Sorry for the wait!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this is needs to be a long post...however, I’ve been  busy. This post is basically from an e-mail I sent back home.  Sorry, if it seems a little thrown together.  Dominica is the most gorgeous place I've ever been to (at least based on beauty density).  The island is 16 miles across and maybe 40 miles long, and it has 365 rivers coming off the mountains.  The island was volcanic and is made of mountains almost 5,000 feet tall.  The island just shoots straight out of the water when you see it!  The indigenous name for the island (Dominica has the largest indigenous population in the Caribbean at 3,000ish) is Waiti Kubuli, which means "tall is her body".  The mountains are also the reason the rainforest is still mostly intact because they couldn't grow sugarcane there.

Anyway, I went with some people to Ti Tou Gorge on the first day.  They filmed part of the second Pirates of the Caribbean there. It's basically a slit in the ground with a river flowing through, so, you can swim back a couple minutes (without being able to touch the bottom half the time).  One of our professors told us that the gorge wasn't carved by the water, but was just a large volcanic rock that cracked when it cooled, and then filled with a river.  After getting lunch in Roseau (the capital of 20,000 people) we headed to a place called Victoria Falls (it was an hour drive and another hour hiking up the river bed to the falls).  That was cool because the waterfall is on a circular cliff, so, it falls across the face of one side of the cliff in to a huge pool.  We did all of that independently, and it got pretty expensive (I spent about $50 on all of it) with taxis and guides, but it was still cheaper than going with SAS.  Getting to Victoria Falls was difficult, once we left Roseau every road had long stretches like the palisades along the Kentucky River, except that their roads are steeper and there are more switchbacks.  Building infrastructure in Dominica is probably a lot like building infrastructure in Eastern Kentucky, but if they could improve access to their major sights (which includes marked trails because there aren't many except for one trail that spans the whole island) it would be an awesome place to visit.

The next day Stephen and I were in a group that hiked to Middleham Falls with SAS.  Our guide was 40 year old, who told us to call him Bushman.  The hike to the falls was steep and mildly dangerous towards the end, but he got us all there.  A lot of people did a forty foot jump into the pool below the falls, I mostly watched and took pictures of one the girls I've met while she did the jump (she's from Trinidad, there's so much diversity on this ship!).  I did get in and swim for a while, and I jumped off a spot 15 feet up without any problems, so, it was pretty cool.  On the way out of the forest a rainstorm came through and drenched everyone, it's amazing how much water the canopy in a rainforest catches though because for a while I thought we'd stay dry while we hiked.  After that our group went back to the ship and we ate lunch (it was around 2:00 or 2:30) at a restaurant near the port.  They served pig snout, but I decided to stick with the pastry full of tuna salad.  After meeting with some other people and hearing their stories we got back on the ship to avoid the line that forms the last hour and a half before we have to be on the Explorer.

Dominica was an amazing couple days filled with a lot of sightseeing and riding around in buses or taxis with people.  The places were beautiful, and I think I’ve gotten the hang of travelling by cab.  My main goal in Brazil will be to talk to as many people as I can.  As beautiful as sights can be, the people that take you to those sights are way more exciting.  That’s why it’s an adventure…

P.S. I can’t wait until I can post some pictures from an internet connection in Brazil!  Oh, and location update: We’re sailing up the Amazon River as of a couple hours ago…it’s so wide I can’t see either side, but the ocean water and river are mixing different colors.  It’s kind of cool.

 

Sailin' Along...

Hey everyone!  It’s only been a few days since I posted, but it feels like it’s been a week.  A lot of things have happened since I said bye from the airport in Lexington.  Stephen and I made it to Nassau without any glitches, and even better, our bags did too! 

By the time we reached the Bahamas (and made it through customs) we had already met several Semester at Sea students (including Chi-Chi who introduced herself by vaguely shouting that she was Asian).  Our taxi driver told us some cool places to eat on the way to the hotel, and after some relaxing on the beach, a group of seven of us set out for downtown to see the city before we were supposed to leave the next day. 

I’ll definitely say this started my first adventure on this trip.  Our group got off a city bus in the heart of downtown, and then we walked around looking for a place to eat.  Several of us wanted to try some Bahamian food, so of course, the only restaurants open downtown were a McDonald’s, Hard Rock Café, and a Chinese restaurant.  I’m sure we looked confused while we walked down one street because a woman walking by asked us if we needed anything.  One my airport friends Jira (she’s a foreign affairs major from the University of Virginia) asked where we could eat some Bahamian food.  The woman told us about the Cricket Club, a ten minute walk along the main road through Nassau.  We set off in that direction.

