19:06 9.12.2008
Okay, I think I was a little harsh on Salvador, I’d just had a tiring day of flying and shopping and being hassled in the Mercado, so I think while I painted a true picture of the annoying and upsetting times, I skipped out on the good parts. So here are the good parts:
I WENT TO THE FREAKIN’ AMAZON JUNGLE! HOW COOL AM I? I saw awesome plants, CRAZY huge water lilies (Victoria Regia, oops forgot to add those to the kids blog!), and held a baby caiman! And fished for piranhas! And drank straight from a jungle vine!
I also had a FANTASTIC moqueca in Salvador proper. Moqueca is a seafood stew sort of thing, a traditional Bahian dish. Carrie, Marcella and I went to this little café right off Pelourinho square for caipirinhas and cuisine. The caipirinhas were delicious (I only had one, Mom and Dad, calm down)- they’re made with a sugar cane liquor called cachassa which is Brazil’s national beverage and involved in EVERY SINGLE BRAZILIAN DANCE SONG EVER. Seriously, in the Amazon we listened to this CD (over and over and over and over until it broke, which we were all very happy about) on which cachassa was mentioned at least once in every song, and once the chorus of the song was just “Cachassa! Cachassa! Cachassa! Cachassa!”
But I digress. Our entire meal was only R24 per person, which is like $15, and we got our caipirinhas and an enormous, 3-person-sharing-still-didn’t-finish-it moqueca. There were Langoustines, 2 of them, in there, along with these weird super-tiny mussels, shrimp (with heads and tails on, awkward one Brasil), and fish in an awesome sauce! We attacked that thing and we still only ate about half of it. It came with arroz (rice) and this weird but DELICIOUS cheesy grit sort of mixture called pirao. It was a delight.
Now more funny things about the Amazon! Along with all the songs about cachassa on our favorite oft-repeated CD was the Rihanna song “Umbrella”. You know, the one that goes “under my um-ba-rella, ella, ella, ay, ay, ay?” Yeah. On there. But in Portuguese. Remember how you felt when they (over)played that song on the radio last summer? Now picture it not by Rihanna, in Portuguese, and about 800 more times. That song was stuck in my head the entire plane ride(s) home, and I’m guessing it’s going to be stuck there for quite some time.
Our guides were kind of like good cop bad cop. They were both really nice, so technically they were both good cops, but one was short and slim and serious, but really knowledgable; the other was fat and jovial and loved to dance and talked ALL the time, but generally “said” less, if you know what I mean. So I don’t have to call him “the fat one” in this anecdote, I will tell you his name was Ronaldo. Ronaldo taught us to dance the “boiboomba”, some crazy Amazon dance that was generally awesome. Our last night in the Amazon, we went to a dance show about the legend of the Amazon women and all this other crazy Brazilian stuff. At the end of the show we got to go up and dance to the song Ronaldo taught us! It was super fun. Ronaldo also had a pretty sweet accent, and he would pronounce phrases like “jungle trekking” and “piranha fishing” like “jungle TREKking” and “piranha FEESHing”, which I found endearing and took to saying them the same way. Mattias (the serious one) told us all to Facebook him. Ridiculous.
Also, when we were on one of our lake excursions, we saw a guy in this little riverside house hanging out the window, we say hi and, in Portuguese, he says "wait! i have cats!"...huh? But, lo and behold, he indeed has cats, which he proceeds to THROW OUT THE WINDOW INTO THE RIVER! He just laughs and goes "they're Amazon cats, they can swim!" and the cats climb out of the water and back into the house, the guy goes "Wait! I go get more cats," and run back inside and gets two cats at a time and just throws them in, laughing hysterically. CRAZY but totally hilarious, my friend on Voyage Book got a sweet picture.
I also forgot to tell you about my favorite, faith-in-humanity-restoring, first-day adventure in Salvador! I cannot believe I forgot, because it really was an incredible experience. I went on a Faculty-Directed Practicum to the community of Saramandaia, an up-and-coming “comunidade” in Salvador. Usually it would be called a “favela”, but that is seen as derogatory to the locals and usually only used in academic context. We went to see the Projeto Arte Consciente, a social change project that keeps kids off the streets by teaching them performance and urban art, like capoeira, boxing, circus arts, graffiti, and music. It was amazing to see. While we were there, the kids performed their respective arts for us, and really seemed to enjoy performing for our rapt audience.
