Another Shipboard Update!

Well, it is officially Day 63 and I have already completed two of my three classes onboard!  I just got out of my Global Studies exam and it went pretty well.  One of the questions asked if I wanted the extra credit points (answer A said "yes") and where would you most likely find a tajine (since I ate 3 of them in Morocco and hadn't heard of them until I got to Morocco, I wonder what that answer must be).  I hope it went well. Considering I could make a 50 and still get a high enough grade for it to transfer, I am not too worried about it. 

I still have a paper to write for my International Economics class, which is due tomorrow, over various parts of the economies we noticed in each of the countries we visited on the voyage.  I shouldn't be very hard, but it must be about 6-7 pages long.  It always takes me forever to write papers!

The seas are a bit rockier today due to some tropical weather, so I had to take my first anti-seasick pill today since we left Morocco.  It has been so smooth that you don't even realize we are on a ship in the middle of the Atlantic!  It is so weird though not seeing any form of human or animal life in days!  We have not seen a ship, island, bird, fish, anything.  (I did see a bunch of dolphins a few days ago, but just for a few minutes.)  That will be totally different when we get home...

I also get to have cheeseburgers with my extended shipboard family on the pool deck tonight!  I can't wait to have a little something different, as I have had pasta for lunch and dinner everyday since we left Morocco!  I can't believe that this will be our last family meal together too.  Time flies on this ship!!!!  Then after that we have our pre-disembarkation meeting in the Union.  They will tell us all about how to get through customs quickly and efficiently, as well as the process for getting off the ship (where we take our bags, what we are allowed to carry off, etc.) 

I still haven't wrote the blogs for Morocco!  I have been very busy with all of my school work and instead of writing blogs, I am getting everyone else's pictures from our voyage.  Instead of all of taking the exact same picture on 50 cameras, we just take it on one and then share them.  That process is taking a little bit longer than expected...

Thanks for being such great readers over the past two months!!!  More will be showing up soon...

SHIPBOARD UPDATE!

Many of you have been wondering if I am alive and well.  The answer is yes...but sad that I just left my last port on this voyage yesterday!  The last task of the ship is to travel all the way back across the Atlantic Ocean to Norfolk, Virginia.  Morocco was amazing and I will be telling you all about my adventures over the next few days.  Today was the shipboard auction that I worked so hard on.  WE RAISED $30,981.00  for the shipboard drive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The money goes to all of the service visits, shipboard student life events, scholarships, and much more!  It was absolutely AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!
It was the most money ever raised in the history of SAS for the auction!  I still can't believe it!  I have a paper to write for Art History tomorrow, so you probably won't be hearing much from me as it already is midnight and I have to be up at 07:00.  Goodnight!

P.S. Happy Birthday Dad! I wish I could be there to celebrate!

Day 53...What...I spent the day in Gibraltar?!?

Day 53/C18, August 6th:

Just another day in the neighborhood, but this one is pretty sad!  Today is the last pre-port of the voyage!!!  We arrive in our last port tomorrow morning and then we are headed home on an 11-day trip across the Atlantic.  I bet you didn’t know this, but we actually were in Gibraltar all day!  We were anchored right off the shore refueling for about 10 hours.  It was very weird being on the ship and seeing land on both sides.  We don’t see that very often! 

I finally got to get rid of that stupid Global Studies paper!  It felt great!  Now, I only have the final exam left in that class.  However, I have two papers, a test, and a final to complete in International Economics and a paper and final exam in Art History.  The paper for Art History is due the day after the auction (second day on the ship after Morocco).  I don’t know how all of this will get done, but it will get done one way or another.  I am telling you that living on a ship and taking classes while seeing the world is not easy people.  WE ARE BUSY!  I won’t trade places with you though…I love it!!!

I am excited to see Morocco!  It should be very different yet again from all of the countries I have seen so far.  I have two SAS trips: a visit to the SOS Children’s Village and an evening with a Moroccan family.  Both should be fun!  The evening with a Moroccan family will be a unique experience nonetheless.  They pick us up at the ship and take us in small groups of 3-6 students back to their homes for dinner and conversation.  I really don’t know what to expect! 

We also learned at pre-port that we can be much more relaxed with what we can eat and drink that in Egypt.  We are still not advised to drink the water, but we can eat produce that has been washed and brush our teeth using the local tap water.  We also don’t have to take pepto tablets before each meal unless we feel that we should.  I know I will be taking them just in case!  I don’t need to get sick from my last port!  This allows us to try much more of the unique Moroccan cuisine.  I can’t wait!  Are we there yet? 

Rough plan:

Day 1: Wait for passports to be cleared, train to Marrakesh, explore, spend the night there at a hotel.
Day 2: Explore Marrakesh some more, train back to Casablanca, sleep on the ship.
Day 3:  SOS Children’s Village in the afternoon, Evening with a Moroccan Family.
Day 4:  Explore Casablanca, cry as we step off the last piece of foreign soil on the 102nd Voyage of SAS. 

Noon Report for August 6th:

No Report from the Bridge, since we were anchored in Gibraltar.  We change our clocks to +5 hours from EST tonight and then again to +4 hours from EST on August 7th (Day 1 of Morocco).  YEAH!!!!  I love 25-hour days!

Day 52...CREW APPRECIATION DAY!!!

Day 52/C17, August 5th:

Well now that I conquered the Global Studies test, I get to write a 6-page paper on public spaces in two of the countries we visited and compare them to the United States. Exciting?  Not really!  I chose to write my paper on Spain and Egypt.  I discussed their public recreation areas (like the beaches) and their public transportation systems.  Since the paper was boring, I decided to make it more fun for me and included the MV Explorer as well.  The ship’s elevator acts as the only public transportation system; however, everyone walks onboard the ship.  The various decks on the aft of the ship are our public recreational areas.  It made the paper much more entertaining and exciting for me to write.  As you can probably tell, I am really beginning to get tired of writing!  After writing to the blog everyday for 52 days, I really remember why I wanted to be a math major!  I wish I had the extra pizzazz to make them more entertaining and funny.  Oh well…

At 21:15, everyone flocked to the Union to see the infamous CREW TALENT SHOW!  It was such a great event and you could tell how much the crew enjoyed performing for us.  Those guys do so much for all of us and some never get the chance to leave the ship (even in port).  They don’t have a lot of room down in the bottom of ship, so I know they enjoyed hanging out with us during the show.  It also was Crew Appreciation Day!  My roommates and I made our beds for our cabin steward, took care of our own plates in the dinning room, told all the guys cleaning the railings that we appreciate their hard work, and told everyone how much they mean to us!  The Crew on the ship is AMAZING!!!!! 

I also spent a few hours working on the PowerPoint presentation for the Live Auction!  We now have over 130 items that were donated!  It is freaking awesome!  There will be 32 live items and the rest are all in the silent auction.  We hope to raise $20,000 and it should be possible with this many items. I can’t believe it is coming up so soon. 

Noon Report for August 5th:

1563 NM since Alexandria with average speed of 13.92 knots, 343 NM since last noon with average speed of 14.29 knots, 244 NM left until we reach Gibraltar, closest land to the ship is 44 NM NW of Cape Ivi (Algeria), sea depth is 8764 ft, sea water temperature is 78.8 degrees, air temperature is 77.0 degrees, sea swell is slight, sunset tonight at 21:13, sunrise tomorrow at 07:32, currently +6  hours of EST.

Day 51...Studying the sea away!

Day 51/C16, August 4th:

Another busy, yet fun, day onboard the MV Explorer!  I got to study for and take the second Global Studies test tonight.  It went much better than the first test, so I hope I did really well.  We should find out our grades in a few days.  One thing I love about tests on the ship is that you have a great excuse to study out on the pool deck! It is one of those things that you don’t even realize is a luxury anymore because we have done so many new and exciting things in the last 51 days! 

I also had to read some articles on India for a test in International Economics today too.  It was super easy!  We just had to write one page on what developments in the world economy made India’s economic model begin to look less politically acceptable in the 1970s and 1980s.  Basically everything created this, so you just had to pick something and elaborate.  It was a piece of cake.  It just sucks having two tests on the same day, especially while you are sailing around the Mediterranean.  I wish we had some extra time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fact that we are sailing in the big blue sea!  

I know this is short and sweet, but there wasn’t much going on today besides studying and taking a tests…sorry!

Noon Report for August 4th:

1220 NM since Alexandria with average speed of 13.82 knots, 348 NM since last noon with average speed of 13.92 knots, 568 NM left until we reach Gibraltar, closest land to the ship is 30 NM N of Cape Bougaroum (Algeria), sea depth is 9158 ft, sea water temperature is 75.2 degrees, air temperature is 75.2 degrees, sea swell is 6.6 ft, sunset tonight at 20:48, sunrise tomorrow at 07:04, currently +6 hours of  EST.

Day 50...Student/Faculty Talent Show

Day 50/C15, August 3rd:

Today was so exciting!  I spent the entire day studying and studying and studying for both of my tests tomorrow.  Now, I had to throw in a little bit of fun, so I did study for my economics exam on the pool deck.  It was such a beautiful day…I couldn’t pass it up. 

After dinner, we had the Student/Faculty/Staff Talent Show in the Union.  The first act was both of the Deans dancing and singing to the Music Video of “I’m on a boat!”  It was soooooo hilarious.  Imagine two old guys dressed up in suits with sunglasses, throwing food, spraying champagne and singing a rap song in front of 739 college students, faculty, and staff.  What a hoot!  All of the other acts were really amazing too.  Some sang songs, played the piano and/or guitar, danced (including an Indian ritual), performed magic tricks, and even had skits performed by the kids.  Only one act was not good at all!  They were sooo bad that William Hung looked amazing.  Everyone else was fabulous!  It was a lot of fun!  I can’t wait for the crew talent show in two days. 

