Back to Reality

Rawwwwwww!

My camera is officially gone. You would understand once you take a look at the pictures that I have taken with my camera. That's why I've been working so hard over the past 2 days to help my friend Dudu with some translation work... You see, Dudu has a company back in Taiwan, and he asked me to translate a 30-page document for him... My god, I spent at least 30 hours on those disgusting documents. Thank god he is paying me to do it and I finally have enough money to purchase a brand new camera! :)

Currently, I am also an employed student at the Trading Room in the Haub School of Business... Basically, I am paid to sit there and manage the room. That sounds pretty easy to me. Weee! That means more income to finance my future travellings!

Today was the first day of school. Sigh, back to reality. I had philosophy, Maths and DSS today. My philosophy professor is a total hunkie! He is so metro, lenient and most importantly, he gives take-home tests! I have a feeling that I will HEART this class A LOT.

So today the school had some sort of BBQ and lots of free activities on campus to welcome the new freshies and old students like us. I made a free cork board for my room, got a free t-shirt and lots of free stuff! Now you know where our USD35,000 tuition went to...

I made this T-shirt for free! Both JoAnn and I decided to get a matching shirt. Since our names are joANN and vizANNE, we decided to do Viz the Anns University and Jo the Anns University :) We got matching shorts to go with it as well!

My cork board. JoAnn made me put a picture of US versus a picture of my other friends. haha.


Both of us with our shirts. God so dorky, but I love it! In fact, I am gonna sleep in this shirt today. It's so filled with roomie's love!
Jo, my roomie. I know what you're thinking about. God why I roomates with her? =p

Lancaster

The Amish people still ride around in horse carriages at Lancaster County. How weird is that?? I guess that's their way of setting themselves apart from the others... They don't use electricty at their homes and there are no cars in their lives... I don't think I can ever survive that way.

Anyway, I spent the day with Philadelphia House people today!

I woke up at 730am to meet the peeps! That's Zhang Xuan... she passed out one minute after we loaded the car...

We went to visit Rachel and Don at their humble adobe where they served us lunch and showed us around their backyard.

The corns are even taller than us!

We walked barefoot on the grass, so we had to line up in a row to wash our feet.

Went to Jesse's place after that as well for a massive picnic. Lots of good food and fun games! But no pictures. haha. so cannot illustrate here. bleh.

I'm starting school in 2 days! Stressful lifestyle again. Blahhhhhhh. I no likey. I need to start changting again :)

Sea the World - A Bittersweet Farewell

Quote SAS’ blog: “Two and a half months, nine countries, four continents. There was much to see and experience this summer and it passed at a dizzying speed”.

I thought it would be nice to wrap my journey with a short little post, since I grew so much over this trip. I have been challenged to step out of my comfort zone, I have changed in subtle ways, ways that even I am unaware of, and I have definitely gained a world perspective…

I miss having potatoes almost every single day. Potato was the daily staple for our breakfast, lunch and dinner. I swear to god that I am never touching those carbs anymore, not at least for these few months unless it is absolutely necessary.

I miss waking up to Dia’s voice over the intercom when she did her daily announcement. God, I miss that “lovely”, almost breathless voice.

I miss Dr Milt’s (our sole certified doctor on board) wacky comments and sage advice about hygiene and baby-making precautions.

I miss listening to Dean Smith’s speech because it was always so convoluted with big words. No one understood it anyway. It’s like a lullaby that put us into a trance.

I miss living on only 1.5 mins of internet time daily because that was the only time that I was OFF facebook.

I miss taking Global Studies classes with 699 students at the Union.

I miss meeting new people EVERY single day.

I miss the small community where everyone knows practically everyone. If you screw things up, word would be out in a second and you will be famous.

I miss laughing at girls who ogled at our cute IT guy, Casey, and the things they do just to attract his attention: change into skimpy clothes before going up to Casey with their laptops, claiming that they can’t find their recycle bin. Manz, you would expect them to come up with better excuses.

