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!

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

Thank you mum and dad!

Hello there mummy and daddy!

This picture is only for you :)

Thank you for this wonderful opportunity. Semester at Sea has been a blast so far. The Pyramids are so magnificent! This summer has been great and I have done wonderful things because YOU gave me that opportunity. Thank you for supporting me!

Luv,
Missy

I jumped off a bridge

I did bungee jumping today in Bulgaria! Woohoo! The location was kinda sketchy, as it was off the highway and this dude over here was still "setting up" the place with ropes when I arrived.

And that's me, 1 second before I jumped off the bridge, 150 feet above the river. TOTALLY AWESOME. The hardest part was standing on top of the bridge and looking down, but once you jump off, everything happens so fast and you won't even know when it's over! =p

Lost passport...

I didn't lose my passport, so don't worry folks!

Remember how I complained about having to bring our passports in and out with us whenever we leave the ship... we were finally allowed to surrender them and not carry it around anymore! YEAY! Just because a girl lost her passport and they are taking precautions right now. That sucks because she has to stay in Bulgaria when we leave tomorrow. It takes 2 weeks to replace a lost passport over here in Bulgaria, even for the Americans.

Sigh, I hope she will be fine...

Bulgaria - Part IV

As we were heading to the nude beach, we passed by a reverse bungee jumping thing. I paid the guy and requested to do it for more than 5 mins (that was the allocated time), since there wasn’t anyone around, and I wanted to do it for a little longer, only to find out later that it is a really strenuous sport. I flipped and flipped and flipped high up there while the strings brushed past my arms and now it’s bruised. I’m aching all over now! Damn, I should have stretched before doing it right? I did back flips, but somehow I just can't do the front flips! Hmmpphh......*Sulk

Anyway, we went to the nude beach, which was at the other end of Golden Sands. I guess the management figured that people need their privacy at the nude beach. It’s actually pretty cool, and I don’t think people over there are creepy at all… They’re just different and being nude is a way for them to express themselves. We should, in fact, give them credit as they are confident enough to lay down on the beach entirely nude. It’s so funny though to see interesting tan lines all over. HAHA! I was in my swimming gear, because I just can’t bring myself to do it, but my girlfriends who were with me went entirely nude. It was really nice to lay down there as we talked about life and anything under the sun… There was this cute doggie who came over and played with us :) But something really awkward happened as we were about to leave. The guy who was laying down behind us came over and asked if we wanted to have a few drinks with him. He walked over, without any clothes on, and we saw EVERYTHING as he asked us out. MY GOD. What an interesting experience. Don’t worry folks! We said no politely and waved goodbye to him.

On our way back, I almost got pickpocketed folks! Two young kids ran over and swooped their hands under my bag. I have no idea why they did that, because there was nothing under my bag, but I was fast enough to avoid them. Thank god for that! I would defend my bag fiercely because my entire life depended on it. I don’t understand why the Bulgarian government requires us to carry around our passport, but anyway, I ain’t taking any chances with my passport. If I lose it, I’m gonna have to stay here in Bulgaria while I wave goodbye to MV Explorer as SAS sails off. NO WAY THAT’S GONNA HAPPEN.

~The end~

Bulgaria - Part III

Afterwards, we just went back to the beach and we met up with Alexis and Molly. They came after us, and they found us on the beach! We laid down for a while, swam, while I sat under the shade to people-watch. I saw lots of interesting stuff -  topless girls dancing on bartops... We got bored, so I suggested doing another water sport – Crazy Shark. Basically you sit on the tube and you get pulled by a boat. That was the most exciting thing ever. Molly, Alexis and I were grabbing onto the side handles, as if we were holding onto our lives. We screamed, we yelled, we shrieked every single time we passed a huge wave. It felt as if we were gonna capsize anytime, but we didn't. MY! What a ride!