We also met for the Auction to determine which items were going to be in the silent auction and the live auction.  We have over 100 items donated so far from the shipboard community.  Items include trips to the Big Apple Circus in NYC with backstage passes, vacation homes in California, Ohio, Arizona, Canada, chance to attend a training event for the Pittsburg Steelers, and be apart of a sailing regatta while sailing with the world-winning team (I forget where it is).  Other items include Girl Scout cookies, jellybeans, jars of chunky peanut butter, miscellaneous souvenirs from port, etc.  The ship is giving items like first to get off the ship, blow the ship’s horn in Norfolk, steer the ship, pick the dinner menu for a day, have dinner with the Captain, have a bubble bath in the Dean’s Office, a signed navigational map of our voyage signed by all of the Bridge Crew including the Captain, and many more.  It is going to be exciting.  We have so many cool items! The proceeds benefit the SAS Scholarship Fund, general maintenance for the ship, as well as provide supplies for the service visits for upcoming voyages. 

Noon Report for August 3rd:

873 NM since Alexandria with average speed of 13.79 knots, 337 NM since last noon with average speed of 14.04 knots, 932 NM left until we reach the Straights of Gibraltar, closest land to the ship is 34 NM SSW of Licata (Sicilia-Italy), sea depth is 2034 ft, sea water temperature is 75.2 degrees, air temperature is 73.4 degrees, sea swell is slight, sunset tonight at 21:21, sunrise tomorrow at 06:32, at midnight tonight we change our clocks to +6 EST.

Day 49...On the Sea Again!

Day 49/C14, August 2nd:

Well, we are back to classes once again!  The ship was still recovering from yesterday as every one lost their voice from cheering and was still scrubbing off the last pieces of paint from their bodies.  Other than the fact that we all were tired from yesterday’s activities, today was just another day at sea.  Classes were just as exciting as always.  I have a global studies test coming up in two days, an international economics test in two days, and a paper for global studies due in four days.  It will be a very busy week!  I am not really worried too much about the tests, but I do need to start my paper soon. 

We also have a lot to look forward to in the next few days!  The faculty/staff talent show is tomorrow night and the crew talent show is two days after that.  It should be interesting! 
The ship is back to rocking, so everyone is starting to get their sea legs back.  I have not taken any seasick meds until right before my Econ class today just to be safe.  We really were rocking up a storm!  Everything has been going well though on my side of the world.  Danielle is not doing too hot with the rockiness, but she is fine when she pops the pills.  Just another aspect of life at sea!  It is nice when you want to go to sleep; however, it is not nice when you are trying to write your blog and the ship keeps rocking you to sleep.  Goodnight!!!

Noon Report for August 2nd:

536 NM since Alexandria with average speed of 13.64 knots, 324 NM since last noon with average speed of 13.5 knots, 1268 NM left until we reach the Straights of Gibraltar, closest land to the ship is 120 NM N of Tulmaythah (Libya), sea depth is 9840 ft, sea water temperature is 80.6 degrees, air temperature is 78.8 degrees, sea swell is 5 ft, sunset tonight at 20:50, sunrise tomorrow at 07:07.

Day 48...THE 102nd SEA OLYMPICS!

Day 48, August 1st:

The 102nd SEA OLYMPICS!

Hey Adriatic!  Hey what!  We’re Adriatic and we’re dark blue.  We’re gonna beat the ship out of you!  This is our chant for the Adriatic Sea!  There are 10 seas onboard the MV Explorer based on where you live:  Red, Mediterranean, Baltic, Adriatic, Caribbean, Aegean, Bering, Black, Albanian and Diploma (faculty, staff, and life-long learners).  We all dressed up in our sea color to represent ourselves throughout the day.  My sea (Go Adriatic!!!) met at 10:00 in the Garden Lounge Dinning Room to get Dark Blue-ified!  We had blue body paint, face paint, makeup, ribbon, hair bows, balloons, an inflatable dolphin mascot and much more.  All of the seas then met in the Union at 11:00 for the opening ceremonies.  The Dean of Students opened the 102nd SEA OLYMPICS complete with a parade of the sea captains displaying their team banners and an Olympic torch carried by the children onboard.  We then went over the rules for the day and listened to an awesome introduction of how the Olympics is an integral part of Semester at Sea, as well as the ports we have visited on our Summer Voyage!  The Captain even came down to share a few words with us before declaring the opening of the 102nd Olympic games!!!!!!!!!!!

We immediately broke into our first event of the day:  the Spirit Competition! Each sea had to create a chant and had to perform it for all over the world to hear.  Since the Diploma Sea was tired from performing their chant, we then had to have a break for lunch before the next events.  The Diploma Sea had a blast this year!  Most of the faculty and staff have sailed on previous voyages so they had an unfair of advantage; however, they did create some very awesome and clever chants and dances.  AFter lunch, many different events occurred all over the ship ranging from a pull-up competition to synchronized swimming to bagel on a string to Jeopardy to flip cup to pie eating contest.  I went to support my roommate Nick at the pull up contest, as it was the first real event of the day.  He got 23 pull-ups!  Some of the guys and girls were impressive!  One girl got 9 pull-ups (she beat out a few of the guys…)!  I then watched tug-of-war and we came in 2nd place overall.  Synchronized swimming won the funniest event of the day, but the lip-syncing and dance contest was a close second.  The guys and girls from each sea did a great job in both of these events!  They were hilarious. 

I participated in the Relay Race.  This event had 5 sections: Dizzy bat (spin around a bat 6 times, hopscotch, and then climb the stairs), hula hoop while someone else throws 5 ping pong balls into a bucket that the hula hoop person is holding, three-legged maze through the 6th deck dinning hall, human wheel barrel, and my event (egg on a spoon down the hallway and down the stairs to the finish line).  It was a great event.  We almost came in first place!  It was pretty exciting! 

For dinner, the crew surprised us again with a BBQ!  We had cheeseburgers, hot dogs, BBQ ribs, potato salad, coleslaw, millions of deserts, corn on the cob, baked beans, etc.  It was AMAZING!!!! 
I wish they would do that for every meal.  After dinner, we had the lip-syncing and dance contest.  It was pretty entertaining!  Each sea put on a show for about 5 minutes.  Everyone dressed up and corigraphed their dance moves.  Some seas “sang” songs like It’s raining men (since there are no men on the ship) and, of course, the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears.  Others did music from each country we have visited or music representing things specific to our voyage.  All did a great job!!!!!!  It was sooooo funny!  Again the Diploma Sea did a great job!  The Grand Prize was a one-hour party in the “hidden” Faculty Lounge, first Sea to get off the ship in Norfolk and, of course, bragging rights for the rest of the voyage.  Our sea came in 7th place; however, we were the first sea alphabetically so we were always first and the judges always were a lot harder on us than the other seas to follow.  We did pretty well considering the circumstances. 

The entire day was full of energy and spirit!  We all had a blast doing it and it brought every one together again.  It was really great to have something like this bring the entire ship back together again right before our last 3 weeks on the ship with only 4 days in port.  Our cabin steward, Angelito, even dressed up to represent our sea!!! He was the only crewmember on the ship to dress up for their sea!!!! WE LOVE THIS GUY!!!  After the closing ceremony and announcement of the final places, I went right to sleep.  It was a long and tiring day!  Goodnight!  GO ADRIATIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Noon Report for August 1st:

212 NM since Alexandria with average speed of 13.86 knots, 1591 NM until the Straights of Gibraltar, closest land is 55 NM N of Sidi Barrani (Libya), sea depth is 7708 ft, sea water temperature is 80.6 degrees, air temperature is 78.8 degrees, sea swell is 5 ft, sunset tonight at 20:24, sunrise tomorrow at 06:47.

Day 47...Last day in Egypt! (plus a little extra)

Day 47, July 31st:

Egypt Day 5!

Shopping is the best way to spend your last day in a foreign country!  You have to spend the last remaining amount of your local currency somehow, right?  I woke up around 09:00 and met Brianna, Danielle and Carmen at the gangway for our expedition to Carrefour Mall around 09:30.  We walked just outside the port to try to find Raft, our taxi driver from the first day, but he ditched us for someone else.  We actually got a driver who had a brand new 2011 minivan with air-conditioning.  This is the first taxi in all of Egypt that we saw with air-conditioning. He took us out to the mall and we walked around for a few hours.  The mall is very Americanized as it had a Starbucks, Nike, Timberland, Ecco, Lacoste, Addias, etc.  It was actually the nicest place we have seen in Egypt.  The mall was huge!  It even had a prayer room! All of the stores were name brand minus the few stores I didn’t know, the ones that sold the traditional dresses for Muslim women.  It was really nice!  I really wanted to find a tee shirt that said Egypt on it, but every store said they didn’t have anything.  That was upsetting.  We were really hungry so we ended up eating at McDonalds again.  I know…we ate fast food three times in this port!  I had another Big Mac with only bread and meat, French fries and a coke with no ice.  How delicious!  We then made our last lap around the mall before going into an Egyptian equivalent to Walmart to spend our Egyptian Pounds.  I bought a few more snacks that were not made or packaged in Egypt.  I spent exactly all of my money.  I actually got a lot for my equivalent of 11 US Dollars. 

