Cape Town, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Wed Feb 18-Sun Feb 22

 

WEDNESDAY

We docked in Cape Town at around 7am on Wednesday February 18. Immediately after arriving, we had a diplomatic briefing from two members from the US Consulate, including the Consul General and head of security. They discussed the current situation in Cape Town and South Africa, primarily discussing how to stay safe (since the South Africa currently holds the highest safety/danger warning given by the State Department). After the briefing, I had a FDP (Faculty Directed Practica), one of the activities related to our coursework that we have to complete. Several authors from Cape Town came on to the ship and talked to a large group of students about their works and lives. It was very interesting and a unique opportunity to hear directly from prominent South African authors. Afterwards, I went on a Semester at Sea program to visit one of the several townships still in Cape Town. We went to the Kayelitsha Township, just a few KM from Cape Town. It is the largest township in Cape Town, in which somewhere between an estimated 500,000 and 2 million people live incredibly poorly in literally miles and miles of tiny, tin and wood scrap houses. While there, we had the opportunity to visit a school and interact with lots of kids as well as visit a craft shop where we could by lots of small, hand-made items. Overall, visiting was a very eye-opening experience that put a lot of things in perspective. After getting back to the ship, I had the opportunity to walk around the pier, which is hands-down one of the coolest places I have ever been. We docked in what I would describe as a combination of a marina in San Francisco and Navy Pier in Chicago. There were several of Cape Town’s nicest hotels, dozens of fancy restaurants, stores, and a full mall with a movie theater literally in the middle of where we docked. I was a great change from the very industrial/shipyard-like ports we had docked at in Morocco and Namibia. Later in the afternoon, one of our friends on the ship has several friends studying abroad in Cape Town, so we went over to their house (really cool, 15 kids from all over live in it, just like something on a college campus) to hang out. Eventually we ordered a bunch of pizzas for dinner before going out. (I know not very South African, but delicious nonetheless because we haven’t had real pizza for so long).

 

THURSDAY

Early Thursday morning, my friend Max and two girls (all three from Highland Park) left for our safari that we had arranged a couple hours from Cape Town. We were picked up by our guide for the next day and a half (a very nice and very knowledgeable South African man named Quinton) and began our three hour drive to the Inverdoorn Game Resort and Lodge. None of us were really sure what to expect, since we booked it pretty much purely from a google search. Soon after arriving at what seemed to be like a very nice and small resort (very fancy and only can accommodate 30 guests per night), the ship’s executive dean and his family as well as a big donor and his wife (who had been on the ship just from Morocco to Cape Town), so we knew we were in the right place. After checking into our personal Chateaus and having a very nice, multi-course lunch, we went on our first game drive. The lodge has its own 3000 acre game area with many types of rehabilitated animals. In the 3 hour drive, some of the animals we saw include lions, rhinos, zebras, giraffes, ostriches, oryx, wilda-beasts (pretty much all the Lion King animals). We even had the chance to watch cheetahs run at 120 km/hr on their own “track”, in which they chase after a chicken (like the rabbits that dogs chase after in a greyhound race). After the drive, we changed for what would be the best dinner I’ve had so far. We started out with orduerves (SPELLING???) brought around to us while sitting around a fire-pit. For dinner, we had a five-course meal with soup, a quiche-thing, a sorbet, and a great chicken/carrot/mashed potato dish. For desert, they had a great cheese plate as well as an amazing chocolate soufflé. After dinner, we pretty much immediately went to bed since we were going to be waking up at around 4:30 the next morning.

 

