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

The Sun Rises in Egypt

A 4:15am wake up call led to sunrise at the pyramids.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Istanbul, Constantinople, Istanbul, Constantinople...and so on...

We are just pushing off of the port in Istanbul, Turkey.  However, let’s begin the evening with a lifeboat drill.  For those of you who haven’t been on a cruise or something like that, it’s a lot like a fire drill…except EVERYONE looks like a bunch of idiots wearing over-sized, uncomfortable life jackets (or as we like to call them F.O.T.—Funky Orange Things).  We wait around for the captains approval (I’m just waiting for him to bust up laughing at us all), and then mosey on back to normal life.

But on to the Turkey wrap up:

Day 1:
We got in early early on Tuesday, July 20th.  Mal had a ‘Ship-Trip’ (catchy eh?) that was basically a city orientation.  It took her to a lot of the main sites...Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Cisterns, lovely views…you know, the works.  I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Practicum) for my law class called “Women and Law in Turkey”.  We were scheduled to go to the Turkish Bar association…and naturally I though it would be fun.  Oh no…we spent 3.5 hours sitting in a lecture hall listening to a panel of women speaking Turkish with our guide “translating” (I put that in quotes because it was a very loose definition of ‘translating’). 
My thoughts: “Ummm…yea….can I have my afternoon back please??”
That night we walked around a bit and turned in early because……..

Day 2:
……Mal and I had to wake up early for our trip to Cappadocia (pronunciation guide: ‘kapa-doh-KIA’).  It’s a city on the Asian side located in Central/South Turkey and looks a lot like Utah.  But really there is some awesome landscape…these cone looking rock formations were formed and people dug massive tunnel systems and miniature cities underground.  Some of the cities go as far as 40 meters down.  That, we found, is the coolest (temperature) part in Turkey…most everywhere else is pretty stinkin hot.  So we rode our bus around all day and stopped at different sites.  That night we had a HUGE buffet dinner (I’m still working it off) and then we went to a “Whirling Dervishes” ceremony, which was really sweet.  Basically it’s a religious/meditation ceremony with these guys in robe-dress-lookin-things that spin around in circles longer than humanly possible.  If dizziness does not agree with you, neither will Whirling Dervishes.  (enter youtube/google for more info)

Day 3:
We could have chosen to do a hot air balloon ride to see some of the formations and the sun rise but instead we examined the inside of our eyelids for another 3 hours (which was much needed).  We did a bit more walking around.  One place we stopped was really cool: We went into a cave-ish thing in one formation and it got darker and darker and darker until *poof* you can’t see your nose in front of you [haha I can just see everyone cross-eyed in front of the computer trying to see their nose…oh that’s rich].  We were holding onto butts and shoulders of people we couldn’t see to make our way through and we ended up crawling down this tiny tunnel for like 10 meters in the pitch dark.  For Mal and I it was wicked fun…for  tweedle-dee and tweedle-dumber right behind me it wasn’t fun cause they think flip-flops and flats are “really good walking shoes”. [side note: I am now a believer in Survival of the Fittest…..they would not be surviving]  In the afternoon we got to go the airport and flew back to Istanbul (Constantinople, Istanbul, Constantinople….you just can’t help it).  We were in absolutely NO condition to go out and crashed in a stinky, sweaty, dirty mess.

Day 4:
We didn’t waste anytime getting around in the morning cause we wanted to see the sites before the sun could burn a stake on the street.  Our first stop: the Egyptian Bazaar (aka Spice Bazaar).  This place was sweet.  It’s just a looooong row of shops with snacks and spices and Turkish Delight up the WAZOOO! (“what’s a wazoo?”)  Everything smells amazing and if you make eye contact or show any interest in something you WILL be called over for “Best [fill in the blank] in town!!! Very Good Price!!!”  Anyway we bought some spices, some tea, and a few other things and had a fun time bartering down the prices (We’re just poor students!  *on an expensive study abroad* We need a discount!”)  After that we walked to the Grand Bazaar…can you say ‘sensory overload’??  It’s nuts!  They estimate that there are around 4000 shops in the Grand Bazaar and I swear we saw a good portion of that.  But we did some more bartering and bought a few more things.  As it turns out every single vendor in the Bazaar is your best friend (or in Mal's case, wants to be her Turkish husband) and has a very special price JUST for you!  Fun times.  Then we went to the Blue Mosque, which is huge and extravagant and is the only mosque in the world that has 6 minarets around it.  Pretty cool.  Then we walked around for a bit before heading back to the ship.  That night we walked to Taksim Square, which has a lot of fun nightlife and is really good for people watching…especially with a Starbucks Frappuccino (you can run but Starbucks will find you). 