We meet the taxi outside of the mall again at 13:00 and rode back to the ship.  I bought just a few postcards and stamps from the little vendors right outside the ship to send home before heading back onboard the MV Explorer for the last time in Egypt.  Since Egypt was the port for Parent Trips, all of the parents got to come onboard the last evening and eat dinner with us before we pulled out.  Daniel, Lacey, Mindy and I went to the computer lab and made a sign to welcome Clark and his parents onboard the ship!  We printed it out and stood at the gangway for about 45 minutes while they got everyone onboard.  It was pretty neat to meet his parents and be able to have dinner with them.  After dinner, I went up to the top deck to watch us leave Alexandria.  This was one port that I didn’t mind leaving.  I don’t think I will miss the dirty city anytime soon, nor will I probably ever go back there.  It was very neat to talk with the others about their experiences and their travels in Egypt as everyone had totally different perspectives.

At 21:30 I had my last sea meeting before the Sea Olympics and we practiced our cheer and got all of the logistics down for tomorrows festivities.  I can’t wait!!!  It should be great fun!

Do you speak Egyptian?  No, I speak Arabic.

Egyptians speak Arabic, but English is taught in most Egyptian schools beginning at a very young age.  The following is a phonetic transliteration from the Arabic script. 
Hello (to Muslims) = assalaamu aleikum
Hello (to Copts/Christians) = saeeda
Goodbye = ma’a salaama
Please (to a man) = min fadlak
Please (to a woman) = min fadlik
Thank You = shukran
You’re Welcome = ‘afwan
Yes = aywa
No = la
Buenos Dias = sabaah el-kheer

Numbers:
1=wahid, 2=itnayn, 3=talaata, 4=arbah, 5=khamsa, 6=sitta, 7=sabah, 8=tamanya, 9=tesah, 10=ashara, 100=miyya

Days of the Week:
Sunday= youm il-ahad, Monday=youm il-itnayn, Tuesday=youm il-talaata, Wednesday= youm il-arbah, Thursday=youm il-khamees, Friday=youm il-sabt, and supposedly Saturday is not important because they didn’t put it on our sheet.

Do you see the pattern between the days of the week and the numbers?

Day 46...Alexandria Orphanage

Day 46, July 30th:

Egypt Day 4!

After our awesome and fun filled day yesterday, we decided to spend the little time we had this morning near the port; however, we did want to walk around the city a little to get a true feel for Alexandria.  Around 09:30 I met up with Danielle and we decided to walk outside the gates of the port, as we were ready to explore.  Let me tell you that we explored so well that we stumbled across some really nasty stuff!  As we first walked out of the gates, we walked straight past all of the oldest payphones in the world.  Of course we stopped to see how much a call would cost, but forgot about the language barrier.  We could tell, however, by comparing the numbers on the screen to the numbers on the keypad that it would cost .25 pounds or about $0.05 to place a call.  The phone was covered in filth and looked as if it was 50 years old.  We then kept walking in search of a business district; however, we stumbled across an open-air market (basically a few sheds on a side road that pulled out “merchandise” to sell).  These little vendors sold everything:  meat, cheese, eggs, fruits, vegetables, whole fish, electric fans, grains, seed, coolers, etc.   It was a true eye opener and a great example of why you can’t eat hardly anything in Egypt.  They had hundreds of eggs sitting out loose on a wooden cart pulled by a donkey baking in the hot sun.  They had cheese sitting on top of a plastic box melting away with no form of packaging on the cheese.  Everything was just sitting out in full sun with no packaging or means of refrigeration, as cars drove by kicking up dust, etc.  They had whole fish stacked up on a wooden cart separated by rusty nails drying out in the heat and sun.  Whole animals were being skinned and chopped to pieces as they hung from the ceiling, again outside on the dusty public street. 

We continued walking around for a little while longer until we started feeling uncomfortable with how the locals were looking at us.  Every person we walked by just stared at us and we knew we didn’t belong.  I am sure it is the same feeling many of the fully covered Muslim women get in the US, but I got to experience it in Egypt, even as a young man.  We then promptly returned to the ship for lunch.  Around 13:00, Danielle, Nick and I headed down to the busses for our SAS trip to the Alexandria Orphanage. 

The Alexandria Orphanage currently has 34 children and they all live, eat, sleep, play, learn and grow together.  One family lives with and provides everything for the children.  With the help of many others from around the community, including some of the older orphans that have moved on in their lives, they start trust funds for each child, teach them how to work together, provide them with an education, assist them in figuring out their passions, and support them in learning more about each of their favorite subject areas in hopes that they will be successful in that field later in their life.  Our tour guide told us on the short ride over to the orphanage that you may not adopt children in Egypt, as it is against the law.  As a side note, there also is a law that no one can be homeless and sleep on the streets; consequently, the Egyptian government provides free housing to all of its homeless citizens. 

Once we arrived at the orphanage, we climbed to the third story of the ten-story building to greet the children.  We brought some toys and school supplies with us to play with and then donated them to the orphanage when we left.  All of the children were very happy to see us!  At first they were very shy, but within three minutes they were playing catch with little balls, blowing bubbles, making origami hats and paper airplanes out of construction paper, building various figures out of Playdough and having a good ole’ time.  The best part was the children’s fascination with our cameras. 

Many of them had never seen a camera before and they loved it when you showed them a picture of themselves on the screen.  After a few minutes, they all wanted to go take pictures of everything!  I spent a few minutes showing the children how to use the camera and then they were off taking pictures of everyone and everything.  It was a lot of fun to see who they wanted to take a picture of.  Many of the children wanted to take pictures of all of the caretakers and not of the other children.  Some of the children even wanted to be in pictures with the female caretakers that were fully covered.  That part was a little weird for me because how would you even know who that was in the picture a few weeks later.  I mean all married or engaged women wear the same solid black dress with only a strip of skin showing between their eyes, so that men besides their husbands can’t look at them.  It was a really unique experience!

I also spent a good amount of time talking to a few of the older kids there.  One was 12 (I have no idea how to even get close to spelling his name…let’s just call him Jack) and another that was 23, named Muhammad.  Muhammad was in the orphanage as a child and he is now an Economics Major at Alexandria University.  He is going to be a Junior this year and he spends a lot of his time at the orphanage helping the other children.  Four years ago, he agreed to take Jack from the orphanage and provide for him on his own.  Jack lived in the orphanage since he was 2 years old and has never met his real parents, but he was very open to talk about his life.  He knew a lot about his history, even as a baby, and discussed it with my roommate Nick and I in detail. 

Jack was even telling us stories about what it was like to live in Alexandria.  He had gone to show us around the rest of the 5 stories of the orphanage and we stopped outside on one of the balconies over looking the street.  All of a sudden, he just stopped what he was saying and said, “Please don’t stare or look at anyone that passes by on the street!”  Now, the street was four stories below us, but he wanted to make sure we didn’t stare or look at anyone.  Of course, we had to ask what his reasoning was.  He told us this story about the people that live in the “building” across the street.  It was very weird that he never called it a “house” across the street, always a “building.”  Anyways, he said that the guys who lived there were killers, drug dealers, murderers and thieves.  One day he remembers being on the balcony watching the guys come out of the “building” and steal a car from the side of the road.  He said that he knew that they had stolen the car, but the authorities never punished them because they were part of the mafia and the Police didn’t care.  He vividly remembered the day that they sold the stolen car because everyone on the street wanted to kill them.  They all were in this walled in section of the back yard throwing a party all day and all night with loud music and all of the other mafia members were there too. It was very personal to see a 12 year old boy tell this story so vividly and so openly to people he had just met one hour earlier.  It was a very intense conversation! 

After our very long discussion, we went back down stairs and played with the other children for a few minutes before we had to leave.  We all took a group picture and the family was so happy that we came to visit them and the children.  The children didn’t want us to leave, but of course we had to get back to the ship.  It was a truly unique experience!  I feel as if I could visit an orphanage in any other country in the world and not get the same feeling as I did here.  It was just truly remarkable to see how much that orphanage impacted the children’s lives. 

Once we returned to the port, we went over to the few shops to see if we could find any cool souvenirs or gifts.   This was the only place we have seen that has postcards, magnets, tee shirts, etc.  The postcards were all super ugly and didn’t even look like the place depicted on them.  The magnets were all cheaply made, very expensive and not that cool.  The tee shirts were all discolored from the sun and some of them looked like they have been sitting there for years.  I was very surprised to see that they had no good souvenirs at all.  Oh well!  We spent so much time there that we had to run back to the ship at 19:15 to get dinner before the dinning halls close at 19:30.  We ate dinner and then watched a pirated copy of Toy Story 3 that one of my friends had purchased along the way.  I was so tired that I actually fell asleep during the first 10 minutes, so I will have to watch it again sometime.  It was another very interesting day in EGYPT!!!

Day 45...Our Egypt Adventure!

Day 45, July 29th:

Egypt Day 3!

Oh what a day!!!  I will go ahead and warn you that this day is not full of sights!  It is full of taxi rides and trying to make our way home to Alexandria.  We began the day by going up to breakfast at our hotel.  Note: the hotel is on 3 levels of a building and you enter each floor by a common staircase, so the hotel attendant must let you into your floor each time with a key.  While at breakfast, the hotel attendant looked the one and only key to our floor on the other side of the door.  When we come down to get our stuff, we quickly realize that we are not getting into our room anytime soon.  We go back upstairs and wait in the fan cooled room, while they work for the next 45 minutes to open the door.  Once inside, we grab our belongings and head to the train station to buy our tickets back to Alexandria for later that day.  Our taxi wanted to drop us off on the other side of the highway from the train station or else it would cost an extra 10 pounds ($2) to get to the other side of the street.  There was no way in hell we were about to walk across the highway, so of course we made him take us around.  It would have been like trying to cross I-20 at rush hour with your legs tied together! 

