Not goodbye... see you later

All of our bags are packed, we are ready to go… but not really.  Leaving the ship this morning was something we never thought about when we boarded on the MV Explorer 68 days ago.  It was full of signing maps (equivalent to yearbooks), swapping pictures, sharing stories and saying our ‘see you laters’.  It was the last of many.  Last lunch, last sun tanning on the deck, last noon report, last dinner, last pre-port, last sunset, last night under the moon and the stairs, last breakfast, last time saying goodnight to our roommates and friends down the halls, a last of many.  We are sad beyond words.  This ship brought us so much joy over the past 68 days.  It was an amazing sight to see after the long days in port.  It was a cool place to be when the sun and heat were too much outside.  It was our home in every way around the Mediterranean.  We have and will continue to try to give you a glimpse of our summer, but please be patient with us because our hearts will still be in mourning.

This was a once in a life-time-experience and we would like to thank our parents, from the bottom of our hearts, for showing us the world.  We wish thank you would be enough to express how much gratitude we have but that is all we can say in our final blog.  Thank you mom and dad for showing us the world!  We love you and cannot wait to see you back at home in DIA!
Bon voyage
John and Mal

Brand New Alumni of Semester at Sea....

....pending final exam scores.
Phew….after 5175 minutes spent in class over the last 2 months we are all…….finally………DONE!!!!!!!!!!!  I know…no body is sharing in my excitement.  Especially all the kids who’s summer is coming to an abrupt end.  We’ll so is mine!  But my short burst of excitement is dampened by the reality that will come in a short two days when we will walk out the gangway for the last time (get the tissue ready).  Girls will be balling, summer flings will depart (haha suckers…) and guys will be doing some kind of male attempt at a ‘hug-fairwell-without-getting-too-close-cause-that’s-creepy’ goodbye.  Ya it’s gonna be weird.  But more about that later.
The past few days have been an extended blur.  How can it be an extended blur, you all ask curiously?  Well, imagine driving 3,400 miles in your car…but you can only go 20 miles per hour.  That’s what it’s like sailing across the Atlantic at 13.4 nautical miles per hour.  A little slow… But we of course found many things to fill our time…like homework! 

The first day we got back from Morocco, we had a ship-wide auction to raise money for the Shipboard Drive which is money for student’s grants and scholarships to come on Semester at Sea.  We set a $50,000 goal and I think we got pretty close if we didn’t make the goal.  To be honest though, some of these kids just shell out money like it’s printer paper (which we’re still low on from the Global Studies essay).  “It’s for a good cause” just doesn’t justify paying 150 for a three boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  But there were some other items that were pretty good.  Like pie-ing our Global Studies Professor ($400), the map of our voyage with the Captain’s signature ($525), first off the ship, 30-minute phone call (hit big with the lonely girlfriends), unlimited internet for a day, steer the ship for 30-minutes (and subsequently terrify 850 students, faculty and staff) ($415).  Like I said…couldn’t quite justify.  But it was a fun day.

The Global Studies final brought everyone to a common, emotional level that nearly inflicted tears.  Thankfully apathy took over and students decided to make designs on their answer sheets instead of attempting to answer the questions.  (It’s just our luck if they do better than us…)  However, there was a collective sigh when all the tests were turned in and you could breathe for 1.4 minutes before you had to start studying for the next two exams.  We did have one day off to study…that went by way too fast.  I had the pleasure of two cumulative finals that did not make me smile.  Mal had a non-cumulative final and a paper/project/presentation thingy…rainbows weren’t there either.  But now the academic cloud has cleared because we are now, officially done with classes on SAS!  

We have the Ambassador’s Ball tonight which includes dinner, entertainment, dessert, and dancing.  The last part should be interesting…especially if all the sea-sick people don’t enjoy the meal and still “love to party” (bring a mop).  And don’t even get me started about the dancing.  Can you picture 700+ kids dancing on the *small* 7th deck?? Ok now include the rocking of the boat to that picture…ya it’s gonna be ugly. 

