Singapore

We got to singapore just four days after leaving india! They told us that we would feel like we were flying through countries once we got to asia and we really are!

They told us at our pre port meeting how nice singapore was going to be and it definitely lived up to its hype. I spent the day walking around with tyler frances naomi and raquel. All we did was walk around the city streets and shopped. Probably not the best city to shop in because it happens to be a very close conversion from the US dollar to the singapore dollar.

Frances also shaved her head so it was pretty funny the two of us being tall baldies walking around together all day.

Singapore looks just like NYC and it is basically a city filled with shopping malls and little ethnic neighborhoods. I am sure there is more than that but we didn't have time to really do anything besides walk around because we were there for only one day. I liked it a lot though. So far we have had the most amazing weather in every country thus far. It rained for like 45 minutes in Singapore which I didn't mind at all because we were only there for one day.

It was a good visit, wish I had longer though because it seemed like a really clean safe place. Some day when I have the big bucks I'll go back =)

Neptune Day: head shaving!

The day after India was Neptune day on the ship. Neptune day is a navy tradition that says when a ship crosses the equator you have to shave your head! Then you are supposed to get fish guts dumped on your head, jump in water, and then get out and kiss a fish. Very random but it actually turned out to be a lot of fun!

We got woken up by our crew banging pots and pans at 7 am and then we had Neptune Day festivities until around 11 am then we had group pictures!

I woke up not having any intention of shaving my head at all! I had considered it last semester and talked about it with a few people and got bad reactions so I figured I wouldn't do it. I definitely didn't want to do it unless they were going to donate my hair to locks of love or some similar organization. So when my friend Meghan and I found out that they would donate our hair, we considered doing it for about 2 minutes and then let it go. Then I thought about all the people my mom works with who have lost their hair because of chemo therapy and of one of Odette's good friends Linda who lost her hair when she was undergoing chemo therapy as well and I thought why not do it for all of those people! Besides its just hair and there are tons of people who need it more than me.

I also figured that if I was ever going to shave my head, now was the time to do it while I was studying abroad and have time for it to grow back before I start interviewing for jobs and such after graduation.

So far I haven't regretted it at all and I have been getting really awesome reactions from people on the ship! I don't look as bad as I thought I would either but I have been trying to figure out a way to make myself look a little more feminine with the help of two of my friends from Pitt who also shaved their heads. A total of 4/8 girls from Pitt shaved their heads! And a total of 19 girls on the ship shaved their heads and 20 boys. It was pretty cool! Having no hair makes you pretty cold too!

China in two days omgoodness!! Time to catch up on sleep and homework and blogging! 

Vietnam

 ha long bay!

We got to the port around 11 and off the ship at 12ish and headed to the tailor shop to make an appointment to get dresses made! Lunch at a local restaurant then we went shopping at a local market.

Ho chi minh is beautiful!! I really was very impressed with how nice it is! The port is a ten minut walk to where all the shops and restaurants are so its really convenient.

Even though I know I am not here to shop, I can't help it in vietnam because they have everything! And its all so cheap!! They have north face stuff galore so I got a backpack and a fleece for a gift.
Facebook is banned in vietnam but I am able to access it on my phone which is cool.

The first night we went to a place called lemon grass for Naomi's bday and then out to a dance bar. The first place we went to seemed like one of those crazy techno clubs you see in europe. It was mostly locals and a little too intense for us so we ended up going to another place that was a perfct mix of sas students other foreigners and locals. It was so much fun and the time passed so quick. when we realized it was 315 we panicked a bit cause alicia and I had flights at 630 to hanoi and hadn't packed yet.

OKay time to leave the internet cafe. Will write more later!

LOVING VIETnAM!!!

Yesterday at dinner we were told that the ship was using all of its engines and running at full speed. At the time they didn't tell us why they were doing so but as always rumors were flying around the ship about pirates off the coast of Africa being after us or that they were going to reward us for some reason and get us to India early. This morning we were informed that 2 students and 1 staff member were in need of serious medical attention so we were going to dock at an island called Diego Garcia Island... a small island in the British Indian islands so that these 3 people could be air lifted to Singapore! Apparently there is a U.S. Navy base on the island so this morning at breakfast we watched as one boat came up to our ship and 2 other raft like boats were circling around the ship checking it out. Apparently there was a submarine beneath our ship checking us out for security reasons. 7 men came on the ship to do a security check and then they took off the 3 patients. Quite a bit of excitement for one morning.