We get out of the taxi and make our way to this large, filthy building with construction material all over the sides of the building so we can’t read the signage (it was in Arabic anyways…we found this out later).  The interior of the building was just as nice as the outside, so a tourist police asked us where we needed to go.  He directed us to the correct spot and we waited in a very long line.  Once we reach the counter, we learn that only one person speaks English, so we must get in the back of yet another long line.  The only English speaking person then tells us that all trains for all classes are booked completely through Saturday evening (3 days later…the night that the ship leaves).  There is supposedly nothing she could do for us.  We then all walk back out to the large, open terminal to discuss our next plan of action. 

This was all news to us because the interport lecturers and the ship’s crew told us that you can always get on a train the same day and they also said that you can’t purchase tickets more than 24 hours in advance.  Both of these turned out to be completely false!  We immediately decided to call the ship and ask about other ways to get back, as well as if we could jump on a SAS bus that was leaving Cairo all throughout the day if there was room.  I spoke directly to the Dean and he was unaware of where the busses were going to be leaving from and what time they were actually leaving.  He could not get a hold of anyone in the Field Office to ask them either.  He told us to look into alternative methods of transportation; however, the “Greyhound” busses of Egypt are always crammed pack and are without air-conditioning.  We quickly determined that those busses would be our last resort for our 3-hour trip back to Alexandria. 

Since we all were on the SAS camel and jeep safari trip the day before, we knew where that trip ended before it headed back to Alexandria.  We thought it was worth taking a taxi all the way out there to see if we could just jump on the SAS bus back.  We knew that would be the safest way back, probably even better than the train.  We quickly left the train station, took another taxi back to the hotel, ate lunch at a nearby McDonald’s, grabbed our belongings, and got a taxi to the Sakkara County Club.  The taxi driver said he knew exactly where we wanted to go; however, we found out about half way there that in reality he didn’t.  He took us to the town of Sakkara and then asked us how to go the rest of the way.  We obviously had no idea because we were on a bus. 

All we had was the address, in English and in Arabic, and a phone number that didn’t work.  We asked him to stop and ask directions from the locals, but they would only point him in the direction and wouldn’t tell him where to turn or anything like that.  It was ridiculous.  After driving and sitting in traffic for 2 and a half hours, our prayers finally came true!  The SAS busses pulled out just in front of the taxi!  We were so excited to see them!  If we were one minute earlier or later we would have been in for it; however, we told the taxi to go fast and stop that bus.  While the taxi is driving across the bridge and only one of the three busses has not yet drove off, I swung open the taxi door and waited for him to stop in front of the bus before jumping out!  I immediately ran up and pointed to the SAS sign that said it was the back-up bus for the Camel and Jeep Safari Trip.  I told him our situation quickly and he called his boss to see if they would let us ride the bus back to Alexandria.  They said yes!!!!!!!!!!  Our entire day of running, hoping, wishing, and praying was coming to an end!  We caught the last bus!!!!!!!  We paid the taxi driver 40 extra pounds for taking us all the way and doing as we asked.  The 2.5-hour ride was only $20 for all of us.  We were just thankful to be able to get on the SAS bus back to Alexandria. 

The crew on the backup bus then took down our passport info, called back the tour agent company and alerted customs at the port of the additional people coming back.  It worked out perfectly.  The three of us were on a safe, air-conditioned, and empty bus.  There were only 3 crew people, including the driver, and the 3 of us onboard.  They gave us cold bottled water and talked to us for about an hour about our day!  They were so nice!!!  We took a little snooze on the way home, ate some of the snacks we purchased the night before, and listened to some music.  The bus dropped us right off at the port and we were so ready and thankful to be back at the ship!!!  It is our home!!!  We ran up to dinner and ate some real food, talked for a few hours and went off to bed!  We didn’t want to leave the ship again after that!  It was a very stressful day, but everything worked out in the end! 

We never really got to see anything in Cairo, except what we saw from our many taxi rides and our SAS trip.  I didn’t even get a picture of the Nile River because I was watching where we were going.  I did drive over it three times though!  I guess that counts.  I didn’t get to visit the Egyptian Bazaar, where the sell many various items made from Egyptian cotton, etc.  I didn’t get to have my hot air balloon ride either.  Egypt has made me mad because I didn’t get to do anything that I wanted to do, except get on that SAS bus!!!   Oh well!  Finding a safe way home was much more important than the Egyptian Bazaar or the Nile.  WE MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Just ask yourself, “What did you do today?”  Did you get the opportunity to jump out of a taxi that cutoff a tour bus in Cairo, Egypt?  Did you get to cross the Nile River three times in various taxis?  Did you get to eat a McDonald’s Big Mac for lunch with only bread and meat because you could get E. coli from eating the rest?  Did you brush your teeth with bottled water or shower in a shower with no shower curtain and a broken faucet?  Did you wake up in the Obama Suite of a hotel in a 90% Muslim country?  I would bet that you answered “no” to all of those.  Now you know why Semester at Sea gives you a global education! 

Day 44..PYRAMIDS, CAMEL RIDE, JEEP SAFARI!

Day 44, July 28th:

Egypt Day 2!

This morning I awakened from my awesome night of sleep around 06:00 in order to shower, eat breakfast, and round up the troops before heading to the bus around 07:00 for our Jeep Safari and Camel Ride SAS trip.  Today’s group for the adventure consisted of Danielle, Heather, Mindy, David, Molly, Megan, Julie and Carmen.  What a great group of people to go explore the desert with!  The bus left around 07:30 and we had a long 3-hour bus ride to the Giza Plateau, right outside Cairo, Africa’s largest city.  The entire bus was out like a light after hearing 10 minutes of our tour guide’s history lesson.  She finally realized that everyone fell asleep so she stopped talking to us until we got about 10 minutes away from the pyramids. 

From miles away, you could see the Great Pyramid in all of its beauty sitting on top of the world for all to see.  It was absolutely stunning!  You always see it in pictures and movies; however, you ain’t seen nothing until you stand at the base of the pyramid and look up!  It is massive!!!  On the other hand, it is still short enough that I could touch the top, put my sunglasses on top of it, and even make it wear a hat.  I even have pictures to prove it!  It was so much fun!  There are three main pyramids in Giza and we got to see all three of them.  (In a whispering voice…) “I got to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World!!!!!”  It was pretty freakin’ remarkable!  Just think about how the Egyptians got all of those huge @$$ rocks up to the top of the pyramid billions of years before modern machinery even existed!  We then proceeded down the valley to see the Sphinx!  It was actually not as enormous as I had expected, but it was still pretty large.  It sits down in a little valley/hole so that it looks like it is sitting at ground level.  Pretty neat huh!

After getting a glimpse at the pyramids and the sphinx, we headed to the Sakkara Country Club to have lunch.  Since we can’t eat anything with raw vegetables, dairy products or water, our choices at for lunch were slim.  They consisted of rice, pita bread, beef in gravy, spaghetti and baklava for dessert.  What we actually could eat was really good.  It was just upsetting that we couldn’t eat more because the entire buffet looked amazingly delicious. 

After lunch, we boarded the busses again and headed towards the world’s first monumental stone building, the Step Pyramid of King Zoser.  It was pretty cool too!  They weren’t experts at building things back in those days, so you can actually see that they had to change the height and angle of the steps on one side to meet the other side.  It is still an awesome pyramid.  We all also made a step-human pyramid in front of the Step Pyramid!!! Beat that!!!  We had a great time! 

We then headed back to the Sakkara Country Club for our Jeep safari and camel ride.  This was definitely the best part of the day!!!  I have never had so much fun in my life!  The 4x4 Jeeps full of either 4, 6, or 8 people drove all over the desert at high speeds going up and down the sand dunes, while spinning all over the place.  It was sooooo much fun!  Those sand dunes are HUGE too.  I can’t believe some of the hills we went up!  So much fun!!!  We also went up towards the Giza Pyramids again and then over to the Step Pyramid too.  We could see both at once!!!!  It was absolutely amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  The Jeeps then took us over to where we meet our camels, which took us for a 20-30 minute ride back to the Country Club.  My camel was named Michael Jackson.  It was actually really easy to ride the camel, but I thought it was weird that there was only a place for your foot on one side of the camel.  It was not really uncomfortable, nor was it as bad as everyone hyped it up to be.  The camel didn’t smell and it didn’t have any fleas!  It was pretty neat.  The coolest part was when the camel stood up and laid down so I could get on and off. 

We then got back on the bus and headed back into the city of Cairo; however, we jumped off the bus there because we wanted to spend the night in Cairo so we could explore the next day.  We walked around the corner to where all of the other SASers were staying and they got us a taxi to our hotel and gave us a map of the city.  We stayed at the American House Hotel in downtown Cairo.  It had a great view of the city streets from the balconies.  All 7 of us got 3 rooms to share; however, Heather, Molly and David decided that they were to good to stay with us in our $11 per night hotel, so they left and went back to the 5-star Mena House with the other SASers.  That means that the 4 of us ended up with 3 rooms that could sleep 11 for the 4 of us.  We all decided we wanted to all stay in the same room for safety so we chose the Obama Suite!  It had 4 beds and an in-suite bathroom rather than a hall bath; however, there was no shower curtain on the shower and it didn’t have a fully functioning showerhead (we had to hold the showerhead together to shower)!!!  Oh well!  That made it more interesting!!!  I mean it was only $11 and it was the highest rated hotel in Cairo besides the 4 or 5 star hotels.  After checking in and discovering that half of our group didn’t want to stay with us in the hotel, the four of us headed out in search of some food.  We walked for a little while and didn’t really see anything, but suddenly we stumbled across a mall so we went in search of the food court.  We ended up ordering chicken fingers and fries from a restaurant; however, they were raw when they showed up at the table.  Danielle and I ended up just going and ordering chicken fingers again from KFC.  This time they were cooked properly, so we ate and headed out in search of some snacks and bottled water (so we could brush our teeth…).  We then took our snacks up to the room and hung out on the balcony because it was much cooler outside than it was in the room.  5 other SASers were staying in the Carter Suite next door to us, so we ended up all hanging out and talking with them for hours.  It was a lot of fun!  We finally went to bed around 1 am.