With any luck we’ll be able to pack up all the little treasures we bought throughout the summer.  The real miracle will be making the 50 pound weight limit (not happening).  We’ll be getting off the ship around 12:30EST on the 21st.  This means of course that the water works will begin promptly at 9:30 in the morning and shouldn’t stop until mid-afternoon.

It’s a lot harder sailing west then it was sailing east.  We had all of the Mediterranean to look forward to…Europe was at our disposal!  But now all we have to look forward to is a day off before starting up another semester.  I know, I know…all the violins in Beethoven’s symphony are playing the saddest song just for us.  But you have to give us a break!  It’s not easy being young, vibrant students with minds like sponges!  Ok maybe not sponges…  

Love always!

John and Mally

In The Big Blue Sea

Is anybody out there?
Although we are more than halfway done with our track across the Atlantic, we are still pulling our hair out.  To give you a little taste of where we are sitting right now picture more than 700 students are spread out across the ship feverishly trying to study for our Global Studies final exam.  Everyone is cramming politics, culture, history, and geography about the Mediterranean into their heads.  It is not a pretty sight.  We long to be the children of the ship who skip along the hallways sing Disney Movie songs and having the pool completely to themselves… rug rats! Our final classes are far behind us as the next two days are devoted to our final studies before the big bad finals day! We have no time to begin to lament about our loses with all the work we have cut out for us not only with classes but how are we going to get all of our crap home?! Where is my dad and his professional packing skills when I need him? Guess we all have to grow up sometimes…
Write more later when there is time to regain our strength-

John and Mally

Morocco?Where the Definition of ?Family Car? is Squeezing Three People onto a Moped

We did it.  Our last port has come and gone in what seemed like a flash.  But before we all get weapy eyed that John and Mal are coming home I’ll give you the Moroccan Run Down.

We arrived in port on Saturday the 7th and headed off for a city orientation tour.  We drove around the Casablanca area and got out at a fresh market that had fruit/veggies, fresh bread, oil, fish, and, of course, meat!  One animal skinned and strung up by its hind legs was smaller than the rest…and it turned out to be cat (this represents my favorite part of the summer).  Everyone eeked and screamed while Mal and I took pictures and high fived at the thought of one less cat in the world (have I mentioned my feelings on cats?).  Then we stopped at the Palace where the King stays when he is in Casablanca (he usually lives in Rabat, the capital).  Back on the bus…next stop was the Hassan II Mosque.  (if you’d like you can google it)  This is the 3rd largest mosque in the world (behind two in Mecca and Medina) but has the tallest minaret (tall belltower-lookin-thing) at some 250+ ft high.  The mosque was finished in 2004 and was estimated at some $800 Million dollars (that’s 8 zeros and 2 commas if you’re counting) and was financed ENTIRELY by donations from Muslims all over the world.  It took 30,000 workers seven years and is complete with gold plated marble, earthquake prevention designs, heated floors, a hammam (bathing area) in the basement and, like many football stadiums, a retractable roof.  It can hold 25,000 people (given 1 square meter each) in side and another 80,000 on the grounds outside (take that Jerry Jones!)  But now that you have basically taken the tour…we’ll move on.  We got back in the bus and followed the coastline and saw the beaches, which were jam packed with people.  Then we stopped at the Souk for everyone to make their first pass at souvenirs and headed back to the ship.  Mal and I joined our other friends and walked to Rick’s Café, a replica of the restaurant in the movie Casablanca.  As far as I could tell, it was really authentic (and no, I’ve never seen the movie).

