Neptune Day

Today was Neptune Day and a reading day. In the morning we were woken up by crashing cymbals, pounding feet, fists and drums, and a very shrill whistle. I of course went back to sleep for a few minutes before they walked around again. then I decided to get up. In the pool on the 7th deck students were getting "fish guts" poured on their heads before jumping in. After making it through the line in the pool they were allowed to get out and kiss a fish (yes a real fish), if the student was to whinny and didn't do it the people guarding the person with the fish would shove the student back in the water. All my friends did this and had a lot of fun with it but I opted out on account of my ankle and my runny nose (and I didn't want to get wet, it is not warm enough here). In another corner people were getting their hair shaved off. Two of my friends, Tesia and Megan, got all their hair shaved off and another friend, Ben, and the IT Admin, Sam, got mohawks. It is very strange to walk around and see lots of people without hair.
I studied and napped and studied some more till dinner which was also a treat - BBQ, yum! There were hamburgers and ribs and baked potatoes and mac and cheese, and for dessert strawberry ice cream. It wasn't as good as home made but it was still really good.

Tonight we have our first Global Studies test so I am going to get back to studying now.

Fathers Ministry Childrens Home

Our last day in Ghana I went on a SAS trip to an orphanage in Takaradi.  We spent the entire day playing with the kids.  Like with the SOS children's village in morocco SAS presented them with an indestructible soccer ball which I then learned a little more about.  The material they are made of is the same as is used to make crocks and this is the first semester that SAS has given them out.  It was a fun day and I will be bringing home lots of pictures and hopefully some video's that some others took. 

The next day (Monday) we crossed the equator and the prime meridian at the same time.  Not many people can say that because it is not the usual route, our captain had to make some adjustments to make it possible for us.  Apparently we traveled down the prime meridian for a while so I can say that I have been in two hemispheres at once.  Pretty cool!

Today there has been lots of studying going on because our first test in Global Studies (the class everyone is required to take) is tomorrow.  Tomorrow is also Neptune Day.  It is all very hush hush about what exactly is going to happen other than we are going to have lots of fun.  But I have heard rumors of getting woken up really early.  I hope not because I need sleep the night before a test.  Some of my friends are planning on shaving all their hair off.  Not me and not Evergreen but we will be cheering them on. 

Kakum Rain Forest

The third day in Ghana a group of 6 of us went to the Kakum National Park.  We took a 2 taxi’s from the port to the tro-tro station, where we got on a tro-tro to Cape Coast where we got a taxi to take us to the rain forest.  A tro-tro is sometimes called a mini bus.  It is a large van that holds 10 people plus the driver and the money taker.  If there is room on a tro-tro, they will stop and pick people up while on route.  The money taker sits by the door and collects the money of these add-ons.  Our taxi to the Kakum rain forest was of average size but we stuffed all 6 of us in there with the driver for the 30 minute drive.  At the rain forest we went on the 7 canopy walkways.  While waiting for our trip to start we watched a group of dancers and drummers.  The leader of the group talked with us for a while.  He speaks several different languages including English, French, German, and about 4 different African dialects.  He fussed at me for only speaking one language and proceeded to try to teach me some African.  I remember how to say thank you and that’s about it.  They are little net encased plank walkways that are above the rain forest canopy and go from tree to tree.  I got some postcards that have a picture of this walkway on them.  It was amazing!  After making it across the first walkway it started to rain (well it is a rain forest).  After making it across the 7 walkways our guild took us on a nature walk where he told us about different plants in the forest, one of which was the ebony tree.  In Ghana the name they call it translates to elephant comb.  This is because the ebony tree is very strong and has a rough bark that the elephants like to scratch themselves against and it doesn’t fall over.  We ate lunch/dinner at the park restaurant.  I got to try some fufu which is this doughy blob served in the bottom of a bowl of soup.  After we ate we all piled back in the taxi to the tro-tro station where we took a tro-tro all the way back to the harbor.  We were wet and muddy and my ankle was slightly sore but we were still smiling and laughing and having a good time. 