FRIDAY
As I just said, we woke up at around 4:30am to get ready for another game drive at 5:30. While it ended up being very similar to the previous drive, we got to get out of the safari vehicles and walk around a group of giraffes. After the drive, we had a great buffet for breakfast, with personal omlettes, French toast, cereal, fruit, and more cheeses.  After breakfast, we packed up and checked out to head back towards Cape Town. On the way back, we made two stops. The first was to one of South Africa’s many vineyards. We tasted about 10 different wines each (even after the teaching and instruction, about all I can tell about wine is the difference between red and whites). We also got to try a bunch of the vineyard’s award-winning cheeses. They had great goat, brie, and bleu cheeses. After buying some our favorites of each, we got back in the van for a “surprise”visit to the prison/monument where Nelson Mandela was finally released (not Robben Island). We took pictures and proceeded to sit on the grass and have some of our wine and cheeses while talking with our guide about a lot of South Africa’s history. (It was kind of funny sitting on the entrance grass of a currently active South African prison). Afterwards, on the way back to the ship in Cape Town, when all four of us were sleeping, our guide woke us up to point out the dozens of baboons roaming along the road. It was very cool and at the same time, kind of weird/creepy. We got back to the ship around 5pm and pretty much right after, me and my friend Max went to a big rugby game between Cape Town’s team and a team from Australia. His friends’study abroad program was going to the game and they were able to get us two extra tickets. The game, like the soccer game I went to in Spain, was a very cool experience. Not knowing much of anything about rugby, it was incredibly entertaining to see the intensity the players beat, hit, and tackle each other with. The Cape Town team ended up avoiding a late comeback and winning 27-24 (I’m still not sure how scoring works). After the game, I met up with a bunch of SAS kids for dinner and then we went out.

 

SATURDAY

On Saturday I woke up at around 10am and then walked around the dock/marina for a couple hours. I found an internet café in the mall, did some shopping, and had a great sandwich for breakfast/lunch. Afterwards, me and three other guys set out to hike/climb table mountain (the 1000 meter flat-topped mountain that backdrops Cape Town). There are dozens of different routes to take and while we were deciding which to do at the bottom, we met a bunch of nice South African rock-climbers who suggested a fun, but relatively-challenging one for us to do. Being four adventuresome guys, we were all for it. The first hour wasn’t anything bad at all, until we met our first of what the climbers referred to as “scrambles”. We were in front of probably a 10foot high “wall”of boulders that we had to climb up with an ever-increasing cliff directly behind us. We all pretty much looked at each other and said “What the **** are we supposed to do???”After one of the guys, who had done a lot of hiking coming from Colorado, started climbing, we were able to help each other get up through lots of teamwork. About two and a half hours later, as it was starting to get dark, and after at least two more of these multi-stage “scrambles”, we made it to the top (literally in the clouds), where they have a restaurant, shop and most importantly-a cable car back down. The hike/climb was one of the scariest and most intense, while at the same time most fun things I have ever done (probably better than ATVing in the Namib Desert). After relaxing at the top for a while, checking out the view (we actually couldn’t see anything since we were in the clouds) and getting a snack, we took the cable car down and got a cab back to the ship. For dinner, I went with Ari and Alex (my two friends who go to Michigan that we met in the Bahamas) and two girls to a relatively fancy dinner on the waterfront at one of the nicest restaurants in on the boardwalk/marina. We had an extremely nice dinner with sushi and calamari for appetizers, I had the game trio for my entrée (steak, but three pieces from Ostrich, Oryx, and Kudu), and dessert, as well as three bottles of wine. The dinner ended up only costing us 270 Rand with tip. That’s about $27US. I haven’t mentioned yet, but the exchange rate between Rand and US dollars is great, at about 10Rand per $1. It’s gone up from 7Rand/$1 in the last year or so. Everything we ate and drank was relatively inexpensive all throughout South Africa. After dinner, we hung out for a while at a bunch of bars on the waterfront, all with live bands playing.

 

SUNDAY

On Sunday, after waking up at around 10am me and my friend Barrett (from Colorado, goes to Syracuse) walked around the waterfront for the day. Since it was our last day and we had to be back on the ship by 6pm, not many people went too far from the ship. We had a couple great, quick meals, did some more shopping, got some groceries to have on the ship, and went to the aquarium. Cape Town has a great aquarium with an immense variety of fish and sea creatures. One of the cool points is that it has fish from both the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, since South Africa connects the two. We also spent a little time watching a band and magician that performed in the waterfront’s small amphitheater. After having to wait in a relatively short line, we were back on the ship by around 4:45pm and ready to head to Mauritius.

 

It is now Thursday night and we will be arriving in Mauritius early tomorrow morning. The past few days on the ship have been busy. Most people have had midterms and everyone had the first exam for Global Studies on Tuesday (a 100 multiple choice test). To put it simply, it did not go well for the vast majority of people. We’ve been hearing that the average grade was between a 60-65% and the highest out of over 700 students was only an 88%, and I’m very confident that wasn’t me. I must say, however, that I’m not too worried and that we’ve been told this is very typical.