The next day, Mal and I decided to take a 3-hour train ride to Marrakesh, which is a popular area south of Casablanca.  At this point we realized we DEFINITELY are in Africa…local temperature: 45 degrees Celsius.  We did the conversion…that’s a whopping 115 degrees Fahrenheit.  (our bodies quickly turned into a leaky faucet…it was nasty)  So we grabbed a cab to the Junaa El-Fra which is a HUGE Souk (basically a Moroccan Bazaar) with a large open space for henna artists, guys with monkeys, and snake charmers (yaaaaaaay…..nooooooooo!!!!).  It was weird.  So we walked around a bit and fought off the ‘tempting’ offers to hold the snakes.  Oh Mal quickly learned to walk with her arms crossed cause this guy came up, grabbed her arm, and plopped a monkey right on her!  It was funny….she’s still scrubbing the monkey butt off her forearm.  Eventually, we decided to really get into the Souk so we walked around for a couple hours and basically got lost.  We stopped for lunch at this French-lookin café for some ‘authentic’ pizza (ha!).  Then we asked every storekeeper how to weave our way back to the center square.  We also picked up some treasures along the way…after bartering of course.  After that we were basically hosed so we decided to take the train back (hottest and longest 3 hours of my life!!!  You know its bad when the Moroccan natives think it’s hot!) 

The next day we were so burnt out we slept in and finally got up the energy to explore Casablanca a bit.  However, once you shop the Souk in Marrakesh, nothing really compares.  But we tried our best.  We came back to the ship relatively early (but still dripping sweat) to clean up and have an evening with a Moroccan family.  SAS set us up and we drove to their house.  The whole night was awesome!  They were a wealthier family in Morocco as the dad is a lawyer and they send their triplets (boy-boy-girl at 10.5 years old) to an American International school.  Their kids were awesome and spoke great English.  Even though the dad could speak some English, he would even have them translate what he would say in French and Arabic (mainly for them to practice).  So we had an awesome traditional dinner and got to talk about a lot of different cultural things with them.  It was defiantly a highlight of the entire Voyage.

The next day we walked back into Casablanca to get rid of our last Dirhams.  We found a few more souvenirs and headed back to the ship (of course….drenched in sweat!  You get the drift??) 

And for the next 11 days we will sail back to Norfolk, VA.  We have a day off today (the 11th), then 4 days of class, then the ship-wide Global Studies final exam, then a study day, then finals day, then two days to unwind before we are HOME!!!

We’ll try to get another blog out sometime in the next 11 days…I’m sure we’ll need to vent about the cramped quarters, repetitive food, and all the memories we’ve made over 2 months of traveling the Mediterranean and North Africa!

Love always,

John and Mal

Why do I need a Turkish visa if I brought my own credit card?

Please allow me to put all you readers in the galactic into perspective before you all continue.  You see…from July 13th to August 2nd we hadn’t had a class day.  Awesome right??  Totally if you like jumping onto a treadmill that is moving at full speed…can you say rug burn??  And believe me…many of these kids could use some aloevera. 

The first day after Egypt we held a ship wide “Sea Olympics”.  Our cabins are broken up into groups based on our decks and halls.  The entire day we run out doing mostly outrageous competitions wearing our sea colors.  My sea is the Caribbean and our color was pink which was great because I brought every piece of pink clothing I own….which is none…  Mal however, was tricked out in her purple…she was the Baltic Sea.  (everyone pause for inter-relationship competition…ooooooo….conflict!!!!)  Sadly the only event we were both in was dodgeball and they had a girls bracket and a guys bracket (lucky for her…).  Dodgeball was also the only event I competed in because my skinny butt had no shot in the pull up competition.  And Mal didn’t do the synchronize swimming because she couldn’t touch the bottom of the pool…the kids pool… (oh I’m gonna pay for that one…).  In summary, the entire shipboard community now knows that Mal has a bigger arm than the pull-up guys have egos….and they have some big egos!  [side note: while Mal was playing dodgeball, I took a picture of this guy behind her who was EMPHATICALLY motioning for the girls on the other team to ‘go for Mal’…you’ll all have to see it.]  In the end though, my Caribbean Sea took the gold and will be disembarking the ship first in Norfolk, VA.  (but seeing as I have a five foot shadow following me it’s not gonna make much of a difference…) 

On Wednesday the 4th, all the students had the blessing of another Global Studies exam.  Our collective groans caused the Ships horn to sound like a whisper in the night (wow…that was poetic…write that down).  In all reality though it wasn’t that bad…partly because the students almost tossed the professor overboard and he softened up so he wouldn’t have to swim.  We got our scores back today and we’re both pretty happy (Mal more so cause she beat me….oooo more inter-relationship competition!) 