Now, if this woman can really walk the distance it took us to get to the Cricket Restaurant and Pub, she’s right on target for a world record in speed walking (as a note, she didn’t exactly look athletic, but you never know with some people).  It took us thirty minutes, and a lot of confusion but we finally found the Cricket. 

Now some of you may have wondered to yourself, why would anyone ever name a restaurant after crickets?  I asked myself the same thing, and so did everyone else in the group.  Funny story…it’s because cricket is a sport.  Of course, cricket’s one of the sports I think about all the time, right up there with curling and rodeo drives…I’m not sure why it didn’t hit me sooner!  I’m also not sure why it didn’t hit Kevin sooner (he’s a cool guy). His expression changed so dramatically when he asked why everyone was watching cricket mid-way through dinner that it looked like every light bulb in the Empire State Building had just been turned on.  The culture shock factor, despite being minor, was cool since it was my first surprise.

Oh and by the way, our food was awesome.  The fish I ordered (fun times, they still had eyes when they came out), peas and rice, and some plantains were the highlight of my meal.  The best part though, was that we had found a local joint with reasonable prices!  It made the entire walk very satisfying (haha, it did not make the later walk to our hotel satisfying though. That taxi driver definitely needs to practice estimating distances…).

The next day, getting on the ship was surprisingly easy.  We had to wait an extra day to depart for the students whose visas hadn’t been finished, but we had orientation which was not all that exciting.  It was important safety wise though.  Mom you don’t need to worry, the captain said we had one of the best lifeboat drills ever, with more people.

Right now we’re sailing close to full speed to reach the island of Dominica (pronounced Dough-men-eek-uh) on time, and we’ve passed a couple of larger ships on the way.  Puerto Rico is flying by on our starboard side, it’s pretty cool.  In general, Nassau was awesome, especially finding a local restaurant.  I can’t wait to explore some more places, that’s why it’s an adventure…

P.S. I can’t send pictures right now, but I will at some point.

 

Well here it is! We'll be boarding in a couple minutes, so, I guess I'll see everyone at home in a little while!  I'll miss everyone a ton, but I'm sure this is going to be the adventure of a lifetime!  Over the next several hours, Stephen (my roommate from WKU) and I will be flying 278 miles to Charlotte, NC and then another 729 mile skip down to Nassau.  I'll keep you updated when we make it to our hotel, but for now it's time to say goodbye to the Bluegrass and everyone who makes the United States home.  That's why it's an adventure...

P.S. Waking up at 4:45 AM is not the travel (ZZZZzzzzzz.....)

     Alright, this is my first post here, and I figure an undertaking like sailing around the world deserves a somewhat thoughtful introduction.  Here it goes...

     After I recovered from finals weeks last month (recovery meaning hanging out with friends into the early morning and feeling awful during normal waking hours), I decided to read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  That book sat on my bookshelf waiting to be read all fall and it was high time to rescue it's dignity from books like Human Anatomy and Schaum's Guide to French Grammar.  So, I picked it up and read all the way from Kentucky to Illinois (plus a little extra) on the way to my grandparents'.

     Do you know what I found?  An adventure; the kind that completely changes the character involved because it brings out the parts of them they never quite understood.  Bilbo Baggins, the main character, doesn't become a thief in The Hobbit.  He finds out that he already was one (the noble kind, of course). Bilbo just needed the right opportunities and a sense of adventure.  The adventure wasn't easy. Bilbo fights trolls, out-riddles a creepy cave dweller, converses with a dragon (with a few burns), and survives a battle between five armies.

     What I'm trying to say is, Tolkien knew that adventure is a risk. But, he also knew that blazing a path into lands only heard of is a chance to become more yourself.  Spending a semester at sea will be a chance to see the world like I can never imagine.  It shouldn't be too risky (breathe Mom), but I could learn a couple things about who God made me to be, and what I can do here.  That's why it's an adventure...

P.S. Because thoughtfulness needs cheesy symbolism, here is the front door of Bag End open to the world.  BTW, Bag End is super swank!