The leaders of Arte Consciente were saying that everyone in Salvador has their own “social change” projects, and that there’s really been an effort to help those in the slums rise above their roots and stay in school. Most kids drop out by sixth grade, and Arte Consciente has about 200 kids, but there were only 40 or so at the performance because most of them have to work on the street to make money for their families. It’s nice because if the kids are really talented, they sometimes get accepted into larger professional groups, like Circo Piccolino, which is, you guessed it, a circus. It was really fun to hang out with the kids and see them in their (new and expanded!) performance space, doing what they love.
Souvenirs from Salvador include Havaiana flip flops (cheap!) with the Brasilian flag on them, a gold wire headband, and the very hammock that I personally slept and sweat in in the midst of the Amazon. Score!
In terms of shipboard life, other than class, I am a staff photographer for Voyage Book, which is a GORGEOUS, 120-page, full-color photo book with quotes and attributions that everyone gets FOR FREE. Since we take photo submissions from the entire shipboard community, I get to help edit those (edit=take out the crap ones) and go on “assignment” to take pictures of stupid but necessary stuff like the campus store. I also joined the “media arts club”, which is code for “we watch movies together and then make a few of our own”, which should be cool and a possible resume builder if the videos come out well enough. Seamus, a fellow Bostonian (an Emersonian, hurray!), is in charge of that business. Should be fun!
Now on to Namibia! I am très excited for my upcoming safari! It is super weird to come back from port and have to concentrate on class. Wah wahhhhh.
13 September 2008
11 September 2008
Lesson Six: How to Shock & Awww
September 11, 2008 16:55 Salvador, Brasil
Boa Noite, friends and family!
We are on our way to Walvis Bay. That rhymes and is therefore even more awesome. That also means you get a nice, long (and I mean long, this literary journey that you are about to embark on is formidable) blog post. I’ve sectioned it up for your comfort and convenience.
SALVADOR
Unfortunately, I can say with absolute certainty that I am happy to be leaving Salvador. I think it was a “good” experience for me in terms of containing realizations about the rest of the world, but by this afternoon, I was tired of being solicited for cash, food, “presentes” that of course cost money, and being tapped on the shoulder and called “beautiful lady” by EVERYONE. Salvador is a dangerous city, comprised mostly of a public square rampant with people and animals, a small business district, and mass outcroppings of favelas (comunidades is the proper local term, favelas is to comunidades as “third world” is to “developing country”). People had cameras stolen, attempted muggings, were threatened with razor blades by an 8-year old, and cheated by ATMs and bartenders alike.
What’s truly upsetting to me is not that it is dangerous, as every city is if you are not careful, and especially if you are outwardly touristy, but that people HAVE to do things like that because that is their livelihood. That eight-year old kid has no home, no money and no food, and is possibly addicted to drugs. The vast dichotomy of wealth and poverty in Brazil in general and ESPECIALLY Salvador makes it impossible for that kid to change his situation, because there are literally a million other kids (and adults) like him across the city.
*Sidenote: Carrie & Marcella are my closest friends here on the ship; they’re right across the hall and we hang out all the time. So I’ll just use their names instead of always saying “my friends this” and “my friends that”.*
So Carrie and I were talking about how everyone hates America. It is really apparent here. Carrie said, and I paraphrase, that she expected to be looked at like she was weird as a white, blonde, tourist, but that the looks she received were worse than weird. People stare at you as if they already hate you, and then they aggressively try to sell you things. When, finally, we were just tired of being gawked and hawked at, Marcella said “No! Go away!” to the trillionth guy who was following us out of the Mercado (market) trying to sell us lame jewelry and he starts yelling “Go! Go back to America!” Rather than making me angry, it makes me embarrassed. I am embarrassed that the current administration’s foreign policy is so heinously craptastic that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY hates us. Okay, it’s an exaggeration to say hates us, but many do, and most if not all have at least a few large, marrow-filled bones to pick with us. I feel embarrassed that instead of reflecting my personal values, which differ greatly from George W. Bush, I am looked at as an extension of him, as a citizen of “his” country, and therefore a huge douche.