The next night we had a student, faculty, and staff member talent show.  It was really fun…  We even had our Academic and Executive Deans lip-sync and dance to “I’m On A Boat” (you might not get that older generation…).  It was some funny stuff.  Other than that we had lots of musical performance and even some performances from the kids on the boat.  The next night we had a crew talent show for everyone on the boat… This led us to the harsh reality that the ship’s crewmembers are far more talented than 840 students, faculty, and staff.  But it was really fun to watch.

This morning we had to turn in our final essay for Global Studies (moral was pretty low) which meant a late night for most of the students.  We’ll see when we get those back…I figure with 720 essays at 6-pages a piece that’s around 4,320 pages…we might get them back around our 10-year SAS reunion.  Either that or they needed some kindling to keep the fire going on the way back to Virginia.  [We got an announcement that we are running out of paper on the ship this morning…well maybe you should have thought about electronic submission!!!  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist…]

At any rate, we’ll be walking down the gangway tomorrow for our last port in Morocco.  We have four days there until we depart for the 11-day trip back to Virginia.  It’s been a fun ride……. ‘Apollo 13…signing off’ [not really…it just felt like the right thing to say…]

We’ll post again after Morocco!

Missing everyone!

John and Mally

jmbooren@semesteratsea.net
mnmang@semesteratsea.net

PS – A quick explanation of the subject of the blog: Everyday during our announcements, “The Voice” tells the special question or comment of the day.  These are almost always ridiculously unintelligent overheard remarks from students on the ship.  One such comment made the cut for this blog’s title. 