Day 5:
This morning we woke up and went to find a boat tour up the Bosporus River, which connects the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea and splits Turkey’s Europe and Asia sides.  There were a bunch of cool buildings and some sweet houses/hotels along the River.  And at one point on the tour we counted 18 Turkish flags on the shore…they like their crescent moon and star I suppose.  After the Bosporus we went to a recommended place for the infamous Turkish Bath!  It was awesome…it’s like a sauna, bath, pool, hot tub, scrub down, massage, meditation all combined on steroids!  Ya…….awesome!  You don’t want to sweat ever again after the Bath.  I don’t have the words or time to describe further but if you want to learn more…I don’t even have to tell you what to do anymore. 

And now we are back on the ship.  Two school days between Turkey and Egypt which is going to feel a lot like the length of school between Thanksgiving and Christmas break (haha get it?  Thanksgiving→Turkey and Egypt→I don’t really know but I’m easily amused).  So class is going to be rough since we haven’t done work in like 11 days.  I know…we have a lot to complain about…it’s so rough…cry a river.

As usual, we hope everyone is enjoying their side of the rainbow.  Cause ours is pretty stinkin colorful…

We miss you all!

Love always,

John and Mally

It's all _______ to (us)!!!

OOOPAAHHHH!!!!!!

Mal is going to write this blog for the most part but she is taking too long to finish up some other emails and I’m impatient.  So for all you joyous followers, now will be the only semblance of sarcastic whit you will find in this blog.

Anyone who has never been to Greece has the exact same expectations…and those expectations are directly from “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”.  However, in most places in Greece, and its surrounding parts, that stereotype doesn’t always play out.  But I guess you’ll just have to see for yourself because there is no way of describing it in this little shout out we call a blog.

We spent a whopping 5 days in the port of Piraeus, which is about 6 miles south of Athens.  To get to Athens you can choose from the overwhelming taxi drivers who are convincing you that paying 15 Euro per person is more logical than taking the cheap metro for 2 Euro round trip.  But I digress…

To get away from it all, Mal and I booked a *last-minute* trip to the island of Paros.  We went with 4 other “SAS-quatches” (I didn’t make it up…I’m just the parrot here) and stayed the town of Naoussa, which is on the other side of the capital Parikia.
(I will now leave this to Mal to finish the story…)

I’m going to back it up here and say that the dad in my big fat Greek wedding, with his whole “give me a word and I will show u the root of the word is Greek” was my tour guide! I had to do an FDP (faculty direct program) for my speech class.  Our tour guide would constantly say a word, break it down, give u the Greek meaning and then say “there you go.”  I really could not stop laughing! Every big word he did!  Did you know the Nike also has Greek roots? Well it does and it stands for victory! Ha! I learned something on this whole voyage, even though I am sure most of you knew that already.  John didn’t so I bask in the glory.

So back to our island adventure:
We get off the ferry and are not sure if our hostel owner will be there to pick us up.  So we followed the crowd to find this big, Greek, smiling man holding a sign to our hostel.  We load up our bags into his “mature” van.  I think the ancient Greeks made this and said “HA, the first suburban!” It was pretty special, especially when we weren't sure if we would have to get out and push it up the hill to the hostel.  Oh the memories! ("Come on ol' girl just keep chuggin!!")

So we ran into the little town and got some food.  I insisted on having something very authentic and the only thing I could remember from My Greek Fat Wedding was “Moosekaka” (cue the mean girls at the lunch table) but really it is 'Mousaka'.  It was really good…

So we woke up the next morning and listen to the owners wife give us her tips on the island.  She said you must go beach hoping and rent a scooter.  So we did just that! Rented a scooter, against the rules of Semester at Sea (shhhhh!), and were off.  We followed this really useful map (sarcasm) but the good thing is there is really only one main road to take around the island and 'usually' (but not always) signs were helpful.  The beaches were simply beautiful with never many people on them.  I mean extremely beautiful with golden beaches and bright turquoise water of just cool enough to relieve us from the hot sun. 