I miss seeing little Ryder (Professor’s 3 year-old kid). He runs around the ship like it’s his home. His parents had to make an announcement so that any kind soul would “return” him to them. Turns out that he locked himself in the bathroom. You should have seen him. He is so darn cute. Ryder’s going to turn into one fine lady-killer.
I miss watching dolphins swimming alongside our ship. I didn’t have to worry about falling off the ship because I knew I could always count on the dolphins to save me!

I miss just laying out on the deck for star-gazing night. You have no idea, the sky’s actually so bright when the captain turns off all lights on the decks.

I miss bringing my camera around, even to classes and to dinner. No one would judge you for doing that because everyone did that! It’s always nice to have it around so you can whip it out whenever you see something picture worthy.

I miss rushing for trains and buses at ports, just so we won’t be late and won’t get dock time.

I miss standing on the deck at 5.59pm and watching latecomers run for the gangway to make it back onto the ship at 6pm.

I miss sleeping out on deck 5, only to wake up to the sunrise.

I miss hanging out with my friends on board. We played cards and board games all the time. Fun times!

I miss making small talks with the crew members whenever I walked past them.

I miss doing crazy stuff like Bungee Jumping and parasailing at ports, and almost giving my mummy a heart attack afterwards when I told her about my adventures.

I miss dressing up for the events like the Ambassador’s ball.

I miss celebrating birthdays on the ship with ice-cream cakes from the kitchen.

I miss room 4019 and my roomies.

I miss eating lunch in 15 mins, just so I can make it in time to my class and start philosophizing about my life with Plato and Aristotle’s teachings.

I miss drinking in Spain. It could bright day light and no one would card you anyway. Shangrias are the best!

I miss Italy’s ruins, so much so that I’m so ruined-out now.

I miss hiking up Mount Vesuvius to see the massive crater and laughing at bitchy silly girls trying to pose seductively at the mouth of the crater. I swear that they were about to fall off.

I miss Croatia’s beautiful city walls and red roofs.

I miss Greece’s Olympic stadiums. My friend broke into them and ran laps around the track.

I miss Turkish baths – Everyone was naked waist up and I felt like a child again as I was washed and scrubbed down by the ladies.

I miss Bulgarians’ friendliness. It’s definitely the country with the best tour itinerary!

I miss Egypt’s sunset because the city’s so polluted and that creates more color for the sky. How ironic.

I miss walking around Morocco as they greeted me in Japanese. Do I look Japanese btw?

SEMESTER AT SEA SUMMER 2009, I MISS YOU!

Hello from the Merion Gardens

I'm sitting on Miguel's couch as I'm typing this. The soft opening of the Hawk Perch is at 7pm and I have nothing to do now...... Ugghhh, I hate having nothing to do at all and I have 2 more hours to kill. Die.

On a happier note, Migs is an RA here in Merion Gardens. Dan, Karl, Nate, Rob, Qianhui, Anna, Lisa, Stephanie, Annie and Michelle are living at Merion as well. I might as well just move my stuff here since I'll be here all the time! Wee :)

Back in Philly!

Harlow everyone! I'm back to blogging.... in short phrases again. Now that I have lots of lots of internet access, I can put up as many pictures as I want to. Sigh, I think my camera is going haywire because I dropped it on the last day on board. Now it doesn't take fantastic pictures anymore, and all the images are blurry. I am most upset by the fact that it doesn't read my memory card. How am I gonna survive with this camera?! Dear mummy, if you're reading this, can u please don't be mad at me? hehe =p

Anyway, after 4 days of arriving back in Philly, I have finally moved in all my stuff into my new apartment and I am officially done with packing! Here are some pictures for your eyes to feast on :)

My apartment when I first moved in with all my barang-barang. This is only half of what I have! Haiz, whenever I look at my stuff, I want to faint because I have so much rubbish, even after I donated one bag of clothes to goodwill...