Bulgaria - Part II

After lunch, we took a cab down to Golden Sands. It’s supposed to be a beach resort with all sorts of activities – horse back riding, water sports, biking, monastery, hike through the forest, mineral spring baths etc etc. Turns out that the horse back riding moved! BIG DISAPPOINTMENT. We were sulking for a little while before we decided that we would head to the beach and lay down. You know how Asians hate the sun right? So, please don’t judge me if I say that I didn’t rent the umbrella and the chairs along the beach, and I went straight to check out the water sports. Honestly speaking, I know Americans like the sun a lot, but I don’t understand the rationale behind this: laying under the bright sun and fry your own skin, only to have it burnt at the end of the day. Sigh, what’s the point?

Anyway, both Tim and I went to check out the Jetski. It was 60 Levas for 2 person for 15 minutes. We were really disappointed that it was that pricy for a short amount of time, but trust me folks, 15 minutes of jetskiing out there in that limited space is actually sufficient. Both Tim and I paid, and we hopped onto a Jetski. He drove, since I was the lady, and obviously Tim wasn’t going to hold on to my waist while I drive right? I sat behind him, and we were cruising along the coastline in the sea in seconds, FAST. Even when I was holding on to Tim’s waist, I flew up from my seat practically every time we passed by a huge wave. I seriously need to gain some weight there if I want to do jetski by myself in future. We were going so fast; it was thrilling! I jokingly reconfirmed with Tim to make sure he has insurance that covers jetskiing, just in case we really fly off. Lol. Thanks to the high speed and bumps, my butt is bruised right now, but it’s all worth it! As we were on the waverunner, our friends were not around, so no one could take pictures of us and I ended up buying the pictures from the photographers. So expensive and I totally burst my budget for the day, but who cares? I need something to remember this day, which was super awesome btw!

Bulgaria - Part I

Even though it’s too early to judge, but I want to say that I love Bulgaria so far! It’s like Croatia 2.0, but not as touristy as Croatia with all the modern looking buildings. In fact, as we stepped out of the port area, the places we went to were more like local neighborhoods and it was nice just looking at the local scene as we were wondering around, trying to look for a bank to exchange our money. Having grown up in various cities, I realize that I really appreciate being away from people, the touristy areas, the city, and just sit along the beach or somewhere quiet to enjoy my day. It took me 21 years of my life to figure that out actually. Hehe =p

So after our mission was accomplished, we sat down and ate lunch at this restaurant located inside a pirate ship. You might wonder, aren’t we sick of sitting in ships and boats already? Why would we still wanna eat in a pirate ship and overpay for everything. Well, you see, the pirate ship is actually pretty cool as it overlooks the beach and there was a sporting event going on, with loud music blasting through the loudspeakers. I like that I could stay away from the crowd, but still close enough to observe from a vantage position. Secondly, they had all kinds of fishes and I tried (wait for it!) Breaded Shark! It tasted like fish, and I liked it! Note to self: I have to try out the other exotic dishes as well.

I need to break this blogpost into various sections because I want to put up more pictures, and I can blog with a 50kb limit per post with my free internet :) So keep scrolling upwards!

Randoms

I have never been so sleep-deprived my entire life before. Sleeping is such a luxury right now... When we're not at port, we study, read, write papers and catch up with friends... when we're at port, we wake up early and go out all and about to explore cities!

It's fun but tiring! Gotta take my nappy nap soon if i want to stay awake in class later. Bleh =p

We had classes under the sun on Deck 7 just now, just because some moron in class wanted to have class outside, and our professor obliged. Every single day when we explore the cities, it's always bright and sunny, so dude, what's wrong with sitting in an air-conditioned room JUST ONCE? people are weird. Next time I shall come to class more prepared with my sunblock lotion and shades =p Anyway I was sitting out there, observing our surroundings instead of listening in class... We are at Bulgaria right now! Our ship arrived earlier than scheduled, so we are floating at sea right now, waiting to pull in tomorrow morning. Bulgaria looks like Croatia from afar. Heard it's Croatia 2.0, with lots of partying and night live at the beach.

