I apologize to those that care for not having blogged in quite sometime, but the past 2.5 weeks have been very interesting, frustrating, wonderful, and painful all at the same time! First, our time spent moving from South Africa to Mauritius was incredibly painful because of the Indian Ocean around the cape. The waters were so rough that the boat was almost impossible to move around in – doors and drawers in the cabins would open and slam shut all night, there were doggy bags all over the ship for those with sudden sea-sickness, people were sick from the rocking, the food, and I think also just being on the ship for so long. Six days while feeling seasick is horrible! Luckily for me, I only thought that I was going to throw up once – and so I went outside and sat on the deck looking at the water and that seemed to help. But none of us had an appetite, which made everyone really irritable and tired – it was a long trip to Mauritius. On top of all that, I think the rocking made me really homesick too. I dreamt of land, my favorite foods, my family, friends and of course Majji and Peanut! I just wanted my bed back and to smell the familiar smells of home, light some candles, run outside, and do the things that I normally would get to do on my own. Because so many of the places that we go are not exactly safe for women to wander off along, I often feel like some sort of dependent child – always having to make sure that I have someone with me – and then never being able to find a place on the ship where you can be alone…its difficult at times. I certainly miss Emily time more than I ever thought I would!
Anyways, as we got closer to Mauritius (which, by the way is this tiny island off the coast of Madagascar – apparently, it’s the #1 honeymoon capital for Europeans – more to come about that!), the Captain made the announcement that because of the rough seas, we would be delayed getting into Mauritius by ½ day! Everyone was so upset – I think mostly cause we just wanted off this rocking ship! We ended up docking around noon and couldn’t get off of the ship till 1:30pm or so. A bunch of us went into the city of Port Louis (we had to take a little ferry boat over for $1) and it was pretty much a really run down city, with cars driving all over the place (no lights or stop signs), beans and spices sold at every corner, street vendors trying to get the tourists to buy a million different things with the Dodo bird on it. Mauritius is famous for its honeymooners and the Dodo bird, which the Dutch ate and single handedly destroyed the species in the 1400’s. Quite the history right!? We walked around the city a bit more, bought some really cheap South African wine and then Tom and I got pineapples on a stick and they were amazing! The street vendors have these little pineapples that they will peal right there in front of you and then just hand it over, so you eat the pineapple upside-down as if it is a lollypop or something. They are soooo sweet – it was well worth the $.80 or (20 Mauritian Rupee). I love that I am learning all these different currencies – in Mauritius, $1 is equivalent to 32 Mauritian Rupee.
After the excursion to the city, we all packed our bags and headed for our beachfront apartment, which we rented with a bunch of friends for $10 a night. The apartment had a little kitchen and was right across the street from this tiny little, beautiful beach. It was in the town of Perebrye (which we kept calling Periwinkle) and was mostly filled with speedo wearing Europeans and French people. Mauritians speak French and English, but mostly French – so there were a lot of café’s with loaves of bread that you could buy for real cheap, great cheese, and of course pineapple! We spent our 2.5 days hanging out at the beach, tanning ourselves, swimming in crystal clear water, eating pineapple (do you sense a theme), drinking at every bar that we could find in the town (great fun), and clubbing it every night! We found this great club called Zanzabar’s next to the Banana Beach Club and we danced all night till 4am! People were incredibly friendly and they loved to watch the silly Americans dancing. I was mistaken for German a whole bunch of times – which was an odd experience. I guess its an American thing to assume that everyone would know that you are American – and of course, as soon as people found out that I was American, they wanted to know what I thought about George Bush. And yet again, I was confronted with the understanding that the world follows American politics and the politics of the world – while I have the option not to. I mean, here I am, in a country that I didn’t even know existed until Semester at Sea, couldn’t tell you a thing about their government or lifestyle – and still every stranger that we met knew everything that there was to know about America (life as the dominant…left me thinking about this position in a new way – ML, Squat, Amanda – I cannot wait to talk about this with you all – I really do miss our conversations sooo much!)
After 3 days in the beautiful island of Mauritius, we boarded the ship and headed for Chennai, India. I am also happy to report to you all that my Bent luck continues in international countries. The package that my wonderful Mom sent to me got stuck in customs and arrived at the ship the day after we left! I was beyond upset – a little piece of home would be so nice right now – and then I got a note from the front desk that they had my package in Mauritius and if I wanted to pay $5, it would be shipped to Malaysia. So, of course I paid the $5 – and now I am hoping that it makes it there…I hope, I hope! The sea has been the complete opposite of our trip to Mauritius! The Indian Ocean is so calm right now that it almost feels as if we aren’t moving at all. The painful part of this journey has been that it is getting hotter and hotter, we passed the equator yesterday and after exercising outside I actually had to ring out my shirt, I was soo nasty! The other thing is that our ship’s satellite has been having trouble and so the internet has reached a new level of mind-numbing frustration. It actually took me 5 minutes to open 1 page – and it has been like this for about 5 days now, but at least in these past few days it has gotten much better – like almost the speed of dialup! I swear, you do not know frustration until you have experienced an internet this slow. People were swearing like mad – I almost wanted to throw my computer off the ship at times – it was bad – like computer rage instead of road rage!! But, despite the internet slowness – we did have Taco Day for lunch one day and then a BBQ another night, which perked us up some! J I never thought that I would love tacos as much as I do on this trip.
Other than that, we have been preparing for our arrival in India! YEAH! I cannot wait – although, we have begun to conserve water with the hopes that we won’t have to ration it out. The water in India is so polluted that the ship cannot use it or convert it. We have to turn the showers off when we soap up and then turn it back on to rinse off. I also had to start taking my Malaria meds. A bunch of us have started watching my episodes of Nip Tuck and it definitely helps with feelings of homesickness – somehow TV becomes a way to feel normal, when you lose your mind after not seeing land for 5 days straight! India marks the official mid-way point on our trip and I cannot believe it…the time has just flown by and it feels like I just left, yet at the same time – I feel like I am so out of touch. I just cannot believe that this is my life! I saw a pod of dolphins jumping and swimming in the waves that the ship made for the past couple of days too. They do belly flops all over the place and jump so high – it just looks fun. I often feel like I am having an out of body experience and just watching myself do things and see things that I never thought would be possible. And despite my bitching about seasickness and the internet, I wouldn’t give this up for much (maybe a Twix or a Snickers bar J or a home cooked meal – mmm, food – can you guess what we think about all day while we are at sea!).
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