Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Years! It is the year of the tiger right now! We were in China during their New Years and it was quite a sight, fireworks were going off every couple seconds, people were just launching them in the middle of the street and setting off car alarms.

Anyways, I have so much to write about so I am going to split it up in sections again. My body and I are not friends right now, we are on bad terms, I am so exhausted from how much I did!

Shanghai

Our ship pulled right into Shanghai, the famous Pearl Tower was the view I had from my bedroom window! It was an extremely modern city and everything was so cheap! We did not have much time in Shanghai so we explored the city a little and saw a temple. We went through some sight seeing tunnel to cross the river, and that was interesting to say the least. We got into this small tram thing and went through a tunnel that had lights everywhere! It reminded me of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory when they went through the tunnel. We ate some interesting food as well that I don't know if I trust it as sanitary. We had this bowl of hot water (not boiling just hot) and we had to put all the ingredients into it (chicken being one of them) and eat it as a soup. Shanghai was also extremely crowded, but that could be because it was the New Years and people from the countryside were coming in to tour Shanghai. Apparently they don't see foreigners often (my tour guide said that we were probably the first foreigner they have ever seen) because they were taking pictures of us left and right! I also went to a market and bargained for a heavy north face jacket and some heavy gloves, the heaviest thing I packed with me was a hoodie sweater and it was cold in China!

Beijing

Next day we flew into Beijing. I can't believe we packed as much as much as we did in Beijing! First night we went to some local area, all the rivers and lakes were frozen. People were launching fireworks. We ate at a restaurant that was extremely cheap, I think the waitress was surprised with how much us Americans ate.

Next day we woke up early to go to the Forbidden City. It was walking distance from our hotel. I was surprised with how big it was! Once you think you reached the end, it kept going! We then walked through Tiananmen square and went to a market. You can bargain for things that you buy, and I have become really good at bargaining.

We then made our way to the Great Wall and watched the sun set. The Great Wall is just absolutely amazing! Then we grabbed dinner at a family style restaurant, it had a large circular glass plate on the center that you put the food on top of and rotated it to pass the food. We then made our way back to the wall and climbed the longest set of stairs I have ever climbed! I wouldn't be surprised if it was a mile of just stairs. I had to take off allot of the clothes I had because I was sweating so much from the climb (at this point I had all my thermal underwear on, my shirt, my sweater, and my heavy north face jacket and gloves). We finally made it to the wall and we were all so exhausted from that climb, I don't think I will ever do a stair climber in a gym again after that climb! The locals brought up drinks, including beer, for us so we hung out a little and set up our sleeping bags. We wanted to sleep under the stars and not in the tower, so we set up our bags on a really narrow part of the wall, probably not the best idea in the world. There wasn't a cloud in the sky so we could see all the stars, I even saw 3 shooting stars! We could also see fireworks in the distance being launched all around us in the small villages.

We then slept on the Great Wall, and when I use sleep I am using that term very loosely because I barely got any sleep at all! It was just so cold! I think it was -15 degrees celsius according to our guide. One of my friends left her beer out and it froze! All my fellow Theta Tau brothers that just went to campout, you were not the only ones freezing while camping! We did get to watch the sunrise though. Waking up to the sight of the Great Wall is an experience I can't even begin to put into words. I recommend everyone try to do this trip once, how many people can say they slept on the Great Wall? We then proceeded to do a very long hike on the Great Wall, but spectacular nonetheless. We stopped constantly to take pictures. I also documented the hike on my camera because some portions of the wall could not be explained with just pictures, it needed video. The Chinese really did not believe in steady slopes on this wall, some of the slopes we extremely steep and so were the stairs. At the end of our hike there was this zip line that we all got to do, it was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I have ever gotten! It was so high up, and we zip lined across a river that was partially frozen! What an amazing end to the Great Wall. I got to sleep on the Great Wall, hike it, and zip line it!

After all that our guide then took us to see the olympic stadium. The birds nest is much bigger in person! But when I heard how many people that it could hold I was a little shocked, only 10,000. I think Ben Hill Griffin stadium could hold more then that. But regardless, it was still amazing! I wish we had time to go inside but we didn't. We ate hot pot that night, which was also cheap and I bought a nice bottle of wine for the table as well, ended up being only $12 for my whole meal. Hot pot is allot like fondue, you cook your own fresh meats. It was really good. We were way too tired from the Great wall so we didn't go out that night.