In Mauritius me and a bunch of people are going on a SAS-arranged catamaran and snorkeling trip for the day. It should be very cool, as I’ve read Mauritius has some terrific snorkeling. We are only there for the day and tomorrow night will be the opening ceremonies of the Sea Olympics, which will take place on Saturday. This is an entire day filled with various competitions between the different “seas”(decks of students). People are very excited and have been planning things for a while, so I’m sure it will be a lot of fun.

 

NAMIBIA!!!

Namibia

So, this is finally my post for when we were in Namibia. Sorry it took so long, we only had one day at sea before we got to Cape Town. We were in Namibia from Saturday February 14 until Monday February 16. 

Saturday

We docked at a very industrial pier in the city of Walvis Bay, a small city with not much going on. We arrived to a large group of young African girls singing African songs to us from the pier. It was very cool having the whole ship watch and listen to them from the decks of the ship. From Walvis Bay, me and a friend on the ship from Northbrook, and four girls went to Swakopmund, a much bigger, German, city about 35 KM from Walvis Bay. (Before being ruled by South Africa, Namibia was controlled by Germany). Pretty much everyone from the ship who wasn’t on an SAS trip ended up in Swakopmund. We soon learned why Namibia is known as the desert extreme sports capital of the world. About an hour after we had lunch at a German restaurant (I had a cool chicken dish), we were in the middle of the Namib Desert quad-biking (ATV’ing). For about two hours we ATV’d up and down enormous sand dunes at full throttle. We all had our own vehicles. In addition to being one of the most exciting things I have ever done, it was extremely cool to be able to look one way at desert as far as you can see and then look the other at the ocean. After ATV’ing, we got our keys to an apartment that the girls with us had arranged to rent for the two nights. For only $100 US per night (total, not per person), we had an absolutely breathtaking two bedroom apartment, with full kitchen, and balcony literally ON the beach. Once we settled in, we walked the couple blocks back to the town’s center to a pub to watch a rugby game. Having had no prior experience with the sport of rugby, none of us were too sure what we were watching, but the enthusiasm and intense emotions of everyone in the bar made it a very fun experience. For dinner, we went to a really cool restaurant situated on the sand/beach. The food wasn’t anything special, but the atmosphere was extremely unique and a lot of fun. There was even a wedding going on at the same time. After dinner, pretty much the entire ship ended up at one of the few bars/pubs in Swakopmund.

 

Sunday

The next morning, we woke up and made breakfast in the apartment. It was great to be able to do some cooking after having not in such a long time. We made eggs with peppers and onions and French toast. They turned out pretty good. After walking around the town for a while, we met up with three other guys from SAS that had spent the previous night camping in the desert on an SAS trip. Soon after, our group (now 9 people) had been looking forward to going skydiving. After working everything out with a reputable and recommended company we were driven out to the middle of the desert to the company’s makeshift “runway”with a little plane waiting to pack four people in it. Over the next several hours, two people at a time, would go in the plane tandem (attached to a professional) and within 20 minutes would be little dots falling from the sky. 7 of the 9 of us (not me of course) went skydiving. Everyone absolutely loved the experience and while watching them one at a time I thought I might regret not doing it too. But now, I have no regrets and think it is absolutely insane to jump out of a plane. Me and the other guy who didn’t jump got to drive back to meet everyone at the company’s office in the owner’s dune buggy, which was really cool to literally fly over sand dunes as fast as the buggy could go. After going back to the apartment to shower/change/get ready, our group went to dinner at a very nice restaurant called Napoletana. Most of us chose to be adventurous and order some kind of game. I had the game stir-fry, which included oryk, ostrich, and kudu. It was really delicious and I didn’t get sick afterwards. After dinner we hung out at a Cuban club/bar for a while, again with a lot of SAS students. When we were going back to the apartment, we walked along the beach and had an unbelievable view of the stars that were incredibly clear and actually went all the way down to the horizon.