Ghana Drumming and Dancing

The first day in Ghana was a beautiful and sunny day.  It is towards the end of the rainy season here and the air is hot and humid.  I had signed up for a drumming and dancing workshop so at 10am we rode a bus for 10 minutes into town where the workshop was held in a pavilion.  The dancing group came from Accra (the capitol of Ghana) and the drumming group was a local group (from Takerati).  This was the first time that the two groups had performed together.  They did several different performances for us.  They were very good, and the drumming was very loud.  Afterwards they split us up into two groups my group went and learned drumming first while the other group went and learned the dancing.  We learned two different drumming parts to a performance called Panloco (don’t remember the exact spelling but that’s close).  After learning the first part and getting its rhythm down, we learned the second.  Then they spilt us into two groups and gave us either the first or the second part and we played them together.  After about an hour of drumming we switched with the dancing group and we learned the dance that goes with the drumming we just learned.  It was lots of fun.  We went to lunch about 5 minutes away at a hotel where we ate pasta salad, rice, rice with plantains, beef with “gravy” (it did not look like the thing we know as gravy), and chicken.  It was very delicious.  After lunch we went back to the pavilion and they performed some more for us.  One of the dances that they did had a long elaborate story that I can’t remember all of.  What I do remember is that for some reason the men were trying to trick the gods into thinking that they were women.  They wore skirts and carried fans and did these really fast circle hip movements kind of like in Tahitian dance.  It is the local dance of somewhere in Ghana that I don’t remember, but the dance teacher was from there and he was by far the best at it.  Finally we divided back up into our groups and while half of us were doing the drumming the other half were doing the dance.  My group was the second group to do the dancing.  When we finished the entire dance that he taught us the teacher sent us in the circle two at a time to do free style dancing.  When it was my friends and my turn we went into the circle dancing and just having a good time.  I was really into the music and decided to do some sauté chase (spell?) (jumping turn ballet thing) that in retrospect I shouldn’t have attempted because I was tired and I haven’t been keeping up with my dance exercises like I should.  Well I ended up spraining my ankle.  Luckily the dance ended soon after that and I could sit down.  Oh well I had a good time, I don’t regret going and it’s raining today anyway so there is not much I could do even if I had been able.  So I am following the clinics (and past experiences) advise and resting and icing and resting and propping up and wearing my ankle brace and icing some more.  I will get better soon.  This also gives me a chance to catch up on a few things that I have gotten behind in.  I also drew diagrams of the dance and the drumming that we learned so that when I get home in a few months I will still remember them. 

Here Comes the Rain

In the required class for all students and lifelong learners, Global Studies, we are currently talking about global problems.  We had guest speaker Cathy Rodgers who is the Vice President of world relations (if I remember her title correctly) for IBM.  She travels around the world and meets people and gets paid to do so.  She talked to us yesterday about global sustainability.  After her presentation she informed us that she has made it her goal to plant a tree for every person that comes to one of her talks on sustainability.  So for every person on this ship she has already made plans to plant trees in Ghana in our honor.  Today she gave a shorter talk on women’s issues around the world.  Most of it, while still shocking, I already knew from being a member of WOW (Work of Women).  But it was informative to hear from somewhere else.  She also briefly spoke about how much better it is, how more women are coming into power.  Some of the things I didn’t know where that there are 10 female presidents of different countries.  There are also 10 female Prime Ministers.  There are still nowhere near as many women as men and the wages are still not the same but this does show that things are getting better.  As Cathy Rodgers said “happier women make for happier men.” 

Lunch was tacos.  Very yummy.  Everyone loves taco day.  The only problem is that for the first time this whole voyage it is raining.  We have been lucky in not having any rain days.  The problem comes in when the people that normally eat outside can’t and have to come inside.  I don’t know how it was on the 5^th deck dining room but on the 6^th deck, where most students eat, it was chaos. 