As a side note, I would like to talk a little bit about all of the weird stuff we saw along the way today.  For example, the dead horse in the river full of trash separating the two lanes of the road.  Another example is the man pulling a woman up by her hair next to the side of the road as he kicks her and lets her fall back to the ground before doing it again and again.  It was a very nice place!  I have some pictures to show you how beautiful it was!  I mean I don’t have pictures of the woman or the horse, but I do have many pictures of the dirtiest and trashiest places on the planet!!!! It was so disgusting.  Egypt is the filthiest place I have ever seen in my life!  It is like living in a trash dumpster.  Alexandria is the “RESORT CITY” of Egypt and it is even so disgusting.  As I mentioned yesterday, the water is totally nasty near shore and it is full of garbage.  Even the beaches are filled with trash, but the locals are all hanging out at the beach in their full body coverings.  This is definitely one country I don’t think I will be visiting again! 

They also do not spend any effort on the tourism aspect of Egypt.  There were only two other ships in Alexandria the entire 5 days we were there: a Chinese military ship and one cruise ship.  In the other countries, there were more than 2 ships docked at all times besides our ship.  For example, Barcelona had at least 5 other ships docked at all times and Piraeus had 3 but there also were a lot of ships anchored off the islands.  What a difference! 

Day 43...I walked like an EGYPTIAN!!!

Day 43, July 27th:

EGYPT Day 1!!!

As I rolled over and turned off my alarm clock, I looked out my window and saw the city of Alexandria before my eyes.  My first impression was that it was a very ugly city.  The seawater changed from the bluest you have ever seen to the muddiest, trash filled water I have ever seen.  The ships surrounding the port are all rundown and disgusting.  The beautiful countryside changed to awesome view of dilapidated buildings full of clothes whipping in the wind while hanging to dry.   Alexandria is definitely not a city of beauty and after only a day in Egypt, I already get a feeling that the entire country is the same way. 

Today, I was planning on roaming and exploring Alexandria.   Danielle, Molly, David and Kylie also wanted to do the same.  All of us are going on the Camel Safari trip, so we spent the day exploring.  We were all finally ready to disembark the ship around 11:00, but we decided to just wait until 11:30 and eat lunch on the ship.  I would much rather play it safe then go eat my first meal off the ship on my first day in Egypt. 

After lunch, the five of us left the ship in search of a taxi to take us to the non-existent lighthouse we saw on the Internet.  The taxi driver told us that he would just be our personal driver for the day for a flat rate of 50 Egyptian Pounds (EP) per person.  ($1=5.65 EP) We decided to take him up on his offer and go explore.  He then walked us to his 1973 Peugeot and took us straight to the Citadel of Qaitbay.  It was pretty neat for only 15 EP.  It was a fort right on the coast and was built in the same spot as the Alexandria Lighthouse, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  We climbed to the third floor and looked through all of the little windows at the surrounding views.  The water was crashing upon the bricks along the shore, which produced a very neat spray of water into the air.  The people at the castle were actually all Egyptian minus two Chinese people and the five of us.  As we were leaving, there was a family of Egyptians taking pictures of each other with the cannons.  We asked them if they would take a picture of us and they immediately acted like we were royalty.  They took our picture but then wanted to take pictures with us along with them.  It was so funny.  Our first picture taken by Egyptians progressed into taking about 20 pictures with a local Egyptian family.  The girls were taking pictures with the girls and the guys with the guys.  After all of our pictures, we proceeded back to the taxi to move on to our next destination, the mosques of Alexandria, including the Mosque of Abu El Abbas. 

The taxi took us right to the front door of the mosques, but service was going on so we couldn’t go inside.  We took our pictures and was headed back to the taxi when one of the tourist police motioned us in the other direction.  We thought that maybe we couldn’t go out where we came in, so we followed him.  He just took us around the building to show us three other mosques too, allowed us to take pictures, and then as we turned to go back he demanded a tip.  We didn’t want to give him anything, especially since we all had only bills, but Kylie gave him 1.5 EP.  We then fled quickly back to the taxi.  I guess you can’t even really trust the tourist police!  The ship warned us about this, but when the guy is holding a machine gun it is hard to not follow his directions.  We will definitely try to ignore them for the rest of the trip and not follow them if we know where we are going.  It’s sad that you can’t even trust the tourist police! 

We then got back in the taxi and went to the Alexandria museum.  It was actually a pretty weird museum, but it did show us a lot about the history of Alexandria, as well as many different ancient pieces of art.  For example, there was a rather large vase with a lid that had birds and leaves on it and the sign describing the piece said “large vase with lids with a floral motif and birds.”  How did they know that????  It was so stupid.  All of the signs were like that.  They never told you anything about the history of the piece, just about what it looks like.  We got bored there rather quickly, so we went back to the cab rather quickly.  It only was 20 EP to get in so we were fine with leaving after 30 minutes. It wasn’t very big either, as we did walk around the whole thing. 
The taxi driver then took us to a little restaurant for a coke and then supposedly to a shopping mall; however, it was more like a store full of very expensive souvenirs for tourists.  Anyways, we then asked him to take us by a grocery store before heading back to the ship for the night.

Can you believe it?

I can't believe that I have visited 8 different countries on 4 different continents in the last 6 weeks!!!!!!  I even sailed across the entire Atlantic Ocean!!!!  I spoke Spanish, Italian, Croatian, Greek, Turkish, Arabic and English with the locals along the way.  I have learned about each country's political, economical, cultural and social differences too.  THIS HAS BEEN A THE TIME OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!  I hope all of you have enjoyed reading about this voyage for the last 6 weeks.  Hopefully, you will stick with me over the next 3 weeks as I finish my voyage around the Mediterranean!!! 

Miss you guys!  Thanks for the comments!

Egypt Update #2

Well I have some bad news...no hot air balloon ride!!! My dreams were crushed after I found out that they only give rides from Luxor, which is about an hour plane ride away. I was very upset! I really wanted to do that!!!!!!!! The jeep safari definitely made up for it though. That was soooo awesome!!!! You have no idea!

I am headed back to Alexandria now after a busy day of exploring Cairo! We saw so much of the city! More later...

Egypt Update #1

The camel ride and jeep safari through the desert was soooooooooooo freaking cool!!!!! They drove the jeeps up and down all of the hills super fast and spinning around in the sand. It was sooooo fun! Our camel ride was fun too. My camel was named Michael Jackson! The driver took tons of pics for me too. So worth the money!

The people of Cairo think we are like superstars! We tell everyone we are from Canada! The little kids all wave at the tour bus like a movie star was inside! Really neat!

Day 42...Egypt, say what?

Day 42/C13, July 26th:

Today has been a great day onboard the MV Explorer!  My sea played the game of Mafia after our sea meeting tonight!  It was so entertaining!  I can’t believe how exciting it was and how much we all got worked up over the game.  I don’t want to explain how to play it here, but those of you that know what it is understands why it is so much fun.  Daniel was the narrator for our second game and he was just too funny and definitely an awesome moderator.  We will have to play this game back in Charleston!!! 

Anyways, my Art History test this morning turned out to be okay.  It definitely could be a lot worse, but I don’t know how I feel about it, as I have never taken Art History before to judge my knowledge for the test.  Global Studies was interesting because we talked a lot about the culture and statistics of Egypt.  We discussed its political, economical, social, and citizen satisfaction levels, as well as general and more specific history of the four topics mentioned.  It was really shocking to find out that Egypt, out of the Mediterranean countries we are visiting, has the lowest longevity, second to lowest literacy rate (at 70%), most wars since 1945, lowest percent of women in the legislature (1.82%), and is the poorest country per person (average of $1,729 per person per year).  Egypt is currently challenged with its poverty level, high unemployment rate, high inflation level, high corruption, large gap in inequality, and is a very volatile neighborhood.  It was very shocking to hear some of this today.  I never thought of Egypt as being a super poor country or that they would have a pretty low literacy rate.  I guess that is why Global Studies is mandatory on the ship! 

I finally got my Jeep Safari and Camel Trip!  This means that Danielle, Heather, Molly, her friend I haven’t yet met, and I will all be on the same trip and we are going to spend the night in Cairo after our activities.   Yeah!  So you may find this interesting, but we made reservations at the “American Hostel” in Cairo for the night.  Is that not weird?  I am unsure how I feel about that, but it may be really nice.  All of the hotels are like $10 per night so this will be a very inexpensive trip (minus the $110 ticket for the SAS trip).  I also really really really want to go on a hot air balloon ride over the Sphinx and the Great Pyramids in the early morning of the second day in Cairo.  I hope it works out and I need to start researching that pretty soon, since it is only three mornings away.

