Cape Town, South Africa Days 1-3

Hey everyone!

Happy Easter! :) I hope everyone is having a wonderful Easter Sunday!

The morning we arrived in Cape Town, I woke up at 6 a.m. to watch the sunrise over the city and the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous and definitely worth it! After that, I had breakfast with my friend Corrie who turned 21 that day! Then we all cleared immigration and had a diplomatic briefing in the Union where they gave us some tips on safety and travel in Cape Town. Cape Town is incredibly beautiful, but it also has one of the highest crime rates in the world. I'm glad they took the time to prepare us and make sure we knew how to stay safe. We docked a little later than expected and didn't end up getting off the ship until around 11 a.m.

Corrie, Hayley and I headed straight to the V&A (Victoria and Alfred) Waterfront to find a fun place to eat for Corrie's birthday! Quite a few of our friends had field labs during the day, so we made plans to meet up with everyone later that evening and go out for dinner. The Waterfront is amazing and only a five minute walk from where our ship was docked. I could have literally spent my entire six days there and would not have been bored. There are so many things to do and see including a market, a huge mall, amazing restaurants, a ferris wheel, an entertainment center and some great, live bands/singing groups. Corrie's mom had sent her a list of restaurants at the Waterfront so she picked a place famous for their burgers, Gibson's. It was probably the best burger I have ever had! Our waiter also surprised her with a 21st birthday dessert, which was a lot of fun!

After we ate, we took Hayley back to the ship so she could get on the bus for her field program. Then Corrie and I went to hike Lions Head Mountain. We didn't hike the whole way up because that would have probably taken us about two hours, but we climbed a decent portion and got some great pictures of the amazing view! Then our taxi driver drove us to the top of Signal Hill, which is connected to Lions Head. I think we lucked out with him! He took us on a short city tour after that as well. Here are a few pictures!

As an assignment in one of my courses, I'm supposed to look for and learn about religion in each port. Our driver was very helpful with that! About 87 percent of the people in South Africa are Christians. The majority of them are either Catholic or Protestant. One of the smallest religions is Islam, and our driver took us to a Muslim Mosque on the way down from Lions Head mountain and then to a small Muslim Community known as Bo-Kaap. 100 percent of the people that live there are Muslims. Their homes are painted bright colors to symbolize their freedom from apartheid.

After that, he drove us to St. George's cathedral where Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu is the head Bishop. We told him that he had been sailing with us on the ship, and he didn't believe us. It was pretty funny! I haven't been in too many Catholic cathedrals, but this one was amazing. I wish we would have been able to take pictures inside of it. Here are a couple pictures of the outside.

He drove us to a snack shop after that so we could stock up on a few things, and then we headed back to the ship to get ready for Corrie's birthday dinner! We ended up at the restaurant Mugg and Bean. Our taxi driver recommended it earlier in the day. He said it was where a lot of the locals go and that the prices were very reasonable, so Corrie decided she wanted to try it. It was a great choice! After dinner, we hung out and walked around the Waterfront for a while longer before heading back to the ship.

The next morning, I had to be ready to go on a Safari at 6 a.m. It was another very early morning, but I  wanted to be sure to do a Safari while I was here. I didn't want to pay to go on one of the three or four day trips, so when the opportunity for this one came up, I jumped on it! There were about 20 students and one Lifelong Learner on the trip,  and the ride there took about two hours. Our bus was a little bit late, so we didn't end up leaving until 7:30. It was my only chance to see South Africa outside of Cape Town, so I spent most of that time looking out the window and enjoying the beautiful scenery.

There was a breakfast buffet waiting for us when we arrived, and then we headed off for the two hour, guided Safari. We saw many different animals including springbok (a form of antelope), giraffes, elephants, hippos, rhinos, wildebeests, zebras, ostrich and lions. I've seen all of those animals in zoos before, but seeing them un-caged and out in the wild was an awesome experience! After the safari, we had a late lunch at the resort restaurant there and then had a little free time to look at the shop and walk around before heading back. Here are a few pictures!

We got back around dinner time so me and my friend Cali that was also on the trip found our friends Kaitlynn and Kaitlyn and went down to the Waterfront for dinner. We walked around for a bit first and listened to some of the singing groups that were out there. I loved Khayelitsha United Mambazo and ended up buying one of their CD's. They invited me to take a picture with them while they were singing. :) After that, we went and found Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu's statue in Nobel Square. In my opinion, it didn't really look too much like him, but it was still fun to see and we took a few pictures. We headed back to the ship after eating dinner at a really great Italian restaurant!