After unpacking, my place looks so much better! I heart my new place (minus the disgustingly hot weather).

My kitchen without a dining table yet.

My side of the bedroom. Despite living with JoAnn under the same roof, I still have a lot of space. This is definitely not a good thing, since I will have the tendency to buy more stuff if there's more space in the apartment =/

My bedroom from another angle... Both Jo and I decided not to get bedframes. I need to minimize the stuff that I have, since I would be moving out of this place one year later, and I cringe at the thought of having to pack up my life into boxes again... Geez, I have been moving in and out of places EVERY single year since I was 13 years old. When am I ever gonna stop?

And finally my bathroom! It looks really nice and neat right now :)

That aside, the reason why I took so long to unpack is because I have been doing other stuff as well. My life is not that sad ok? The day I arrived back in Philly, Jo and I went over to Sam's place and she made pizza and salad to feed us for the night.

Chef at work :)

Jo with the food.

Went for dinner at Friday's with Carmen and Seanie the following night...

Then the evening after, both Qianhui and I went over to Darius' place to hangout. We played wiiiiiiiiii and we tried out the new game that Darius just bought - Rayman. So much fun! And we watched Kite Runner, a soapy movie which made me tear. At least it didn't make me bawl. Bleaghhhh.

The following night, we went to Koreantown to do grocery shopping. Cheap cheap! That was followed by BBQ at a Korean restuarant. I feel almost guilty now for indulging in so much good food over a span of 4 days. I keep telling myself that I don't get to do this when school starts again, so it's totally alright and justifiable to eat luxuriously now!

Grocery and dinner gang :)

Yum yum.

School's starting in 3 days! But before that, I'm going to Lancaster this Saturday and possibly New York on Sunday! My life is so purposeful with a plan :)

p/s: anyone knows of any good camera model, please kindly recommend. Grazie :)

With love, from the MV Explorer

I will be docking at Norfolk, Virginia in less than 24 hours!

I'm not so sure what to make out of my feelings... Should I be sad that I'm leaving friends behind, or should I be happy that I'm starting a new chapter in my life again in Philadelphia?

I am so confused with my mixed emotions...

Post exams... time to let loose!

I like exams. They serve as another excuse for me to go crazy without justification. Yesterday, I had to philosophize about my life, for the last time ever on this voyage, and I think my brains got fried. Obviously, I had to pick a song to belt out to, just to de-stress. “Fill me up, fill me up! Buttercup, baby... lalalala…” I pranced around the room while singing aloud. Manz, I love that song. It makes me happy!

Then Shani interrupted my godlike voice: “Vi, you need to shut up and get some rest. Where are you from? Seriously, who still listens to this song?”

What a party pooper.

“It’s Buttercup girl, you NEED to get a life. Everyone loves Buttercup.”

“You’re so foreign. “

….

Okies….?? But whatever. Now that philosophy and Architecture exams are over, I’m a happy girl once again. I can taste the sweet taste of freedom! So yesterday night, we had the student version of talent night and that was awesome! It started at 915pm, but Alexis, Melanie, Sharon and I went at 8pm to get a good seat and we were first in line. I mean, who in the right mind would go so early? Nah ah….. we’re not the only crazy ones! EVERYONE came afterwards and the Union was filled within seconds. Who wants to miss this awesome showcase of talent, since there’s nothing to do on the ship anyway at this time? You either come watch it, or watch yourself, yourself, and yourself off the reflection from the mirror if u stay in the room. Besides, this concert was FREE! Well, technically, it’s not free, since quote Alexis: “it’s included in the price of the voyage”, but still, you don’t need a ticket! Yeah man, best way to spend the evening!

We got seats at the side of the Union, and it wasn’t exactly the best seats in the house, but it was WAY better than the last time when I had to sit at the side of the podium with folded legs for TWO hours, and to top that awkward position, a billion people were sitting around me and I couldn’t move at all. So this time, seats are a luxury!