Pre-port was also the longest pre-port ever!!!!  I understand that there is a lot to talk about for Egypt, but it went on way too long.  As you know, we can’t drink any of the water or eat any uncooked fruit or vegetables (unless, if applicable, we peel them ourselves).  We also can’t even brush our teeth with the tap water, so we will be using a lot of bottled water on this trip.  We also were advised not to eat any dairy products or deli meats.  Basically, we should take a lot of snacks from the ship and eat them as our meals while in Cairo; otherwise, eat every meal on the ship.  It should be an interesting port!!!  I really don’t know what to expect.  We also have to take taxis everywhere because we can’t read Arabic to know where to go!  It is pretty ridiculous, but have you tried to read Arabic?  It is impossible!  I am glad that we are traveling as a large group and that we are taking a SAS trip for the things we really wanted to do. 

So here is a basic itinerary for Egypt:

Day 1: Explore Alexandria

Day 2: SAS trip leaves at 07:30 for Cairo by bus, see Great Pyramids, Jeep Safari and Camel Ride, leave SAS trip and spend the night in Cairo

Day 3: (Hopefully hot air balloon ride)  Explore Cairo and go see the Nile River, train back to Alexandria (but don’t know when)

Day 4: Orphanage Service Visit in Alexandria from 13:00-17:00, Explore Alexandria

Day 5: Explore Alexandria even more

I will keep you all posted on my schedule for Egypt!  It is hard to plan with very limited Internet and you don’t even know where you are or what to expect until you get there.  It is almost 1am so I need to get to bed!  I can’t believe that I will wake up to EGYPT in the morning!!!!!!!!!!!!  As you read this, try to think about what you will wake up and see in the morning.  I bet mine is better…

Day 41...Back at Sea

Day 41/C12, July 25th:

Another boring yet busy day onboard the MV Explorer!  Classes are pushing forward yet again and I have a test tomorrow in my Art History class.  I now remember why I am a Math major!!!  I was at the field office looking at the FDP book when a girl came up and wanted to sell her Egypt Service Visit to the Alexandria Orphanage.  I bought it from her within the hour.  I can’t wait!  Those are the trips that make this voyage so unique.  You can go to Egypt on your own and see the Pyramids, but you can’t go to the Orphanage. 

I also am trying to get on the Camel ride and Jeep Safari trip, which takes us from the ship to see the Great Pyramids.  Once we explore the pyramids and take millions of pictures of the Sphinx, we get to jump in 4x4 Jeeps for a drive into the desert.  We then take a camel ride through the Sahara Desert and eat lunch at the Sakkara Country Club.  We also stop at the oldest ancient cemetery along with the world’s first monumental stone building, the step Pyramid of King Zoser, which was built 5,000 years ago.  It sounds like a pretty cool FDP!  Danielle and Heather already purchased the trip and we all want to spend the night after that in Cairo.   I really want to take a hot air balloon ride over the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings that next morning before returning to Alexandria for our service visit the next day. 

I also attended an Explorer Seminar on travel photography with the ship’s photographer tonight.  It was absolutely amazing!  She showed us things to look for in our pictures and how to better create a collection of images.  She also showed us a lot of her work for magazines and marketing schemes for various organizations, as well as several pictures from our voyage.  We watched the Italy slideshow from the Blog and it was so amazing!  It is very cool to see how pictures can truly capture how we feel compared to the pictures of just what we have seen.  Watch the slideshows on the SAS website for our voyage if you haven’t already!  They seem amazing! We can watch them on the ship because they are too large.  :(  
Today also was a great catch up day for my blog!  I spent countless hours writing so all of you can have the joy of reading about my adventures.  I hope you have enjoyed them so far!!!  Back to studying for my test tomorrow…

Noon Report for July 25th:

191 NM since Istanbul with an average speed of 12.16 knots, 549 NM to Alexandria, we are 14 NM NW from Nisos Lesvos (Greece), sea depth is 1680 ft, sea swells are 3.3 ft, water temperature is 73.4 degrees, air temperature is 75.2 degrees, sunset 20:32, sunrise 06:12, currently +7 hrs from EST.

Day 40...Spice Bazaar

Day 40, July 24th:

Istanbul Day 5!

Have you ever been able to smell spices from all over the world all in one location?  If you answered yes, then you have probably been to Istanbul’s Spice Bazaar!  It is a very distinctive place.  There are many merchants selling everything from gold jewelry to lace bedspreads to saffron.  It is remarkable.  I could smell the hundreds of spices that fill the air full of glorious scents for hours after I left the bazaar.   It was truly an experience.  The spice stores have various teas, nuts, dried fruits, and concoctions of spices for various dishes, as well as liquid extracts and oil essences.  

There are several stands outside of the Spice Bazaar selling various animals, including roosters, chickens, baby chicks, geese, rabbits, dogs, cats, ducks, turtles, tropical fish, and even birds.  Some were definitely going to be bought for food and others for pets.  It was really pretty sad to see how they treated these little animals.  There were hundreds of ducks in one cage crawling all over each other, for example.  The geese were way too big to be in a cage that size and they managed to squeeze two of them into one cage.  I just wanted to go open all of the doors on the cages and let them run free.  It was really sad.  I just had to keep walking! 

After our wonderful discovery of the cruelty to animals, we decided we were done with Turkish food and we went back to the ship to eat lunch.  We couldn’t come to the fact that one of those guys might die because we ate their brother.  It is one of those mental things…you don’t mind it unless you see it personally. 

After lunch, we headed in search of a grocery store near the ship.  We stocked up on potato chips and canned beverages for the rest of our voyage, since it may be the last port in which we find edible food and drinks.  I wrote out a few postcards to home and got them in the mail just before on-ship time.  After dinner on the ship, we had another lifeboat drill, so we all had to wear long pants, hats, and our life jackets out to our muster stations on the 5th deck.  During the role call, I actually got in trouble for taking pictures!  Whoops!  We were taking roomie pics and the guy didn’t think that was very appropriate.  Our cabin had already been called and we were still in our correct spots and not disturbing anyone else.  You have to capture the moment!  See I do get in trouble every once and a while…

The ship pulled away from the dock about 20:00 and the view of the city was AMAZING!!!  The sun was setting so beautifully behind the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque.  It was very beautiful to see the Golden Horn glisten in the golden sunset (I now know where the name “Golden Horn” comes from)!  What a beautiful port from the sea!  I wish all of you could have seen it!!!!! I then spent the rest of the evening catching up on all of my blog writing.  It is amazing what I do for all of you readers back home…spend hours of my day writing to let you know what you are missing!!!  Hope you enjoyed Istanbul as much as I did!!!!  Up next: EGYPT!!!!! But first, two more days of class…

Day 39...How Bazaar was the Grand Bazaar!

Day 39, July 23rd:

Istanbul Day 4!

Today was definitely a different look at the Grand Bazaar!  I began by going rug shopping!  First, I went into a store and looked at millions of rugs trying to find out what I really wanted, or even liked for that matter.  I found a few that I liked, but none that I really loved.  I wanted to see how the bargaining process worked, so I got the rug down from $1,200 to $600 (and could have kept going) but I really wanted to keep looking at other stores.  I then went to grab some lunch, met up with Daniel, Clark, Hannah, Brittany and some other girl that I can never remember her name.  After lunch, Daniel and Clark split off to go see the Spice Bazaar and the rest of us went around buying up all the goodies in the Grand Bazaar.  I got numerous gifts and definitely looked around a lot.  I really don’t know how I feel about the bargaining aspect of things.  I like being able to walk into a store in the US and know if I want to pay the price on the sticker without having to bargain my way down to see what the item really costs.  If the price is too high then you don’t buy it, but in Turkey every price is too high so you must bargain to get a real price.  You can’t really comparison shop like at home.  If you like something you just buy it at whatever price you negotiate. 

After we filled our hands full of bags and emptied our pockets of money, I went to find another rug shop.  This one is frequented a lot by SAS!  He asked me if I was a SASer!  Anyways, he began showing me millions of rugs and I really liked one of them.  I then began the countless hours of bargaining.  He started with $1,400 and by the time I left he was down to $625.  I really was up in the air about this rug because I kinda felt like the guy was still trying to rip me off and it wasn’t an ancient rug.  I think it may have been a machine made rug like we could buy in the US.  With all of these instincts, I decided to email mom and she said that it definitely was not something I wanted.  By this time, I was just dazed and overwhelmed with rugs.  Someday, I will just have to return to Istanbul and pick out my own rugs once I get a house and have a place to put them.  I need to do some more research too. 

After a full day of shopping and bargaining, Danielle and I returned to the ship to meet up for dinner with her extended family.  I became an adopted member of the extended family and went out to eat with them too.  We went to eat at a restaurant named Doy Doy located right behind the Blue Mosque.  We ate on the outside terrace on the roof (aka 4th floor) and there was a great view of the mosque.  It was just beautiful!  Danielle and I split a Meat Pizza  (called “pide” in Turkish) and a chicken kabob.  Both were actually pretty good, but nothing too exciting.  I just don’t like Turkish food! 

After dinner, we stayed in the hippodrome/park right by the Serpent Column, Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia to use the free Wi-Fi.  I then wanted to get some dessert, so we went just up the street to another MADO; however, this time I got a baklava sampler platter and a scoop of raspberry ice cream.  It was DELICIOUS!  The various baklavas were amazing!  Some had pistachios…they all were just AMAZING!!!  My favorite desert place by far!  I also got to Skype with my grandparents and then played on facebook/caught up with friends.  It was a great night! 

While we were sitting in the park using the Wi-Fi, there was this younger kid around 8 years old that was selling corn on the cob from a little roadside stand.  He was so cute!  He kept hollering out to all of the people passing by to come buy his corn.  He was only speaking Turkish, but it was like we could understand exactly what he was saying to the potential customers.  His dad sat on a bench 20 feet away from the stand, watching and laughing at his son’s actions and marketing skills.  He sold a lot of corn that night!!! How could you say no to a little boy working so hard to sell his corn. 

