Thankful for you!

Hey all,

This note is a little late…but it takes a long time for a turkey to deliver a message from the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This was the first year in my whole life that I have missed out on Thanksgiving dinner with my fam! However, I did have turkey and as I sat around the table with my “ship family” I thought of all of you. I am so thankful to have all of you as friends and family. Without you, I would not be who I am. This trip has been an absolute whirl wind and I will come home the same…but different… or as they say in Vietnam, “same, same, but different!” The things I have seen are hard to define in one word, hard to explain in once sentence and impossible to imagine without having been there yourself. That being said, I feel so fortunate to be able to sail back to my little nook in Portland for the holidays and come home to all of you. I have learned so much about the world and myself on this trip, but more than anything else, I know that family and friends, community and love are the most important things in life. I have seen, met, hugged, cried and laughed with people who have nothing–except family, friends and love. When there is nothing else, we have each other. That being said, I want to wish all of you the happiest of Thanksgivings and I can’t wait to see all of your faces in a few weeks! Love and peace from the ocean! xoxoxo

Tokyo

I don’t know how many of you have seen the Kill Bill movies, but I was really excited to go to Tokyo and pretend I was Beatrix Kiddo. We got up early and caught the train from Yokohama to Tokyo. The trains here are amazing. Everyone gets their tickets and waits in single file line for their train. When the train arrives, everyone waits for the arriving passengers to get off before everyone boards. Along with regular cars they have cars exclusively for women, children and senior citizens. We got to Tokyo and it was raining, which reminded me of home. For those of you that have never been to Tokyo it is like a giant NYC except in Japanese. They have the biggest intersection and crosswalk in the world! It was nuts. We found a few temples and had lunch at a really yummy restaurant that reminded me of St. Honore except with a self-serve salad bar that was SO GOOD! It was super green and organic and such a nice change from all the foods I have been eating the last 4 moths. Tokyo had a 4 story H&M and so you can imagine my excitement as we ran toward it! We visited the China town in Tokyo and then headed back to the ship in Yokohama.

Yokohama

Yokohama is much smaller. This was our last day in Japan and so me and my roomie Clara went with some friends to the Starbucks in little China Town to Skype our friend Genna who had to go home in India because she had malaria. We miss her so much and so it was so good to catch up with her and hear her voice! Then we got lunch in China town and walked around town and had coffee. It was nice to just soak up the last couple of hours in Japan and be in our last international port. I didn’t have any expectations for Japan and I didn’t know what to expect, but it exceeded the expectations that I didn’t have and I really liked it. Japan has so much style! One thing that I loved about Japan was their attention to detail, especially in shopping malls. When you make a purchase they ask you if you want your purchase gift-wrapped? I always say no. If you buy something like stationary without gift-wrapping, they take the paper and wrap it in tissue. Then they fold it into a decorative paper, take a ribbon and make a loop that they stick with a sticker. Then they put it in another small paper sack before putting into a sack with handles and then tape that sack shut. If you have ever seen the movie Love Actually (my favorite movie of all time) and have seen the scene where he is gift-wrapping with cinnamon and holly with candy on top, it was just like that! It made me wonder what a purchase with gift-wrapping would look like.
Speaking of gift wrapping and the holidays, I busted out my Bob Dylan Holiday tunes and we decorated our room with holiday garlands and Thanksgiving is tomorrow! We actually have two Thanksgivings because we are crossing the international date line and will finally be back from the future. For the past few days I have been living in the future…a day ahead of all of you, and as I told my grand dad on the phone, I have known all about your tomorrows since I have already lived your yesterdays. This also means that with two Thanksgivings I will have extra time to think about all the things I am thankful for, but I will share a few with you now. I am thankful for all of my friends and family. I am thankful to have the opportunity to travel the world, to learn and explore. I am thankful for clean water, for food, for shelter, for happiness, for safety, for health. I am thankful for you–Happy Thanksgiving from the Pacific Ocean. xoxo

Kobe

The next day we got up bright and early and took the subway into town. We didn’t have any plans except to just walk around and explore. It was so early that all the shops and houses were buttoned up, but we walked through neighborhoods and got a glimpse of Kobe outside of the busy city center. Around lunch we headed back to the city center and did some shopping and visited China town. It is funny to visit China town after just being there! We got these amazing pot stickers at a street vender and people watched. Then we walked around and found this dessert called a dessert burger. It was a doughnut for a bun and had a cookie crunch inside and was packed with yummy fruit and hot chocolate syrup. It was SO good. I felt like I was on splendid table and so I took a video of us eating it and we gave a great NPR narration of the goodness. That night we were back on the ship to transit to Yokohama. Our transit day was nice, because transit is optional and so there were only about 250 of us on board and so it is quiet and you can catch up on journaling and school work and just watch movies and relax. It was a good day.