Next day we woke up early again for another packed day. We went to the Temple Earth where many farmers went during the New Years to wish luck on their crops. They had a festival with many fairground games, they had an altar to make sacrifices to in the old days. We split off from the group to do a little exploring on our own. We ran into some performers who just finished with their show and we got to hang out with them! They were showing us their tricks and letting us try them. Their was an obvious language barrier between us but it was amazing getting to hang out with them. After Temple Earth, we got to eat with a local family in their home and learn about the local culture. We then went on a rickshaw ride through part of the city.

After the rickshaw ride we went to the Summer Palace, which is 10 times bigger than the forbidden city! I wish I could see it during the summer because the lake was frozen over, but it was still an amazing site! We learned about the Dragon Lady who pretty much ran the Chinese Empire for a little while. We then went to a tea place, I usually dislike tea but I have acquired the taste to it after Japan and China! I bought some really good Chinese tea, so people back home should be expecting some good tea when I get home! We then ate Peking duck which was pretty tasty.

After that we went to a Chinese acrobatic show, the things these acrobatics could do are absolutely insane! After that, we hit up the clubs and bars! We convinced our tour guide to come out with us as well. We did a little karaoke at the bar, but they only had 90s music and nothing recent, it was still fun at the bar. The club was insane, we ran into so many Semester at Sea kids! We danced so much there.

The next day we went to the Temple of Heaven, which is a temple that is completely held up by the pressure of the wood, no nails at all. There is a park right next to the Temple that all the locals go to hang out and play music, sing, and dance. This one local women grabbed me and started dancing with me. It was so much fun dancing with the locals, even though I had absolutely no idea what I was doing! I guess they were surprised by us foreigners because some of the people in our group got a picture taken of them dancing and got a article in the Chinese newspaper. Next day we left Beijing, I can't believe we did as much as we did in so few days!

Hong Kong

We quickly dropped off our bags to explore the city of Hong Kong! It is a very westernized city, and I can't tell you how happy I was to finally see clean western bathrooms! Those other bathrooms were literally holes in the ground and really disgusting. We went another market and then ate at the weirdest restaurant I have ever eaten there. We went to a restaurant called the Modern Toilet. You sit on a toilet, your food is served in a miniature toilet, your drink is served in a miniature urinal, and your ice cream is served in a miniature eastern toilet. We then went up to Victoria's Peak to see the amazing skyline of Hong Kong. The city was just lit up, we got some amazing pictures there! We then went to some night market that was really famous. My cousin and I were just too exhausted to go out that night from the crazy time in Beijing, so we took it easy that night and went on our computers, we had free internet at our port! I uploaded some pictures on facebook!

Next day we went to see the biggest outdoor Buddha in the world. It was amazing scenery to just get up to the mountain it was located, we had to take a 25 minute gondola. The Buddha was huge! We then went and ate some dim sum and went back to the ship. Every night, every building in Hong Kong partakes in a light show. So as our ship was leaving we got to watch the light show. I can't believe how amazing it is! Now we are back in the ship heading to Vietnam!

Food in Japan and China

Some people have asked me about Asian food, it is nothing like what we eat back at home! Teriyaki sauce is actually an American invention! I have to say that I think I liked the food in Japan better. It is always best to not ask what you are eating because you never want to know. The food was amazing and I am already missing it after eating the ship food again today, which isn't that bad just in comparison it is not good.

I can't believe that in 2 days I am going to be in Vietnam. Japan seems like months ago and it was only a little more than a week ago! Hawaii seems like it was years ago! It is just a distant memory! This blog is really going to help me remember what I did because we are doing so much in short time spans!

Waiting to get into China

So we are waiting for customs to clear the ship, it is taking forever.They have to give us thermal scans and everything. So while waiting, I decided to update my blog on the past few hectic days.

First off, I don't know if I mentioned this in my previous post but Japan has really inspired to learn a third language after I become fluent in Spanish. I am thinking either Japanese or Chinese, not sure yet. I also saw a bridge that is the picture of one of my engineering books, I got really excited, being the only engineer in my group I travel with I think I was the only excited one.

We only got 2 days between Japan and China and I am exhausted! I really need to catch up on sleep! I thought I would be able to between the two ports but as soon as I got back on the ship I had to read 50 pages in my book, write a paper, and at the same time film and edit the news, and editing is an extremely long process! All of this while lack of sleep from Japan.