Amanda, one of the girls on board sang with a band. Now, when I say my voice is godlike, hers is godlike *100000000000000 times! My gosh, she’s pretty, funny, charismatic, talented, smart, loves Jesus, and has an Australian boyfriend who is a model. What more can you ask for? In comparison, I want to say that, at least, I’m cute (?), I can prance around (is that a talent?), I’m like the ultimate nerd in my household (smart?), loves Buddha. I’m just missing my significant half and my life would be perfect after that. Yeay! I’m not that far away from that end goal eh? =p

So after that, it was camp-out-on-the-deck night! We have always wanted to do that since day 1 on the ship, but other obligations did not permit us to do that until today. 2 more days till Norfolk, so it’s still not too late! We tried to smuggle our blankets out, but the assistant housekeeper guy walked out and told us to put it back because “we don’t want to keep washing the blankets. They will shrink and we would have to buy new ones… Tall guys who come on board complain about the size of the blankets all the time…” Bummer. So we camped out with pillows and sweatshirts only. That’s cool. We can deal with that. We lined up nicely on deck 5 with the bathing chairs, then it started to rain! Manz, god had to cry at this time. So we pushed the chairs further back and I ended up sleeping under the shades. Turns out that god cried only for a few seconds. Phew, thank god for that! We talked for a while, and knocked out after that, but I couldn’t really sleep anyway because my toes were freezing and I had to use my pillow to cover them up. Blah.

At 5am today, we woke up to the sight of semi-blue sky. It was the crack of the dawn and the sun was peeking a little through the clouds. One of the guys in nice captain-ish outfits came and greeted us. WOW. What a privilege! “Guys, you need to vacate the deck now because we need to wash it. On the bright side, it’s time for sunrise!” Lol. We grabbed our pillows, walked up to deck 7 and joined the rest of the sunrise club. Ever since we left Morocco, people have been waking up super duper early just to catch sunrises and I’m one of those early-risers. Honestly, the number of sunrises I have seen on this trip is more than what I’ve ever seen in my entire life, and I like that. How often do you get to tell people that you’ve watched the fiery globe rise over the horizon from a ship EVERY single day? I know right, I one hell of a lucky devil!

We took pictures (again), and we saw this nicely-dressed girl with her TV crew. It was herself, herself and herself. She, like us, is a student on board, but she’s a student affiliate of NBC news, so they gave her a professional video camera and a mike to do shots of anything she likes to report back to NBC. She took shots of my pillow… and interviewed Rachel, Caroline and I! Manz, I’m famous! Looks like NBC and I have a thing going on here eh? The last time when I ran a marathon in the freezing cold weather, they interviewed me on live news and I got my 5 seconds of fame. I’m crossing my fingers so that she doesn’t cut me out of the video! Hehehe.

Okies dokies, that’s it for now. It’s 730am now and I’m going back to bed…  Ambassador’s ball coming up tonight and I want to look pretty for it. Good night folks!

Don't judge me!

Today was Global Studies Exam day. Tomorrow’s study day. Do you, like me, see the irony in this? I secretly think the rocking ship is making people go crazy on board! Haha. I mean, I understand if we have a study day for our other exams that are going to be held 2 days from now,  but how can study day come AFTER Global Studies exam day? Ahhhhhhhh whatever, I think I am going to Ace this exam, since according to Joe, I am so freaking nerdy, just because I get really excited and hyper when I can finally find time (out of my busy daily schedule) to study for my exams! Bleh =p 

People think I’m crazy. I beg to differ. I wanna say that I’m unique. I woke up at 550am today to watch the sunrise and meditate. My roommate Shani rolled her eyes when I told her about my plans before we went to bed. But hey! I wasn’t the only one. A bunch of people were already up, standing alongside the deck to watch the beautiful sunrise. In fact, my friend Katie, wakes up every single day for Yoga during sunrise, even if sunrise was at 4am, and then she goes back to bed. Call me crazy huh? Some people are even more extreme!  So you see, I’m perfectly sane. When I woke up this morning, I dropped my phone and woke both my roommates up. They glared at me, and then Shani jumped up, asking me if it’s time to take our exam. I was like, “Hush, go back to bed, it’s freaking 6am!”

