I kissed a fish and I liked it!!!

Ok so first I will give you a quick review of the second half of Ghana. The day I wrote my last blog it was raining and we were sitting under a canopy of a very nice hotel using their free wifi and eating a really good western meal of pizza!!! After the whole pigeon incident in Morocco we have been a little skeptical on eating new foods. For the rest of the day we went out to the markets with our new friend Mika, a Ghanan taxi driver. He took us around to different stores and walked with us through the local food market. He also gave us some information on the economy and what the culture is like. We were able to go to this cool little shop that had everything we were looking for and for reasonable prices. We made friends with the shop owner Lisa and he sister Linda and we learned our African names, depending on what day we were born. They were both very nice and took a picture with us at the end, we called it a family photo!! Later that night we were going out to meet our friends at this local bar that everyone talks about and while we were driving our taxi gets pulled over by the Police and the diver was asked to get out. Then the cops came up to the window and were super friendly with us and were like asking us how we liked Ghana and whatnot. We got pulled over for having too many people in the taxi so when we offered to get another cap the police were like no its ok and then we were on our way. Apparently the Cops see whites in a cap and know the driver is making bank off of us and so the cops expect a piece of it and our driver paid them off. Sketch .

The following day we made the trek to Kakum, the national park that was a huge rain forest, and walked along the canopies. The taxi ride there was horrible. We wee all getting sick of the swerving and speed change and many times I was pumping the breaks in the passenger seat. I guess I now know how my mother felt when she was teaching me to drive, and maybe even sometimes now. Trust me mom, I am and angel driver compared to this guy. The roads were also not helping as there were potholes everywhere and we were swerving to avoid them every minute.  Basically it was horrible and Larissa almost had to make us stop because she was getting soo sick in the back seat. Once we got there though it was well worth it. The forest was huge and the canopies were awesome!!! We unfortunately did not see any monkeys, but it was fun to look at the landscape and see how remarkable the trees were.  Apparently we were around 130 feet above the forest floor and on one of the highest canopies in the world. We grabbed lunch at the restaurant in the park and when we tried to order the only thing they basically had was fried plantains, which I had not problem with because they were super good.  Then came the car ride home. This time we put Larissa in the front seat, but we were all praying at some point. You know the game chicken, were you run at someone for as long as possible until one person bails? Well that was our drive. We later found out that half of the taxi drivers weren’t really taxi drivers and only come out to make money when we are there. That’s the end of Ghana, it was our favorite port soo far, and we had a lot of fun in the culture and environment.

The day after leaving port we crossed the Equator and Prime Meridian at the exact same time, so for a brief second we were actually in the center of the world. See mom and daddy I am the most important thing!!! J Then yesterday we had Neptune day!! It is the festival for crossing the equator and we don’t have class. The crew wakes everyone up at 7:30 by banging drums down the halls and we get breakfast then go up to the pool deck. There are 2 parts the first part is shaving your head. Most of the guys did it and a lot did it in crazy shapes, but the unreal part was there were so many girls who did it. I would try to make a joke that I shaved my head, but I know nobody would believe me seeing that I have to have a pep talk when I go to get my ends trimmed. These girls were crazy, A lot donated their hair and a lot look really shitty, actually most do. I would say like 2% can pull it off. The second stage I did partake in was to have fish guts poured over your head, jump into the freezing cold pool, kiss a fish and then bow down to the two main deans. It was actually really fun!! The festivities ended with a kick ass dinner consisting of BBQ. We all know how sad it is that what we eat for dinner makes our days, but it was awesome to have ribs, burgers, baked potatoes, and Mac and Cheese!!!!

Unfortunately we also had our first global studies test that night, but I am pretty sure that with how much we all studied we passed with flying colors!!!!

I am off to the gym, and then to a cabaret meeting, I am one of the dancers in the show and we have practice tonight. Miss you all, love you!!

Cheers to Ghana!!!!

I LOVE Ghana!!! Everyone here is extremely nice and welcoming. They all want to be our friends and right when we get outside of the port we are bombarded with hands to shake and names to learn.
The first day we were here we went on our first SAS trip and saw the Castles and Slave dungeons. The whole tour was unreal. The castles were beautiful, but the stories were very sad and depressing. We also had lunch at this crazy beach hotel, and it was sooo good. There was also a show with drummers and dancing it was very cool to watch and gave you a boost of energy. The men were so ripped, it was crazy. They were doing flips and standing on each others heads. That night we went out and had a lot of fun at this local bar hanging out with a mixture of SAS kids and locals.
Yesterday we did Habitat for humanity!!! We drove 3 hours away and then walked like 15 minutes in to the jungle to the work site. It was crazy I actually laid bricks and mortared them together. We got pretty far, but there was a lot more to do. A bunch of children from the village came to watch us work, and we took a break to give them my silly bands and played games with them. I started duck duck goose and everyone loved it. By the end we had the circle then a larger circle around us watching consisting of mothers and other people from the ship.
Today we are sitting at a beach hotel, and it is raining so there isn't too much we can do. We want to go to the market and look at all the kente clothes and drums so we will see if that happens. Tomorrow the plan is to go on a canopy tour of the rainforest so I am pretty excited for that!!! Everyone who had already been says it is super cool.
I may kill my finance class. I didnt bring a financial calculator with me and have been trying to put on on my itouch because our professor said it was alright. But it has turned out to be a huge deal and I have to do all these updates and what not which is hard when you have limited internet access. Basically Headache!!!
Loving all of our new friends. It feels like we have known each other for ever, but miss everyone at home too. The thing I miss the most though is SD food. We have multiple conversations with everyone from San Diego about what we need to eat. California burrito, Urbane, In-n-out, Sara's, JVs...... the list is very long. Sooo friends I expect a feast as soon as I step off of the ship!!