This whole news thing has a pretty steep learning curve I am quickly finding out. There were allot of mistakes with last nights newscast, but I think this newscast being such an amateur newscast is part of the charm and is why so many people on the ship get excited to see it on the ship (and also everyone feels detached from what is going around us since we don't have internet.) This was only the second thing I have ever edited, and I learned how to edit while on this ship, so I think it is excusable that I made so many mistakes. I am learning from my mistakes and I already have in my head what I want to do for the next newscast to make it much better.

Anyways that is all for my update. We are in Shanghai parked in the downtown area on the ship, from the looks of it the downtown looks amazing! Our ship is on the river. I just am so anxious to get off the ship and see the city. Customs needs to clear us fast!

Domo Arigato Japan!

Get ready for an extremely long update! Japan was amazing! Also amazingly expensive, but at least I had a good time and thats what matters. So I am going to separate this into subsections.

Tokyo

I have never associated a big city with quiet. Maybe it was because it was a weekday, but no one really talked in the streets or were on their cell phones. It was actually nice, you could hear yourself think. We stayed in a capsule hotel, and that was an experience! It was actually comfortable, and the showers were so nice! Showering in Japan is suppose to be a relaxing time for everyone. You quickly take a shower, then hop on in the giant bath tub that was pretty much a jacuzzi. Then you dry off in the sauna. It was so relaxing.

Beware the Japanese toilet. They are extremely high tech. The seats are heated and everything. I couldn't figure out how to flush one of the toilets, so I pressed a green button. It ended up being a high pressure hose and I didn't know how to turn it off! So I pressed the red button thinking red means stop, well apparently not in Japan because the hose only stopped for a second, I then gave a sigh of relief and then the hose started again! This time it was pulsating shots! The computer was outside the bathroom and my cousin and friends could hear me screaming trying to turn it off. If you go to Japan, don't press any buttons unless you know what they do!

We could not find the ice bar in Tokyo, which was a shame. Apparently we walked by it like five times without realizing it. We still went to a nice bar where the bartender knew english. I tried to explain to her what our plans in Japan were, but apparently I said it completely the wrong way and instead said a dirty Japanese word. I had no idea why all the Japanese people were laughing until they explained, I couldn't help but laugh at myself.

We woke up bright and early (4AM) to see the famous Tokyo fish market. It was huge! People we so busy too, I almost thought I was going to get ran over many times. The variety of fish was just astonishing. We then watched the tuna auction.

Koyasan or Mt. Koya

This is the center of a certain sect of Buddhism. Getting there was an experience because it was in the middle of nowhere and nobody knew any English. We had to take a cable car up a mountain to get there. We stayed at a monk temple and met this awesome monk named Daigen, we are going to be facebook friends, no joke. I was completely fascinated with the Buddhist religion. They pretty much believe in control, you can have desires and pleasure, monks can marry and drink, but it is all about controlling yourself and not getting out of hand. I think the world would be much better if everyone followed that mentality of controlling yourself.

The rooms were very traditional Japanese rooms. The walls were paper and we slept on the floor, but it was the best sleep I have gotten on my journey. It was really nice being in a quiet area and just not worry about anything. Daigen took us to the grave yard at night and gave us a tour. We saw this well that if you can't see your relfection, you apparently die in three years. Good news mom and dad, I am at least living three more years and won't be dying on this trip. Also, if you trip down the stairs you will die in three years. I managed to keep my balance. There was also this rock that was as heavy as your sins are, I was able to lift it but my cousin could not. I guess she is a sinful person?

According to legend, the founder of this sect of Buddhism (which by the way is a mixture of Buddhism and Shintoism) started meditating for everyone two thousand years ago and is still alive today meditating. They still bring food to the house he is located in. We saw the outside of the house where he is located. It was amazing! They had these giant golden lotus flowers surrounding the house, I wish I could have taken pictures of it but we weren't allowed to out of respect.

This was by far my most favorite part of Japan. I could stay there for a couple more days.

Kyoto

We met up with my cousins friend who is studying abroad in Japan. It was such a relief to have someone who knew Japanese with you. The first night she took us to a Shabu Shabu restaurant and it was amazing! It is all you can eat for two hours and you cook your own food by boiling it in a pot in the center of the table. The next night she took us to Osaka and showed us the famous Osaka aquarium. It is one of the biggest in the world and had two whale sharks! I can't wait to show my biology of sharks professor all the pictures I took.