We’ve been gaining back time, an hour every single day so we won’t suffer from jetlag when we reach Norfolk. I like this. So whenever I wake up at say 6am, it’s technically supposed to be 7am according to yesterday’s time. And I won’t feel so sleepy at that time! Awesome. Sunrise was gorgeous, but not as beautiful as the time when we pulled into Spain and Istanbul. Mind you, sunrises and sunsets at polluted cities are more beautiful because they produce more colors… No wonder the sunset at Luxor, Egypt, was EPIC. lol. Note to self: When I go home next time, I’m gonna wake up at 5am in Kuala Lumpur to watch the sunrise over the twin towers. Hmmm, I wonder what my mummy would say about that eh?

Okies dokies, my stomach’s rumbling now. That’s a sign for me sign off and go for lunch! Good bye folks!

Will my wish come true?

I’m officially done with my papers! Plato, Global Studies, Architecture. Just name it and I have written them all within 2 days. I’m so freaking proud of myself now for being able to focus despite the ship rocking all the time. Yeay! Now it's time for me to focus on studying for my final exams...

So yesterday and today were evaluation days for all my classes. I gave two out of my three professors a 5-star rating coz they were simply awesome! Today was the last class we had for Global Studies and the entire shipboard community gave Dr Nalbach a standing ovation at the end of the class. I learned so much from his class… I started off this journey, not knowing anything about the Mediterranean region. Now after 22 classes, I proudly walk away with a wealth of knowledge about the 8 different countries. Today, I learnt about the hostility that Moroccans have towards Americans and how Barack Obama made a huge difference in making that better. Also, did you know that the Muslims in Morocco are embracing their Islamic culture more as a form of defense against the western ideals? I am so humbled instantly. I thought I knew a lot about the world, but that’s so NOT true. Note to self: I should start subscribing to the TIMES magazine when I get back to the states. I heard from Eric that they sell the subscription at 15USD for one year on amazon.com. Isn’t that amazing!?

My learning curve went further up again when I attended one of the seminars that was held today. It was about the Invisible Children. Did you know that little kids get abducted every year in Uganda and they are forced to become soldiers to fight against the Uganda government. These kids, like you and me, have families, but they are being forced to hold guns, kill their own people and burn down houses. Three American kids went to Uganda in 2003 and were aghast when they learnt about their plight. They made it into a movie and ever since then, they have been rallying to bring this issue to light. Now, over thousands of people are supporting their cause in pushing for a Bill to be passed by the White House, just so America will do something to help these kids in Uganda. Check them out at invisiblechildren.com and help free these children!

Today at 2130-2230, all of the lights were turned off on Deck 7 for stargazing night! Totally awesome! My friends who were out earlier were lying out on the deck when it started pouring. So everyone ran back to seek refuge under the sheltered areas. Later in the night, I went back out. It was pitch black, and I literally couldn’t see anyone except for some random silhouettes here and there. Obviously, I couldn’t find Sharon, Melanie and Alexis, so I wandered around a little before bumping into Nicole and Toni. Afterwards, I went to the side deck and lay down with Angie, Heather, Caroline and Rachel. Best night ever and we should definitely do this more often! The sky’s gorgeous when all the lights were turned off! As I looked into the horizon, I couldn’t really tell the sea waters apart from the sky… We were naming off constellations and I saw the big and small dipper. I might have seen the Orion Belt, but I’m not so sure about that because 1) I don’t know anything about stars and 2) All of the stars looked the same to me. I definitely saw the Milky Way though! There were some random satellites moving around in the sky and then there was a shooting star! I made a wish there and then and I really hope it will come true. What was my wish about??? Shhhhhhhhhh, it’s a secret! The floor was wet from the rain, and my jacket, shirt and jeans were soaking wet at the end of the night. I really wish we had a camera to take pictures of the sky but none of ours were good enough! My pictures turned out black. Blahhhhh. When I have the money, I am gonna treat myself to a nice and good camera in future :)

Dear God, were you crying today?