After a good hardy lunch, dinner was nothing more than appetizers and an experimental try of Ouzo.  The waiter informed us that only the elder like it and I guess that is true since my mom said she enjoys it.  However, for you young folks, no dice...  Tastes like extreme black liquorish or as someone described it to us, bad Anise (my family you know the other name for this...everyone else can probably guess).  The house wines on the other hand are very delightful...and cheap!

The next day we kept the scooter for a little longer and decided to bop around to different villages.  We saw the 100 door church, great windmills, and spectacular views from a village in the mountain called Lefkey.  After our short motorcycle adventures we cooled off in the ocean at our favorite beach yet.  Very warm, shallow waters, great sandy bottom and spectacular views.  So after we showered off at the hostel we uploaded some pictures on our facebooks.  We really didn’t make much progress on them seeing as we had to catch the bus back to the port area.

We grab a great dinner, as the food is always amazing! (Generally we ate was gyros (yee-ros) or souvlaki (soov-LAH-kee).

[(Side quote: My Big Fat Greek Wedding)
 “He is a vegetarian”
 “What?! He don’t eat no meat?! Ok I make lamb”]

Meat meat and more meat!  Oh the restaurant was called 'Zorbas'! It wasn’t "Dancing Zorbas"  but oh well.  (If you haven’t seen My Greek Fat Greek Wedding then you really do not understand any of this!) So we then waited as our ferry became more, more and more delayed.  It really wasn’t a problem since we had a great bench to sit and watch the people and the other ferries go by.  So to end this long story we got home at 2am and had to walk a mile and half back to the ship to finally sleep in the comfort of our “home”.  So it really does not matter that we almost missed the ferry ;)

So the next day we enjoyed the heat! And the Plaka, a market place.  For dinner, we got lost, no one spoke English so the food was amazing!  Best time! It was all Greek to me!  The last day we went to the Acropolis before the tons of tourist and the heat set in!  And also caught the new museum they built for the Acropolis and toured around the city.

So in short (I understand nothing is ever short with me) [John: 'except her height'] Greece was a grand old time and we cannot wait to go back!

Onwards to 'Istanbul, Constantinople, Istanbul, Constantinople!'  Play that song and think of us!...unless you're too young in which case go play outside or something

Love always!

Mally & Johnny

Correction...I know...

My attentive brother pointed out the misunderstanding about the metric system.

He's always been so good at telling me I'm wrong.  Anyway you should get the picture...

I blame the mistake on the freezing water and maybe a little decompression sickness (ok not really).

Thanks!

John

Croatia--knocked out of the world cup...but still a sweet Port!

Greetings universe!

Our shallowest apologies for not having updated this lonely blog for many many days.  I just know everyone out there has been religiously refreshing their webpages….so don’t look now people but this is hot off the press!

Well I suppose you all want to hear about Croatia…so here goes.

Day 1:
We got into port late on the 14th but of course didn’t get off the boat until 15th.  Mal and I both went on a tour of the City Walls in the Old Town of Dubrovnik.  Basically, a long time ago, they built up these big walls around their city.  It was supposed to protect them from attacks but in 1991 the Serb and Montenegro armies bombed them.  It’s actually kind of crazy to think about what these people went through not 20 years ago (at the beginning of Mal’s and my lifetimes….crazy…sad…).  The walls did give us great views of Dubrovnik, the old Harbor (or as they say…’harbour’), and the “mountains” above the city.  (for visual reference…Google is your friend—“Dubrovnik City Walls”)  The actual Old Town is awesome!  The streets are all made of these huge, white marble slabs and everything is so clean.  There are a bunch of alleyways that have pizza places and shops and all that fun stuff.  After our tour we walked around the city and took it all in.  That night we found a nice little wine bar (thank you Trip Advisor) and played Scategories (only because Pictionary was in Croatian…).  But we were pretty cooked after walking around all day so we called it a *relatively early* night and headed back to the boat.