Love love

Shakira Shakira

I overheard someone describe Morocco in the perfect way, and decided to steal the quote, “Morocco is the coolest place I never want to go back to.”

That is sooo true. We arrived half a day early so as a group, Amanda, Larissa, Myself, and a group of guys all from the east coast (they aren’t all stuffy and boring… who would have thought) went to explore Casablanca. The first thing we did was probably the worst we could have as we walked straight into the Medina or the large market place. The movies do a great job showing what it is like. Small streets lined with people selling everything you can imagine. The clothes and spices are super colorful as are the dresses many of the women were wearing.  It was loud and full of energy. Some places it smelled good and others it smelled awful, as Paul would say,” great another poop street”. It was a little much on the first day and we all were overwhelmed. It was definitely a culture shock. We were afraid to take out our cameras because in this culture as well as other places we will be visiting it can be seen as stealing a would if you take a picture of someone, and we were not about to be disrespectful (Amanda was already having trouble finding non California conservative clothes).  We tried to stay together, but in the hustle and bustle we lost two of the guys in the group (they ended up being ok and just got stuck buying a crazy hat.  It was definitely very new, cool, scary, and whatever descriptive word you can think about.  We even saw neon colored chicks being strolled down the street in a cart while the guy tried to keep them all in the cart.

We were about to leave when we stopped to look at clothes and this guy came up to us speaking good English and told us he would take us to his store and give us great prices. Maybe not the best idea looking back, but we felt that we would be alright in the group. He took us to the girls store and I bought a cool shirt, then to the guys store were Amanda Larissa and I bought Allan a baby/going away gift because it was his last port as a waiter. After everyone was all done the guy demanded money from us and told us that we had promised, which no one did. We started walking and left the Medina while the guy followed us out yelling at us. One of our friends John gave him 50 dirham and told him to get lost them we quickened our pace and sped out of the area. It was kind of scary, but then again also kind of exhilarating and safe in the group. It also made us very aware and skeptical of accepting and help for the rest of the trip, which was probably a good thing.

We also visited the mosque which is the 2^nd biggest (next to the one in Mecca) and vey pretty.  Oh and we took pictures outside of Rick’s Café which I am sorry everyone, but is not real and only created by and American after tourists all came to see it. Sooo basically we had an eventful first day that didn’t leave the best taste in our mouths.

Marrakesh was a way different experience. We loved it!!! Amanda, Larissa, Paul, and I traveled by train (which was an hour late) and got to our Riad (like a hostel) which was very sketch from the outside, but beautiful and classic Moroccan on the inside. Apparently it is against the religion to show wealth on the outside of homes. We went sight seeing and came back to Brian, our Riad owner, making us mint tea. We asked if we could watch him make it and soon became very good friends. He had been celebrating the end of Ramadan and was drink wine (and a lot of it we later found out) and offered us some. It was fun and he told us about his family and different places in Morocco and Marrakesh. We met an Australian couple also was staying at the Riad, and they joined us for dinner. The main market was full of energy because they all wee celebrating and we ate at this outside restaurant.

One of the waiters wanted to marry Larissa and called her finger licking good Paul got offered 100 camels for her and the Sahara desert for Amanda. The people at the restaurant were very funny and kind of joked about how Americans are protective and reserved towards them due to the fear of being mugged.  Which by the way a kid on the trip got mugged and ran up to us at dinner scared out of his mind. NEVER walk alone in a foreign country, for some common sense, but just a nice reminder. The food was great by the way!!!!

After dinner we went back to the Riad only to met Brian in the street and he waved us on to come to his friend Nebeal’s Riad down the street were we each got poured a glass of whiskey. They were very hospitable once we became friends and it was fun to sit and talk to the two.

Day two in Marrakesh we set out to ride camels and with the help of Brian we found these guys that gave us a 30 minute ride with unlimited pictures (they charge you if you take a picture of anything there) for like 60 dirham a person!!! That is like 7 dollars a person!!!! Afterwards we tried to medina a second time and this time had a better experience. It was fun to look around and we felt a lot more comfortable we even were pretty good at bartering. We stayed far away from the snake charmers and monkeys because they would just throw the animal around your neck and make you pay to get it off, which you all know my HUGE fear of snakes so no bueno. We grabbed the dinner in the same market and ventured back to the Riad were we again hung out and drank wine with Brian. There was also a couple fron Holland and two couples from England that were very fun to talk with. Before going to bed both Brian and Nebeal told us we were family, gave us the standard kiss on the cheek and said we could come back whenever we wanted and stay for free. They definitely made our time in Morocco as Great as it was.