BIZNASS (<3>
Now, after that long post, I’ve decided this about my blog in general, and how it is most likely going to progress. I have WAY too many journals. I have journals for psych, a personal journal, two online journals and a journal where I keep track of money. TOO MANY JOURNALS. So, I am journically (it’s a word now) delegating. I like this blog because I can talk about grown up things without calling you pirates or adventurers. I like the kids’ blog because I can talk about cute little animals and plants and leave out the parts about their razor-blade-weilding, crack-addicted peers (too soon? Is that a too-soon joke?) So here’s the deal, faithful adult-or-nearly-there-or-very-much-there-because-you’re-old-just-kidding readers: If you want educational, awesome details about the Amazon, safaris and general adventures, READ THE KIDS BLOG. The meat and potatoes of what I want to say is still there; if you’re not a reader then there will be no big words so as to avoid obfuscation (get it? I used a big word for confusing to illustrate my point, OH SNAP). This plan could change as of, oh say, any time the whim strikes me. But that’s how it’s gonna be for now. Check the “juicy reads” sidebar and click on “High Seas Adventure”.
THE AMAZON
That business aside, the Amazon kicked ass. Compared to the other groups we sort of got the shaft in terms of not holding anacondas or sloths, not climbing trees, and not receiving snack, but on its own the trip was cool. Only complaint: We waited around for freakin’ EVER. Without explanation as to why we were sitting in a non-moving riverboat for 1.5 hours. On several separate occasions. Someone once called the Amazon “green hell”, and I generally agree with that statement. The Amazon is HOT AS ANYTHING. Super humid, super toasty, and of course you have to wear long pants because getting bitten by fire ants and dengue-fever-carrying mosquitoes can really put a damper on your jungle trek. The shower I took at about 4:30pm today was the GREATEST SHOWER OF MY LIFE. Except for the super kick-ass natural rainforest shower I took when it started raining in the rainforest and I put on my bathing suit and shampooed my hair in the rain. Nature’s shower is the best (not to mention cleanest) shower. Excepting that quasi-shower, my compatriots and I were one big sweaty, DEET-y, Banana Boat SPF 30-y, hammock fuzzy (god could those hammocks fuzz on you, if only there were natural plant lint rollers in the Amazon) MESS. For an explanation and list of sweet medicinal plants and super adorable animals that I wish I could show you pictures of (thanks, superslow, upload-limited internet), read the kidlet blog. Seriously we saw some AWESOME stuff. CUTEST FROGS EVER.
Really I just have way too much to tell you all in terms of what happened, awesome things I did, saw and ate, and hilarious things my friends say, so I’m bound to miss something and that kills me. So email me if you have questions because it makes me feel better about missing all the stuff that’s going on in your lives! I’ll probably post more in the next couple days, I feel like if you’ve gotten this far you must be a bit overloaded. Tchau!
Boa Noite, friends and family!
We are on our way to Walvis Bay. That rhymes and is therefore even more awesome. That also means you get a nice, long (and I mean long, this literary journey that you are about to embark on is formidable) blog post. I’ve sectioned it up for your comfort and convenience.
SALVADOR
Unfortunately, I can say with absolute certainty that I am happy to be leaving Salvador. I think it was a “good” experience for me in terms of containing realizations about the rest of the world, but by this afternoon, I was tired of being solicited for cash, food, “presentes” that of course cost money, and being tapped on the shoulder and called “beautiful lady” by EVERYONE. Salvador is a dangerous city, comprised mostly of a public square rampant with people and animals, a small business district, and mass outcroppings of favelas (comunidades is the proper local term, favelas is to comunidades as “third world” is to “developing country”). People had cameras stolen, attempted muggings, were threatened with razor blades by an 8-year old, and cheated by ATMs and bartenders alike.