Every day we get a "Dean's Memo" which is kinda like the shipboard community newspaper that updates us one whats going on and what events are taking place etc. There is a spot for rumors called the rumor ranger and this is what todays was:

The Rumor Ranger

(rumorranger@semesteratsea.net)

Is it true that the reason we picked up speed was because there were pirates around today? Yes, in part. We are passing through the distant edge of a potential “pirate zone” but no pirates have been sighted. We have a modest increase in security and as one of the fastest ships in the sea, we have a great defense with our speed. We also increased speed because we had two students and one crew member in need of medical attention that needed to disembark in order to receive more intensive care and monitoring as quickly as possible.

Mauritius

Mauritius

We got to Mauritius early in the morning on Sunday the 26th of February and we were cleared from the ship at about 9 that morning. A group of friends and I signed up to do a catamaran tour of the island that included all you can eat drinks and food as well as snorkeling for the full day. We ended up adding a whole bunch of other people last minute on our trip because the company we were booking through, Global Citizens Travel, told us we could all invite a guest on for free so we were able to get a bunch of other people on the catamaran for cheaper than we originally thought!

We completely lucked out with the weather too because there was an ominous dark cloud that was following us on our bus ride to the catamaran that ended up disappearing as the morning wore on and we had a beautiful day at sea. The catamaran was huge and fit the 28 of us perfectly. My two good friends Naomi and Raquel ended up not coming with us on the catamaran so we missed them a lot but it was an awesome group of people nonetheless. There were 8 out of the 12 Pitt students on the catamaran with me and when “Black and Yellow” came on we all went crazy and had some serious Pittsburgh pride in the middle of the Indian ocean, it was awesome!

Side note: The coolest thing about Mauritius for me besides its stunning scenery was that the first Mauritian I talked to was wearing a Yankees hat. If you haven’t already noticed the pictures I have taken of people wearing Yankees hats its because I want to put together a collage of all the people wearing Yankees hats all over the world for my brothers. I then want to include some sort of quote that says something a long the lines of “no matter how far I was from home I still found a piece of my family in each country I visited “… something cool though not my own words haha. ANYWAYS, I never would have imagined that I would find someone in Mauritius with a Yankees hat but there he was! The first person I talked to off the boat! It was awesome!! Now lets hope someone will have one on in Singapore and Vietnam.

Akwabaa!!! That means welcome! Again I had an amazing time in port! Ghana is a beautiful country full of friendly and beautiful people!

I am sure I am going to say that I will definitely return to each country I have visited so far, but I really mean it about Ghana. I actually have to go back too because I promised like 50 people I would. Ghana, in a nutshell, was the country I have visited that was the most life changing by far.

Ghana, some would say is the “soft” Africa. There is less crime and corruption compared to the other countries in Africa and it is much safer for tourists to visit.  Overall, I felt very safe, but I was also traveling in a large group for the majority of my time in Ghana and we had a local Ghanian with us the whole time which was also comforting. The people received us well throughout the country and were so excited to meet Americans! So many people would ask for your email addresses so that they could just talk to you. They don’t ask for money they just ask for conversation and to learn about you and your life as well as share their own stories. It was very interesting and nice to meet so many friendly people that were interested in the U.S.

Day 1:

We got to port at around 8 and customs was done by 9 so the group I was traveling with was on its walk to our tour guide soon after that. We arrived at the port gate and Fred our tour guide was there waiting for us. We boarded the bus and headed to the town in Takoradi to take money out of the bank. I had some trouble with my card but eventually it worked thank goodness.

We then began our travels to the Tafi Monkey village, where our tour guide Emmanuel is from. It was the longest bus ride EVER to this village which none of us were prepared for. The group that I went with was so much fun though and we had a really good time playing cards and other games to pass the time.

When we got to the village, we had dinner, which was delicious, and then we went to the center of the village underneath the only streetlight they had to watch a performance the villagers prepared for us. They performed for about twenty minutes and then a few of the girls on our trip jumped up and joined them in the center circle. The music they performed was all drums and singing. I wish I could post videos up on the blog because it was really awesome to watch!

I didn’t really partake the dancing because I was too busy using my friends camera to take pictures of the whole scene. It was really fun because the locals were really surprised that we got up and were dancing with them so they got even more into the dances and started mocking “American” style dances to the beat of the drums. That night we all stayed in different villager’s homes. I stayed in one of the communal houses where a few villagers were staying and then six people from my group. I had a nice bed that felt kinda like the tempur pedic beds so it was very comfortable. I had expected to sleep on the floor so it was a nice surprise having a bed! We had an early wake up call of 5:45 so we could go on our jungle walk the next morning.