Some Bulgaria funfacts to end this blogpost :

1)The Cyrillic alphabet had 31 letters
2)There are about 2000 unexplored caves in Bulgaria
3) Bulgaria produces 70% of the world's rose oil supply.
4)People shake their head sideways to indicate YES, and up and down to indicate NO, totally opposite from how YES/NO is indicated in the US.

18 more hours to Varna, Bulgaria land!

I have no modesty issues AT ALL =p

Today was the most relaxing day ever for my entire trip… We slept in late, and then woke up to have breakfast before heading to the Turkish Baths. I’m giving the Turkish Baths a rating of 8/10.

So, here it goes! We walked into this place, registered and the guys were subsequently separated from the girls. I thought it was really interesting, since most of the attendants outside the main hall were guys.. no ladies in sight, whereas back in Malaysia, EVERYONE who attended to us in for spa services were ladies.

We were escorted to the changing room and stripped naked. I’m smart, since I brought my swimming gear, and I had the bottom part on. No tops were allowed. My friends and I were giggling so badly, like little schoolgirls, since it’s the first time we’ve ever been to a Turkish Bath and we didn’t really know what to expect.

Donned in just a thin towel, we walked into the main washing room. It was huge, and I really wanted to bring my camera in to take pictures of it, but obviously, common sense tells me (and you) that no pictures would be allowed, since everyone was stripped naked. The room was in a dome shape, with little washing areas at the side, and a Jacuzzi room in the corner as well. We laid down on the main floor in the middle of the room and waited, since there were girls who were being washed. It was oddly weird, u know, to lay down, face up, and watch the ceiling, which had holes on it that allowed light to pierce through and regulated the lightings of the room as the clouds blew past and covered the sun momentarily. I was sweating as the room was like a sauna. My friends couldn’t bring themselves to look right or left out of embarrassment. But please lah, whatever you have, I also have, what’s there to be scared of seriously? Manz, it’s just like one of those scenes you see on TV. No kidding! I was bored, and I didn’t dare to close my eyes as the heat could easily put me to sleep, so I started to count the number of holes that were on the ceiling. There were a grand total of 129 holes, plus 9 stars. *winks. I’m such a typical math nerd.

Anyhow, when it was my turn to be scrubbed down, the lady grabbed my towel and I laid down again. I waited for AGES as she disappeared to nowhere, leaving me to stare pointblank at the ceilings again, with literally a million girls walking past me NAKED. Boy, what an experience. When the lady came back, she started to scrub my skin, gave me a good wash and rinsed my entire body. I felt like a baby girl again. Seriously, when was the last time someone actually gave me bath? When I was FIVE perhaps?

Afterwards, I went in to take a dip in the Jacuzzi, naked as well. None of the SASers wanted to join me, so I swam around the hot Jacuzzi for a little while, stood and sat for a few minutes before heading out to sit in the sauna-like main washing room again. It felt really awesome, sweating out all the toxins that I have accumulated over the past few weeks… Then I splashed myself with cold water. Bathing here entails using a bucket as a water scoop… Back to the kampong days! It’s like a culture shock for my American friends, but nah ah…… not for me! I just can’t put my experience down into exact words, but it felt weirdly refreshing. I stood there and splashed myself for literally 20 minutes, scooping up water, buckets after buckets. I know I shouldn't be wasting water, but hey! I paid 55 Liras for it, didn’t I?

When I was out of the washing room, both Tara and Lindsay were already out in the waiting room relaxing while enjoying their cup of tea. I had Turkish tea, without sugar. When you’re in Turkey, do what the locals do right? We sat, chatted and then danced a little to the music. I wished we could have stayed longer, but time was tight for us as we wanted to visit the Spice Bazaar before heading back to the ship. It was our last day in Turkey, so I decided to spend all the Liras that I’ve got left and bought myself 2 massive pack of spices and tea. I can’t wait to try them out when I get back to the US!

Spice Bazaar...

Am I a model?