The after math was not so great though. After getting back to Casablanca Larissa and Amanda got really sick which w later found out very possibly was from the pigeon pie they ate that we were told was chicken. I got a weird bug bite rash thingy, that is lucky going away and its contagious or anything bad (according to the doctor, ya I went without being forced aren’t you proud), and today Paul felt like he got hit by a train. So minus the sickness it was great.

Paul and I also ventured to Rabbat (while Amanda and Larissa were lying on their death beds). We saw the Roman ruins and tried to get into the Royal Palace, but couldn’t because we needed our passports (which we had already turned back into the ship). We think the King was at the place because security was crazy tight. So ya that is Morocco for ya very fun, but I am over it for sure and glad to be sailing again.

If you can’t tell by the stories we have found a really cool group of friends on the boat. John, Paul, Keegan, and Alan are all from the east cost and all go to school at either Bentley or Babson. So there you go mom now you know who I am hanging out with because I know how you like to know who my friends are so I beat you to it.

Love you all I will try to update before Ghana, but sleep is becoming more important by the day.

Oh and if you don't get my title that is what Brian called all three of us and also what the venders would yell as we would walk past.... Some Moroccan obsession. 

Gaudi is cool, but Siesta is great!!!!

So, the adventure of Spain is nearing its end. HAHA I sound so poetic. We are currently sitting on the stairs of the cathedral in Cadiz because it is the only place in the city with free wifi. Oh were to begin on the adventure.
Well fist it wouldn't be normal if there was no drama. We got ditched. Two of the three guys that we booked an apartment with ditched us so they could hang out with other girls. It was ok and it all worked out and we still got the place for really cheap, but it was just annoying and not a fun way to start out the trip.
Seville was a lot of fun it had a really cool old classic plus new city feel, and the sights were really cool. We wondered and found a crazy cool park with a monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus. I think I already told you all of this in my last post, so I'll continue onto Barcelona. First, thank you mom and dad for paying for everything last time we went. It is expensive to do all the tourist stuff and actually everything is expensive. We did go see all of the Guadi stuff, but after walking miles getting on and off the metro, and taking a few detours due to my shitty navigation skills we were so tired and needed to sleep, and our feet fell off.
The nights were a lot of fun!!! The first night we found this bar that is called the dow jones and it is like the stock market, the more popular the drink the more expensive and the least popular the least expensive and then like every 30 minutes the market crashes and everything is cheap until people start buying drinks. Sooo Cool!!!
We made friends with the bar tender and went back the next night, but this time with a huge group of USD kids who were doing the Madrid trip. Afterwards we hit up a club and danced till like 5:30 in the morning it was really fun. Our last night we found a new club and just stayed out until we had to leave for the airport at 4:45. Basically I have not slept yet, so sorry if none of this makes sense.
Surprisingly I was so excited to see the ship and am ready to take a huge siesta!!!
Morocco in like 12 hours!!! I think the plan is Casablanca and then Marrakech, but we haven't really planned too much, but it will be fun!!
Ill try to put up videos and or pictures so you can feel like you are with us, but that is asking too much of me right now.
xoxoxo

Espana!!!!

So the original title was going to be death by time change (we lose an hour every night), but now that we are in Spain the excitement and adrenaline kicked in and sleep doesn't matter.

Spain is awesome!!! When we first got into port at Cadiz it was HOT!!! The temperature was close to 100 degrees, and you felt like you sweated out all of the water in your body. We walked around a bit after getting our train tickets and planned everything for Seville and Barcelona.

Seville is a really cool city. It has awesome architecture, and a ton of cool colors. We have explored a good part of the city and tried to be as cultured as possible. My favorite part was this random park that had a huge monument dedicated to Columbus.

Leaving today for Barcelona!!!! So excited we will see if it is still my favorite city. I think on this trip it may be rivaled.   

El Capitan

Ready for basic day to day ship life? Get excited!!!

Wake up, get breakfast (of course in Allan’s section, our favorite waiter), go to class, get lunch (Allan’s section), do homework, workout, get dinner (Allan’s section), do homework, hang out, go to sleep.

You can’t get much more adventurous than that folks! Ok so it can be a little repetitive and mundane, but you know me and I spice everything up. A few days ago I saw dolphins swimming next to the ship! I have also signed up to take zumba and buns and thighs classes. I will start tutoring the faculty and staff’s children in math, and teaching the kids a weekly dance class. I am also going to try out to dance in the end of the year cabernet on the ship. Today we are passing the Azores Islands, so we get to see land!!!

The most exciting thing though was the tour of the bridge Larissa and I went on!! It was cool to see what everything does, but the best part was we sat in the captains chair and wore his hat, only after being told multiple times not to touch anything (it seemed that he was especially talking to us).

Can’t wait for Spain!!!!!