We did our jungle walk and fed the monkeys and then went to breakfast. They had this porridge type stuff that was basically really soupy white rice with sugar that actually tasted really delicious! From there we took pictures with the little kids outside where we were eating breakfast and I let them play with my camera for a while before we left. I met our chef and got her contact information so I can send her the pictures of the kids I took outside the eating area. After breakfast we made our way over to the elementary school in the village.


We watched the kids do their morning routine and we presented them with an indestructible soccer ball which they loved!! Then we got on the bus and headed out for our trip to the tallest waterfall in western Africa. The name I can’t remember but it was soooo pretty and a really fun hike up to the water fall. After that we had a delicious lunch at the restaurant near the waterfall.

More on Ghana to come!

Thoughts from class 2/12/11

My philosophy professor today opened up our class with a discussion about how he hopes that we are not taking Semester at Sea for granted. This has been something I had been contemplating myself since we left Brazil a few weeks ago. He spoke about how if he was home and someone was talking to him about their experiences on SAS how would they react?
He went on to discuss the real power and point for studying abroad. My reason for semester at sea was the fact that I had the chance to see what I have already learned about throughout my education and to see the things I have always known as well as have fun traveling the world.

If I told you there was poverty in India what would you say to me? Yeah, we know. And if I told you the slaves came from Africa what would you say? Yeah we know. If I were to tell you about the horrific events of apartheid that occurred in South Africa what would you know? Maybe the basics and that it still a sensitive subject even today but would you really get it?  You might ‘get it’ but would you really feel it and have an understanding of what these people experienced? Probably not, unless you witnessed it yourself. To see it in front of your face, to feel where these people came from is completely different than learning about it in a textbook.

And that’s why everyone needs to travel and see  the world and meet people and have these experiences for themselves!
I have heard from many that have visited the concentration camps of WWII that it was one of the most profound experiences they have ever had because they were able to really feel what the victims of the Nazi’s experienced.

The value of this trip is what it is doing for us and for me it is what I am going to after this trip that will be the real value. How many people can say they studied abroad and went to different countries and did charity work while they were gone? SO Many! But how many people are doing something when they get home about what they have seen and learned? Not as many. Our trip’s motto is “Think Globally, act locally” or as Jake Fitz likes to say “GLOCAL!”. That motto is all to perfect for study abroad and especially Semester at Sea.

I don’t want to go home and re enter my life where I left off. I want to go home and be a changed person. I want to be someone with a purpose. All these experiences I have had will be great stories to share at the dinner table but if that is this trip succumbs to I will be doing a great injustice to my not only my parents for helping me do this, my friends for their support leading up to the trip and throughout it, but mostly myself.

Next blog post: experiences in Ghana!!!

Thoughts from class 2/12/11

My philosophy professor today opened up our class with a discussion about how he hopes that we are not taking Semester at Sea for granted. This has been something I had been contemplating myself since we left Brazil a few weeks ago. He spoke about how if he was home and someone was talking to him about their experiences on SAS how would they react?
He went on to discuss the real power and point for studying abroad. My reason for semester at sea was the fact that I had the chance to see what I have already learned about throughout my education and to see the things I have always known as well as have fun traveling the world.
If I told you there was poverty in India what would you say to me? Yeah, we know. And if I told you the slaves came from Africa what would you say? Yeah we know. If I were to tell you about the horrific events of apartheid that occurred in South Africa what would you know? Maybe the basics and that it still a sensitive subject even today but would you really get it?  You might ‘get it’ but would you really feel it and have an understanding of what these people experienced? Probably not, unless you witnessed it yourself. To see it in front of your face, to feel where these people came from is completely different than learning about it in a textbook.
And that’s why everyone needs to travel and see  the world and meet people and have these experiences for themselves!
I have heard from many that have visited the concentration camps of WWII that it was one of the most profound experiences they have ever had because they were able to really feel what the victims of the Nazi’s experienced.

The value of this trip is what it is doing for us and for me it is what I am going to after this trip that will be the real value. How many people can say they studied abroad and went to different countries and did charity work while they were gone? SO Many! But how many people are doing something when they get home about what they have seen and learned? Not as many. Our trip’s motto is “Think Globally, act locally” or as Jake Fitz likes to say “GLOCAL!”. That motto is all to perfect for study abroad and especially Semester at Sea.
I don’t want to go home and re enter my life where I left off. I want to go home and be a changed person. I want to be someone with a purpose. All these experiences I have had will be great stories to share at the dinner table but if that is this trip succumbs to I will be doing a great injustice to my not only my parents for helping me do this, my friends for their support leading up to the trip and throughout it, but mostly myself.

