched the feelings of insignificance that I felt standing on the mountains in Switzerland. We did see a bird this morning so we must be getting close to land!

The job has had its challenges, but all in all it's been a good experience thus far. There are already a number of folks that I have become close to in the week that we've been on board. We were just talking today and it feels as though we've known each other much longer than one week. I can only imagine what it will be like in December. One of the most exciting things is that three of the people I'm really getting close to, Kate, Brian and Gail, all happen to live in Portland! I'm thrilled that I'm going to have some additional folks to hang out with when I move to Oregon in late Dec. The exec. dean, his wife and family also live there and they are amazing as well!!! I've made a lot of Oregon connections through this "voyage of discovery" and I'm super excited that I'll be heading out there when I return. Isn't it funny how things sometimes really seem to align?

We have started making some travel plans and it looks as though I'll be seeing Japan with Brian, Kate and Nam (one of the other fabulous RD's). Vietnam with Nam and Joy (another RD), China with Gail, and who knows after that. Nam is Vietnamese, has been there a number of times and speaks the language - I'm looking forward to that trip - I think we're going to REALLY see Vietnam.

This past week consisted of 3 days of training and then it was similar to opening week at a residence hall on a land campus (getting to know each other, testing rules/boundaries, figuring out schedules and where to go etc.). I've been conducting one on ones with each of my residents (thank you CU - none of the other RD's have ever really done that with their residents and are following suite). I'm so glad I'm doing it, although it takes away from any hope of free time that I would have on the ship. It is well worth it. Some of the students absolutely amaze me! One of my future blogs will illustrate a humorous "roommate agreement" form I received from a cynical resident. He cracked up when I told him I wanted to blog about it!

Ok... I'm off to Global Studies now. More later. Miss you all - love you!