Another unique thing about sitting in the park was observing the local people.  Several families went and bought corn from this kid and then sat on the nearby benches and curbs to eat it.  Several of the families would take off their shoes before eating the corn.  I thought that was pretty unique.  I wonder if that is part of the religion or the culture (you can’t wear shoes in the house or in the mosque either). 

We finally were ready to go just after midnight, but what we didn’t know was the metro stopped at 12:30.  It took us half of the way to the ship and then they told us all to get off and get a taxi.  It was pretty funny actually.  Danielle and I didn’t want to have to deal with a taxi, so we just walked back to the ship.  We got back around 01:00 and went straight to bed.  It was another good day in the neighborhood! 

Day 38...No big deal but I ate lunch in ASIA today!

Day 38, July 22nd:

Istanbul Day 3!

Good morning!!!  Today is a very exciting day!!!  I will be visiting ASIA!!! 

I woke up, grabbed some breakfast, took a quick shower and fled to the ferry station near the Golden Horn Bridge.  I booked a 25 TL cruise up the Bosphorus along with Mindy, Heather and Danielle.  The ferry finally pulled away around 10:30 and provided s with about an hour and a half full of amazing views of both the European side and Asian side of Turkey.  We passed several neat sites along the way, including palaces, a university, the 2 Bosphorus Bridges, a small number of government buildings and a few castles in the lush green hills as well.  Once we finally arrived in the itsy little port town of Anadolukavagi, we began climbing up the city streets until we reached the Yoros Castle.  This castle provided us with an absolutely amazing view of both the European and Asian sides, as well as the Bosphorus and the Black Sea.  You could see for miles!  It was so beautiful.  The homes carved into the lush mountainsides were so picturesque and the little fishing town was situated beautifully on the Black Sea.   There also were these signs that had pictures of people holding machine guns saying no trespassing.  It is rather weird to see that on a sign.  I forgot to say this in yesterdays post, but we went to look at this map outside of an information booth and there was a lady wearing high heels and carrying a machine gun standing out front.  What a different culture.  All of the police had machine guns, not hand guns like in the US.  After climbing up on the castle walls and taking millions of pictures, we began our descent back down the steep roads until we were back in Anadolukavagi.

We definitely worked up our hunger on the hike, so we decided to stop to get something to eat before we took the ferry back to Istanbul.  Now there is something you must understand before I proceed with the rest of the day’s activities.  People in Turkey will come out into the streets, even in the Bazaar, to get you to come into their store, get in their taxi, or even go eat at their restaurant three blocs away.  Everyone seems to be “my friend” and all of the girls are told that they must be models, etc.  Out in front of several restaurants, they will all come and surround you at once telling you everything they have on their menu.  It is ridiculous!  Now back to the story.   When we reached the bottom of the hill and began looking for a place to eat, every restaurant came swarming us!  We couldn’t even move or begin to see what they had to offer.  I finally just break out of the circle of restaurants and begin walking away.  Other restaurants begin to come out and holler their menu items at me still.  We couldn’t even see what they had to eat!  All of us finally just ran up the street and out of sight from the restaurants to determine what and where we actually wanted to eat.  It was crazy!!!  We then briskly walked down the hill and into one of the restaurants that we could see had chicken kabobs on the menu.  All of the others didn’t even serve meat, just fish. 

We all ordered chicken kabobs and they really were not good.  They were just bland chicken chunks on a plate.  The whole table ate more bread and olive oil than chicken.  After our wonderfully filing lunch, we made our way to a little market to buy some snacks for the ferry ride home.  They even had Doritos!  My life got so much better after the trip to the market!  I have never wanted Doritos so badly in my life until you jump on a ship and travel the Mediterranean.  It is weird to see what you crave when you can’t get it anywhere.  We then took the ferry back to Istanbul, but got off one stop sooner to walk back to the ship.  We passed the Dolmabahce Palace, an enormous piece of property with walls 5 stories high surrounding the Palace.  There was more security surrounding this place than there is at the White House!  It was crazy.  They even had bulletproof glass boxes on the sidewalk near the entrance.  It was really cool. 

We ate dinner back at the ship and then I headed out with Danielle and Hannah to get a waffle for desert.  These things are amazing!  We went in search of a good place that was close to the ship, but couldn’t find one so we went up to Taksim Square.  We took the metro and the underground cable car up the hill to the Square, since we learned not to walk there after our first adventure.  The hills in this town can get super steep real quick!  We walked down the street searching and we finally came across MADO.  We walked in the door and immediately were in heaven.  So these waffles are made to order and then topped with whatever you want:  flavored chocolate (dark, milk, white, raspberry, caramel, walnut, pistachio, lemon, blueberry, hazelnut, etc.), fresh fruit (banana, orange, kiwi, strawberry) and other toppings (coconut, pistachio, walnuts, sprinkles, etc.).  IT WAS SOOOOO DELICIOUS!!!!  I could eat one every day!!!!!  Definitely worth the search!  We then walked back down the hill and back to the ship. 

It was very nice and exciting day!  I mean who else could say they went to Asia just for lunch and to climb up a mountain to a castle!  Not only did we visit ASIA, but we also rode up the Bosphorus, ate AMAZING waffles and after all we spent the day in Turkey! 

Day 37...Old City...in the RAIN!

Day 37, July 21st:

Istanbul Day 2!

Do you remember the phrase, “When it rains, it pours”?  Well let’s just say that it poured like crazy today!  Literally!!! 

We began our day by going to the Hagia Sophia.  A little history:  Dating from the sixth century, it was originally a basilica constructed for the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.  A masterwork of Roman engineering, the huge 30m-diameter dome covers what was for over 1000 years the largest enclosed space in the world.  The church was looted by the fourth Crusaders in 1204, and became a mosque in the 15th century when The Ottomans conquered the city.  It was converted into a museum in 1935.

The Hagia Sophia was very interesting because when the church was converted to a mosque several of the mosaics and paintings were removed or pained over.  Since becoming a museum, they have begun removing the new coverings to reveal the original artwork of the church.  It is amazing to see what they have been able to preserve.  The building is absolutely massive!  A person looks like an ant from the second level.  You will definitely not want to miss pictures of this!!!

While we were touring the inside of the Hagia Sophia, it began raining on and off.  Well as soon as we walked out of the gates and began walking towards the Blue Mosque, it began pouring down rain!  We all got completely soaked!!!  That was the first time we encountered rain since we began our voyage!  Totally awesome, but it still sucked that we had to stumble upon it in the middle of the city while we were walking all over.  We finally made it to the Blue Mosque and we jumped under this covered walkway at the base of the outside wall.  In literally five minutes, we had to stand on top of these pillars to keep our feet out of the puddles because it was about 4-6 inches deep of water.  My entire body and all of my belongings were completely soaked.  It was like I jumped in a swimming pool with my clothes on! 

It finally stopped raining enough for us to get inside the mosque.  One of the traditions of the Muslim faith is that you remove your shoes before entering a house or place of religion, so we had to remove our shoes in order to enter.  Once inside, I was completely stunned.  It was nothing like I had imagined.  It was one very large room with a very low (about 8 foot high) spider web of lights illuminating the very tall and enormous structure.  The mosque was very beautiful and again it is something you just can’t describe.  Pictures are worth a thousand words here.   This mosque is still a working mosque so many of the local Muslims enter its doors five times a day for prayer.  Every mosque also has loud speakers on the tall minarets to broadcast the chant-like prayer for everyone to hear.  Another unique fact is that all mosques are oriented so that the back of the mosque is facing East!  They face Mecca when they pray. 

We then ate lunch near the Hippodrome, a small park with the Serpent Column across from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia.  I had a chicken döner, which is a sandwich with the döner that is carved from a spinning block consisting of meat and spices.  It was okay but not my favorite food by any means.  Overall, the food in Turkey is not that great!  It is really not exciting so we have been eating most of our meals on the ship! 

After lunch, we walked around toward the Topkapı Palace and strolled through Gülhane Park.  This park was royal hunting grounds in the past, but today it’s a public park.  The high wall on one side of the park separates it from Topkapı Palace. There also is a great view of the Bosphorus.  On the way out of the gardens, we passed a pretty large (20x20x20 foot) cube-like structure with a pyramid roof.  It is 1 of the 8 places in Istanbul that you could go get water back in the days of no running water.  They can still be used, but most of them have the water shut off because it is not safe to drink without boiling it first. 

After exploring everything we wanted to see in the Old City, we took the metro back to the ship to change into some dry clothes and take a shower.  After we were squeaky clean, Danielle and I headed out to Starbucks to get some free Wi-Fi.  I wanted everyone to see my pictures from Greece and the few I had taken already in Istanbul.  I hope you enjoyed them!  We then ate dinner on the ship before attending a Sufi Dervish Ceremony that evening.  This was my second SAS trip so far!  For those of you that don’t know (I didn’t), the Sufi Dervish Ceremony is comprised of prayer, music and people whirling in white robes.  It is a Muslim religious ceremony.  The dervishes spin with their hands reaching out above their shoulders.  Their left hand is cupped facing the ground the their right is facing the heavens.  The spinning and the placement of their hands symbolize how God placed them on Earth to have an everlasting life.   It was a very unique experience, but I really don’t know too much about the Muslim religion to fully understand.  After the ceremony, one of the whirling dervishes came out and spoke to all of the SASers about what each part of the ceremony stood for.  There is just way too much info to write it all in here! 

It was also very unique because it was a religious ceremony, not a performance, but they charged you to go see it and it was held in a performance hall.  I don’t quite understand how you can perform a meaningful religious ceremony every night in front of paying tourists in a random building and not call it a performance.  It was really unique to say the least!!!  We then retired for the night and caught up on some sleep. 