Day 2:
Ok now Mal’s turn to talk: We got up early to go on a Semester at Sea trip to visit an orphanage and hospital.  It is hard to call it an orphanage seeing as many kids do meet up with their parents, especially during the summer time.  Also the views of this orphanage were just spectacular of the old city and the island Lokrum.  Unfortunately we came on a bad time seeing as many of the kids went to the beach for the morning.  So we got a little interaction with them.  Mostly we talked to the director and saw where they live.  It was very well maintained and a nice place for the kids to stay.  We did get to walk down to the closer beach with some of the children that remained at the house, waiting for us.  Then went to the pediatric wing of the hospital and talk with the head doctor.  It is incredible that their little public hospital serves Dubrovnik’s 4.5 million residents and the surrounding islands yet it isn’t big and not many people were there!  They say they have very little extreme cases.  I really could go on about the hospital but to sum it up is going to be hard:  The head doctor was incredibly nice and informative, truly an amazing women!  All women worked in the pediatric wing, even their own chiefs!  Again not many kids but a beautiful little girl, from the States, who cracked her head open while vacationing with her parent.  Poor baby!  But overall it was a great informative, learning experience and felt blessed to give back a little bit.

Well we then decided to do a little shopping around the city after the trip since we might not have the time again.  And we did pretty well…but I can’t give away any secrets.  We cleaned up back at the ship and went out to meet up with a bunch of other SAS-ers (that’s the lingo…) at a place just off the beach to dance and hang around.  In summery: really really cool place….really really REALLY expensive!!! (don’t worry parents we didn’t spend anything!)...but still quite fun!

Day 3:
We decided to run over to an island just off the coast of Old Town called Lokrum (queue Google Images).  (whoa…boat just got shakey…we’re pushing off the dock as I type).  Anyway we caught a ferry to Lokrum and went exploring.  The island is FULL of peacocks…I mean everywhere!  It makes me miss my Peacock family ;)  It’s a really forestry place but then had tons of really sharp rocks on the edges.  We stumbled upon some cliffs that jut right out to the sea and found a spot to lay our stuff down.  We swam for a bit and jumped off some cliffs…don’t worry moms… just like 20-25 feet.  We did a little more exploring and got the ferry back to the mainland.  That night we went into town with our friends to get dinner and walked around the opening night of Croatia’s summer festival.  They even shot off fireworks just for us…ok not just for us but it was still fun.  (side note by John: Vail’s firework show wins…) [Mal: he has never been to St.L for the 4th but who is comparing ;)] But again we went in *pretty early* since we decide to schedule a scuba dive.  Sorry Mangs.

Day 4:
Mal and I had to get up early because we signed up for a spur-of-the-moment scuba dive just off the coast.  We went on a dive called “Little Africa” and went across their reef, through a canyon, in a cave and exited through a hole in the roof of the cave.  The dive was fun…different…definitely not the tropical waters we have around the states but still fun diving.  We dropped down to 30 meters and the water temperature plummeted to a chilly 10 degrees Celsius…it was freezing.  And on that note: diving in meters, liters, kilograms, and Bar is soooooo different when you’re used to the ol’ metric system.  We’ll save more of the scuba diving details for everyone who asks…we don’t want to bore our sleeping audience.  After diving we grabbed some internet and talked to Mal’s sisters, brothers-in-laws, nephews, and lonely niece.  It was nice ☺. 

And now we’re back on the ship…should be in Greece the morning of the 14th.  Then we’re off to the island of Paros for some more exploring!

As always we miss you all back in the great US of A where drinking waters is free and the public restrooms are FREE-er!  Cause they charge you for them over here…

Feel free to send us an email!  We’ll be in touch (hopefully sooner than later)!

Love always,

John and Mally

jmbooren@semesteratsea.net
mnmang@semesteratsea.net

PS – sorry we didn’t get to post pictures…Internet is a hot commodity

PSS- Oh and we are now watching the world cup on the ship… incredible it is on every room with big projection screens!!! Big party here but hopeful me-malorie- gets my speech done since I have to perform it tomorrow and john gets his paper done… will see ;)

Again thanks for reading!

Love you!

J&M

The little city on the hill....I know...poetic

Well it's been a while since I, John, have written...I blame it on carpal-tunnel syndrome since I did ALL the writing before. But Advil cures all!

