Cheers to South Africa

When this voyage ends it will be interesting to reflect on each country and decided what country was the best. Right now South Africa has moved to the top of the list. There are a few reasons for this:
First off we got to finally get off the ship. The fact that it took eight days to cross the Atlantic Ocean and we had five nights where we had to set the clocks back an hour was not pleasant. The lack of sleep and just having to be stuck about the ship was really starting to make the entire shipboard community a little cranky. Of course when we rolled into Cape Town there was major fog and they shut the port down forcing us to anchor a few miles from the coast. So we could see land but just couldn’t get there. I was thinking about swimming for it but then a few of us noticed about a six foot shark swim past the smoking deck and I thought better of it. When we finally cleared immigration at around 1400 (2pm) everybody was so eager to get off the ship there was a line down each hall.
So what did you do in Cape Town you ask? I discovered Castle beer is delicious. With an entire week and no trips planned I figured on getting a lot of relaxing time and the bar scene in CT was pretty tight. I don’t want it to seem like I spent the entire time drinking but the best stories I have come from nights at the bars. Then again it’s that way back home too.
When I wasn’t spending my Rand (South Africa’s currency) on Castle I did get out and explore during the days. I hiked to the top of Table Mountain, about 3000 feet, with the former Mayor of Cape Town. The view from the top was incredible and I took my customary picture with my Terrible Towel looking out over the ocean. The hike took about four hours and we had to go up the back of the mountain because two weeks earlier there was a giant fire on the front because some bloat from England didn’t put out his cigarette properly and almost burned down the whole mountain. I could still smell the ash in the air.
I spent one day traveling with a student down the coast by train to a small naval town called Simon’s Town to go check out the naval cemetery. Kaylee had to go check it out for a class assignment and I told her I’d go with her so she didn’t have to take the train alone. It ended up being really fun. Simon’s Town was really peaceful and quaint and a nice change from the busy downtown of Cape Town.
Of course I went to Robben Island to see the former prison the held political prisoners like Nelson Mandela. Our tour was guided by a former prisoner who basically was imprisoned for trying to demonstrate against the racist and corrupt government of South Africa before the nineties. South Africa’s history is fascinating because they have generally moved past the in-fighting among the races by using hope. Families have forgave those that killed their family members all in hopes of moving forward and finding a solution to the problems that created the circumstance where hate ruled. It is something the world should look at as an example of what is possible if we ever want peace and justice for all.
Anyways, I spent a lot of time hanging out and getting close to a lot of the staff and crew from the ship. I have made a lot of friends form the left coast including a very special someone who is something amazing. But I’m not getting into that here. Just know that I am very happy right now and I think this may have been one of the best weeks of my life.
There were a few unfortunate things that happened in Cape Town. We had to dismiss two students for drug use and we had a third student leave for medical reason. We almost left one student in port because he was passed out in the bathroom of one of the tequila bars that was just off the ship. Four of us student life members were searching through the bathrooms of the bars trying to find this guy who was left by his friends. It was a fun little night and I was actually having fun running around.
So we are back at sea now and I’m busy planning for the Sea Olympics which are on March 4th. We only have about a week left and with three days in Mauritius there isn’t much time left. It’s a good thing I thrive on the pressure of a deadline.
Alright I’m off to supervise pub night. I basically watch the students drink and make sure they don’t act too stupid. Sound like fun, huh? It’s getting me around the world though so it’s totally worth it.
Peace
PS Yes, the water does flow in reverse direction in the southern hemisphere but we have jet propelled toilets in our cabins so I can only because of the sink.
PSS I got to see the super bowl the night after we left Cape Town. A big group of students and staff watched it in the Union on the giant TV. The game wasn’t that great but at least we are champs. I almost cried.
PSSS I tried to put my pics up but the computer screwed me and I’ll have to try at some later port. I only have 15 minutes left on the web.