Day 36...Bargaining is the name of the game!

Day 36, July 20th:

ISTANBUL DAY 1!!!

I can’t believe that I am currently in TURKEY!  I never expected that this would happen before applying to SAS!  Istanbul is the largest city in Europe and almost the largest city in the world, with over 19 million people inhabiting the both the Europe and Asia sides of the Bosphorus.  Istanbul is 99% Muslim, which makes this port a little bit more experience culturally.  Is I just walked down the street around Taksim Square, it is very awkward to look up and see a large group of women wearing black dresses and head pieces in a way that you can only see their eyes.  I guess awkward is not the right word, but it just makes you stop and think, “Where am I?” every time you see it.  It is just very different culturally.  I am not really writing this blog post in the order in which I experienced these things, but more in a way of what comes to mind first. 

Another cultural experience I just had was on our walk home from the Taksim Square.  First, the Taksim Square is like NYC’s Time Square, yet totally different.  There are millions of shops, including Nike, New Balance, Swiss Army, candy stores, restaurants, bakeries, ice cream stands, music and book stores.  Anyways, on the way home we passed a mosque and there was a voice over a loud speaker doing a call of prayer.  Vocally it sounded a lot like what I imagined (like a prayer chant); however, I expected much more from the local people.  I expected the town to sort of shut down for a few minutes and have people coming to the Mosque to pray.  I also expected to see several people stopping what they were doing to get on the ground and pray, but I didn’t see it affect anyone that we passed on the street.  I am planning on going to see the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia and Topaki Palace tomorrow, so my experience may be totally different tomorrow. 

I also got to go on the FDP trip to the Grand Bazaar this afternoon.  My economics professor demonstrated how to negotiate the prices with the merchants and also provided advice on how to pick a price you are comfortable paying.  It was very interesting.  We met up with a local tour guide right outside the ship and we took the metro to the Grand Bazaar.  Now this place is not for the weary or the type that money wears a whole in your pocket!  There are over 4,000 shops intertwined in the 65 streets making up the Grand Bazaar.  From just the little section I saw today, there are millions of jewelry stores and many other stores selling leather, rugs, scarves, clothing, musical instruments, oil genie lamps, stained glass lampshades, Turkish tea sets, sunglasses, watches, key chains, wooden boxes, fur coats and everything else under the sun.  The tour guide began the trip by taking to a rug shop to allow us to view all of the different qualities, styles, colors, sizes, antiqueness, materials and prices of the rugs for sale.  All of the rugs are made by hand and some very small rugs even take up for 4 months to make, the large rugs may take up to a year.  Could you imagine spending a year of your life making one rug!  I sure can’t!  The rugs range in price from one hundred dollars to one hundred and fifty thousand!!!!!  I actually got to touch a $150,000 rug!!!!!  WOW!!!  The tour guide also took us to one of her friend’s workshops where they make the jewelry for their store.  There were 6 guys working away, all making something different.  One guy was placing the gems in the ring, while others were making the chains, making the rings, etc.  I was really cool to see them working away creating some of the most beautiful jewelry I have ever seen…not that I have seen much!  We spent almost 5 hours in the bazaar and I only bought two tee shirts.  I can already tell that this is going to be an expensive port for me…especially if I go back to the Grand Bazaar!!!

I want to tell you guys a little bit about the negotiating process.  First off, you must negotiate the price of everything here.  When you walk into the store and look at an item, they will quote you a price.  Immediately, they will try to give you a lower price.  You then can tell them that Ronald McDonald sent you specifically to this store and he said you would give me a good deal, so the merchant will lower the price yet again.  You then continue to look at the product, telling the merchant how nice it looks, but with some hesitation.  You continue to wedge the price lower and lower.  If the merchant doesn’t go as low as you want, then you hand it back to the salesman and move towards the door.  He will probably offer you a lower price yet.  If that still is not good enough, then you leave and go to the next shop, which is selling the exact same product and you now negotiate all over again.  It is really interesting to do; however, it can give you a headache really quick if you aren’t careful.  Another unique thing about the merchants is that they may offer you a cup of tea, while looking at their products or during the negotiation phase. 

It is really neat to negotiate on your own!  The merchants will not be offended if you give them a price way too low; however, you should never back out of a deal if they accept a price that you set.  This means that you must be careful and that you should let them name the prices.  The best way to negotiate is to come up with a price that you are willing to pay for a specific item before even walking into the store.  If you can get the price down to meet your goal, then you should accept the deal.  Moreover, if you can’t get the price down to the level you thought before you entered, then you should not purchase the item at that store.  It is really a cool experience!  I led the negotiations of a purchase made by 7 of us at the tee-shirt stand.  We all chose our tee shirts and agreed that we would purchase them at any level including the initial price (they were already only $8 for a high quality tee-shirt).  I began the negotiations and he said that all 7 would be 150 TL.  By the time I was finished, I had him down to 110 TL and I could have gone further, but we were running out of time and the price was already much lower than we were willing to pay.  Not too shabby for 5 tee shirts and 2 soccer jerseys.  The group was very pleased and it was really fun!

I know I always talk more about the food than I do the rest of the day; however, I have not had much Turkish food yet.  I ate all three meals today on the ship, but I did stop by a candy store tonight and get some Turkish Delight.  It is a jelly-like candy covered in a white power and comes in millions of flavors.  It was pretty good.  Clark, Lacey, Heather and Mindy also stopped to get ice cream, but I was still too full to get any.  They make a show out of giving you your ice cream.  First, the ice cream is very taffy-like and stringy.  Secondly, the ice cream is in this huge clump that he takes out of the long frozen barrel with a metal stick and swings it around in the air.  The guy puts on a great show for each person buying the ice cream.  He takes his long metal stick and an ice cream cone and has a great time making everyone laugh by taking the cone off without letting you know, so you grab the ice cream scoop not the cone.  He also swings your cone all over the place because the ice cream sticks to his metal stick.  It was pretty fun to watch him dish it up! 

Okay, well I got to get some sleep because I woke up at 6:45 this morning to watch us pull into port, but once I got upstairs to the deck we were literally 10 feet from the dock.  I was soooo mad!  I got up an hour and a half early just to see us come into port and we came in earlier than the told us we would in pre-port.  Oh well.  Goodnight from ISTANBUL!!!!  

Day 35...Turkey Day!

Day 35, July 19th:

TURKEY DAY!!! (What sucks is that it is not Thanksgiving!) and SPIRIT DAY!!!

Today is a little something the shipboard community would like to call Spirit Day!  Everyone onboard is representing their sea by wearing their sea’s color in preparation for the SEA OLYMPICS on August 1st.   (NBC didn’t get the contract to show these Olympics on national TV…THE MV EXLPORER CHANNEL 4 got this one!!!!)  I am apart of the Adriatic Sea and my sea color is Dark Blue.  For the Olympics, each sea member must participate in at least one of the events.  I am signed up for the Relay Race.   My sea is even having tryouts and practice sessions for some of the events.  Some of the events include Shave a Balloon, Potato Carving, Crab Soccer, Free Throw Challenge, Asian Ice Cube Scramble, Extreme Musical Chairs, Pull-Up Contest, Pie Eating Contest, Donut on a String, Synchronized Swimming, Lip Sync and Dance Contest, plus many more.  It should be great fun!  My roommate Nick is one of the Sea Team Captains, so he is actively planning all of our events and getting us psyched up! 

Today also is Turkey Day!  That means that we get to spend the entire day listening to people tell us what there is to do and see while in Turkey.  I went to the cultural pre-port put on by the inter-port student and he provided a lot of good tips on places to visit and what to eat.  I also attended a talk put on by the Global Music professor about how to interpret music in Turkey.  This will actually become very useful during my Sufi Dervish Ceremony FDP that I have on Istanbul Day 2.   It was very interesting to see and hear the various instruments that they use frequently.  He even had two of the instruments onboard and he played them along with the Turkish music for us.  It was pretty interesting! 

Tonight at pre-port we were briefed on all of the cultural differences and customs in Turkey, as well as the possible medical issues (we can’t drink any of the water…not even brush our teeth with tap water) and transportation guidance.  This port will be getting us ready for Egypt, which they say will be 10 times worse.  The medical staff is now advising all of us to begin taking pepto tablets before each meal not eaten on the ship to hopefully prevent any bacterial infection while in port.  We can’t even eat uncooked fruits and vegetables that we personally do not peel.  This should be a very cultural experience!  I don’t really know what is in store for Istanbul.  I am trying to jump on a SAS trip with my Econ professor to the Grand Bazaar to learn how to negotiate in a foreign country.  I hopefully can do that, but other than that I don’t have any set plans!  I will keep you guys updated as I go.  I will be sleeping on the ship each night and probably eating many meals on here as well.  We will be pulling into port around 08:00 tomorrow with the pilot coming on around 06:30.  It is supposed to be an awesome port to watch us come in, so I may wake up extra early and see us pull in.  Sad part is that the sun will rise around 05:49 and I will not be waking up that early.  Oh well!  Goodnight! 

Noon report for July 19th:

155 NM since Piraeus with an average speed of 10 knots, 195 NM to Istanbul, sea depth is 912 ft, sea swells are .4 ft, water temperature is 71.6 degrees, air temperature is 75.2 degrees, sunset 20:40, sunrise 05:49, winds from the N/NW at 31 knots and much stronger later in the day, currently +7 hrs from EST, we will pass through the Dardanelles around 17:00 for about an hour (Europe on port side and Asia on starboard side).