 

Monday

On Monday, after waking up we got everything together to go back to the ship in Walvis Bay. After getting back to the ship at around noon, we went to Dune 7, the largest set of sand dunes in Namibia and also the center for extreme stuff. We planned to go sandboarding (snowboarding in the desert) and zorbing. Zorbing is when you are inside a huge inflatable ball and you roll down hills and things. Unfortunately the zorb “popped”during the group before us, so we only went sandboarding. Having never snowboarded before, and obviously never sandboarded, I had a very tough time trying to figure out what I was doing. But nonetheless, I had a lot of fun balancing for a few seconds before flipping/rolling down a monstrous sand dune and getting covered in sand again and again. We got back to the ship from sandboarding at around 4pm to end our time in Namibia.

 

We are now back on the ship on the way to Mauritius. Cape Town was absolutely amazing, hands down one of the greatest places I have ever visited on so many levels. We just had our first Global Studies exam, which I can’t say went very well, but that was the consensus between pretty much the entire ship. We get to Mauritius on Friday morning and will leave Friday night for India. 

 

As usual, I hope to have my post for Cape Town up soon, for sure before Mauritius.

Some More Pictures!!!

I'm at an internet cafe in Cape Town and thought I'd try to put up some pictures...

To start, here are a couple pictures of my cabin on the ship, for all of you who I know are interested.






These are captions for the rest of the pictures...
This is our group having dinner in Morocco.
Below is me with one of the two huge ice cream cakes I had on my birthday.
Under that is me ATVing in the desert when we were in Namibia.
To the right is me with friend in the Kayeletshia Township outside of Cape Town
Below that is us having dinner at the lodge we statyed at on our safari
To the right is me on our safari (if you look carefully there are giraffes about 50 yards behind me)
Below that is us at the prison gates where Nelson Mandella was released

The 9-Day Journey from Morocco to Namibia

Sorry I didn’t get this up before Namibia, but here’s a little bit about what happened from the trip between Morocco and Namibia. We were at sea for nine days from Thurs Feb 5 to Sat Feb 14.  It was a long stretch, but much smoother than our Atlantic passage. We had classes 8 of the nine days. All of them are going very well. In my Asian American Fiction class, we finished our first book The Woman Warrior and had an in-class essay (that I ended up doing very well on). In my speech class I and a panel of students gave a presentation about some solutions to the concerns of carbon emissions. In my Strategic Management course, we are getting into our online game/simulation in which I and a team of students are managing an international shoe company in an 8 company industry. In addition to classes, during our 9 day journey we crossed the equator. Every semester when Semester at Sea crosses the equator, the day (Neptune Day) is only for celebration and rituals. Starting at around 9am, the ship’s crew, dressed up in sea-outfits went up and down the hallways banging on drums, pots, and pans. Once the entire ship was crowding around the pool, King Neptune came out (our captain painted entirely green) and began the ceremony for those “pollywogs”crossing the equator for the first time. Everyone had to have “fish guts”(some green liquid that smelled very bad) poured on them, kissed a fish, and kissed the King’s ring, before jumping into the pool. In addition to this ritual, it is customary that many people shave their heads on Neptune Day. In total, I and over 70 other students (and several teachers and life-long learners) shaved their heads, including well over a dozen girls. The ship felt a little like we were a large swim team. After the festivities, essentially the entire ship hung out by the pool for pretty much the entire day since the weather was so nice. Also, I should mention that Neptune Day was held on Feb 9, however, we did not actually end up crossing the equator until the following day. My birthday was this past Friday, and to everyone who sent emails, Thank You so much, I really appreciate all of them. At dinner, I had TWO huge (and delicious) ice cream cakes (one that I got the week prior and one that mom ordered). So, I was able to make a lot of people happy and meet a lot of new people, essentially inviting anyone in the dining hall to try to help me finish the two cakes. They were a real treat from the typical desserts we have for dinner on the ship.

 

The following day (Sat, Feb 14), we docked in Namibia early in the morning and had our first diplomatic briefing, in which an official from the US Embassy came on to brief us about the country. We are at our logistical pre-port right now for Cape Town, South Africa (we will be arriving early tomorrow morning). We’ll be in Cape Town for four nights and five days, our longest port so far. All that I have planned right now is a safari and wine-tasting for our second and third days in Cape Town. Beyond that, a few things I’m hoping to do are go to Robben Island, hike up Table Mountain, and visit a township.

