Today i woke up at 5:00 AM to watch the sun rise as the MV Explorer pulled into Salvador. The immigration process went quickly but the diplomatic briefing practically put me to sleep. Everything that we heard, we had learned in global studies all week.
After the briefing Meg and I ran up to the gangway to start what became a very difficult departure to Rio. First off our cab ride to the airport cost $50 combined. Then when we got to the airport we stood in line for a while and they would´t take our Visa cards. So.... we had to hunt down the bank machines and that was a fiasco in itself because our Visa cards, we found out, have a daily withdrawal limit of $200 (or R400,00). We had just enough to pay for our departure flight. After that whole ordeal we got back inline to purchase a ticket and it was gift sent from Heaven that two people from Florida were standing right in front of us, and the lady happened to speak a little of portuguese. I am having a hard time with the language barrier because for once I am the minority.
It occuried to me that Brazilians are not one to hurry because it took over an hour to check in and our just about every flight was delayed. The flight wasn´t bad though. We experienced a tad bit of turbelance and the flight attendants spoke English! What a relief, I finally had a sense of what was going on around me. The water on the plane was in a cup sealed with a foil top so i thought that was unique. We were also served a sub for our flight.
We met a boy from San Fransico traveling by himself to Rio de Janeiro so we teamed up with him and caught a cab into Copacabana together. Altogether the ride cost R75,00.
Meg and I were relieved when we got to the hostel because our Visa cards worked. They don´t accept Mastercards so we were a little concerned how we were going to pay for it at first; we didnt want to spend the night out on the streets! The staff is very friendly, helpful, and bilengual. As we were checking in Megan noticed that one of the staff members was only wearing one earring so she pointed out that she was missing one. The lady told us it was actually a trend to wear only one earring here.
After check in, we headed up to our rooms, dropped our stuff off and walked around for a bit. I have been worried that my passport, camera, and money are going to get stolen so i have been uncomfortably wearing a travel purse around my belly tucked into my pants. Just in case though, someone tries to pickpocket my purse, I have made a dummy purse. I put my old digital camera, 5 US dollars, some hand sanitizer, and some gum so if they got they might think they were getting away with the real deal. The currency is refered to as reals (its not pronouced like it looks) and it goes down to R2,00 in paper. Anything under R2,00 are coins.
For dinner we went to a market right across the street. It consisted of some ruffles, sabor cebola & salsa flavor (sour cream and onion) a bottle of water called Minalba (im guessing it stands for natural mineral water??) and some sandwich type looking thing that I couldn´t finish.
Tomorrow Meg and I plan to head over to the market across from Copacabana beach and look around/souviner shop until all the other SAS students arrive at the hostel in the afternoon.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Monday, February 12, 2007
Life on the Ship and Puerto Rico
I have finally had some down time to update my blog… sorry it has taken so long. Since it has been a while there is quite a bit of reading for this post. I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Life on the Ship
… So far life on the ship has not been bad. My roommate and I get along very well. Her name is Katie from Washington. The room isn’t too bad… my bed is EXTREMELY small compared to what I am use to sleeping in and the hallway is a little small. Overall through, there was plenty of room for all of our junk to fit. I’m room number 4049 and part of the Adriatic Sea.
There have been quite a few sea sick people here and there but most of us are doing well. Occasionally I get a little bit dizzy, but not to the point where I am absolutely sick to my stomach.
For meals… we are served for all 3 meals and then we get a chance for a night snack around 22:00 (or 10 PM, we have to get use to military time because that is how they tell time on the ship). For breakfast we have several selections. There are eggs and cereal everyday and things like french toast/pancakes are rotated so it’s not the same thing every morning. For lunch and dinner there are always peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but there is always a selection of a pasta, seafood, and meat along with salad and rolls.
In between classes I get the chance to lie out on the deck and work on my tan while I read for my classes. My classes are all going well and I enjoy each of them, although I am bombarded with reading and assignments. I believe that I am going to come away from this semester with a good understanding of the material taught in the classroom simply because we get to experience the topics first hand in each port we will be stopping at.
Puerto Rico
Here are a few quick facts about Puerto Rico:
-Since Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US, Puerto Ricans hold US passports.
-The population density of Puerto Rico is over 1,110 people per square mile, making Puerto Rico one of the most crowded islands in the world.
-San Juan is the second-oldest city in the Americas.
-San Juan is known as “La Ciudad Amurallada” (the walled city).
-Puerto Rico’s currency is the US dollar but it referred to as the peso.
The MV Explorer pulled into San Juan, Puerto Rico on the 7th and departed the 9th. The first day there and group of people I have been hanging out with and I walked into Old San Juan and just walked around there for most the day. We had lunch at a local Café called El Punto. The food was excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone that will be in Old San Juan. Most of the SAS students, including me, signed up a welcome reception at a local college so we headed back to the ship, cleaned up, and went to the program. The bus I was on drove us into town and took us to Universidad del Sagrado Corazon. Our hosts, the students, were energetic as we unloaded the bus and lead us place to place around their campus by playing instruments and dancing. It was more like a parade when we relocated. They taught us how to salsa, provided us with food and refreshments, and gave all of the visitors a t-shirt from their university. Overall, the welcome reception was great and I decided to sign up for one in India. After the college visit most of the students headed into Old San Juan and went to Senor Frogs.