Well since the Basilica and the Sistine Chapel, it feels like we haven't done much...it's tough to compare to those two. We took a couple hour drive south to the ruins of Pompeii. For those of you are historically challenged (like me) a wicked long time ago this volcano, Mt. Vesuvius, took out Pompeii and burnt it to a toasty crisp. They've excavated the ruins and found a bunch of cool stuff all around the city. But they've only got through like 30% of it so there's still plenty to go. We got back in the car and drove the curvey roads to Positano! If you don't know what it looks like picture a bunch of colorful houses stacked up a hill....b-e-a-utiful!...or just google it. We spent the evening walking around and relaxing. We woke up (side note: our hotel looks toward the houses on the hill and this mosaic church dome and the ocean in the background....ya...sorry) and took a complimentary (aka-included in the rate) boat ride down the coast to Amalfi. Again more beautiful houses, crazy hotels, and ginormous yachts! Jealous??...me too. After cleaning up our drool, Mal and I went walking around the city. Since there's only one motorized vehicle road, there were a bunch of little walkways and TONS of stairs! We returned home and got ready for a nice diner at Cino del Saraceno (tangent: we totally should have been Saracino's down here...it's crazy how far that name goes...I mean streets, restaurants, everything!!!). Dinner was followed by the usual...gillato. We keep fooling ourselves into believing it's healthier than ice-cream...pssh...not at the amounts we eat it at!

I was going to post that on July 2nd but didn't get around to it... So here's the 3rd too!

We took a boat ride over to the Italian island of Capri (CAP-ree) and did some walking around there. They had a funicular that takes you to the top of their "mountain" and we had more awesome views of the yachts and the Mediterranean. Thing is, Capri is tailored to the owners of those yachts...in other words, I couldn't afford anything more than gilatto...and even that wasn't cheap. But it was fun to walk around a drool and dream. On our way back we took a swim to cool off. During the swim, I got stung by a jellyfish, shocking I know (ok--that was lame). Nothing too serious...just a little 2-inch blister on my arm. Supposedly, urine helps cure a jellyfish sting...how i'm supposed to hit my arm though is beyond me...

Wish we could share this with you all!

Missing everyone!

John and Mally

PS- Mal got to talk to Jane and Katie (mom and sister) last night...someone's a little homesick.

Welcome to Italy!

The view of Sorento with hills and hills of houses! Love it!!! Wish everyone we know could join us!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Rome if you want to

Dear followers,
I am so very sorry for the delay in blog posting but seeing how we are on land and not at sea it is full out amazing race style. My teammate, John. So to track back across the balearic sea to Barcelona. We spent our last two days hiking and seeing all we could afford our feet to carry us to. I'm sorry to inform you all that we never made it to beach so no fun details from that cultural experience of clothing optional. We got on the ship early because I, Malorie, had to go to an faculty directed program for my abnormal psych class. The lecture was by a women from doctors without borders. Very fascinating. Then after leaving a little late due to fueling we were on our way to the green, white and red or in short Italy. We had one day on sea before arriving early yesterday morning to Civitavecchia, or however you spell it. You can google it yourself if you really find the need but as we were told by the ship, it is a small fishing town, just go to rome. So what did John and I do? We went to Rome. As some of you might know john's parents and brother and sister-in- law are all in Rome. So we did amazing race style to find the train station off the port got a train ticket and made it on just as the doors were closing. The for the eighty minute train ride we were wondering a) if we were on the right train and b) if we would make it to the hotel on time. The rush to a hotel was because there was a tour set up for the Booren family to go to the major sights around the city. It would have been nearly impossible to find tha hotel, drop our bags and go find the family where ever they maybe in this large, crazy city. We know it is summer and tourism is more popular now but you really cannot imagine the amount of people swarming the city. So we made it and were off to see the city, the wonderful city of Oz (not really). If you want long version of the sights email me and I would be happy to fill you on but for simplicity sake we will move on.
So after that we went back to the hotel for a short brake and went out to a beautiful traditional Italian dinner! Then off to bed. We woke up early to head to the Vatican. I must add we are getting better at handling the people cause Italians are very much a different breed. So our tour guy was this oh so cute, charming, brilliant 24 year old walking encyclopedia as they call him. Just to show how much I liked him, he was from ireland and is working oh his doctorate in art history, so we really couldn't ask for anyone better, oh he was amazing! So he gave us amazing stories and details of everything! Ok well not everything since they say if you spent just 60 second at each piece of artwork it would take you 27 years to complete. So WOW overload of really old stuff! The Popes get what they want! So we bopped in and out the swarms of people and finally arrived and the Sistine Chapel. Incredible!!! Then off to St. Peter's and words cannot describe the, the, massiveness? The extravagant detail? Absolutely incredible!
Well to finish this up we are leaving tomorrow morning and it is time to sleep. Please email me if you have any questions or want any more detail, I love details! At malmang@Rams.colostate.edu
Thanks for reading! Sorry for the delay!
Love always,