 

As before, I’ll try to have my post for Namibia up soon. We had an absolutely awesome three days there. Namibia, on the Western coast of Southern Africa is, with the exception of several German towns/cities, a barren dessert. It is known as the desert-sports capital of the world and just as a preview to my post, we did several EXTREME activities (don’t worry, no injuries here)

 

Also, depending on how carefully you were reading earlier, I was just kidding and did NOT shave my head, (I’m not that crazy).

MOROCCO!!!

MOROCCO
FEB 2-FEB 5

Again, I’m sorry it has taken me so long to finally put up my post for our time in Morocco. I am working hard to make sure that this doesn’t become a habit and that I’ll be able to put up my in-port blogs soon after leaving each country. So, like with Spain, sorry if anything is out of context or in wrong tenses. With that said, we were in Morocco from Tuesday February 2 to Thursday February 5 after we arrived a day late due to the refueling problems in Gibraltar.

DAY 1

We docked in Casablanca, Morocco late Monday night and weren’t allowed off the ship until Tuesday morning. Most people planned on spending time in multiple Moroccan cities, but due to the loss of a day, pretty much everyone (yes, hundreds of people) who wasn’t on an SAS trip was planning to go to Marrakesh. So, Tuesday morning we were going to be able to get off the ship at 8:15am. There was an 8:50am train to Marrakesh (about 3 hours) that quite literally, EVERYONE, was trying to make. Unfortunately, we didn’t get off the ship until around 8:30am and when we did we learned that we were docked in a very large industrial pier, filled primarily with commercial ships. By the time we found a cab, negotiated prices (we were informed that all Moroccan cab drivers would be trying to rip us off), and got to the train station, we had missed the train. And we were some of the first people off the ship. Not a single person made it on the early train. So, we took the next train to Marrakesh that left at 10:50am, not a big deal. Since we were at the station so early, we were able to get first class tickets for only 30 dirham more (about $3, $12 total). By 10:30ish, the ENTIRE platform was filled with SAS students waiting for the train to Marrakesh. I spent my time in a group with four other guys and four girls, all of which happened to be blondes (not necessarily a good thing for women in Morocco). When we arrived in Marrakesh, we had lunch in a very fancy looking restaurant overlooking the Djemaa El-Fna/medina (large square filled with street performers, sooks (shops), etc. I had Chicken Tagine, a stew kind of thing cooked individually in a funnel shaped clay pot. It was very good and reminded me of some Persian stews. When we got our bill, I was very surprised to see that our meal cost only 65 dirham per person (less than $8). For future reference, the conversion rate is about 8 dirham per one US dollar. After lunch, we walked around the sooks trying to find our hostel/Riyad. After walking around, through various alleys, we came to a door with the name of our hostel on it. It was very sketchy, but when we walked in we were greeted by a very nice man named Mohammed and his wife/partner Michelle. We immediately sat down and were welcomed to mint tea. We learned that Michelle is French and Mohammed is originally Moroccan, but studied literature at a French university and has learned English solely by watching American movies. After our tea, which was delicious (I got to see in the pot and saw an entire mint tree’s worth of leaves), we put our stuff in our rooms, which were incredibly and surprisingly nice. We were then told to go upstairs and check out the view. Not sure exactly what they meant, we went on the rooftop of the Riyad to see an entire couch, chair, Bedouin-tent-kind-of-thing set up that overlooks the entire Medina. It was an absolutely remarkable view (I have lots of pictures). At around 6pm-ish, we walked around the sooks, which are set up only in the evening. There are hundreds, all with similar things ranging from clothing, wood products, scarves/tapestries, carpets, and who knows what else, as well as food including all kinds of nuts, dried fruit, olives, and lots of un-butchered meat. It was very cool seeing how all of these things, which seemed to be more touristy, are actually how and where the people of Marrakesh buy anything they may need. Someone compared the market to their Super-Target or Sam’s Club. For dinner, we ate in the Medina a one of the 125 little stands. We had various meat skewers, including 2 types of chicken, meat, a koubideh-thing, and a spicy tomato dipping sauce that reminded me a lot of Pita Inn’s. It was a very good (and cheap) dinner that everyone in the group loved. Also, all say now for those of you who told me not to eat street food, no one in our group of nine got sick at any point while we were in Morocco. After dinner, since there isn’t much nightlife (bars, clubs, etc) of any sort in Marrakesh, we went back to the Riyad and just hung out for a while.