I Miss My Mummy

       Now I am sure you all had your chance to read, reread and reread again wondering when I was going to type my part of the blog.  Just to do rumor control, no John did not leave me in a tomb somewhere, no I did not get GI illness, I was merely being a good student working hard and catching up on my sleep after having to wake up at 3 in the morning for an airplane to Luxor.
       So here, I will begin with our 3a.m. wake up call.  We sprang up from our “naps” and scurried on down to our buses where we meet our breakfast boxes.  Not only did we have our typical pastry breakfast but we also had our assortment of SASers who took it upon themselves to make this sleeping game a challenge.  That is right, they pulled all nighters.  Keep these brilliant kids in the back of your minds as we continue through our day.  When we finally arrived to a splendid Cairo airport we went through the process of two security checks and finally made it to our gate.  Once on the plane there was an hour to devote to sleep (because desert scenery is an oxymoron).  As we flew over the desert we finally descended to Luxor where first thing you saw was a sign that read: “Smile, your at Luxor International Airport.”  I think those who had now been up for over 24 hours were starting to feel the error of their decisions.  So we hopped on another bus and we cruise over the Nile to the West Bank.  Here we find the Valley of the Kings.  If you are not caught up on your Brendan Frasier movies (“The Mummy” or the sequels) or the history channel, the pharaohs of the modern age thought that building pyramids was just too flamboyant.  So they found a mountain that was shaped like a ginormous pyramid and secretly placed their tombs deep in the rock of the mountain.  So upon arrival we take these little trams up to the beginning to the tombs were mobs of street sellers await your arrival.  They walk next to you placing their trinkets in your hands and begin to drop the price down from five dollars to one with you not even saying a word.  But back to the Valley of the Kings- IT WAS INCREDIBLE! Once you step through the gate, you feel you have entered a hidden world.  There are entrances left and right to the tombs that lead you into the depths of these ancient tombs.  Everywhere you look inside the tombs, you see stories.  These stories are in pictures and hieroglyphics.  Ever seen the Prince of Egypt when Moses has dreams of the pictures coming alive?  Well that is what the walls look like! 
        After our exploring, we hopped on the buses to visit a tomb of the only female pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut.  It was extremely hot so staying out exploring her tomb was short lived.  The tomb was built into the side of a mountain and had three tiers.  Many different countries have and are continuing to excavate the area.  I will not bore you with what I think to be fascinating details about her rein, since John finds it unnecessary to put into my blog, but if you wish I would be happy to give you a lovely story.  Our next stop was of these two marble statues that were built for a mom and a wife of a pharaoh, the name escapes me now but all together now…awwww…what a sweet pharaoh.  Then we finally went back to the hotel to have our free time.  They always give us free time in the middle of the day/ late afternoon because the heat is too much to take.  They don’t call it the desert for nothing!  After a little rest we went to the Luxor Temple.  It was built by Amenophis III and Ramses II and was a temple dedicated to the god of Thebes.  Thebes is another name for Luxor.  Then we got to have a decent nights rest.
        The next morning we went to the Karnak Temple.  The most massive temple! Please if you google anything, google that.  Different pharaohs did their part and added on to it, making the largest temple.  Simply jaw dropping!  Words do not describe how Egyptians built it!  It is on the same playing field as the pyramids!  Then we got on the bus and went to the airport to drop off 2/3 of our group who had earlier flights.  We left the airport and they flew back to Cairo to have lunch at the first hotel and head home, this included John.  For me, we went back to the hotel and had two and half-hours of naptime! I was thrilled because I got to watch a little news and feel somewhat connected to the world, ironic I know! Then we had lunch and off to Cairo and then to Alexandria. 
        On our last day, we slept in a little and then headed out to visit the Alexandria’s Library.  Ptolemy I (the first) had this crazy idea that knowledge was a good thing to have.  The original library was the largest collection of manuscripts at its time.  But, like all great things, it was burnt down…CSI is still investigating but the prime suspects Julius Caesar.  If you get the chance check out their website (www.alexlib.org)! It has 1.5 million volumes on the internet database, for free!  Again another jaw dropping place! 
        To sum up this long blog, sorry, EGYPT WAS SIMPLY AMAZING!!!!
John and Mal

Three Pyramids and a Man-headed Lion

Wow…Egypt… By far the most exhausting port we have visited…by far…(did I mention that??)  Ok I will do my best to recap for you but my brain feels a lot like a small tornado so we’ll see if I can type in complete sentences.  I’m going to write the first couple days now (while we’re leaving the port) and Mal is going to finish off the last few days sometime later (my part’s gonna be waaaay better ☺ ) ((keep dreaming))

Day 1:
We arrived in the port of Alexandria, Egypt and got on 4 different coach busses (it was a huge trip…120 kids) to drive a whopping 3 hours to Cairo.  During our drive our tour guide spoke on the history of Egypt while pointing out every grain of sand in the Sahara Desert.  Really though…she was UNBELIEVABLY knowledgeable about everything Egypt but to college kids early in the morning she sounded a lot like a lullaby.  We drove and drove and finally saw the pyramids (side note: I totally won the classic game “who-can-spot-the-pyramids-first”…booyea).  We stopped for lunch at a hotel very near the base of the pyramids.  (See #1 below)  We climbed back into the bus and went to the world’s first monumental stone complex, the Step Pyramid of King Zoser.  After 5000 years of damage and decay, it looks a lot like a hill in a sandbox…a huge sandbox that is the Sahara Desert.  After looking at some more ancient pyramids (that are far less popular than the grand pyramids) we headed back to the hotel for a much-needed siesta.  But it was short lived and we headed back out to visit a Bazaar in Cairo.  The bazaar was not nearly as nice as the ones in Turkey so we didn’t really get anything.  (See #2 below)  We dozed back to the hotel on the bus, had dinner, and went to bed at a late 12:00am (or 0:00 for you military people).

