sorry this is a very short note about how much i love japan
and will be messy, i do not want to get dock time but japan has the kindest, cleanest, and most efficient culture i have EVER seen i am amazed and blown away for instance, no trashcans on the street, because you must not eat and walk/ the trash you have is yours and yours alone and you must dispose of it in your home the hot springs was the highlight of my trip, 4095 yen, SO CHEAP. it was in a local area and then we had the best ramen in a literal hole in the wall, or what i like to say home in the wall the amount of mochi, rice and pastries i have consumed is crazy! the amount of delicacies OH MY LORD. i went to osaka, and then tokyo for two nights and then kyoto and then TODAY kobe.
0 Comments
Today i was blessed with a visit to the islands of Hawaii. It was an incredible opportunity to not only immerse myself in the culture, but learn more about how I interact with different cultures. For SAS, each port visit is not just independent travel, but also an opportunity to embark on a field class. A field class is similar to a field trip, in which you spend a day with one of your classes, to push learning outside of the classroom. In my case, I am reading a crime fiction novel named "Murder Casts a Shadow," which takes place mainly in Honolulu. Thus, that is where we went! The first exercise we had was a hula lesson by locals at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. It was a fabulous time and I had so much fun with it. I picked up on little words like "pao" and "eike" and "moana." Each gesture, clap, stance, really stand for different things. It was incredible and reminded me of traditional Indian Baratnatyam (sorry if I misspelled that). The positioning of the hips, knees and the strong posture one holds, really allowed me to understand the movements and how kinesthetically grounded Hawaiian culture truly is. Next, we went to the Bishop Museum, which was where the murder in the book was held. The museum had strong ties to the school, Kamehameha. I learned about the five Gods and how the Hawaiians believed in the creation of man. Then the "wao kanaka" or the realm of common man and how they sustained themselves. And lastly, of the overthrow of the monarchy. An incredible museum! The day ended with a view of the entire city. The photo I took above was from the Nu'uanu Pali Point which was also a place described in the novel. Being up there, seeing all the green, made me feel one with nature. It made me aware of the strong ties the locals had to their land, but also miss San Francisco with it's wonderful views as well. TAKEAWAY: The Hawaiian tradition prospers through the mind, body and soul. Good, strong first port experience! Can't wait for JAPAN! (It'll be a long 12 days.. don't miss me too much) Hey family, it has been a while. I literally can't upload anything on the ship, because we have our own homeport network that allows for certain sites and it is super slow. So some updates on things here on the ship!
Lost my key for a solid 2 days, it was terrible. ALMOST paid 50 bucks for a new one how ridiculous! Found it last night :) Class is hard... I have to read 200 pages for my U.S. Pacific Wars class.. it is no joke. I am not a fan of history and sitting through it. ALL I DO IS READ. But my Understanding Dance class is awesome! I am presenting on Bollywood and I'm so ready. My other class is forcing me to read fun crime fiction novels about the countries we are going to :) 11 books yay! No motion sickness... yet. ' I can't get over the sunsets I see every night. BEAUTIFUL. I love being surrounded by ocean. I still can't believe this is a thing. Gyming is a little intense on the ship. We have a sign up sheet because people would fight for our 4 treadmills and 3 bikes. We have the tiniest area for weights... but it is still manageable. My idea is to splurge in country, so that means working out on all A and B days ;) THE PEOPLE. I love the international kids! My true homies are the Danes: Katerina, Marie and Emma. The other people I love are Sam, Vons, Giselle and Ahdali. So authentic and the stories I get to hear are so different. LOVE how no technology fosters great relationships. Nervous for planning my trips port to port because of the limited connection and the inability to google anything, but will be hitting the books for some research on in-country travel! Health- constipated from eating too many bananas or it's just traveling. MERP. We had our involvement fair the other day and I obvs signed up for Zumba and Yoga. But they also had something called Extended Family, which is a family of lifelong learners, students and staculty on the ship. These people are your "family" and support group. HOW GREAT. OHMG. Hoku and I tried hand washing our clothes for the first time. It was horrendous. We had clothes drying everywhere in our room. INSANITY. At least they smelled somewhat good. After four months of this... I def need a new wardrobe. Lastly, I have been journaling everyday and I am so proud of myself. The day has arrived ya’ll. My lovelies, this is unreal. Shout out to my brother getting me Einstein Bro’s again for brekkie. It was such a nice gesture. I also snagged my tall iced coffee in a venti cup from Starbucks with soy milk and 2 splenda packets. I will miss Starbucks :( My shuttle to Ensenada was at 9 a.m. and my family and I waited around, my parents more nervous for me than I was. Some SAS volunteers took my bag (YAY!) so I did