 

DAY 2

On our second day, we woke up at around 9am to a prepared breakfast in the Riyad. They prepared fresh orange juice, more mint tea, bread, and these crepe/pancake kind of things for us, all of which were terrific. After breakfast, we went to the Marrakesh Museum, which was visually very cool, but unfortunately everything was written in either French or Arabic. After the museum, we visited the nearby Ben Youssef Madrassa (one of the largest Madrassa's in the North Africa. It is a school attached to the Ben Youssef Mosque and is home to beautiful art and architecture). It was very cool and I have lots of pictures. Afterwards, we went back to the Medina and had lunch at another café overlooking the large square. This time, I had their chicken cous-cous, which was only okay. I think it was more due to the restaurant than the dish, but not a big deal. After lunch, me and three of the guys split off to go to a hammam (Arabic bath-house). We had just as much of an experience trying to find a decent, safe-looking one. After several very sketchy and shady looking hammams, we found one recommended to us by the tour guide of a group of SAS students we passed by on the street. In all, it was a very cool (and clean) experience. It was only the four of us and afterwards, I don’t think I’ve ever been so clean in my life. After the hammam, which lasted about an hour, we met back at the hostel, paid a whopping 200 dirham each ($25) for the night, and went to the train station to head back to Casablanca. We took a 7pm train, again with a lot of SAS students, and got back to the ship around 11pm. On the train, we played a long game of Uno with a nice, young Moroccan man named Adil. It was very cool being able to play with and actually talk to a Moroccan person who isn’t attacking us trying to sell us things.

 

DAY 3

On our final day in Morocco, I went around Casablanca with my roommate Chris and his friend from school, Natalie. We did lots of walking, walking from the ship through Casablanca’s small market (which doesn’t even compare to Marrakesh’s), to the immense King Hassan II Mosque (built only in 1987 and is the largest in Morocco and one of the largest in the world). For lunch, we went to Rick’s Café (yes, from the movie Casablanca). I don’t believe that it was used in the filming of the movie, but it is an exact replica of what was used and is just as fancy, formal, and expensive. The food unfortunately, was very limited, not Moroccan, and just okay. But, it was a very cool experience being able to go to such a “famous”restaurant. Afterwards, we walked around Casablanca a little more before eventually going back to the ship. We were back on at around 4pm-ish (on-ship time was 6pm) and took a desperately needed nap. 

 

Before we get to Namibia on Sat (Feb 14), I hope to have another post up about what’s been going on on the ship the past few days.

SPAIN!!!

We are now back on the ship on our way to Namibia and I need to put up my post for what we did when we were in Spain. So, I’m sorry for taking so long, but here it is. We were in Spain from Wednesday Jan 28 until Saturday Jan 31.

 

DAY 1

We docked in Cadiz, Spain at around 8am and a bunch of people and I proceeded to get on a train to Sevilla immediately after we were allowed off the ship. Spain’s train system is very nice and was very easy to use. The train was about 2 hours from Cadiz to Sevilla and only 10 Euros (about $12). When we got to Sevilla we checked into the hostel that one of the girls had booked for us on the ship. Being my first hostel experience, I had no idea what to compare it to, but I was extremely happy with it. The rooms all had two or three bunk beds in them, a bathroom, personal safes (like hotels), several computers with internet, and the people who worked there were all extremely nice and spoke great English. And the best part, it only cost about 13 Euros per person per night. After checking in, we went for a late lunch at around 2pm at a great restaurant near the hostel. We of course had a bunch of tapas, that were all amazing (possibly because it was our first meal not on the ship in 9 days). Having had tapas twice the week before we left for the Bahamas, I had something to compare them to. And without a doubt, everything we ate (patatas bravas, tortilla Espanola, queso manchego, calamares, …) was incomparably better than any tapas I’ve eaten before at home. After lunch I met up with my friend Jess, who is studying abroad in Sevilla, and the other SAS people I was with met up with friends they had also studying in Sevilla. We walked around a bit and went to the Real Alcazar, a humongous palace built in the 14^th century. After touring the palace for over an hour, which seemed to be endless, we sat at a café for some drinks before figuring out what we’d do for dinner. For dinner, at around 9:30ish, me and some girls from SAs went to a small, very local, tapas place recommended to us by our friends studying in Sevilla and had another great meal. After dinner, we went back to our hostel to change to go out. We went to an Irish Pub in the big square around the Cathedral for a little before going to a bar/club kind of place right next to it called Catedral (no “h”). It was very cool and mostly Americans, either studying abroad or on Semester at Sea. I saw two close friends from home as well as a bunch of people from Wisconsin studying in Sevilla. Our night ended relatively early (we got back to the hostel at around 3:45).