The next morning Kaitlynn, Kaitlyn and I woke up early to head down to the Waterfront to do some shopping before our homestay left later that afternoon. We grabbed breakfast at TriBakery and then went to a few stores in the smaller section of the mall. I found a dress in the colors of the South African flag that I absolutely love! I got a few other things too, but most of them are gifts so I have to keep those a secret for now. :) (I am really starting to worry about how in the world I am going to pack all of this stuff up when it's time to get off of the ship in Spain...) Then we went to the market area of the Waterfront that was in a big blue building that we called the "blue barn." For lunch, I took them to Gibson's where I had eaten with Corrie and Hayley on the first day because they really wanted to try the burgers there as well. After a little more shopping around the mall, we headed back to the ship to pack and get ready for our homestay.

Our homestay left at 4 p.m. and went the Tambo Township. Kaitlynn and I had signed up to be roommates and I was really looking forward to it! The drive there was about 20 minutes, and the children were ready and waiting for us when we got off of the bus. Each set of roommates was placed in a different home with their own "mama". We were with Mama Mavis! Her two adorable grandsons, Kuhle and Aluve (ages 6 and 12), came to pick us up and walk her to her home. Her grandsons live about three hours away, but they were on vacation from school and were staying with her for the entire two weeks! We spent the first couple of hours getting to know them, telling them about our trip so far and watching some of their favorite shows on TV. One of Mama Mavis' friends was also there with her young daughter, Sinetema. Kuhle was hilarious and asked the most interesting questions. For example, "Do you like bread?" and then straight into "Do you like dog poo? What about cat poo?" Haha! He was quite entertaining! We found out that one of their favorite TV shows is the Ellen DeGeneres show! Kaitlynn actually brought along several flat Ellen's that she is taking pictures with all around the world, so she gave a couple to them and they loved it! They kept saying "Now we have Ellen!" It was adorable!

Before dinner, Mama Mavis took us on a walk around the township. We had been warned not to take our cameras out, so I didn't get very many pictures. While we were walking around, Mama Mavis said there were some places where it was okay to take pictures so I was able to get a couple. Each week, she attends a prayer meeting at Mama Joyce's house. We happened to be there on the night they have those meetings so she took us with her! Harry, the guy who leads the meetings, comes to the township each week to talk with the group about how God has been working in their lives, read scripture and pray for one another. They also asked us if we'd faced any challenges with our faith and if we've had any opportunities for worship while we've been away. We told him about the weekly services and Bible studies that we have on the ship. Harry is white, and in many of the townships racism is still a problem and it is very uncommon to see people from different races worshiping together. Many times it is even looked down upon. I felt really blessed to be able to be there and have the opportunity to take part in worshiping with them. It was an incredible experience.

After the prayer meeting, we headed back to Mama Mavis' house for dinner. I had my very first taste of goat organs. Yes, goat organs. It definitely wasn't the best meal I've ever had, and it was honestly a bit of a struggle for me and Kaitlynn to make it through that. They also served us bread, so I ate as much of that as I could. :) I learned that goat organs and intestines is actually a very common meal in South Africa. That was definitely the most adventurous that I have been with food so far on this voyage! After dinner we sat around their living room, talked, and watched America's Next Top Model. :) Then Kaitlynn and I headed to bed!

The next morning, we had to be ready to get on our bus and head back by 10 a.m. We woke up early and had breakfast with Mama Mavis and her grandsons and had a little more time to talk and say thank you before heading out. I wish that homestay would have been much longer!

I will do a post about the last few days in Cape Town (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) soon. I have so much to say about this amazing place that I decided to split this into two different posts! Part of the reason I did Semester at Sea was because it stopped in Africa, and I have been looking forward to Cape Town since the beginning of the voyage! For so many different reasons, I felt such a connection there and it is the most incredible place that I have ever been. Thanks guys!

Sea Olympics Results!

Hey everyone!

I'm going to start this post off by saying how AWESOME Sea Olympics were yesterday! My Jeopardy team placed first, which one was of the events at the beginning, so that was a great way to start off the day. After that, I walked around and watched some of the other events like Last Comic Standing and the Spelling Bee. I actually didn't make it to many of the outdoor athletic events. The relay race started at 2 p.m. and took about an hour and a half to complete. There was about a 30 minute time difference between the first and last place finishers. I think my sea placed 5th in that.

Side Note: It was slightly awkward that the Mediterranean Sea (my sea) was red and the Red Sea was blue. I'm not exactly sure why that happened! Our Resident Director was in charge of the Sea Olympics and she got first choice of colors, so I guess she decided to pick red.