Turkish ice-creams are interesting. It’s kinda gluey and chewy, and the ice cream man/ boy will play around/ do some acrobatic moves with your ice cream before handing you a real ice-cream that you could actually buy…

Anyway, I hate to say this but I think the guys in Istanbul are really desperate for the following reasons:
1)      A lot of my friends have been harassed by guys along the streets
2)      Women are a rare “commodity” here, I guess.

Today as I was shopping with 2 other SAS girls along the main street, we got our fair share of “harassment”. It wasn’t exactly serious, but the guys were desperate and they were trying to make conversation with us. This one dude sitting outside his shop started to introduce himself and his brother to us as we were walking past them… Jeanine tried to bargain with this one guy for a pillow case that she wanted, to which he responded: “I can sell it to your for 30 Liras, only if you go out for a concert tonight with me”….Seriously! Then when I went into a shop to buy some tea, the shopowner (who was a cutie btw), asked me if I were a model back in China. SERIOUSLY!!! I kinda wanted to tell him to use his brains. Who in the world would ask a SHORT girl like me to model for them? But still, I was pleasantly flattered. Hehe.

Anyway, if you ever to come to Turkey anytime soon, please do not acknowledge the fact that you are from China if you are Chinese. There are racial riots (I think) in some parts of China right now and 150 Turks got killed as a result. My friend got a massive shock when the shopowner refused to let her in when she said she was from China. Speaking of identities, I think the Turks are really observant, because this one guy who sat outside his shop, observed the bunch of us who walked past this morning. He actually remembered my English accent when I talked to my friend. So when I went back in the afternoon (this was like 3 hours later), he actually asked me if I were from the United States and refused to believe that I am from China or Asia. Erm…… gotta say, that was kinda freaky. I didn’t expect a Turk to set us apart that clearly.

By the way, I called it a day really early today because I need to do my homework soon. 2 papers due in 2 days and I haven’t really started yet! I have to give myself a reality check and gear myself back to studying mode once again…

The end of my really short blogpost.

I am a Genie in Turkey!

On our way back to Istanbul from Troy, we stopped by a town called Gallipolli and  spent some time there in the museum and the beach. I wore my Genie pants which I got from Spain (in picture), and that attracted a lot of comments from my friends... Joe wanted me to grant him 3 wishes - most of which are ridiculously silly. So sorry dude, can't help you!  The wind blew up my puffy pants and it made me look absolutely pudgy! Hehe. We had some free time afterwards to swim in the Aegean Sea, and I realize the waters are really salty and gross in this area. There were sea urchins in the sea, and I freaked out a little when we were far out because I was really scared of stepping on them. I know I’m short, and I can't possibly step on the sea bed, but hey, you never know! Better be careful than sorry right?

We went to this restaurant along the beach and this Turkish waiter attended to us. He was hitting on me and I found that really amusing because 1) My Peruan friend, Mercedes, was absolutely gorgeous 2) I had an American friend sitting with me as well 3) I have no idea why he was hitting on me ONLY. Seriously, every few seconds, he came by our table to collect what he called “rubbish” even though we were not done with our food. Then he winked at me. He started talking with his friends in Turkish and pointed towards me. Afterwards, he offered perfume to me. None of my friends got the same treatment. For goodness sake! I really don’t get it! After we were done with our food, he tried to tell me his name (I think), and he kept saying Manis Manis Manis. Alright dude, Manis in Malay means sweet, so I have no idea if you were trying to say that I’m sweet or if that’s really your name. He wanted me to go to the bathroom to wash my hands, and he invited me ONLY to go with him. Seriously, DO YOU THINK I WILL FALL FOR THAT? I’m a smart girl ok? I ain’t going anywhere alone with any strangers. Bleh.

We got back to Istanbul and the ship at around 7pm and we had dinner on board. I didn’t feel like going out, so Lauryn and I went out to a restaurant right outside the port to have some Baklava and Turkish apple tea. OMG, Turkish delights are really good. Not gonna lie, if not for the strict rules stating that we can’t bring non-sealed foodstuff on board, I swear I would have bought up all the delights from the shop and store it on board to help tide me through the ten days when we sail back to the US. Turkish delights are the best!

I was back in Asia!