Still on the ship

I saw dolphins for the first time on this voyage.  People have been saying that they have seeing dolphins all the time but somehow I always missed them.  Then today right after one of my classes a girl looked out the window of our classroom and there they were.  Earlier today I saw some flying fish.  Some people were very confused and thought that they were birds that were diving underwater.  The food today was really good also.  I missed breakfast but for lunch there was fish and chips (fried fish and French fries), Noodles with Cheese and Garlic (Mac and Cheese), and all the other normal stuff.  I don’t like fish but everything else was good and it was nice to have some French fries.  For dinner we had some kind of pork that was really good, cubed potatoes in a sauce, and spaghetti without the meat.  Also for dessert there was the all American classic, apple pie.  There isn’t usually a line for the dessert but tonight there was. 

In my collage class we are working on collages either from Spain or Morocco (there isn’t enough time to do both).  I chose Spain because I picked up more items that could be used for my collage there.  We are doing an interesting collage technique that I will do my best to describe.  We start by drawing outlines of the picture we want to have for our finished product (I drew a building in Spain).  Next we use tracing paper and carbon paper to copy certain shapes onto different paper that we either made from stuff that we collected or purchased or gathered from the country we choose.  I collected lots of different paper napkins that say different things and have glued them together on a piece of paper.  We then will glue all our “puzzle pieces” onto our collage.  We will finish by painting, drawing, using pastels, and whatever to make it look like a finished product.  I have a long way to go. 

We will get to Ghana in 3 days. 

Back on the Ship

Today we went right back to class its strange after having 11 days off to get back to the school routine.  I only have one class on A days so I luckily had some time to study my notes and remind myself what we were last talking about in class.  During the time in the two ports I finished reading two books for class giving me extra time while at sea, so today I also hand washed some clothes in my bathroom sink.  Last night my friends and I started a game of Phase 10 and plan on finishing it tonight if everyone doesn’t have too much homework to do. 

Last Day in Casablanca Morocco

The last day in Morocco we went back to the mosque because three of our friends wanted to go see the inside and Evergreen and I were happy to wander around the outside.  It was really foggy that morning and at first the top of the minaret couldn’t be seen.  But by the time we left we could see it even though a few wisps of fog hung about making it look very mystical.  We walked through the medina to the new part of the city for lunch.  I had couscous with chicken and fresh squeezed orange juice. It was really good but by the time I was full it looked like I hadn’t done anything but move the food on my plate around, there was just so much there.  For dessert we all shared orange slices with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.  I know it sounds weird but it is actually really good.  Before going back to the ship we walked around the medina some more and some of the girls bought some things.  So slightly sunburned I got back on the ship and we said goodbye to our second port. 

The Mosque and Rabat

This morning (Monday morning) Evergreen and I went on a SAS (semester at sea) led tour of the mosque here in Casablanca.  It was, if possible, even more magnificent than the cathedral in Seville.  The huge and really heavy roof (I don’t remember what our guild said it weighed) could be opened up almost completely splitting in the middle because of this the floor has heaters that can be turned on so it doesn’t get to cold for those praying there.  The architect was French (although I don’t remember his name) and I found it very intriguing to see the French style mixed with the Arabic.  The glass on the giant chandeliers was from France, and all the marble was from Morocco.  The wooden rails were cider from the Atlas Mountains (I think I remember that correctly but you can probably check on wiki to know for certain).  In the lower levels and on the outside was all the gorgeous tile work mostly in blues and greens but there was a whole room in yellow. 

The bus got back to the port a little before 10:30 so we caught the train to Rabat which is the capitol of morocco and only about an hour away.  We ate lunch at a little café that was playing Jim Croce.  I got a quarter of a roast chicken that came with a little pile of rice and French fries.  We also both got fresh squeezed orange juice (I forgot to mention that we also got some at the market in Marrakech).  The whole meal was very good.  After paying and talking to a man who I think was the owner about Jim Croce we left to see this town’s medina.  It is amazing to me how the three different town’s medina’s where so different in what they sold and the people that were there to buy things.  Although that could have been from the different times of the day we were at each market as well.  After making our way through the market we wandered around some more and eventually found and old fort that had been made into a garden.  We were sitting down when I felt something behind me and when I looked there was a cat just standing there leaning against me and then she just lay down right there beside me.  She had a few kittens running around behind us playing they were so cute!  I love cats.  We left Rabat at 3:30 and made it back to the ship just after one of the camel trek groups had returned so we had to stand in a long line before actually getting on the ship.  While waiting in line two more buses came with more students.  One of the ships staff told us that three buses were coming in tonight.  Dinner was good as usual.  I don’t think there can be such a thing as a bad day on this trip but we will see.  I keep having to remind myself that I have only been gone for about three weeks. 