Synchronized Swimming got cancelled because the ship was pretty rocky yesterday. Instead, they had the teams to Synchronized Dancing in the Union. That was pretty entertaining! It was interesting to see how they adapted to performing on solid ground instead of in the water. The Lip-Synching competition was after that. I kind of wish I would have signed up to be on our team. Everyone did amazing! What the teams were able to pull together such a short amount of time was really impressive.

They announced the winners after the lip-synching competition. The winning team gets to choose whether they get off of the ship first or last in Barcelona when the voyage ends and they also get an ice cream social. (You take ice cream whenever you can get it on this ship!) The winner of the Sea Olympic was the Caribbean Sea. Our team placed... dead last. Haha! But was still an awesome day!

Here are some pictures from the day and from the Opening Ceremonies the night before. I have a lot more videos than I do pictures!

Some of the Sea flags!


Winning Jeopardy Team! :)


My beautiful friend Michela. :)


Synchronized "Swimming..."


Yes, those are our faculty members. The guy on the right is the Assistant Dean of Students.

Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu spoke in my Anthropology of Religion class today, and he was absolutely incredible. I will make a blog post dedicated to that soon, but here is one of my favorite quotes from his talk:

     “If we aren’t compassionate, we know inside that we are less than what we ought to be. Otherwise, we would be sub-human. You can try to pretend that this is not the case. But we are bound together. Our world is going to sink or swim based on how seriously you and I take the fact that we belong together.”

 We have two more days before arriving in South Africa!!!!! :)

Sea Olympics Schedule!

The Sea Olympics start tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. We have the opening ceremonies tonight after Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu gives a talk in the Union. Each hall/sea is a team, and there is also a faculty/staff/lifelong learner team. I'm in the Mediterranean Sea (3rd Deck), and our color is red. Here is the schedule of events for tomorrow if you're interested!

I'm on the Jeopardy team and I'm also doing a the word search in the Shipwide Relay Race. That race is going to be pretty intense! I put the relay race description right under the schedule of events.

I'm excited! GO MED SEA!!!!





ShipWide Relay Race!!!

Event 1 - Union

Player  __________________ will eat 6 saltine crackers and then whistle. As soon as they are able to produce an audible whistle, they will hand the spoon to the propeller.

Propeller _________________ carries spoon from Union to Classroom 9 and hands it to Sudoku player.

Event 2 – Classroom 9

Player _________________ and __________________ will complete a Sudoku Puzzle. Once they are completed and it is checked by a judge, they will hand spoon to next propeller.

Propeller ________________ carries spoon from Classroom 9 to the basketball court.

Event 3 – Basketball Court
Player ___________________ must make a free throw from behind the free throw line. Once the free throw has been made, the next propeller can leave.

Propeller___________________ carries spoon from basketball court to Garden Lounge and hands it to the cup stacking participant.

Event 4 – Garden Lounge

Player ___________________ must stack 10 cups up into a pyramid with 5 on the bottom level, then 3, then 2, and then 1. And then they must take the pyramid down again with all cups into one stack. They will then hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller __________________ carries the spoon to Deck 7 Port Side and tags the first Dizzy Izzy participant.

Event 5 - Deck 7 Port Side

4 players will participate in a dizzy bat relay race. The first player must spin around a bat (with their head on the bat) 7 times and then run across the court and back to tag their next teammate. The next teammate will then spin around the bat and so on and so forth until all 4 players have gone. They will then tag the next Propeller.

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Propeller _________________ carries the spoon from the deck 7 port side to the Glazer Lounge and hands the spoon to a house of cards builder.

Event 6 – Glazer Lounge

Player _____________________ and _______________________ must build a two story house of cards that will stay standing for 5 seconds. There will be a judge to make sure this happens. No folding or bending of cards is permitted. Once they are successful, they will hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller __________________ carries the spoon from Glazer Lounge to the Garden Lounge and hands the spoon to the PB&J builders.

Event 7 – Garden Lounge

Four players will be here to create and eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Player _________________ will put the peanut butter on a slice of bread. Player ___________________ will put the jelly on a slice of bread. And player ______________________ will feed the sandwich to Player _________________________ (who cannot use his/her hands.) Once the sandwich is fully swallowed, they will hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller___________________________ carries the spoon from the Garden Lounge to Classroom 9 and hands the spoon to the word search players.

Event 8 – Classroom 9

Player _____________________ and _______________________ will find all words in a word search puzzle. Once all words are found, they will pass the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller_____________________ carries spoon from Classroom 9 to Deck 7 Port side and tags the first leap frog player.