What’s truly upsetting to me is not that it is dangerous, as every city is if you are not careful, and especially if you are outwardly touristy, but that people HAVE to do things like that because that is their livelihood. That eight-year old kid has no home, no money and no food, and is possibly addicted to drugs. The vast dichotomy of wealth and poverty in Brazil in general and ESPECIALLY Salvador makes it impossible for that kid to change his situation, because there are literally a million other kids (and adults) like him across the city.
*Sidenote: Carrie & Marcella are my closest friends here on the ship; they’re right across the hall and we hang out all the time. So I’ll just use their names instead of always saying “my friends this” and “my friends that”.*
So Carrie and I were talking about how everyone hates America. It is really apparent here. Carrie said, and I paraphrase, that she expected to be looked at like she was weird as a white, blonde, tourist, but that the looks she received were worse than weird. People stare at you as if they already hate you, and then they aggressively try to sell you things. When, finally, we were just tired of being gawked and hawked at, Marcella said “No! Go away!” to the trillionth guy who was following us out of the Mercado (market) trying to sell us lame jewelry and he starts yelling “Go! Go back to America!” Rather than making me angry, it makes me embarrassed. I am embarrassed that the current administration’s foreign policy is so heinously craptastic that EVERY OTHER COUNTRY hates us. Okay, it’s an exaggeration to say hates us, but many do, and most if not all have at least a few large, marrow-filled bones to pick with us. I feel embarrassed that instead of reflecting my personal values, which differ greatly from George W. Bush, I am looked at as an extension of him, as a citizen of “his” country, and therefore a huge douche.
BIZNASS (<3>
Now, after that long post, I’ve decided this about my blog in general, and how it is most likely going to progress. I have WAY too many journals. I have journals for psych, a personal journal, two online journals and a journal where I keep track of money. TOO MANY JOURNALS. So, I am journically (it’s a word now) delegating. I like this blog because I can talk about grown up things without calling you pirates or adventurers. I like the kids’ blog because I can talk about cute little animals and plants and leave out the parts about their razor-blade-weilding, crack-addicted peers (too soon? Is that a too-soon joke?) So here’s the deal, faithful adult-or-nearly-there-or-very-much-there-because-you’re-old-just-kidding readers: If you want educational, awesome details about the Amazon, safaris and general adventures, READ THE KIDS BLOG. The meat and potatoes of what I want to say is still there; if you’re not a reader then there will be no big words so as to avoid obfuscation (get it? I used a big word for confusing to illustrate my point, OH SNAP). This plan could change as of, oh say, any time the whim strikes me. But that’s how it’s gonna be for now. Check the “juicy reads” sidebar and click on “High Seas Adventure”.
THE AMAZON
That business aside, the Amazon kicked ass. Compared to the other groups we sort of got the shaft in terms of not holding anacondas or sloths, not climbing trees, and not receiving snack, but on its own the trip was cool. Only complaint: We waited around for freakin’ EVER. Without explanation as to why we were sitting in a non-moving riverboat for 1.5 hours. On several separate occasions. Someone once called the Amazon “green hell”, and I generally agree with that statement. The Amazon is HOT AS ANYTHING. Super humid, super toasty, and of course you have to wear long pants because getting bitten by fire ants and dengue-fever-carrying mosquitoes can really put a damper on your jungle trek. The shower I took at about 4:30pm today was the GREATEST SHOWER OF MY LIFE. Except for the super kick-ass natural rainforest shower I took when it started raining in the rainforest and I put on my bathing suit and shampooed my hair in the rain. Nature’s shower is the best (not to mention cleanest) shower. Excepting that quasi-shower, my compatriots and I were one big sweaty, DEET-y, Banana Boat SPF 30-y, hammock fuzzy (god could those hammocks fuzz on you, if only there were natural plant lint rollers in the Amazon) MESS. For an explanation and list of sweet medicinal plants and super adorable animals that I wish I could show you pictures of (thanks, superslow, upload-limited internet), read the kidlet blog. Seriously we saw some AWESOME stuff. CUTEST FROGS EVER.