Half-day in Casablanca

After getting back to the ship so late the previous night Sunday morning I slept till about 10:30.  After eating lunch and looking at the shuttle bus schedule we decided to wait for the next shuttle bus and in the mean time catch up on some reading for classes.  So it was 2:00 pm before we even left the ship.  We exchanged some money then wandered around Casablanca’s medina stopping at a café to drink some mint tea.  It was a nice laid back day. 

Marrakech

Saturday a group of 6 of us took the train to Marrakech.  The train ride was about three hours and 20 minutes getting us there at around 2:00 pm.  It was a little hot but not too bad, most of us slept at least part of the time.  When we got there we found a little café to eat some lunch.  We then walked into the Medina which is the old city and is full of twisting little streets.  In the center in the most knotted up streets is where the big market is.  I bargained for an outfit for myself, it is blue and it is one of the semi-traditional long tunic/dresses that most women here wear and pants that you are suppose to wear with it but I think that I could wear them separately.  I also got a pair of blue handmade leather shoes for myself.  It was a good day.  We took a 21:00 train back to Casablanca getting there a little after 1 in the morning because of a delay, and then getting to the ship (we have to walk about a mile and a half from the port entrance to where the Explorer is docked) at about 1:30.  There is a shuttle bus to take us to and from our peer to the port entrance but it stops running at 9:00 pm.  We were very tired but also very dirty and sticky because it is so dusty here you end up with this gritty sticky coating on exposed skin, so we took quick showers and went to bed. 

Second Day in Morocco

I don’t really recall why we decided to go to El Jadida today other than that we wanted to see a place without lots of tourists and more particularly SAS people. It was a good adventure. So a group of 5 of us took a train at 10:30am and got to El Jadida around 12:00pm. With only a tour guide book with a small map in it we at first had the idea that we would get in a taxi and point to where we wanted to go. Well there weren’t very many taxis and there were a lot of people waiting so we went to plan B which was to walk until we could catch a cab. There is only one road leading away from the train station and the town center couldn’t be that far away right? We spent about three hours walking around and never made it to the town center. But we did have a good time walking around and at one point we stopped to ask for directions from what turned out to be an off duty cab driver who was very nice and couldn’t believe that we had walked all the way from the train station. We asked him if there was any place to eat but because it was the hot of the day and Ramadan had just ended he said that no places were open. He offered to drive us somewhere but we decided to continue walking mostly because we didn’t think that all of us would fit in a taxi. So we ended up back at the train station where we ate some snacks in the café and waited for the next train which was suppose to come at 4:15pm. The ticket booth was empty until 4:05pm at which time we asked him about tickets to Casablanca. He informed us that because of the end of Ramadan the trains were on a different schedule and that the one we had been waiting for was canceled the next train to Casablanca wasn’t till 7:15, one of the girls with us wanted to be back before that because she had an early field trip to be at the next day. So we went outside to wait for a taxi to take us back to Casablanca. While we were waiting two police men came over asking who was waiting for a taxi because there were so many people waiting. They then said that they had called for more taxies for all of us. I overheard one of the guys talking to the police saying that he needed a taxi to Casablanca. So we went over and asked if we could get a taxi to Casablanca. The man luckily spoke English very well and said that yes we could and we ended up sharing a cab to Casablanca with him, during which he explained to us about Ramadan. We also learned that he had a job in marketing and planning events, and that he use to work for a big video game company that made the Prince of Persia and Raving Rabids(not sure about the spelling on that one). It was very interesting to hear his perspective on Morocco. We even made it back to the ship before dinner was over. Another good day. Tomorrow it’s on to Fez.