Next blog post: experiences in Ghana!!!

Jumpstart: Brazil

Monday morning we left for the Acajutaba Village Homestay until Tuesday afternoon. So far this was my favorite trip! We took an hour and half speed boat ride down the Amazon to this village and upon arrival they introduced us to the families we would be staying with. I stayed with Dr. Bill’s (our ship’s resident doctor) wife  Suzie and our village “mom” was Owlina and our “sister” was Vanessa.  Even though I could only speak a few words in Portuguese I some how figured out a way to communicate with the kids of the village, who I spent most of my time with on the trip.

My favorite part of the trip was spending time with all of the villagers at once when we hung out in the main house area. Monday night the children showed us their traditional village dance and then taught

It was very tough to get up this morning (Wednesday) but I couldn’t miss the orphanage! So we drove about 45 minutes outside the city of Manaus to get to the Monte Salem Orphanage. I was in a foul mood for who knows what reason and I was not really that excited about this trip. The problem was that there were about 30 students going on this service trip to an orphanage of 17 students. So I already knew (as stupid as this sounds) I would be fighting for one on one time with kids and being involved with Jumpstart makes me so possessive of kids! I like need to be the one front and center hanging out with the kids and its quite obnoxious and I was really bummed that it was going to be a less personal experience than I wanted.

So we get to the orphanage and its actually quite beautiful. Of course the kids were adorable and there was actually another group of volunteers at the center who were from all over. They were a group called YWAM I think, and they were spending a month in Brazil volunteering at the orphanage… so there were like 50 adults and 20 kids. Sorta annoying but this one girl came up to me and we played tag, hide and seek, and took videos the whole time. My mood completely changed when I was hanging out with her because I was one of the lucky few who actually got to connect with one of the kids. I can’t speak any Portuguese so the most communicating we did was with signs and through one of the translators but it was completely fine.

The hand game that the children in Acajutaba village taught me was also being played at the orphanage and our guide noticed that I knew it so he asked me to do a demonstration for the crowd! It was a simple moment but it made me feel pretty cool in front of the orphanage and the other students and faculty teaching a Brazilian game!  Sarah, the girl I was with made me a bracelet before I left whichw was really cool and now I have something to remember her by ☺

Today (Wednesday) is the first day I don’t have anything to do and I plan on catching up on sleep then making some phone calls home before and after dinner. Then off to the Samba! WOOO BRASILA!

Today was our first day en route to GHANA! I am super pumped to be on my way to Africa! I had such a busy day! Three classes, work, 3 meetings and now I am babysitting my buddy Sydney! I met her on my homestay at the Acajutaba village on Monday. The first thing she said to me was “Why are your eyes so big?” She is the most outspoken spunky seven year old I have ever met. I love her! My new found friendship with her is only going to add to my reputation as the college student who cant get enough of kids. Every place we have been to so far I always find kids that I love! This is what Jumpstart has done to me!

Sydney is actually the daughter of Marti, one of the deans on the ship, and the woman who we all call “the voice” because she makes all the announcements on the ship. Marti was the first adult I met on the ship and is an awesome lady. I hope I stay in contact with her after the voyage.

Brazil!!!

Brazil is crazy. The people are crazy! Crazy good! I love them. I am learning some Portuguese but I am pretty bad at it. Thankfully there are a lot of similar Spanish words. So the first day we were here (Sunday) Tyler Elias Gabby (Pitt friends) and Shelly (UVA) just walked around the markets in Manaus the port city we have docked in and explored. That night we heard about a Samba rehearshal for the carnival that happens in March in Manaus so we wanted to go check it out. Apparently the people putting on the rehearsal knew we were coming so they put on quite the show. I have never had so much fun in a public event like that. I can’t really explain it without showing the videos I have on my computer but if any of you ever get the chance to experience a samba GO! It was so much fun. You are just in a crowd of a hundres of people while they play instruments and you dance the samba!! I was talking to Brazilians the whole time and asking them to teach me the dance which was awesome! They loved us semester at sea kids!  Originally we wanted to go find a bar to watch the football games going on but the samba was WAY better! So the steelers beat the Jets (sorry andy and ali) and we celebrated by singing the “Here we go Steelers” song the whole way home and we decided that if the steelers win the super bowl we are going to riot on the ship and video tape it and post it on youtube like they will throughout Pittsburgh!!! Go steelers!