Really I just have way too much to tell you all in terms of what happened, awesome things I did, saw and ate, and hilarious things my friends say, so I’m bound to miss something and that kills me. So email me if you have questions because it makes me feel better about missing all the stuff that’s going on in your lives! I’ll probably post more in the next couple days, I feel like if you’ve gotten this far you must be a bit overloaded. Tchau!
31 August 2008
Lesson Five: How To Treadmill in Zero Gravity
August 29, 10:00pm
We are officially at sea. The mild rocking and not-so-mild grumbling of the engines (I’m in the very back (stern) of the ship) is what I will be dealing with for the next nine days, until the ship gets to Salvador, Brasil, our first port. It is still so surreal: this is my life, this will be my next three months. One of the other BU girls is in the quad across from me! What with all the meetings and everyone not knowing each other, it’s a little bit like being a freshman. Lots of introductions that I won’t remember, although of course the important ones will stick. My camera is so amazing, its 24x zoom caught my family waving to me from Senor Frog’s just outside the port.
August 31, 10:07AM
After this I’ll be switching to military time, because that’s what we attempt to go by on ship, even though everyone just uses 12-hour anyway. No picture posts, it takes too long and wastes my internet. Check Flickr and I’ll make sure to try and comment so that you have stories and notes to go with the picture, like a sort of photo-blog. I have a kids’ blog too, unfortunately that is also going to have to be picture free, or at least picture infrequent, because the satellite internet is relatively slow here and I don’t want to waste my precious precious web minutes.
Had my first class today, Mental Illness Across Cultures. It seems like it’s going to be a really good class, but I’m also a psych nerd. 20% of our grade is going on service trips and practica, like visiting a group that teaches kids art and dance to keep them off the streets in Salvador.
I still can’t believe I will be living on this ship for the next three and a half months; it still feels like this will be a few weeks long and then back home. It’s weird to think that BU life is still going on, it’s like I transferred, but to a fun-house college where the walls move and your hallways sometimes smell like gasoline!
My room is basically the engine room. Anytime the ship is moving it grumbles and rumbles, varying in loudness according to our speed. Luckily I’m a good sleeper, it would definitely dislodge some. We (my roommate Jonnelle and I) are as far aft- that’s towards the back you unseaworthy people- as you can go. I actually like the room, and like what I’ve done with it decoration-wise better than I have for my rooms at BU.
There’s really nothing much to talk about because we haven’t gone to a port yet. We’re gassing up in Puerto Rico right now so I have occasional non-int’lly-roaming cell service- say goodbye to that shortly. The fact that this is school is kind of awesome, as I spent forty-five minutes yesterday watching the water and sitting on the “sun deck”.
Working out on ship is an adventure. No matter whether you are walking or running, you MUST hold on to the treadmill. I have pretty good balance, but my feet were wandering left to right to left with the rocking of the ship. The elliptical was even weirder because you’re not really walking or running at all. You can feel the rise and drop in pressure as you go over and under the waves, sort of like 50% underwater, 50% zero gravity. It is standard to see people wander somewhat drunkenly about the halls, holding on to walls on occasion.
I’ve babbled enough. Email me at laking@semesteratsea.net, because then I receive them for free!
We are officially at sea. The mild rocking and not-so-mild grumbling of the engines (I’m in the very back (stern) of the ship) is what I will be dealing with for the next nine days, until the ship gets to Salvador, Brasil, our first port. It is still so surreal: this is my life, this will be my next three months. One of the other BU girls is in the quad across from me! What with all the meetings and everyone not knowing each other, it’s a little bit like being a freshman. Lots of introductions that I won’t remember, although of course the important ones will stick. My camera is so amazing, its 24x zoom caught my family waving to me from Senor Frog’s just outside the port.
August 31, 10:07AM
After this I’ll be switching to military time, because that’s what we attempt to go by on ship, even though everyone just uses 12-hour anyway. No picture posts, it takes too long and wastes my internet. Check Flickr and I’ll make sure to try and comment so that you have stories and notes to go with the picture, like a sort of photo-blog. I have a kids’ blog too, unfortunately that is also going to have to be picture free, or at least picture infrequent, because the satellite internet is relatively slow here and I don’t want to waste my precious precious web minutes.