First day in Morocco

We arrived in Morocco at about 11:00 this morning (Morocco time which is only 4 hours different from home). This was the first time that Semester at Sea had gone directly from one port to another with no days in between. Because of this changed they decided to offer three more field trips one of which I signed up for. So today at 2:00pm a group of us went first to a local private school. At this particular school they teach most things in English but they also switch between Arabic and French so the kids can speak all three languages and frequently switch between them all. We were only there for a few minutes but it gave us a little insight into how they learn (apparently there school system is like the French but I don’t entirely understand all that that entails).

After leaving the school we went to the SOS Children’s Village. This one was the third one out of five started in Morocco. Instead of living in one big orphanage building the orphans are divided up into “familys” with no more than 8 kids per family. Each family has a “mother” whose job is to be these kids mother. She is not allowed to be married nor have any kids that are not grown already and must undergo different evaluations. The mother is given one day off a week to do what she pleases while the other mothers who the kids call Aunts watch them. They have about 98 kids there right now, the youngest being 4. At the age of 18 the kids either go on to college or get a job and are, as far as I could tell, considered able to take care of themselves.

We got to play and talk with the kids. Some people played soccer with them others basketball and one girl even played tennis with a boy. I started talking to three girls one of whom spoke fairly good English. I would ask them questions they would ask me questions and at one point they even started trying to teach me Arabic, which of course I have now completely forgotten, but it was fun. When it was time to go no one wanted to leave.

Market Place and Tapas

On Wednesday I went on a field trip for my anthropology class. My anthro teacher did her dissertation in Spain living there for a year and so she was very knowledgeable but we did also have a local guide. The market was in a great walled in court yard with the sea creature section in the middle and everything else on the walls. At the first stall we stopped at we tried blood sausage, some other kind of sausage, goat cheese, and sheep cheese. At the second one we tried a kind of ham called pata negra, the stall worker cut it off the bone right before handing it to us. The last sausage stall we stopped at had a lot of different interesting variations of sausage, like one with pine nuts and one that was bright red and a little spicy that our guild told us had a spice in it that was like a stronger version of paprika. We then had 20 minutes to wander around the rest of the market before meeting to go to lunch. While wandering around our teacher would explain some things to us about all the different kinds of shell fish and she would talk to the stall workers to get further explanation. One of them asked where we were from and when our teacher told him America he gave us pieces of smoked tuna to try that was apparently smoked the same way they did before refrigeration. We saw all sorts of different things one of the many being eels. At one of the booths with eels we stopped and were taking pictures of the eels. The booth worker looked over at the guy in the stall next to him and said something in Spanish then jerked his hand really quickly. It turns out that he had a string attached to one of the eels and it jerked with the jerk of his hand. We all had a good laugh.

Lunch was at a restaurant right outside of the market. The first tapas they brought out were fried shrimp patties. The second was not an oyster but something kind of similar but from really far down in the ocean from what I understood of our waiter. It was fried and when cut open grey and gooey. The third was fried cubes of fresh dog fish; it did not taste fishy at all. The last dish served was a rice dish with different shell fish in it and some turmeric spice. It was a good time.

After that I wandered around Cadiz with some friends eating yet more gelato (Donut and Twix flavored) and right before boarding the ship Chocolate con Churros, which is a very thick hot chocolate served with a sort of fried straw shaped bread that you dip in the hot chocolate.

Back on the ship we sadly waved goodbye to Espania.