 

DAY 2

After waking up at around 10:00 and unsuccessfully trying to find a place to have breakfast (breakfast in Spain is over by 8am), we found a nice coffee shop with croissants and similar things. After sitting for a little, we took a long walk around Sevilla by the river, looking at their series of bridges (one of which was built by the architect of the Eiffel tower). Next to the river is Sevilla’s bullfighting ring, which we had the chance to take a tour of. It is the largest bullfighting ring in Spain and holds over 15,000 people. Next, we ate lunch at a large sandwich-kind of place. In Spain, sandwiches are called montaditos or bocadillos, and come in dozens of varieties and sizes. All the ones we tried were terrific. We had sangria with our lunch, which was also great. After lunch, we toured the Cathedral and La Giralda. The Cathedral, built in the 15^th century, is debated to be between the first and third largest in the world. Christopher Columbus is buried inside of it. It has a Giralda, which, after climbing a series of 34 ramps to the top of it, has an incredible view of all of Sevilla. (I have many pictures). When we finished at the Cathedral, we went back to the hostel and got ready to go to a football match (soccer…).  It was a very big quarter-final match between Sevilla and Valencia. After getting decked out in clearance FC Sevilla gear, we got tickets in the Sevilla “fan section”. In describing the game, let me begin by saying it was an experience unlike any other sporting event I have ever attended. The fans do not stop singing, screaming, and cheering for the entire game. As long as there are players playing on the field, their eyes do not for a second leave the field. Sevilla ended up winning the game 2-1 after scoring a goal with under two minutes left to play in the game. I have never seen fans of a team so happy and energetic after seeing their team win. We swear we saw an old man with tears after they scored the game winning goal. After the game, we had another wine and tapas-filled dinner that lasted a couple hours until about 1am (perfectly normal in Spain). After dinner, we went to another nightclub, this one extremely fancy. It had four floors, each with a different type of music. There were also much more Spanish young people in addition to the American students and Semester at Sea kids. It was a very cool experience and ended at around 4:30ish in the morning. 

 

DAY 3

We woke up at 11:30ish, checked out, had a quick coffee/pastry breakfast/lunch and went to the train station to get on a 2pm train back to Cadiz. Once we go back to Cadiz and dropped our stuff on the ship at around 4:30pm me and a couple guys went to find something to eat. We had churros con chocolate, possibly my favorite thing I had while in Spain. We each had a plate of small, sugared, fried churros accompanied with a cup of the thickest hot chocolate I’ve ever seen. It was delicious. After taking a couple hour siesta back on the ship, we went to dinner at a fairly fancy, primarily seafood, restaurant. We had a series of tapas, including calamares and baby squid, before having the best paella I’ve ever had. After dinner, we found a nice bar to hang out with pretty much the entire ship. It was cool seeing and being with everyone in an environment other than on the ship.

 

DAY 4

On Saturday (our final day in Spain) before having to be back on the ship by 6pm (they are VERY strict about being on the ship on-time, and for the first time in a while, not a single person was late), we walked around Cadiz and had a nice lunch. Cadiz is primarily a port city and is known for having the best seafood in Spain. Thus, like at our dinner before, we had calamares and more paella for lunch. After lunch, we found out that the pier by the ship had a good wifi connection, so a bunch of students brought their computers out to play around online (something that we’re not able to do on the ship without using up our precious minutes). It took me about a half hour to put up the 3 pictures on the blog, so I hope you enjoy them. 

 

I’ll have the post for what we did in Morocco up sometime tomorrow, but we had an absolutely incredible time. We spent the majority of our time in Marrakesh before coming back to Casablanca.