Event 9 – Deck 7 Port Side

5 students will leap frog over each other to cross the distance of the Deck 7 Port Side. After they complete the distance, they will tag the next propeller.

Propeller_____________________ carries spoon from Deck 7 Port Side to the Basketball Court and tags the ball passers.

Event 10 – Basketball Court

10 players will pass a ball (volleyball, soccer ball, or basketball) over, under, etc. down the line. The first person goes to the rear of the line until the line reaches the opposite end of the court. They will then tag the next propeller.

Propeller ___________________ carries spoon from basketball court to the outside of Deck 5 aft and hands the spoon to the player with the cup.

Event 11 – Deck 5 Aft Outside

On the outside of deck 5 aft, player ______________________ will have a cup filled with water and a ping pong ball. They must blow on the ping pong ball until it travels out of the first cup and into the second cup. Once they are successful, they will hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller ____________________ carries the spoon from the outside of Deck 5 aft to the pool deck and tag the push up player.

Event 12 – Pool Deck

Player _____________________ will complete 30 push ups. Once they are completed they will hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller __________________________ carries the spoon from the Pool Deck to the Union and hands the spoon to the donut eater.

Event 13 - Union

Player _________________ will eat a donut which is hanging from a sting and must not use their hands. Once they have eaten the entire donut, they will pass the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller _________________________ carries the spoon from the Union to the Deck 5 Dining Hall and hands to the first player with the orange.

Event 14 - Deck 5 Dining Hall

10 students will stand in a line side by side in the dining hall. The first will place an orange in his or her neck and then pass the orange to the next player without using hands. The player will receive the orange also in his or her neck. This will continue on until the orange reaches the tenth person. If the orange drops, it must start at the beginning of the line.They will then hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller ________________________ carries the spoon from the Deck 5 Dining Hall to Classroom 5 and hands the spoon to the blind drawing participants.

Event 15 – Classroom 5

Player ________________________ will be given a word and will be blindfolded and must draw the word. Their teammate, Player ___________________________ will have to accurately guess the word. Once they have done so, they will hand the spoon to the next propeller.

Propeller ___________________ carries the spoon from Classroom 5 to the Garden Lounge and hands it to the cheerio string player.

Event 16 – Garden Lounge

Player __________________ will string 15 cheerios onto a string of yarn. Once they have completed this task, they will hand the spoon to the next Propeller.

Propeller ___________________ carries the spoon from the Garden Lounge to the Union and hands it to the tissue box player.

Event 17 - Union

Player ____________________ will have an empty tissue box strapped to their waste (with the box on their rear side) and will attempt to shake out the ping pong balls which are inside the tissue box. Once all balls have been eliminated from the box, they will hand the spoon to their team captain. This completes the relay race.

Port Louis, Mauritius!

Hey everyone!

Our stay in Mauritius was very short because we were only there so that the ship could refuel before continuing on towards South Africa. I got off of the ship around 9:30a.m. and "on-ship" time was 6 p.m. I spent the day with my friends Corrie, Alexa, Liz and Chris. Since we only had a few hours, we didn't have any major plans and decided to have a relaxing day of walking around the Waterfront, finding some great food and doing a little shopping at the market.

We started off by taking a taxi to an ATM and then to the Port Louis Market. A friend of mine that did Semester at Sea last year said I couldn't leave Mauritius without going there. After making a few purchases and doing some window shopping, we headed to the Le Caudan Waterfront to find a place for lunch, which took longer than we expected. After that, we walked around the Waterfront for a while longer and then found our way to the grocery store, "Winners." A lot of us were completely out of snacks and needed to stock up on some food! I got some cereal, crackers, chocolate, gum, breakfast bars, peanut butter and nutella. I had been out of gum since Singapore and they don't sell it on the shipm so I was really happy when they had some at the store! Then we took a "water taxi" back to the ship.

We got back a little before 4 p.m. It's always a good idea to aim to be back pretty early because you don't want to push "on-ship" time! If you're late and aren't swiped in by then, you get dock time in the next port. I always try to get back an hour and a half to two hours early because the line to get back on is always really long about an hour before "on-ship" time. I already know of a few people that got dock time because of being late.

Overall, it was a great day. I wish we would have had more time, but I'm still glad I had the chance to go there there! It is such a beautiful place! AFRICA IS NEXT!!!!!!!!!!

Here are a few pictures from the day....

We our on our second of six days in-between Mauritius and South Africa. Tomorrow is Sea Olympics day! Be watching for a post about that soon. :)

Thanks guys!