John and Mally

Oh and very special thanks to Steven and Marie because without them we would be lost in Rome!

June 24, 2010 - Spain in Detail

Ok so i had this long email written and john knew about it and he said it was too detailed for the blog but it was supposed to be posted yesterday so please bare with me...

Wow! What a day so far! We stayed up till midnight to look at the stars and wish our friend a happy birthday. Then went to back to our rooms to try and fall asleep against all the excitement for land. Then woke up at 6 a.m. to see the sunrise and to watch us come into port. Although we were tired it was very much worth it! Then we got ready before our diplomatic debriefing, a guy from the US Consulate who was from cu boulder. Then our boat was cleared of customs and the mad rush to the buses followed. We can not walk from port because of some construction but there is a complimentary bus service. So once we got to our drop off place, by the biggest statue of Christopher Columbus, we started walking to find an internet cafe and since it is a holiday and yesterday night spain partied there wasn't anything open. So we had a cappuccino and headed back to our port to catch our city tour. Now we're not gonna remember all the spots on the tour but we'll try: Our bus first took us to the top of Mt. Marmora which had a great view of the city and over the MV Explorer. Next we went to a replica city that symbolized the different regions of Espana. From there we traveled to the infamous Sigriada Familia Church ("The Holy Family"). It was incredible!!! If you don't know, it's a church started by the great architect, Gaudi. It has been in construction for over 120 years and has included the designs of many other great architects. It was so awesome. We'll try to post some pictures...but if not Google it. After picking our jaws off the pavement, slowly moved on to the last stop, Barri Gotic or the Gothic Quarter. It's a really cool part of the city with ancient buildings and fun vendors. We finished the tour and decided to get lost...the best way to explore is to get lost and wonder without having any time commitment. However, we kept walking in circles finding the same streets several times...we'll work on the getting lost part. We went for dinner and walked down Las Rambles which is basically like Pearl St or 16th St...on steroids! It's huge and has a ton of vendors on it and is a lot of fun. Then back to the ship to rest for a few minutes before dinner. We went to this sweet restaurant called La Quince Liz which has a new chefs making awesome dishes for wicked cheep. We walked around La Rambles and found some fun bars and pubs to duck into and hang with the locals. After the long night we headed back to the ship for a couple hours of sleep before tours in the morning. Yawn.....
So John went to the markets and I went a monastery up in the mountains it was beautiful but I'm not going to lie once u have seen one really big church u have seen them all! No it was so beautiful on the mountain looking over Spain. I took some hikes, tried some amazing cheese and just be a good old tourist taking lots of pictures. When I got back to the ship john was laying out on top enjoying the warm weather and sunshine. We have really lucked out with weather here! I think john already talked about his trip so now we just left the port to sit in good old Mcdonalds to get free Internet for the short time we have before going back to he ship to pickup more friends and head to a pub to watch some Spain in the world cup. Otherwise early night, which here is between eleven and midnight, since we are so tired and then we will see about tomorrow...

Hope it wasn't to boringly detailed

Love you all!

Mally and John

Howdy from Espana!!!

Hello Truth Seekers!

It has been roughly 36 hours since we've been in Spain....and we're exhausted!  Here's a rough overview: (for those of you who just don't care that much...skip down the part that says "hasta luaga")
June 24
-Work up at 6am to see the sunrise and watch us tie into port (all together now... *yawn*)
-went traveling around and on a city orientation for 4 hours...it was really cool
-Went to a really nice but cheap restaurant in the city...wined and dined (*yawn yawn*)
-stayed out late walking the streets
June 25
-Work up to go on another trip/tour for  4 hours ( I, John, shared a glass of wine with my professor....slightly weird, but more than slightly fun!)
-as for Mal she's not back yet from her trip so I don't know what she's done...she'll fill in all those who care later...all 2 of you.