We did Troy on the second day. Troy is located at Asia, so folks, I was actually back in Asia briefly for 2 days! Hehe.  The actual Troy site where the war took place was really far out, and we spent 5 hours travelling there. Turkey reminds me of Malaysia actually, since most of the architecture were the same, people were of the same skin tone, Muslims donning headscarves were everywhere, roads congested with crazy traffic, lots of street vendors, cheap stuff and good food! I really enjoyed sitting on the bus, just looking out of the window and appreciating the highway scenery that they had.

We saw the Trojan horse used in the movie Troy. So cool! It was located at the town Canakkale, the small town where we stayed at for the night. They had a night market along the harbor front, so Joe, Nikki, Haley, Sharon and I walked around at night before we called it a night. I bought a Trojan horse for myself, since I’ve been spending money buying things for other people and it’s high time I treat myself to something. A Trojan horse would be a cool decoration for my apartment, just so I can show off to home visitors if they come by my humble adobe in future! Hehe :P

Walking along the harbor front had a calming effect on me, since the sea breeze was soothing, and we just walked among the locals and watched the sunset… The locals were praying and we sat there listening to the prayers over the loudspeakers. We also had Turkish ice-cream and sat down on a bench. Afterwards, Joe started to climb down the rocks to spot some jellyfishes. There were a ton of them! We found a sea urchin along the walls, and we took it out of the waters and took pictures of it. Did you know jelly fishes are supposed to illuminate by themselves if you disturb the waters? All thanks to Joe, we had a Marine-bio class as we watched the waters. Some local fisherman accidentally caught a starfish, which was super cool, but he was really afraid of touching it. Joe went up to him, gesticulated with his hands, and then picked up the starfish and threw it back into the waters :)

That's it for my second day in Turkey! So far so good :)

I'm so churched-out

Today has been an exhausting day! We started off with a diplomatic briefing by the American representative in Turkey. I learned so much during the one-hour session, mostly about Turkey and its relations with the United States. Some fun facts about Turkey:
1)      Turkey is about the size of the state of Texas
2)      Istanbul is the only city in the entire world that spans across 2 continents – Europe and Asia.
3)       Turkey’s a secular country despite having 99% Muslims

I must say that I’ve been ruined-out and churched-out already, since we have been visiting churches and ruins in the past 4 countries, so now it’s high time we visit some mosques. They’re like no big deal to me actually, since I used to live close to a mosque back in Petaling Jaya, and I’m so used to seeing it every single day and listening to their daily prayers.  Most Americans find it really amusing that the prayers are broadcasted through the loudspeakers. Anyway, I feel really stupid for paying to view a mosque, when I can actually view them back in Malaysia. Ahhhhh, but since I’m on a holiday, I figured I shouldn’t be saving on these expenses and see as much as I can! Didn’t really take a lot of pictures today, since my camera  doesn’t do well inside a dark building.

I went to the bazaar after visiting the mosques… I can only think of one phrase to describe the crowd there…. People Mountain People Sea (you have to understand Chinese to understand this!) :P There were so many tourists, locals… all squeezed into the Grand Bazaar with 3000 shops! No kidding, it’s like a maze inside the bazaar. You would be a genius if you can retrace your steps back to the exact stores you have visited because they all look the same and sell the same kind of stuff! Haggling is kinda expected here, in fact, it would be an insult if you buy something at face value. I tried haggling a little, but I want to smack myself now because the things OUTSIDE the bazaar were even cheaper than what I paid AFTER haggling. Obviously, the bazaar is a tourist trap. So nah, not gonna go back there, although I give it a 7/10 rating for shopping enthusiasts. I bought Red Apple Turkish Tea and I can’t wait to try it out when I get back!  I bought myself a scarf as well, since it was on sale, but when I attempted to stay a little longer to check out the other items, Triston gave me glaring look since he didn’t like to shop. Dude! Seriously, there’s so much joy in shopping and you’re missing out on a lot!

So much to blog about, but so little time and so little internet time allowed... Sigh.