Kyoto

We arrived in Kobe and had a LONG debarkation process. We had to wait in line for about 2 hours to get pictured, finger printed and all of your forms checked. It was about 5 minutes per person, but they have to process 700 people and so it was a long morning. We also had to pass temperature checks in order to be let into Japan and I was so happy to pass since the whole ship came back from China with colds. Once we got through immigration we headed right onto the subway line that took us to the train station. We grabbed Chai Tea Lattes and headed for Kyoto. It took about an hour to get there and so by the time we got there the sun was setting. The station had a HUGE mall and so we wandered around and looked at clothes and stationary and accessories. Japan is super hip and trendy and so everything is cool, right down to the shoelaces that they wear—stylish from head to toe.
Then we went and found where the bus station was and got on a train into town. We got on the train, which was JAM PACKED with people. Nothing was really in English and all we had was a map and we were traveling at rush hour. We had an idea of what stop we wanted to get off at, but we weren’t exactly sure. When we got on the train I did make out an announcement that said the bus didn’t accept anything but exact change and so by some miracle I had what I needed. However, for a future note, if you are ever taking a bus in Japan, know that you need EXACT change. And, as I was on the bus with all my bags and was digging for change, I thought how smart it would be to bring those change holders like you can buy at IKEA to have in your car, and that way, on a trip, you don’t have to be digging deep in your purse in a crowded space in the dark. Anyway, we were on the bus for what seemed like an hour to move 3 stops, but we finally made it to the exact street where we wanted to be.
        We went to a temple that is open at night and it was SO beautiful. All the lanterns were lit up and it was quiet and peaceful. I think my favorite part about the temples is that you can be in rush hour traffic, surrounded by wall-to-wall people passing on the street, walking by food stand after food stand with yelling and crowds, and then you make one turn and you find yourself in a temple that is totally tranquil... you could hear a pin drop. This temple backed up to a huge park and a pond and so we just wandered around. Then we went back to the main street and wanted some food. I found a stand on the street and this guy was deep frying something that looked yummy and there was a line, which was a good sign. When I got up to the counter I asked what was in the fried dough and he walked back into his little kitchen and came out with a HUGE BOWL of octopus. He spoke absolutely no English and pointed to the pile of octopus guts.  Then I pointed to another fried thing and he pointed to the bowl again. I have to say that while I didn’t eat any, I bet it was good. Instead we kept walking. We found a big open grill on the sidewalk and a tiny little hole in the wall restaurant behind the grill. An old man was making these amazing pancakes filled with eggs and veggies and spices and seaweed and all this yummy stuff. We watched him make them and decided to eat. It was SO GOOD! After dinner we stopped in some shops before taking the train back to Kobe that night.

Last Day in China

Today we spent the day wandering around Shanghai. We wanted to take a cab to the old part of the City and had no map and no idea where it was. We asked like 4 door mans where we were and where we were trying to go and all of them said they didn’t speak any English. However, they all know how to say, “I don’t know English.”  We finally got in a cab and the driver had no idea what we were talking about and so we got out and found friends that had a map. Then we went to the metro station and got a ticket to the old city. When we got out of the metro we left our friends who had the map and were standing looking lost and a little old lady came over to me and asked if we wanted to go to the old city? I said yes and asked her if she spoke any English at all and she only spoke a tiny, tiny bit. She took us to exactly where we wanted to go and tried to explain to me where she lived and that she had lived in Shanghai all her life. She was so sweet. I just wanted to fold her up and put her in my bag and bring her home with me! She was SOOOOO cute! Sometimes when you are traveling, it is easy to get worn out with the language barrier, the overload, the unfamiliar, the everything new, the here, there and everywhere…so when you find those kind people (the mom in South Africa who gave me a hug, the school teacher in Vietnam and the sweet little old lady today) they make everything better, they make the world seem small, and they make everything seem possible. It was just what we needed! We got to a long street of vendors and we have now been around the world and so we are pros at cutting the prices in half. We saved a ton of time by naming our price and walking away. Actually, the language barrier was so fuzzy that we typed prices into calculators and then walked away! But it was a success! The weird thing was that I heard Christmas music playing in English today, but I didn’t meet a single person who spoke English…go figure. Tonight we are all back on the ship and heading for Japan. Classes are back in session tomorrow! Hope all is well! Love from China! xox