Monday-Tuesday I went on a village homestay! I am gonna nap then write about that and post! 

brasila =)

Tomorrow is BRASILA!!! A group of us are going to walk around Manaus (the city we are docking in check it out on a map its pretty far into the Amazon!!! 1000 miles down the Amazon to be exact!!) and try to find an internet café and phone cards so I can call all you lovely people!!!! I am super pumped about Brazil but really just about this whole trip. I can’t describe in words the amount of emotions I have been feeling over the past few weeks but I hope to do it through a few videos I plan to make.

Today we had a “reading day” where we have no classes so I just laid out and finally got some color on my pale body! Everyone on this ship is super tan so it is nice to no longer be called Casper in my group of friends. I had work from 4-6 which I have come to love. I am one of the students that works at the student activities desk where you go to sign out games or balls for sports and we also coordinate and plan the sports tournaments. It’s a sweet job cause I can do homework or whatever really I ant when we are not busy. Some of the other work-study jobs are intense so I really lucked out with getting this work study award. I only have to work 2 hours a day while at sea and I get a $4000 scholarship!!!!

Tonight we had our “pre-port” meeting and we learned all the do’s and don’ts of Brazil. Our LLC’s (living learning coordinators, kinda like Resident Assistants or RD’s) put on a hysterical show of skits. They seem like they are having a lot of fun. I would definitely love to be an LLC sometime in the future, and for those of you who want to study abroad but haven’t yet or don’t have the chance to in college, think about applying to be and LLC on SAS. You don’t have to be an alumni to get the job which is sick!!

So Jake Fitzgerald and I got together today to talk about our plans for when we get home. My whole idea was to do some sort of “Global Awareness Campaign” at highlands and in our surrounding area. I would love to do something more concrete, like raise money for a more specific cause but I truly believe we must educate each other on the importance of gaining a global perspective and from there the idea is to encourage people and particularly high school students to STUDY ABROAD and see the world. There have been so many things in my short life that have completely changed my perspective but none of them have as much as traveling to another country and the in depth discussions you have with people while your there. Then again Jumpstart did and does rock my world and will forever be a huge part of my life but going to another country and learning about other cultures and talking to people about their lives is life changing. I am not really putting into words exactly how I feel which is frustrating me but I will attempt to at another time.

This whole blog thing is tough for me because all I wanna do is run around this ship and meet more people and not sit on a computer and write but I know I will regret it in the end if I don’t!

Anyways back to my plan with Senor Fitzgerald. We are going to have a percent night at the AB&G sometime in June to raise funds for a project called “Freedom and Creation” If you read nothing else on my blog that’s find JUST READ THIS CAUSE ITS AMAZING! SO… Freedom and Creation is a non-profit that an SAS Alumni started. Andrew Briggs is the founder and his goal is to build fresh water wells in areas and villages that are in need. In many places across the world people must travel miles for one days supply of clean water because they do not have access to fresh water where they live.

So Briggs goes into these villages with tons of art supplies and asks the school aged children to create anything they want. Then he brings these pieces of art back to the states and tells the story of that particular village and children and auctions off their artwork. He spoke to us last week and explained that many of the children he meets have never been exposed to crayons or color utensils to create art with. Can you imagine only ever drawing in pencil? How many years of art did we all have in grade school?

With the money he raises he brings back to the village to build wells that cost on average $5000. So our percent night is to fundraise to build a well for a village in need.

.... I wrote this last night. TONIGHT was awesome. TODAY was awesome. GO BRASILA. and GOOOO STEELERS WOOOOOOOO!! 

me in dominca!! wooo!

FIRST WEEK AND DOMINICA!!!

So the first day was super overwhelming but I think it went much smoother than I had expected. Mom and Dad dropped me off at the airport and I cried until I got through security. It was so hard to say goodbye to them!!!! But I actually let go and I actually got on the plane! Hooray for me! I didn’t become excited until I got off the plane, and the Bahamas were SO HOT! I grabbed a taxi with Paroma from Pittsburgh, and this girl Shelly from UVA. Shelly’s best friend from home is actually my older brother Mike’s best friend from school Schev! So it was really cool to meet her and have another person that I knew on the ship. They got dropped off at the Wyndam and I continued to the ship for my work-study orientation. $30 from the airport to the ship, mad expensive for a short ride! Got the ship and was in awe. So gorgeous! I felt like such a spoiled brat walking around that ship until I made it to my lovely economy cabin. Don’t get me wrong I am extremely appreciative to be on this trip but damn I got the shaft when it comes to cabins, especially economy cabins. The economy cabins are smaller, and usually room 3-4 people. I had 2 other roommates as of the first day and I was so glad I got to move in first but I was pretty nervous about the amount of space we had in the room. Long story short, Alicia my roommate from Seattle moved in the next day and not the other roommate and at first we thought she was one of the people who’s flights got cancelled because of the snow, turns out she cancelled and is no longer coming on the trip!!! THANK GOD! Cause me and Alicia bump into each other all the time in that small room and I don’t know how we would have fit another girl in there.