Sevilla

Evergreen left Cadiz by train at 10:00am to Sevilla. At the Sevilla train station we got maps in English and had lady at the tourist desk to show us where the hostel we were going to was on our maps. After checking into the hostel we walked around looking for a place to eat. We found a cute little café that serves tapas (well, they all serve tapas). We got peach salad, curry chicken, chicken sandwich, and provolone au gratin. After lunch we went to the Catedral y Giralda or the Cathedral and Giralda. It was amazing, I tried to capture the amazingness in pictures (I took around 300) but it is one of those things that just have to be experienced so I won’t try to describe everything I just want to say that almost everything was huge and covered in gold. We also walked up the 34 levels of brick ramp and one flight of steps to reach the top of the tower Giralda. The view was amazing to say the least. After walking around for hours and walking up and down the tower and around the orange orchard we left the cathedral to wander around Sevilla. We found a gelato place and each ordered two scoops I got chocolate and mint chocolate chip (it was very minty) and evergreen got chocolate orange and mint chocolate chip. We had to eat it very fast because it was so hot outside that it was melting really fast. When we finished we wandered down by the river Guadalquivir. Tired from all the walking we had done that day we went back to our room at the hostel and showered. At 10pm or so we went to get some dinner (in Spain the earliest the Spanish eat dinner is 9:00pm). We went around the corner and ate pork in a tomato sauce and chocolate filled pastries. I slept soundly that night despite the heat.

The next day (Tuesday) we ate breakfast at our hostel (toast with peach jelly & hot chocolate) before walking to the bus station to check on times. We bought tickets to go back to Cadiz at 7pm and left our backpacks in the lockers. We went to Reales Alcazares Palace which is right next to the cathedral. It was so beautiful I took over 300 pictures inside and outside in the gardens. When we got so we thought we had seen everything we left to go eat lunch. This was at about 3:00 in the afternoon which in Spain is lunch/siesta time. We sat down at a table outside and ordered three things. The first was garlic and mayonnaise potato’s which was basically a potato salad and a really good one at that. The second was chicken and fruit salad which was lettuce with chicken, apples, orange, and pear pieces with a dressing. For dessert we got a lemon and sugar crepe that was also very delicious. After we finished eating we walked to the really big park in Sevilla. It was almost as grand as the gardens at the Alcazares. There were trees and flowers and trellises with vines covering some of the walkways. At every turn there was either a statue or a fountain, and sometimes both. For the science people there were even plaques around that had the scientific names of some of the trees and probably some more info but it was all in Spanish so I couldn’t read it. Before heading to the bus station we decided to get some more gelato. I got a flavor called whipped cream which kind of tasted like an ice cream version of cool whip and was very good. Evergreen got a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of orange but the way they scoop the gelato kind of mixes the two. Evergreen said that it was really good. We had a good bus ride back to the ship we both spent most of it reading for classes. For world religions we have to read The Chosen. I am almost finished with it and I really like it. If I was at home and not in Spain I wouldn’t be able to put it down. It was very nice to come back to the ship all dirty from walking around the hot streets all day and take a shower in our own clean little room.

Andalucian Flamenco Night

This was my last adventure Friday. I had signed up to do this field trip called Andalucian Flamenco night (Andalucian is the area of Spain we are in, I guess like a state) so at the appointed time (19:30) we got on a bus and drove to a bull fighting ring in the middle of almost what looked like nowhere. They greeted us with drinks and then we went to stand and sit around the bull fighting arena. Then a Spaniard on a horse came in and they did a bunch of trotting to the music sideways and backward and in circles. Two Flamenco dancers also came in with the horse and rider and rider and danced with the horse. Then the horse left and just the two dancers danced. Then the dancers left and the horse came back in and danced. Then that horse left and the flamenco dancers and a different horse came in. This horse didn’t have a rider on his back but instead had the Spaniard standing beside the horse holding the reins. (Pictures and video’s that will make this all clear to come later). After the Flamenco dancers and horse finished the announcer tells us that we aren’t actually going to watch a bull fight but a cow fight. So the dramatic music starts playing and they unlatch the door and hold it open and then out ran a small young cow. The bull fighter (dressed in blue jeans and a bright blue polo shirt) holds the cape thing and gets the young cow to run at it. He does this several times and then a young boy (maybe 13 or 14) gets a cape and starts doing the cow fighting. He gets what I think are words of advice (I don’t speak Spanish) from the older bull fighter. It was very entertaining especially when they are through and are ready to get the cow to go back into his pen. They try for a few minutes and have no luck so they send another cow out (maybe it will lead the first back in?). They end up chasing the cows around for 10 minutes or so before they finally got them back in.