We really are having a blast here! It's a ton of fun, the city is really cool in an ancient sorta way, and the people are pretty nice and accepting...so long as your not an idiot (like the dozen or so students who got pick-pocked already). But it actually is quite safe here...or at least relatively safe.

Again we hope everyone  is haven a lovely beginning of summer and we miss you all!

Hasta luega! (that's "see you later" in Spanish.....we're so cultural!!!

John and Mally
Jmbooren@semesteratsea.net
Mnmang@semesteratsea.net

We're in Espana!!!

We just finished walking around Las Rambles (Pearl Street on steroids). We're going on our city orientation now and enjoying the night away!

Miss you all!

John and Mally

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Welcome to the Mediterranean!!!

We’re sailing through the Straight of Gibralter in a couple of hours.  I know…seems like a snore.  But when all you’ve seen for the past 7 days is Canada and a couple dinky islands in the middle of Nowhereville—it’s HUGE!  Plus the water is supposed to be calmer in the Mediterranean, which should make for slightly less vomiting. 

If they let us out of class (which they better or there will be a 700 person revolution) we’re gonna try to get some video.  We’ll post it if we can find free internet in Barcelona.

As of the noon report, we have traveled roughly 2300 miles since Halifax and have a wopping 450 miles to Barcelona.  Everyone is getting really anxious to get off the boat.  We’ve had another few dolphin sightings and some people “claim” to have seen whales…but at the exact time they saw them everyone else was conveniently away…hmmmmmm.  

We’ll try to write again before we get to Barcelona. 


Feeling a little ethnic…

John and Mally

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's........

........LAND!!!!

We actually did see land today!  As it turns out some islands so small that Mal could comfortably live there are located smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.  They’re aproximately halfway between “Nowhereville” and “We’re Lost”.  We, of course, didn’t stop in that port because we would single handedly double the their population…and they probably don’t get facebook, a common lifeline for students onboard.

For anyone with WAY too much time on their hands, you can GoogleMap our coordinates and see where we are:
Latitude: 38 degrees 17.0N
Longitude: 026 degrees 31.5W
I have no idea what those numbers mean but good luck with that.

Yesterday was quite an interesting experience.  We happened to be looking out the port side of the boat (to be honest I don’t really know what that means…I’m just trying to fit in) and there were some Dolphins swimming and jumping toward the boat.  Mal said they wanted to play…I’m wonder why the heck a Dolphin would want to play with 25,000 TON ship with propellers that could swiftly dice them into fresh sushi rolls.  But who doesn’t like playing with life threatening objects (skydiving, bungee jumping, sharp metal blades strapped to your feet, etc.)?

After that we went to a little show that was put on in the union.  It was a clown performance titled “The Crotch of Gibralter”.  The performer, ‘Grandma the Clown’, is a confused man who dresses up as a ‘grandma’ (hence the confused part) and puts on a little show.  He (or she…now I’m confused) is a world performer from the Ringling Brothers and the ‘Big Apple Circus’ and others around the US and Europe.  (Google “Grandma the Clown” and let me know what you get—I can’t waste my Internet minutes).  Anyway…I was blessed to be selected to join him (let’s just go with ‘it’) on stage for a lipsync performance of “Unforgettable” by Frank Sinatra.  We danced, gazed into each other’s eyes, and got a little frisky.  Good news: I am now known as “the Grandma Lover” around the ship…a wonderful label I suppose.

But we have a student wide map test we must study for.  Happy Fathers Day to all the Fathers out there.  Just remember…you wouldn’t be Fathers if it weren’t for us!

So long for now!

John and Mally

Feel free to email us:
jmbooren@semesteratsea.net
mnmang@semesteratsea.net

Settled in...well sorta...

*insert StarTrek sound*

Captain's Log: 

We’re through our first two days of class and I feel like I just read the ‘S’ encyclopedia.  Both Mal and I have successfully missed part or all of a class due to unsuccessful alarm attempts.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately…however you look at it) the ship has a nice rolling feature that gently rocks you to sleep. 