Day 2:
Early wakeup call number 1.  After only 4 hours of sleep we had to wake up to watch the sunrise over the pyramids (which I’m sure I can find on youtube at any time of day that does NOT end with “a.m.”) (he is really being sarcastic it was INCREDIBLE)  We had a quick bus ride to this plateau that looks out toward the pyramids to the East.  For the first hour or so it was really dark and foggy (meaning we could have waited til 5am…but what’s an hour?)  Eventually the sun finally came up and cast light over the pyramids…it was amazing…and yes, probably better than youtube.  We took so many pictures (your welcome Mom) of the sunrise, holding the pyramid, eating the pyramid, squishing the pyramid, jumping at the pyramid, looking up at the pyramid, and so on…  Then we went for a little walk down closer to the 2nd pyramid (the one with the cap on top) and the 3rd pyramid (the smallest of the three).  Then we paid a few dollars for a quick camel ride which was quite an experience.  Mal and I shared a camel (poor fella…we named him Steve but no offense Dad) and we had this 8-year-old kid leading our train of camels beating them with a stick.  It was a little scary having a kid controlling 3 beasts when he couldn’t even satisfy their hunger if he were their midnight snack.  One girl’s camel decided to take off and she was holding on for dear life while these Egyptian guys went chasing after her…it was hilarious…shhhh!  Then we drove to the base of the Grand pyramid (the biggest/first one) and the 2nd pyramid (again with the cap on it) and then onto the Sphinx.  It was really cool being that close to everything.  Then we went to the National Archaeological Museum and saw oodles and doodles of ancient artifacts recovered from the tombs of King Tut and a bunch of others (can you say sensory overload??).  Then we went on this boat ride on the Nile where we had lunch and had a belly dancer and music and other guys entertain us.  Then we drove to the Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali (not sting like a bee…I know I was disappointed).  We went back to the hotel to rest and then out again to visit the pyramids at night and enjoy a ‘light and sound’ show.  They had huge projectors and lasers and they projected different scenes and images on the pyramids and the sphinx and such…it was pretty cool.  But again a late night…dinner at 10:00 (or 2200). 

I will leave the next 2 days for Mal to explain at a later time but let me give you a teaser…we had to wake up at 3:00am to catch a flight.  Ouch…



Couple funny things about Egypt:

1 – they have bathroom assistants.  Now before your mind goes to far…let me explain: They have these people who stand in the bathroom and wait for you to approach the sink.  Once you do, they turn on the water for you and pump out soap into your hands.  Then they wait for you to finish and dry your hands with a towel.  Royal treatment eh??...but then you have to pay them.  So basically you have to pay for a service you a) didn’t ask for, and b) you don’t want.  (I like washing my hands all by my self!!!)

2 – So me and Mal and our friend Julia were walking through the bazaar and I kept getting these natives yelling “You lucky man!”  And eventually Mal pointed out that one said “You have two wives…you VERY lucky man!!!”  (if you didn’t know…polygamy is popular in Egypt)  One guy even said, “You have two wives…one for Sunday one for Monday?  Shheeesh….

3 – Security??  In Egypt they have the police and then they have the “Tourist Police”…no joke.  These guys stand at all the major tourist spots with their big guns and happy smiles (ok that was a joke) and make sure you don’t do anything stupid.  But, they also motion you over and tell you to climb the first couple steps of the pyramid for a picture.  However, when your done, they won’t let you leave until you have “compensated” them for their kindness…and remember…they have the big guns!  So basically security is tight…unless you have the money to loosen it.


We have our Sea Olympics today...  Mal and I will clash swords and butt-heads in an epic dodgeball duel (she’s going down…….) (again keep dreaming!!! Who do you think your kidding I am the master of dodgeball)  Winner of the Sea Olympics gets to disembark the ship first (yippee ki-yay…)

As always feel free to email us!  We have 5 days of class before Morocco and I swear the teachers are against us…lots of papers and tests for everyone.  Speaking of paper…I should probably get a start on that…

Love always!

John and Mally