It was gloomy today when I woke up to do my Aristotle readings. SAS should seriously consider giving me more scholarship for being so hardworking! =p Think about it... Who on earth would wake up at 6am to read Aristotle when they can actually sleep in for another 3 more hours? I’ve been waking up early nowadays since I usually get so tired at 10pm, and I go to bed early…  The sky was overcast with dark clouds. I guess God’s crying for us too eh, since we are about to head back to the US. 8 more days, and everything will be over! This wonderful summer has been fantastic. Life’s been so surreal. Never had I dreamt of travelling the globe the way I just did, but I did it!

We left Morocco yesterday. I took it really easy at this port as I chilled at Marrakech and Casablanca, 2 days each. I like Morocco and I don’t like the fact that I have to apply for a visa to gain entry into this country. I WANT TO COME BACK HERE IN FUTURE! Shopping is so great here… Haggling is so much fun when you’re not tired and I am really proud of myself for snapping up cheap goods. I got a leather wallet for myself and some shotglasses, ceramic bowls as well! I saw those cute little stools/ pouches that we used to use back in my old house, and I really wanted to get them for my new apartment, but seriously, I do not have that kind of space in my bag. That is why I want to kick myself now for bringing such a small luggage. I guess it’s good in a way, since that helps to control my spending a little eh? *winks

Morocco was interesting. On my previous post, I didn’t really blog much because I was lazy. Marrakech was really cool, especially at the main square where all the hype was. There were snake charmers, monkeys, hanna ladies, shops, souvenirs, rugs on sale, orange juice stands and storytellers. Evrerything made Marrakech colorful. There was a bunch of people crowding around the storyteller, so I went up just to check it out. I pretended that I was one of the locals and that I understood Moroccan, but they caught me listening and demanded that I pay them. Both Susan and I just ran away when they came up to us for a donation. That’s what I hate about Morocco. There’s a price to pay if you want to take good pictures of these people. No money, no pictures. I can’t enjoy the country if I can’t take pictures, can I? But I decided against spending that kind of money. Damn, I should have charged tourists who took pictures of me while they visited Malaysia eh?

Anyway, the guy in charge of the monkey placed the mischievous little devil on one of my friends' shoulders and demanded USD50 just to TAKE the monkey OFF her. What a scheme! Now there, they’re resorting to these kind of tactics to earn their quick cash. I wonder how they would respond if we were to walk away with the monkey and not pay eh? The snake charmers tried to charge us 100 Dirhams just to take pictures with the snake. Erm dude, do I look like I’m stupid?

Ok so back to today, sky was overcast with dark clouds and the waters were rough at the Atlantic Ocean. When the ship hit a really high wave, it sounded as if we had just hit a whale. I hate this. The ship was rocking me to sleep all the time, and I had to take short quick naps in order to recharge my “battery”. I was really afraid of popping the seasickness pill as it puts me to sleep, so I had to chew on my sweet plum candy ALL DAY LONG. No kidding folks. My jaw hurts now. Blah. Dear god, why are you crying now? ... Never in my entire life have I felt so sick. When I saw the food, I just lost my appetite, and I had to force food down my throat since I didn’t want to starve. What a day!

Sights and Sounds of Morocco

Spices

Moroccan flag

Moroccan storyteller at the square

This guy here sells water

The orange juice from Morocco is the best!

Palace at Morocco

Rugs from Morocco