The next night we hung out with a bunch of study abroad students in Japan. They took us to a karaoke bar, it was ridiculous. Then we went to a conveyor belt sushi place. I didn't know what I was eating half of the time, apparently I ate horse meat and sea urchin and it was delicious. You can't go into Japan without an open mind of what you are going to eat. I told the students to put the food in front of me and I will eat it, just don't tell me what it is until after the fact. I ate the most random food but it was all so good. After that we went to a Spanish bar, my cousins friend really really wanted to dance and hear spanish music since she has been away from it all. Then we went to an izakaya, I am not sure if I spelled it right but it is pretty much a typical Japanese tavern.

Kobe

We only spent half a day in Kobe. When we got off the train we didn't feel like taking any more trains so we decided to walk to the ship and it was far! It was hard for asking directions so we literally followed the sounds of the sea gulls. I was shocked when we actually saw the ship using that method. I had kobe beef in Japan, it is just as good (and just as expensive) as people say.

Thats all my updates for Japan. I feel like I only got a taste of Japan and I want more! I still need to see Nara and Hiroshima. Mom and dad, we are doing a trip to Japan soon, I want to go back so bad. I already miss it!

2 days till China!

Lost at Sea News!

We broadcasted for the first time today! The editing process is a long and difficult process! I learned so much in such a short period of time, but I am glad I picked up this skill of editing. The first news cast came out really well too! But now I am exhausted from working so hard on the video, I had to miss the second half of the Super Bowl to finish editing! They did broadcast the Super Bowl on the ship, everyone had to get off the internet in order to provide enough bandwidth for the game. I am so glad the Saints one though, it sucks that I missed it though, I heard the second half was amazing.

We game through very rough seas again. The waves were much bigger this time! We hit the waves differently this time, we hit the waves perpendicularly. The boat was constantly making weird screeching noises and the entire boat would shake. One teacher almost fell in class! I actually fell during dinner, except it wasn't really falling it was more of flying out of my chair. I flew into my friend next to me who was trying to save all the laptops on the table from crashing, then I hit the floor. I couldn't stop laughing and the table of people around me gave me a round of applause. We then had to take an exam in those conditions. I don't think I have taken an exam where I had to worry about flying out of your chair, it really keeps you on edge.

I am really liking the faculty interaction on this ship. The classes are not that large and all my professors know me by name. It is much different at a school with more than 40 thousand students and my smallest class is 100 people. I am going to try and make more of an effort to know my professors at least.

Japan tomorrow! We have so much planned for Japan, I will be sure to provide a large update of everything we do in Japan if I am not too busy editing for episode 2 of Lost at Sea News!

Working at Sea

This life is terrible! (I hope you guys get the sarcastic tone in that sentence) I have never felt so productive without the influence of television and internet. To do work, I just go out on the sunny deck with my friends and read all day between classes. I never have to worry about food because that is cooked and paid for, I never have to worry about cleaning my room. All I have to worry about is getting all my homework done (which no lie, is allot for people that think I am not actually studying), getting into work and doing all of my responsibilities that my work requires of me, and doing all my other activities that I am in charge of. This is allot of work, but being able to do that work out in the sunny deck without any worry of food and cleaning and being almost completely disconnected form the world is just paradise in my mind.

Speaking of work, I don't think I have ever had a job that required me to be so flexible! I think I finally get what my job entails as the programming assistant of academic success, and it encompasses a whole lot! I am required for setting up and organizing the tutoring program, the language tables (teaching people common terms before we get to port), and I am the main man for the news that is broadcasted to the ship. I am also in charge of advertising for these events and recruiting people to come to these events. I am constantly running around the ship running errands and organizing meetings and distributing the work to the people in my committees I am in charge of. I am in no way complain about the work because I am a work-a-holic, I just didn't realize that my job would entail so much and entail areas that I have little expertise in.

We also picked up 2 Japanese students in Hawaii that will accompany us to Japan. One of the students, named Rina, I have become pretty good friends with. She has taught me so much about her culture, I am just so fascinated by everything that consists of the Japanese culture. I learned about what she thinks of the United States, which is surprisingly positive! She told be that she thinks Americans are positive people and are always happy and friendly, while the Japanese are opposite. I have always thought the opposite, I feel like the Japanese people are positive, but I really don't think the American people are negative. I did get to explain to her the American dream and how hard work can get you anywhere. She said that Japan is similar and that from a very young age they are concentrated on their careers. She also explained to me the differences in our culture. She did not understand why everyone was trying to tan out on the deck, apparently everyone in Japan tries to be as white as possible. She also taught me origami which was pretty cool. I can't wait to get to Japan and see this culture first hand. I am completely and utterly fascinated with it.