Brazil

Yes, I have been slacking in keeping up with my blog. Here’s the thing, life aboard the ship is 24/7. There are always people around and since I’m somewhat of a social butterfly I find it hard to sit down at the computer and actually write. But you have my attention for the next hour until lunch so sit back and enjoy.
Here’s what has happened in the past week. Brazil, or Brasil as the natives spell it, was incredible. The five days in port seemed to be over before I even realized it. Spending three days in Rio de Janeiro was a great experience and I am so glad I went. I was worried about being a trip leader for the trip since it was the first overnight trip and we had been warned that the students may go nuts but they were all great. Mark, who is the Assistant Director, and I spent almost all five days together and since we’ve been back I’ve been a bit lost not having him around. The great thing about Mark is that he is fluent in Spanish and though the official language of Brazil is Portuguese, Spanish is spoken much more than English. It was like traveling with a translator, although there were many times where we ran into people who just spoke Portuguese and we had to try and communicate with hand signals. It’s kind of fun trying to communicate with someone who has no idea what you are saying. I don’t know why but I found myself trying to speak slower. Like that somehow was going to help.
Anyway, the night before we got to Brazil we had our pre-port logistical meeting but it was more like just a warning session. The way SAS informed us made it sound like everyone in Brazil was basically out to steal your wallet and maybe stab you along the way. It made many of us feel somewhat afraid to even get off the ship. We were also warned that we immigration was going to be a pain because Brazil was going to make us go through face to face inspections, including being photographed and fingerprinted. Basically doing to us what America does to Brazilians when they enter the US.
We arrived in port around 8am and the view was nice but not as good as Puerto Rico. Salvador of Bahia where we ported is made up of two cities on a giant hill. To access the upper city you must take an elevator that costs 5 centavos (about 2 cents US). Mark and I spent the first day in port just walking around the upper city checking out the old city. The streets were all cobble stone and there was a lot of beautiful buildings. Like an idiot I didn’t take my camera because I was so paranoid of being robbed and ended up missing out on a lot of good shots but I’m going to hopefully get someone else to share their photos. We ended up having lunch at a little restaurant on the second floor on an off street. Every meal in Brazil was delicious. This was a Bahian dish with shrimp, coconut and oil over rice. Oh and these giant beers that they put in there own little cooler that is just cool as hell. The waitress was great because she spoke NO English and it made ordering quite interesting. Just point and hope for the best is my theory on eating in all these countries. I hope I don’t end up eating dog in China.
After lunch Mark and I walked around doing some shopping and checking out the sites. I was trying to find a soccer jersey and a bandana but I was determined not to pay more than 25 real (about 12 bucks) for the jersey. I bargained with a few different vendors (all in broken English) but never got the right price. I figured I still had four days to go so there was no rush. Almost forgot that the whole reason we went up to the upper city was to exchange money. An easy task you’d think but when you have to pay to use the elevator and have no Brazilian cash, it turns into a challenge. Someone ended up paying for Mark and I basically just slipped through behind him. Someone made a good point about me in that I just seem to fall ass backwards into great situations and it is so true but more on that later.
By the end of the day we were beat and we had to get back to the ship for dinner and to get some rest for our early morning wakeup call. Our trip to Rio was scheduled to leave at 4am. I was going to go to sleep early but at dinner I ran into Myrna, the bank lady of our trip, and she told me that she had got the AFC championship game sent to her and we were going to watch it in the Union at 8pm. So of course sleep took a backseat to the Steelers. It was great to watch football. I realized I even miss the stupid commercials. It was also funny that although I knew the result of the game I was still nervous when they were playing poorly.
My alarm rang out at 3am and although I got about three hours of sleep I was wide awake. It’s funny how on this whole voyage so far I’ve never sleep less and had so much energy. At 4am we gathered our group of 50 students and set off for the airport and Rio. When we got to the bus we realized we forgot our medical packs and I had to sprint from the bus back to the ship to grab them. It was 4am but when it was still hot out. When I got back to the bus I was pouring sweat. I’m starting to realize why I have eaten so much but gained no weight. I was worried we wouldn’t get to the airport in time to go through security and catch our flight but Brazilian security is a joke. There is no id checking and they barely look at your bags when they go through security. How bad is it? Quick jump ahead- when we were coming back from Rio and were just about to board the plane one of my students came up to me to show me her ticket. It seems they printed the wrong ticket for her because she had the name of another girl from our trip on it. Thing is the other girl had the same ticket. That never stopped security from letting her through to the gate though. When we thought we had it figured out and boarded the plane the girl found out there was some guy on the flight with the same seat as her. So to fix it they just let the guy ride up front with the pilot. That’s right he got to ride shotgun. Got to love Brazil airlines. Another note about flying in Brazil is that they apparently have the shortest runways in the world. When we stop they basically slam the brakes on and stop. I ate the back of the seat on our first flight.
So once in Rio we met our tour guides, Fabio and Marcelo, and hit the group running. We went to a traditional Brazilian gaucho-styled churrascias restaurant where they basically just walk around with giant slabs of different meats and slice it right onto your plate until you explode. I think I ate about two cows worth of meat. It was great. After lunch we went up to the top of Sugar Loaf mountain by a series of cable cars to check out the view of Rio. It was nice but it was a bit hazy and the view wasn’t all that it probably is on a clear day. When we finished we were off to the hotel to check in and then have our free time to explore. The hotel was sweat. SAS does hook you up with 5 star accommodations. Mark and I went out to wander the city and while he was in the pharmacy buying cold medicine I stood outside to people watch. As I’m standing there on the sidewalk I notice a guy riding a bike with a giant basket on the front riding toward me. I noticed him checking out some hot Brazilian chicks butt and I decided to watch to see if his being distracted would cause him to crash into a pole or something (how horrible am I) but instead he stopped next to me and asked me what sounded like “My friend, do you like butts?” I was like “What?” And he repeated the question and then pulled what appeared to be a small bag of marijuana out of his pocket. I was trying to figure out if this was really happening. I told him no thanks and they said Oh and made a snorting motion like he was doing coke. I just started laughing. I mean how is it that I’m on the street in Rio for ten minutes and some guy is offering me drugs. He said okay, gave me a high five and went peddling off. It was sort of surreal. That night I stayed in to watch some CNN and get some sleep from a long day.