Had my first class today, Mental Illness Across Cultures. It seems like it’s going to be a really good class, but I’m also a psych nerd. 20% of our grade is going on service trips and practica, like visiting a group that teaches kids art and dance to keep them off the streets in Salvador.
I still can’t believe I will be living on this ship for the next three and a half months; it still feels like this will be a few weeks long and then back home. It’s weird to think that BU life is still going on, it’s like I transferred, but to a fun-house college where the walls move and your hallways sometimes smell like gasoline!
My room is basically the engine room. Anytime the ship is moving it grumbles and rumbles, varying in loudness according to our speed. Luckily I’m a good sleeper, it would definitely dislodge some. We (my roommate Jonnelle and I) are as far aft- that’s towards the back you unseaworthy people- as you can go. I actually like the room, and like what I’ve done with it decoration-wise better than I have for my rooms at BU.
There’s really nothing much to talk about because we haven’t gone to a port yet. We’re gassing up in Puerto Rico right now so I have occasional non-int’lly-roaming cell service- say goodbye to that shortly. The fact that this is school is kind of awesome, as I spent forty-five minutes yesterday watching the water and sitting on the “sun deck”.
Working out on ship is an adventure. No matter whether you are walking or running, you MUST hold on to the treadmill. I have pretty good balance, but my feet were wandering left to right to left with the rocking of the ship. The elliptical was even weirder because you’re not really walking or running at all. You can feel the rise and drop in pressure as you go over and under the waves, sort of like 50% underwater, 50% zero gravity. It is standard to see people wander somewhat drunkenly about the halls, holding on to walls on occasion.
I’ve babbled enough. Email me at laking@semesteratsea.net, because then I receive them for free!
28 August 2008
Lesson Four: How To Freak Out When Your Hard Drive Crashes Hours Before You Leave
...yeah. Great timing, Mr. Macbook. Not only did you crap out right before I left for a trip, you crapped out the night before I left for a 3.5 month long trip, thereby ruining my organized packing list, my calm state of mind, and my french writing sample that I had not yet backed up. Good Start.
16 August 2008
Lesson Three: How to Be Incredulous
I absolutely cannot believe I'm doing this. I can tell as many people as I want, get the shots, do the paperwork, but it still does not change the fact that it is difficult to fathom me, on a ship, living there and then getting off in ten countries that I've barely even considered actually visiting.
This trip fulfills not one but several life goals. I will be canoeing in the Amazon, tracking elephants in a Namibian Jeep, taking a high-speed train all over Japan, and standing on the Great Wall. There is so much history in so many places other than the small New England world I've known so far.
I'm excited to wake up, go outside and be greeted by nothing but ocean. I'm excited to not only learn and hear about but actually see firsthand the cultural, political and socioeconomic climates of ten very different countries. I'm excited to buy everyone's Christmas and birthday presents- if you want something from a particular country, make sure you tell me! Basically, I'm just really excited.
I'm sure I'll get a little scared once I am on the ship, sailing away from the comfort and ease of my "normal" life, and when it hits me that I won't see anyone I've previously known for 3.5 months, but right now? I'm loving the idea of an experience that is completely new.
This trip fulfills not one but several life goals. I will be canoeing in the Amazon, tracking elephants in a Namibian Jeep, taking a high-speed train all over Japan, and standing on the Great Wall. There is so much history in so many places other than the small New England world I've known so far.
I'm excited to wake up, go outside and be greeted by nothing but ocean. I'm excited to not only learn and hear about but actually see firsthand the cultural, political and socioeconomic climates of ten very different countries. I'm excited to buy everyone's Christmas and birthday presents- if you want something from a particular country, make sure you tell me! Basically, I'm just really excited.
I'm sure I'll get a little scared once I am on the ship, sailing away from the comfort and ease of my "normal" life, and when it hits me that I won't see anyone I've previously known for 3.5 months, but right now? I'm loving the idea of an experience that is completely new.
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