Temple of Heaven

The last day in Beijing we went to the Temple of Heaven that is in a park. Just FYI: The emperors from the Forbidden City were known for going to this temple and all the roofs have blue tile to match the sky (instead of the traditional yellow tile). The square was full of senior citizens playing bad mitten, cards, dominos etc, because the senior citizens get into the temple for free—Terwilliger Plaza would have LOVED this place! It was pretty cool to see all these guys having domino competitions!  Then we went to a traditional teahouse! They showed us all these different types of traditional Chinese teas and how to smell them and taste them and how to hold your tea cup with your pointer finger and your thumb and have your middle finger on the bottom of the cup. These cups were not even cups-- it was like tea shots! They were sooooo small. I have HUGE tea MUGS at home and so I would have to have about 2 billion trillion sips of tea in order to even fill one of my mugs. But, they were fun to try and it was interesting to learn about all the different types of teas and what time of day they drink each kind and what tea to drink when you are sick or sad or whatever. It was good to have the tea ceremony at the end of the trip because if you have seen the bathrooms in China, you know to hold it. I thought I had to pee at the Great Wall and when I walked into the bathroom I decided to just wait until we got back to the ship… I have been to Ghana and India so that is saying a lot. Actually, now that I mention it, there are a lot of places in the world that you should probably just hold it and wait. Luckily, today, in Shanghai when we were looking for a bathroom they didn’t even have any—ANYWHERE--and had no idea what we were talking about. That takes care of that.

The Great Wall!

The next morning we went and visited an international Kung-Fu School. They put on a performance for us where they broke glass using their heads, smashed big sticks in half and kicked each other. Then they had picture time and if you know me at all you know that I:
A.      Never get up on stage
B.      NEVER Get my picture taken with people on stage
C.      NEVER Act like a kung-fu person in a picture on a stage
D.      But I am happy to watch other people do A-C on stage.
So I stood and watched from the audience. Then they taught us some moves…again, I just watched because I don’t need to learn kung fu. I was watching friends attempt Kung Fu moves when I suddenly noticed a bunch of little kids outside. I walked outside and all these little kids that were between ages 3-9 years old were learning kung fu. They were SO cute! ADORABLE! This one little kid (who I wanted to take home) was about three and he didn’t really want to learn kung-fu or be out in the freezing cold and he was trying so hard and trying not to cry. His dad was amazing at kung-fu and was trying to help him along. I was a huge help to this little kid (I am sure) as I took pictures and video of him and was cheering him on as he tried to do the splits. I wished that I had been able to speak fluent Chinese to tell him that I am 21 and still can’t do the splits so not to worry about it. I also wished I could have told him how proud I was that he was sticking with it—since I would have gotten up and said no way—I want to go inside and play with my toys. He was precious. SO CUTE! I watched them for about an hour and we left they were still practicing! Then we drove the rest of the way to the Great Wall! The Great Wall is called “the long wall of Ten Thousand Li.” However, the Great Wall is way better than great and so I think it should be called the freaking amazing, incredible totally cool wall! FYI: It took more than 300,000 men and 10 years to complete. I didn’t know that there were so many stairs and so I was surprised by how much uphill and downhill there was and you can trip and kill yourself if your not careful! I made sure not to trip. Don’t trip on your trip. That is the motto. I do think that there should be a race on the wall! I think that would be awesome—an ultra marathon! We took a tram to one of the sections and got to walk along the wall for about an hour. It was so amazing! We had a photo shoot and took a million trillion pictures! We got to watch the sunset and then we got coco and made our way back to Beijing. We had a HUGE meal with all kinds of rice, chicken, beef, and pot stickers, hot and sour soup, egg soup, rice cakes, spring rolls, egg rolls, fruit! It was so yummy! Then we went to an Acrobatic show. They had live birds that flew all around and it probably had a theme, but it was all in Chinese so who knows?!? The acrobats climbed up on a stack of 10 chairs and then did hand stands (I can do that), made a pyramid with a trillion people (no big deal), balanced on bicycles (easy), jumped through hoops and were bendable in all directions (anyone can do that). It was impressive. I am not a huge acrobat fan, but this was cool. It was similar to Cirque de Soule (yup, spelled that wrong) and then we headed back to the hotel for the night.