not have to lug it onto the bus and then the ship. It would undergo inspection (drug, alcohol, etc.) and then be permitted on the ship and be placed in our rooms. Excuse me, not rooms, they are actually cabins. Cabin number 4034. I boarded the bus at 9:20 and we left at 9:40. MY BUS BUDDY turned out to be this super cute girl named Catherine from Vanderbilt. She was pretty talkative and it was a fun ride down. Strange enough, we had to go through security check-in at the border and get off the bus and reboard. There was not much surveillance and was chill. Once it hit noon, everyone on the bus was starving. I remember this one particular guy who was being obnoxious and trying to read in Spanish, I had remembered him from the SAS FB page and already hated him because he was a constant poster-er. We reached the ship at 12:30ish and had to stand in line again to get on M.V. World Odyssey (Magic Vessel, I learned that day). Everyone was throwing out snacks because it was not allowed. EVERYONE was pissed off and this one girl had bought a $150 worth of power bars due to a dietary restriction. She had a separate screening! There was no joking around. It basically was like airport security on steroids. Once that was complete, we surrendured our passports and yellow fever vaccination cards to SAS. AND THEN I GOT ON THE SHIP. Okay don’t laugh but the biggest fail happened. So I have a Go Pro Hero Session, the tiny indestructible cube, and started recording me literally stepping on the ship and not knowing this was filiming for about 2 minutes. Little did I know, it was on Time-Lapse, and was a bunch of selfie- looking images of my triple chin. WHOOPS. After this, I climbed some stairs and had to stand again in another line for getting my room keys, health screening, getting my shipboard id card, ensuring visas were approved, field program check-in, and balance on account. This took maybe 5 years, but it was my first exposure to Kaissersaal, a beautiful room with a chandelier and red plush sofas and couches. It was beautiful! This would be where our large Global Studies class would be held with all 598 students. I met up with Hoku a tad bit later and met our neighbors! They were Sam, Shavonne, Miku! We explored everything, from the gym to the pool to both dining halls. It was huge! 9 decks of full flesh ship. We then had a lifeboat drill and I was so confused on wearing the life jackets and meeting somewhere. So we waited in the hallway and took a cute selfie. We then hustled to deck 7 and waited for all the SASers to join us. They then read off each cabin name and those who resided in it. It was at that very point I knew that I would be close to Shavonne. We were just joking around and it was the most innocent fun. After this, we had dinner and Hoku and I were both nervous about motion sickness and thus took drowsy dramamine (1 pill each). Afterwards we headed to dinner and on the way there it hit me. The drowsiness. It felt as if I was drunk. Dinner was salad, and some fish filet. Not shabby. This really fun thing that SAS does is divide each deck by seas and so we are the Arabian Sea and so after dinner we had a Sea meeting. I signed up for the Sea Olympics Committee and am stoked! It is a competition that is held mid-voyage and is a battle between all the other seas. Our color is orange and so I was thinking that we should all tape cheat bags to our shirts, and CHEETO out. IT WOULD BE DOPE. and then i slept. hahah. a long day one. The majestic MV World Odyssey was docked in the San Diego Harbor and I actually saw it today! It was beautiful with the different colored flags strung up, all 11 of them. I actually also saw the iconic World War II kissing statue, of the war soldier kissing a nurse after hearing news that the war would be over. Hoku and I were amazed! We also got Einstein Bro's and I was stoked. I am one to try new things everytime I return to a restaurant and this time I got asparagus and egg whites on a jalapeno bagel with jalapeno cheese shmear. LOVED IT. The last time I had it was in Austin visiting my brother during fall break. Too good.
I can't believe that this ship will be my home for the next four months. IT ASTOUNDS ME. The people, stories, experiences that are to come. My shuttle time tomorrow is at 9 a.m. and I can not wait. Hopefully my bus buddy is chill and I vibe with them. So many more adventures to come. Talk to you soon. P.S. learned that there is fresh fruit on the ship! P.S.S. doing a fresh load of laundry currently, before I can never do it again ahaha P.S.S.S. pissed at SAS because I can not take all the snacks I packed, it has to be single serve ONLY :( So on the ship, we have something called A and B days. If you understand the block schedule or even modified block schedule, then it is identical. You have your A classes on one day and your B classes on another. According to this, I don't have any school on B days! (Yay, sleeping in!)
Global Studies is a core class that all SAS students have to take. TBA whether it is A or B!
Today, I officially left my home. I was bittersweet but more bitter than sweet because of how little sleep I had gotten the night before. I was restless, full of anxiety and excitement. As I am typing this, a full 10 hours later, I just can't believe this incredible opportunity that I have been blessed with. I can not thank my parents enough. Cheers to rolling my clothes and the Costco-sized Skippy packed away! |
AuthorNabiha Jiwani Archives
March 2017
Categories |