On day two I took the day to relax and layout on a beach in San Juan. After soaking up the tropical sun, my sister, a few other SAS girls, and I headed back into Old San Juan for some shopping and to pick up a few groceries to keep in our room to snack on. That afternoon I found myself a beautiful pair of Puma’s and bought them for only 20 dollars!! In the evening, everyone bar hopped to the local bars in Old San Juan with some locals students that some SAS students met at their welcome reception.
During our last day in San Juan, a student arranged an independent trip to El Yunque. El Yunque is the only tropical forest in the US National Forest system and is located only 25 miles southeast of San Juan. Our tour started by jamming 15 of us into a van that was only suited to hold 11 people, but that’s ok we made it work by putting three people in the trunk of the van and fitting an extra person in the back seat. To make the ride to the rain forest even more interesting we had to turn the AC off as we started up the mountains because the van wouldn’t have made it with the AC running. Once we got there we went in an observation tower and overlooked the rainforest and then after that we started our “hike” into the forest. Our tour guide was practically running so that no one could keep up with him. We were spread out all over the trial (which was paved)… there would be three of us up front a couple more trailing in the middle and then another group way back because no one could keep up with the tour guide. Once we got to our destination we got to swim in the waterhole and enjoy the waterfall. On the ride back to the ship everyone sacked out.
We left Puerto Rico on the 9th at 2300 and now we are on our way to our next stop…. Salvador, Brazil!
I miss everyone and I hope to be hearing from you all in e-mails/letters!
Life on the Ship
… So far life on the ship has not been bad. My roommate and I get along very well. Her name is Katie from Washington. The room isn’t too bad… my bed is EXTREMELY small compared to what I am use to sleeping in and the hallway is a little small. Overall through, there was plenty of room for all of our junk to fit. I’m room number 4049 and part of the Adriatic Sea.
There have been quite a few sea sick people here and there but most of us are doing well. Occasionally I get a little bit dizzy, but not to the point where I am absolutely sick to my stomach.
For meals… we are served for all 3 meals and then we get a chance for a night snack around 22:00 (or 10 PM, we have to get use to military time because that is how they tell time on the ship). For breakfast we have several selections. There are eggs and cereal everyday and things like french toast/pancakes are rotated so it’s not the same thing every morning. For lunch and dinner there are always peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but there is always a selection of a pasta, seafood, and meat along with salad and rolls.
In between classes I get the chance to lie out on the deck and work on my tan while I read for my classes. My classes are all going well and I enjoy each of them, although I am bombarded with reading and assignments. I believe that I am going to come away from this semester with a good understanding of the material taught in the classroom simply because we get to experience the topics first hand in each port we will be stopping at.
Puerto Rico
Here are a few quick facts about Puerto Rico:
-Since Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US, Puerto Ricans hold US passports.
-The population density of Puerto Rico is over 1,110 people per square mile, making Puerto Rico one of the most crowded islands in the world.
-San Juan is the second-oldest city in the Americas.
-San Juan is known as “La Ciudad Amurallada” (the walled city).
-Puerto Rico’s currency is the US dollar but it referred to as the peso.
The MV Explorer pulled into San Juan, Puerto Rico on the 7th and departed the 9th. The first day there and group of people I have been hanging out with and I walked into Old San Juan and just walked around there for most the day. We had lunch at a local Café called El Punto. The food was excellent and I would highly recommend it to anyone that will be in Old San Juan. Most of the SAS students, including me, signed up a welcome reception at a local college so we headed back to the ship, cleaned up, and went to the program. The bus I was on drove us into town and took us to Universidad del Sagrado Corazon. Our hosts, the students, were energetic as we unloaded the bus and lead us place to place around their campus by playing instruments and dancing. It was more like a parade when we relocated. They taught us how to salsa, provided us with food and refreshments, and gave all of the visitors a t-shirt from their university. Overall, the welcome reception was great and I decided to sign up for one in India. After the college visit most of the students headed into Old San Juan and went to Senor Frogs.
On day two I took the day to relax and layout on a beach in San Juan. After soaking up the tropical sun, my sister, a few other SAS girls, and I headed back into Old San Juan for some shopping and to pick up a few groceries to keep in our room to snack on. That afternoon I found myself a beautiful pair of Puma’s and bought them for only 20 dollars!! In the evening, everyone bar hopped to the local bars in Old San Juan with some locals students that some SAS students met at their welcome reception.
During our last day in San Juan, a student arranged an independent trip to El Yunque. El Yunque is the only tropical forest in the US National Forest system and is located only 25 miles southeast of San Juan. Our tour started by jamming 15 of us into a van that was only suited to hold 11 people, but that’s ok we made it work by putting three people in the trunk of the van and fitting an extra person in the back seat. To make the ride to the rain forest even more interesting we had to turn the AC off as we started up the mountains because the van wouldn’t have made it with the AC running. Once we got there we went in an observation tower and overlooked the rainforest and then after that we started our “hike” into the forest. Our tour guide was practically running so that no one could keep up with him. We were spread out all over the trial (which was paved)… there would be three of us up front a couple more trailing in the middle and then another group way back because no one could keep up with the tour guide. Once we got to our destination we got to swim in the waterhole and enjoy the waterfall. On the ride back to the ship everyone sacked out.
We left Puerto Rico on the 9th at 2300 and now we are on our way to our next stop…. Salvador, Brazil!
I miss everyone and I hope to be hearing from you all in e-mails/letters!
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