Day 2 in Beijing

Day 2 in Beijing

We woke up early headed to the Forbidden City. For whatever reason, none of us really thought it was going to be that cold because we thought that only Japan would be cold. FALSE. It was cold. But it didn’t matter because the Forbidden City was so incredible! We got there early in the morning and so it wasn’t crowded. For those of you that don’t know, the Forbidden City was home to 24 emperors (so the place is huge) and the whole city has a total of 8,706 rooms where 8,000 people lived. This place makes the White House look like Polly Pocket! But, the architecture was amazing and I couldn’t stop taking pictures of all the dragons that run along the rooftops. Fun Fact: The stone walkways were designed to be orthopedic as emperors walked around in their slippers. Then we made our way out of the Forbidden City and into Tian’men Square where Mao Zedong (chairman of Communist Party) proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The square was super busy with lots of people and Chinese people rushed up to me to get a picture of me with my blonde hair. After lunch we went to a market and it was so different from the other markets that we have been to. In India and Morocco when you want to buy something they offer you a price. Then you can spend about a half an hour (unless you were in Morocco with us—then you spend an hour) arguing about a good price before walking away empty handed or with your new cool “whatever”(in Morocco we got a blanket).
At the market in Beijing it went like this:

Vender: Want to buy this?
Ru: How much?
Vender: name price
Ru: How much?
Vender: $250 Yuan (for a mug)
Ru: $10 Yuan
Vender: No
Ru: Ok, Bye
Vender: Ok! Ok! $10!!!
All in the span of 2 seconds. …

After success at the market we went to a migrant school in Shunyi. This school was started 4 years ago for orphans who are ineligible for government subsidies. They gave us a tour of the school. I have been to several orphanages in Morocco, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt and Ghana and this one was not as nice as some. The rooms were basic with metal bunk beds and a comforter, a locker for each child’s things, and they had decorated the white drab walls with crayon. They had no running water, and they washed their clothes by hand. When I looked in the medic room they had hardly any medical supplies. They only turned the lights on when absolutely necessary and while the children had coats, they needed hats and gloves---it was FREEZING outside. While we were there we painted a mural, played basketball and ran around. They were really sweet and nice, but I wished that everything were brighter and cleaner.
That night we had a dinner that Guy would have LOVED! It was everything Duck. Everything that can be made from a duck (right down to the webbing in their feet) was served at this dinner. We couldn’t “duck out of it!” (Thank you for that one Mandy! So funny!) And so we tried it all and then headed out to the mall for a break. The mall was fun because the style is so different. The colors, the window displays and even the fashion show happening in the lobby was all unlike our Nordstrom (etc) at home. We got hats and gloves so that we wouldn’t freeze at the Great Wall. It was fun to poke around town and be out at night. Beijing is HUGE and so downtown felt like NY!

Beijing!

We flew from Hong Kong to Beijing (the Capital of China) for our Beijing trip! At this point I had a full on cold and so I was SO HAPPY to see Starbucks (don’t judge me—you know I support local at home) and got a Chai tea latte and orange juice. Fun fact: Starbucks has REALLY good food in Asia. We got to Beijing and it was FREEZING! But, I was so happy when I stepped off the plane and smelled Fall—which my friend pointed out, was probably burning pollution—but I am going to picture a nice cozy fire instead! We took a pedicab (which is a three wheeled bicycle) to a local families house. It was so cold outside, but it was really fun to get to ride through narrow streets and see all the neighborhoods. We arrived at a little house where a lady and her husband had prepared a traditional Chinese meal for us. The kitchen area was small and we all gathered around little tables and got our own chopsticks and had all kinds of yummy food. She served sticky rice, spicy things and hot and sour things with chicken and beef, veggies, soup, pot stickers. It was so good. While we ate she told us about her family, her house that was over 300 years old and the traditional customs of a family, inheritance, marriage, children etc in China. Her husband was the fourth generation living in his family’s house and the house is only passed onto the oldest son. Her husband was an artist and so they showed us all of his paintings and his studio. The artwork was beautiful and the rice paper was amazing.