We left the arena and went to a tapas bar just right next door. They had a room reserved for our group with tables set up and tapas on the tables. There were little cubes of cheese (that I think was goat), little cubes of what I am going to call quiche, pieces of some sort of pork product that was pretty good, and little tiny bread sticks (like crouton size but in the shape of a loaf of French bread). There was also water, wine, and a pitcher of sangria. We watched different Flamenco dancers dance while we ate. The dancers were really good. It was like watching a tap dance except there is no metal on the bottom of their shoes, they are just stepping that hard and doing really fast intricate steps in time with each other and the beat. One of my friends, Carren, who was also there recorded the whole thing and I hope to get it from her later. After they danced for a while two of the female flamenco dancers got off the stage and started to drag people into the middle of the floor to dance, soon almost everyone (including myself) was dancing. We even started doing some funny sort of dances like the Macarena. Well I am tired now, it is 1:15 am here and I need to go to bed. I just had to get this down before I forgot the details.

First Day in Spain

Spain is gorgeous! In Cadiz all the streets are cobble stone and are very narrow most of them more like allies then actual streets. These streets open up into big squares. All the buildings seem to be 3 - 6 stories tall some with towers that were used by merchants to see ships coming. The windows are all covered in fancy iron bars that my tour guild said is purely decoration and that windows without them look weird and naked. At 3:00 the streets were basically empty for siesta time. It is very hot and humid here but even with these summer like conditions they still consider it to be fall because it is September.

B3 The day before Spain

Tomorrow we reach Cadiz.  In the morning a group of us are going to go out and see Cadiz.  Then at 13:00 I am going on a museum tour and then later that night I will be going on a Field Directed practica (which means that a teacher leads it) on a Flamenco Night.  We will watch a bull fight (with no blood), see some flamenco dancing, and eat tapas (appetizers).  On Monday the 6^th Evergreen and I are traveling to Seville where we are going to stay for the night in a hostel.  The last day in Spain I will be going with one of my teachers on a trip to the market where we will look at foods that are not considered food in the US.  We are then going to eat Tapas for lunch.  I can’t guarantee that I will be writing while in port but we will have free wifi while at the hostel so maybe I will get the chance.  Anyway very excited about the first port. 

Losing another hour tonight.  So tired of 23 hr days. 

Day A3

A days are not as busy as B days.  I only have one class, work, and meals.  So I usually spend my time studying and trying to play catch up on my required reading.  For a little over two hours today all I did was read and I think that I am finally caught up; at least until tomorrow.  Today I did some of my reading out on the aft deck.  It is very cloudy and gray out and it is almost hard to tell where the water stops and the sky begins.  It was a little windy and I had my sunglasses on but still by the time I went inside for lunch my eyes were a little sore.  One of the things I read for anthropology was from a book of articles that we each have.  This particular article was about the rituals, taboos, and fetishes of baseball.  It was actually kind of interesting.  Lunch today included French fries! (Some of us were very excited about this).  Lunch and dinner still have the same basic items that I mentioned earlier and I know a few people who are getting a little tired of the monotony.  I don’t mind yet, there is always some kind of sandwich if you don’t like what is on the buffet.  Yesterday they had Italian subs that were made out of really long loafs of bread and then cut into small sandwiches.  They were, in my opinion, really good although I still ate from the buffet and only had the smallest piece of sandwich. 

Just anthother day

My days are very full.  I usually end up skipping breakfast to sleep because I have stayed up late reading for classes and we lost an hour the past few nights so we are operating on 23 hour days.  I have yet to swim in the pool that's on the seventh deck or just sit and look out at the ocean that's all around us.  This morning we passed by some islands but I didn't get the chance to see them.  I am having a good time though.  I like staying busy.

We have also been informed that we will be arriving in Casablanca one day early.  because of this they are offering three more field trips.  I am very excited because one of them is the trip to the children's village that I didn't get into before, now I have another chance. 

Work has slowed down now, we only get the occasional question so I hoping to get some reading done at work.