Docked In Morocco; Kind of (On the Ship for the Night)

So, right now I am at the logistical Pre-Port presentation for Morocco and I am typing up my post for what we did in Spain.  Before getting to it, however, I should say that we just received some shocking news in the middle of the presentation.  Right after going over the port emergency, safety, and medical information, our assistant dean informed us that during the three hours that the fuel ship was alongside us, we never actually received any fuel.  He said it was too rough to actually pump gas, and eventually had to go into port.  So, we were told that they will try again tomorrow morning (yes, when we’re supposed to be in Casablanca) and that we’ll hopefully get to Morocco by sometime tomorrow afternoon/evening.  Not the best of news, but we’ll have to deal with it.  Remember the word, and for that matter, mantra of the voyage- FLEXIBILITY.  After the pre-port meeting, we were fortunate enough to be able to watch the Super Bowl.  Since we were still anchored right outside of Gibraltar, we were able to view a German broadcast of the game and didn’t have to use our little internet bandwidth to watch it with choppy video and audio.  The game started at around 11:30pm our time and didn’t end until sometime after 2am.  For those who saw it, and if you didn’t I’m sure you read/heard, it was one of the greatest endings to a Super Bowl ever.

 

I am now continuing to write this post on Monday evening (I haven’t finished/posted it yet, so understand that it was written at different times). Today (Monday) was essentially a second day at sea with nothing formal scheduled.  We were successfully able to refuel early in the morning and are scheduled to arrive in Casablanca sometime tonight, although we won’t be allowed off the ship until tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.  I woke up late again (around 11:30), ate lunch, a bunch of us played some intense games of charades and Pictionary, took a nap, and had dinner.  Nothing too exciting, but still another highly needed day of rest from the lack of sleep from Spain.  During dinner, as we finally were arriving in Casablanca, the captain announced that we had to turn off the stabilizers for some reason for a few minutes.  The following 5-10 minutes felt like a constant earthquake.  In the dining hall, all the tables and everything on them were shaking drastically.  The crew was holding onto the buffet tables so they wouldn’t fall over.  And several people fell out of their chairs.  Fortunately, there were no major problems and no one was hurt.  (I thought it was a pretty cool/fun experience).  After dinner, our conduct officer, a 25 year veteran of the LAPD and on his 4^th SAS voyage, gave a presentation about how to stay safe in port.  It was very informative and provided a lot of practical ideas to protect our valuables and our safety.  After his presentation, there was an open mic night, in which many students played guitar, sang songs, and some attempted comedy.  Overall, it was a very cool experience seeing how talented many of my shipmates are. 

We are now docked in Casablanca.  Tomorrow I plan to get off the ship in the morning and get on a train to Marrakesh (about 3 hours) with 2 other guys and a few girls.  We are planning on staying two nights before heading back to the ship in Casablanca on Thursday morning. 

Expect an update as to what we did sometime Friday or Saturday.

Now, what did we do in Spain???  This will be in my next post…

On the Way to Morocco

It is now Sunday afternoon and we are on our way to Casablanca, Morocco.  After leaving Cadiz at around 8pm-ish, they broadcast the day’s announcements and plans/schedule for our day at sea.  They said, and this is pretty much verbatim, “The captain has informed us that we are going to be encountering some seasonal weather, so before you go to bed you should secure all your valuables and loose items throughout your cabin.”  (I fortunately haven’t had any sea-sickness problems at all yet, so I wasn’t too worried, but it was kind of funny when we heard it at dinner and everyone looked at each other and laughed.) So, having not slept more than a few hours all of our nights in Spain, I was ready to pass out by 10pm.  I took a couple Dramamines before putting a DVD on and was quickly asleep until about noon today.  When I woke up, we were stopped right alongside Gibraltar with an enormous refueling ship alongside our ship with huge hoses attached to us giving us fuel.  It was pretty rocky during the night, but nothing too bad.  We fortunately don’t have any classes today, only a couple meetings about our time in Morocco. 

Now, on to my plans for Morocco.  We will be arriving tomorrow morning and leave Thursday night.  As of now, me and a few people are planning on spending a couple days in Marrakesh and hopefully some time in Fez.  We’ve learned that it is very easy to travel around by train, although it’s at least 3 hours per train ride between each city.

I will put up a detailed post of our stay in Spain in a little while.