The next morning we were off to the Christ de Redeemer statue. It’s an amazing statue and it towers over the city of Rio. It’s like having the Statue of Liberty mounted up on Mt. Washington. After we visited the statue it seemed that every place we went in Rio I could see the statue looking down upon me. While the Christ was great the best part of going there was the ride to and from the statue. I was in a van with all the crazy guys from my floor and I got to hear all there crazy stories from the night before. Stories I can’t really repeat here but I’ll tell you all later. When we came back down the mountain we rode in this twelve seat open jeep that was likely used by the US military in Vietnam. It had no first gear, sputtered and actually said property of US government on the dash. We nicknamed our group of guys Team Fabio, after one of the tour guides, and asked our driver to run over as much crap as possible. He spoke no English though so he just floored it most of the time to keep us happy. It was crazy. Before lunch we stopped on a street corner to see these three guys playing samba music on the corner. Brazil is so laid back and fun.
Alright it’s been almost and hour and I’m barely halfway through my story so I’m going to have to hustle up if I want to eat lunch before I have to go to the office for my hour of work and then afternoon meeting. Here is what I will have to tell you all about at a later date:
*The highlight of the trip was playing soccer with these kids from the poor favellas at a social program that is intended to keep them busy and off of drugs. Me and a bunch of students got schooled by these kids who were 12 and 13. We lost 3-1 and this one kid put a move on me that sent me falling down as he just went right around me.  I wonder if I will see some of these kids playing professionally later in life, but I think Brazil is just full of talented soccer players.


*I saw one of the most beautiful sunsets ever on the beach at Ipanema and I have some great pics.

*Our last day in Rio I went hang gliding over the rainforest and then out over the ocean, landing on the beach. The first couple seconds are a rush when you just basically run off this ramp on top of the mountain but then it’s very tranquil and relaxing just gliding over the world.
*When we got back to Salvador I only had one more day in Brazil and I ended up wondering over to a skateboard competition in the morning. I went so early I ended up hooking up with the crew that was building the ramps and getting run around this fort where the competition was being held basically with VIP access.
*That afternoon the field office set up a trip to a soccer game. The field office here rocks and Karen works her butt off. The game was an experience but most of the 400 students who went seemed more interested in getting drunk then actually watching the game. I had to segregate myself from the group and ended up watching the game with a bunch of locals who actually enjoyed the game of soccer.
*Super bowl night about 12 of us hardcore Steeler fans watched the box score update on yahoo and then celebrated the victory as we cruised out on the Atlantic Ocean.

Okay I am out of time. I miss everyone and I’m having a great time. Sorry I am probably forgetting a bunch but I'll tell you all when I get home.

And by the way I am VERY proud of my sister who got a $10000 a year scholarship to Point Park!