Hong Kong!

We arrived in Hong Kong! I was fighting off a cold and not feeling very good and so we had an easy day of no agenda and exploring! We took a ferry over to a little island and visited the Hong Kong Po Lin Monastery. At the Po Lin Monastery is a HUGE Buddha that sits on the hill. The Monastery was really beautiful and had a garden, a walkway lined with horoscope statues of every year you could be born. My statue (the year of the snake) had a mean looking warrior with a snake on his head. We made our way to a small open square that was lined with small fires to light in scents and in scents that were burning in long rows. We bought a package and I lit them for friends and family that have passed away and whom I wish were here. It was really peaceful. We got lunch and spent the rest of the day just wandering around the Monastery and the Temple. Happy Birthday Grand dad! Love you!

Dear friends and family,

It has been a while since I checked in. After every port my brain is like a boiling pot of water that is overflowing with stories, thoughts, and happenings from all of my adventures. I use my blog as a place to share everything in one long, unedited, train of thought. My words spill out onto the page as I write from trains, planes, my room etc. However, this post was the first time where I have had to truly sit down, reflect, think hard, and deliver some very sad news. On the 6th of November a student passed away on our voyage. Although I did not know him personally, his death was a huge loss to our community.  Because we are away from our friends and family back home, the ship becomes our home, the community becomes our family, and each and every one of us was affected by his passing.  As we gathered together on the ocean to support one another, as we made our way to China, I couldn’t help but think of all of you (my friends and family) at home. I am so thankful, so grateful, so lucky to have each and every one of you in my life. Every single one of you has given me love and support and made me who I am today. Now, I am in China, practically a day ahead of all of you, and as I wrap up my day and you start yours, keep in mind that life is short and we all have to live everyday to its absolute fullest! Peace and Love. I can’t wait to see you all soon! Xoxoxo

Mekong Delta

I keep meaning to say, happy November Everyone! Only one more month and a little bit and I will be home! Today we went to the Mekong Delta. Along the Mekong, rice, fish, soybeans, peanuts, and tobacco are produced. The guide also said that The My Tho area is famous for its coconut palms. We took a boat along the Mekong to a house where they were making coconut candy. They let us taste all the different kinds (plain, chocolate, peanut butter etc) and we watched them make the candy and package it. Then we took a small canoe up the river and had lunch in a thatched hut by the water. I was sitting by the edge of the water and a HUGE (I say huge meaning like the size of my hand) lizard came out from the marsh and walked under the table! And they had these land fish that are basically fish with feet that walk up out of the water and onto dry land and then walk back into the water. I have NEVER seen them before. You guys should all Google image walking fish! They are nuts! It reminded me of the duck mobiles that drive on land and then drive into the water and turn into boats. We wrapped our own spring rolls (Stevie, wish you had been there, you would have been a pro!) and they brought a WHOLE cooked fish to the table and skinned it and boned it there. Then they brought out shrimp and we had to shell them, and then they brought out burners and bowls and they made us soup. The best thing that we had today was that they cut up fresh pineapple and they dip the slices into salt with chili peppers. It is sooooooo good! From now on, that is the only way I am having pineapple! Hawaiians are going to think I am so weird when I ask for salt with my pineapple! Haha! On the boat ride back we drank from coconuts! Now we are back on the MV and getting ready to head out for dinner. I just had a friend ask what I was doing? And I said, “I am updating my blog” and she said, “Does anyone read your blog?” I don’t know? But I hope so, and I hope that whoever you are, you go and find your self some pineapple and dip it in salt! Bon Appetite!

Vietnam!