Classes are a whole different animal… 
Because of the short time given to learning (it’s still not a cruise) professors feel the need to assign countless pages for reading in order to properly turn your brain to a gray-ish mush.  Each night has roughly 60-90 pages of reading for the next day and some studying for quizzes and papers.  Also, we've been loosing an hour every night...this makes the natives quite restless.

Now that I’m done complaining about being on this ¾-size cruise ship sailing to the Mediterranean, I’ll move on.  Both our roommates are pretty good people…luckly.  I just discovered my roommate enjoys eating Trisciut crackers at 12:30 pm while lying in bed…that was a nice touch…  Mal’s roommate is a nice girl from Nebraska (who is CU’s rival…so I’m all for them!).

The food is pretty much awesome!  They have been very good about having a variety of things to eat for different people.  You can also have lunch with the captain if you have the juevos (indirect Spanish translation: “courage?” ;-) “hey Swap, how bout another brewsky?”

But for now it’s time to tackle another handful of pages.

I hope everyone finds something more exciting to do in their lives than read this shoutout to the galactica!


Lovin’ it,

John and Mally

PS - email us!  It's the only think keeping us from going for a swim in the lake

One Day Down.....

......65 days to go.

We've come to the end of the first day.  The boat is rocking making everyone look like drunk idiots falling all over themselves (I guess this is where 'sea-legs' comes in).  Although you have to be pretty friendly when you're running into people you've never met before in the halls (literally running into them).  Lots of kids are getting sea sick and there are a ton of preventative drugs around.

They gave us a ton of stats about people on the boat...here's the few worth remembering:
-there are roughly 1050 people total--708 undergrad from 20 countries and 49 states.
-there would be one more person but they didn't make it on time...so bye bye to them
-the majority of people are from California, then NY/Penn, and Colorado is around 5th.
-the largest school represented is...........CU Boulder (all together now.....*booooooooooooooooooooooooo*) - but really there are like 40 Boulder kids here and we feel highly out-numbered.  We'll let you know if we have the guts to ask them about the Rocky Mountain Showdown in Boulder last year...."oops was that you're home stadium??"


Tomorrow is going to be a long day.  We have meetings planned basically throughout the whole day with times blocked out for meals.  Most of the day will be orientations and other informative meetings.

The general feeling is that if you aren't getting motion sick from the rocking ship than it's putting you to sleep.  We'll see how classes go when we have the sway of the boat lulling all of us out of focus.  Speaking of classes, those start Thursday.

Until then, I hope everyone is having a lovely time at their respective locations.


John and Mally

 

PS -  This was posted a little late because there was some internet/email problems.  Will post agian soon...

Sea bound

6 hours at the Westin hotel and we're off to board the boat. Actually i, Malorie, just took John to the dock and he is all squared away. The westin is right and I mean right in front of the dock so the walk took all of two minutes so this is very nice and easy! We saw the boat last night when we were walking back from the grocery store and it was big and beautiful with all the lights. Halifax is very beautiful wish we spent a day here but we enjoyed our country throwdown with our friends before leaving! Oh and the cab driver said that Crosby is from around here! Knew I liked Halifax! Write later when more are awake!
With lots of love,
Malorie and John

And then there were: 2 days!

The countdown continues… We are officially two days away from our flight out. Packing is truly the hardest part of this extravaganza… Oh make that second hardest…right behind mobile phones! As it turns out, we are pretty lucky to not have to worry about mobile communications in the US…because figuring it out everywhere else is almost as confusing as teaching a dog to bark in German. But seeing as how we’re updating this blog through the phone…we can’t complain too much.

We’ll be in contact from the boat…crossing the Atlantic in a whopping 9 day trip! (meaning we’ll be in classes every day…no weekends, holidays, or snow days…oh joy…)

~Bon Voyage!

Preflight Entertainment

How to you pack for two months on a boat traveling across the Atlantic?? I don't know...really...if anyone has any ideas please let me know!!!

We're 9 days away from the flight to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We'll stay in the great planet of Canadia for one night and board the MV Explorer the next morning. Then its 9 days across the Atlantic Ocean before we make the first port...Barcelona, Spain!!!