That afternoon we had a quick work-study orientation and then I went out and walked around Nassau with Jake Fitzgerald from Highlands and my friend Tyler that I know from Jumpstart at Pitt! We met up with other work-study students and went out to a bar for a little to meet other people coming on the ship. I stay out till about ten cause I was wiped out not having slept much Monday night, so I passed out fast on Tuesday night and woke up at 6 to welcome and move in the 650 other students coming on the trip Wednesday.

Wednesday was SO much fun! It was so nice moving in early and knowing where thing were on the ship. It was also so nice knowing a bunch of the staff already and it felt good to be able to help people. I was a floater so I just walked up and down the line that people were standing in waiting to get on the ship talking to people asking if they needed help. It was a lot of fun cause I got to meet a lot of people and I scoped out any Pittsburgh/NY/NJ shirts. I met so many people from NJ and Pittsburgh so I already felt like I had a lot of people I could connect with and it made me miss home but feel excited about all these new people I was meeting.

Since I was a floater I was able to sneak out to Nassau and go shopping for a bit with my two friends who are on the ship with their professor parents Emma and Allison. I found a sweet giraffe that I bought for my Arts and Sciences advisor Mary Beth at Pitt. She is the sweetest lady and she was one of the people who helped me get through my homesick filled freshman year.

The day went quick and before I knew it I was in bed again ready to get up early for our next day of orientation. Alicia my roommate and I clicked right away so that was awesome. She is super sweet and she talks so fast! We figured out that we are both open to sharing stuff so that’s nice and I feel really comfortable with her so far!

Wednesday was so long but still very exciting. We had a full day of orientation on Wednesday and to be honest its already blurred together with Thursday. I have never met so many people in such a short amount of time so of course I remembered no one’s names but I am getting so much better as the days go on.

Yesterday’s trip was amazing. I was choked up the whole time thinking about how lucky I am to be on this trip. I will probably say this a thousand times over but I really can’t believe that I have this opportunity. The people I have met so far have been so nice and just amazing. I went on a Carib Indian visit where we saw the indigenous people of Dominica. Tyler and our new friend Raquel went with us and we were starved and looked miserable at the end of it but it was so worth it. The people are so environmental and use the land so well. They showed us so many different herbs and spices and taught us different remedies for sicknesses, it was really awesome! And I got the guava jelly I loved in Costa Rica from the chief's daughter!!! She was actually an extra in Pirates of the Caribbean 2! They filmed one of the village scenes in their little village and a few of the chiefs daughters were in the scene! SO COOL!

At an internet café right now but the lady told me she has no more internet cards so no internet today for me =( but that’s okay! Last night was my first night going out while on SAS and it was a blast! I went out with Greg, Gabby and Tyler from Pitt, Raquel, and a bunch of other people that I can’t remember names right now. We went to a small bar that was about a street away from where the ship was so it was nice and close. It rained on and off all night and we bounced back and forth between two bars, one of which had an open roof so you were getting rained on while on the dance floor so fun! There were like 600 students roaming around Roseau last night it was crazy! The locals were super nice, and I met about 10 people who were wearing Yankees hats so of course I went up to them and tested their Yankee knowledge. Not ONE of them knew who number 2 was on the Yankees. I was very disappointed and from there I educated them on the few Yankees players’ numbers I could remember. One of them did know Sabathia’s number, which was impressive at the time, but for the most part they knew nothing about the Yankees!!!!

We got back surprisingly early and when we did Greg and I ended up playing mom for a few hours to a bunch of our drunk friends who were either getting sick, or wandering around the ship trying to find their rooms. Most hysterical evening thus far. < wrote this on Monday the 17^th – more to come soon!

bon voyage!

Spending my last few hours with some of my favorites <3 thanks everyone for all your wishes and help with this trip! Can't wait to write about my adventures to share with all of you =)

I will love and miss you all very much!