Hey All!
I woke up at 5AM this morning to watch us come in! It is really beautiful and all the little fishing boats and houses were fun to see from the water as we arrived. One of the things that you can only experience on SAS is the fact that you get to wake up in a cool new place every few days and that on mornings like this one, you can find a friend with a French press, grab some mugs and go sit and watch the sun rise over a brand new city that you have never been to before. I feel very lucky. Once we got in port we visited the History Museum, which was really cool and had lots of pictures and descriptions talking about Vietnams culture in the past, present and future. At the museum, they have a water puppet performance. This is a tradition in Vietnam and dates back to the 11th century. I didn’t know this and so I was totally surprised. The stage is a pool of water and the puppets emerge from the water and the puppeteers are hidden behind a large set. It was really cool. Then we went to the Presidents Palace and got to walk around and see all the rooms. It was fancy. Then we went to the Thien Hau Pagoda which was really interesting. People come there to pray and light in scents and depending on how many they light to burn, means different things. Some only light one to pray for everyone and everything. Others light many to pray for good health, a job, work, happiness etc. There were also in scents that hung from the ceiling and burned. It was really beautiful. We had a really amazing 6-course meal for lunch. We had a lotus salad (I think that is what it was) and it was tasty. Then we had spring rolls, then fruit, then sticky white rice, tofu, sweet and sour soup, and rice cakes. It was super yummy. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and City Hall. The last place that we visited was called Handicapped Handcrafters where they employ handicapped people to make this AMAZING eggshell and etched stone pieces of traditional Vietnamese artwork. It was really neat to be able to see the process and time that goes into each of the pieces.

That night, we went to what we thought would be a coffee house and music place and it turned out to be just a big seating area with a stage. The music was not a small coffee shop setting at all and the singers were in these VERY sparkle and shine outfits and sang a whole bunch of Vietnamese songs. It was like something I have seen out of a movie.

Vietnam is huge and there is a ton of traffic. Everyone rides a moped and there are NO traffic rules whatsoever. You can ride on the sidewalk, you can go through a light, and you can do whatever you want. I have seen mopeds carrying up to 5 people, with babies, with dogs, with HUGE loads of whatever. If you happen to not have a moped and are crossing the street (me) you just start walking and you don’t stop or flinch or sprint. You just move at a cow like pace and all the mopeds go around you at a bazillion miles an hour. I swear, when I get home, is going to be the quietest place ever compared to here!

Singapore!

Hey All,

Some of you are wondering where I am and I am behind on blogging and ahead in traveling. I left India with so much in my head and my heart that before I knew it we were in Singapore! Singapore was a 360-degree turnaround from India. It is clean and organized in kind of a “big brother” kind of way. They have lots of rules to keep the city in tiptop condition and so it makes it safe and easy to get around. There is a LOT of shopping in Singapore! The first day we didn’t have any plans and so we went into the main part of the city (the whole island is only 26 miles long! It could be run!) And I have to admit; I caved and went to Starbucks. It was my first coffee since August. There was 2 huge yellow labs sitting out front and the holiday cup was a little pre-game for when I get home at Christmas! We wandered around and looked in the windows of all the designer shops and all the malls. Then we took a tram over to Sentosa, which was an island built for tourists. They have Orlando Studios and the Hard Rock Café and lots of touristy things to see and do. They had a butterfly garden and beaches and resorts. We saw a surf competition going on and the surfers were in these huge glass boxes with high-powered water. The whole thing was really weird. We felt like we were in Pleasantville or some made up city. That night I went to the zoo for a Safari dinner and Halloween party. The zoo was really great, similar to San Diego or Washington DC. They had a big Halloween party and that was Halloween. Actually, on the ship, a few days ago, the little kids came by and went trick or treating from cabin to cabin and so we had Halloween on the ship too! I hope everyone had a good Halloween at home!

The next morning we got coffee again and wandered around town before grabbing lunch and heading back to the ship. When we left India I had 4 tests in 3 days and so I was exhausted in Singapore and it only took one day to get to Vietnam and so I had to do laundry and finish up any homework and get ready for Vietnam. And that is where I am now!!!

So happy to hear about the Giants and the Ducks! Three Cheers! Or as my mom likes to say, “three chairs!” hip hip horray! Hip hip horray! Hip hip Horray!