I am currently sitting on my bed in cabin 3037 on the MV Explorer. Vietnam is physically behind us...we are now sailing to Singapore, but the emotional implications of my time in Vietnam is just starting to hit me. I am no longer in intense travel mode (I think I spent 3 hours on the ship aside from sleeping hours), and the dust is beginning to settle. Reflection after Japan was enlightening, reflection after China was awe inspiring, and the reflection that I'm going through after Vietnam is just downright extremely overwhelming.
There's no moment I can point to and say that that's when everything changed. Rather, the accumulation of my six days in Vietnam has all been put into one big pot, molding and melting together to the point where I can't tell what happened on what day. All I know is that it all happened. When thinking of Semester at Sea, I knew that there would be moments where I just wouldn't know what to do with myself, and I think that this is my first moment of the trip. I don't want it to seem as though I'm hating life right now, but I'm definitely feeling my experiences in a way that I haven't in the past.
Water freezes at 32 degrees. There are 12 inches in a foot. My current favorite color is red. Four divided by four is one. I write better on lined paper. Post-its are amazing. Hawaii is a state and DC is a district. Crossing the street in Ho Chi Minh is dangerous. The metro system in Japan is extremely easy to navigate. The Great Wall is everything everybody thinks it is. These are facts. These are things I can explain. These are things that no one will object to. However, what I don't know how to explain are experiences and perspectives. Everybody has a different one. I was with a friend for the entirety of Vietnam, and although we were in the same situations, we have had completely different experiences.
It will be too complicated to go through every single thing I did in Vietnam, so I would rather just talk about some experiences that stood out to me. I did a homestay for 2 nights/3 days on the Mekong in Vietnam. Within my time there, I visited a family owned shop, drank snake rice wine, had a giant boa wrapped around me, ate shrimp with its head and appendages still attached, drank a coconut on a boat floating down the Mekong, hung out in a garden, floated down the river some more, arrived at the village of our home stay, found a lizard in the bathroom, learned how to make traditional Tet cake, ate questionable food, walked around the most serene place I have ever been, fell asleep to the sounds of nature, had a traumatic experience walking through the meat market, got chased around by ladies selling pants in a different market, seen the floating market of the Mekong, and have sweated more than I thought possible.
These are the experiences that I won't forget, that I'll remember to tell people about. However, it's the overwhelming emotions of traveling that often get swept under the rug. The moments when you realize that this is a journey of a life time. The moment I realize that had I been born in Vietnam, I could be eleven year old Nga selling bookmarks and fans to tourists until 1 in the morning. The moment when I'm at a orphanage and realizing that "poverty/orphanage tourism" is a real thing, and I'm witnessing it right now. The moment when I'm in class and the professor asks what "white privilege" is and the fact that none of us can answer that is what "white privilege" is. The moment when you step out of the War Remnants Museum and you wonder if the beggar on the street was affected by agent orange. The wonderful moment when you're walking down the street with your friends and we realize that we're in Vietnam.
There's something to be said for itineraries. There's something to be said for pictures. There's something to be said for sites and good food. But there's also something to be said for putting the map and camera away and just...experiencing. I think I was more aware of that than anything else in Vietnam. And because of that I'm at a loss for words. I'm sorry if this is rambling, or confusing, or if it seems as though I'm being negative. But as this blog post says, tough days are good days. Tough days are good days because that means that I'm experiencing this journey in its entirety. It's been smooth sailing (emotionally speaking), for the past couple of ports, but I think it's just going to continue at this pace for the rest of the time. A journey isn't a journey for its easiness. We don't talk about Marco Polo because he had it easy. Archbishop Desmond Tutu isn't Archbishop Desmond Tutu because his life was simple.
So it's my time for some rough seas...literally and metaphorically.
Monday, February 18, 2013
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Japan reflections
My reflection from my time in Japan made it onto the SAS blog! Just thought I'd share it here. I've been reading this blog for YEARS now and it's absolutely astounding to see my name attached to a quote about my time in a country.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Pictures Tell a Story...
Friday, February 1, 2013
Arigato, Japan
4 days in Japan, 4 different cities, and a whole lot of stories. I don't even know where to begin, so I'll probably split this up by different cities.
The travel exhaustion is really start to get to everybody, which is funny considering we have about 10 more places to go. We all look like we're extras on The Walking Dead. I think it would be abnormal if someone DIDN'T look exhausted right now.
Day 1/2-Yokohama/Tokyo:
Japan really knows how to welcome people. There was a crowd waving to us as the ship pulled into port, and they had a band playing as well! It was an amazing moment, and we're all joking that Japan has set the standards too high for the rest of the countries. There was an old man who was at the terminal, and he would wave his hat in the air and then bow to us.
After standing in the longest line I have ever encountered, we finally got off the ship around 12, and then had to go stand in line for immigration. This was the scariest immigration moment of my life. There were booths set up in this empty terminal and it was dead silent. Honestly, it looked like a scene from the Hunger Games or something. Luckily the lady I got actually smiled so I didn't feel like I was being incarcerated or anything. She took a picture, my fingerprints, stamped my passport, and then I was good to go.
There was a group of us that wanted to explore around Yokohama the first day, so we set off for a train station. We wanted to go to the Ramen Museum first, and when we were in the ticket line for the subway, I ran into my Women Writers professor and her husband. They had met a young couple who spoke English and were helping them purchase their ticket, and so they started to help us as well. When we told them were we wanted to go, they said "You want to go there? But there's nothing there!" Apparently all there is to see in that area is the Ramen Museum, so we decided to take the subway to the heart of Yokohama.
I could tell you every little thing that we did, but then I would be writing this blog until we got to China, which is actually in 2 days. We walked around a lot, ate good food, found that we really needed to know more Japanese than we did, went to the Cup of Noodles museum, and stopped at every single vending machine we saw. They really were that awesome. After dinner, Cali and I split from the rest of the group and went to the ferris wheel that was near the port. It was amazing! At the top we could see the ship all lit up on the harbor and everything.
We walked back to the ship, got our overnight stuff ready, and met the gals we were traveling with to Shibuya, Tokyo. Luckily the station near us was a one way to Shibuya, so we didn't have to trade trains or anything. A couple of girls were already in Shibuya, and we said we would meet them at the dog statue Hachi when we got there, which is apparently a statue that is very famous around Japan. I'm pretty sure I even watched a Hallmark movie about this dog with my mom a while back. We were about 30 minutes late meeting Tori and Laura, and we knew that Tori would be worried out of her mind, probably on the verge of calling Tom or Jim and telling them that we were missing.
We got off the train, and when we entered into the heart of Shibuya, we realized just how difficult it would be to find the dog statue. There were people everywhere, billboards flashing lights, and just about every type of sight and sound that we hadn't encountered since being on the relatively peaceful M.V Explorer (aside from the last 2 days before Japan where we were all sure the Captains voice was going to come on telling us to abandon ship). We ended up asking everyone we saw here Hachi the dog was, and just as promised, EVERYONE knew what we were talking about.
The funny thing is, it wasn't even the dog I saw first, it was Tori's blonde hair. By the time we got to them it looked like they were about to freeze, so they said they wanted to go check into the place they had found for us to stay before going out again. I knew things were about to get interesting when they said "Don't scream until you actually see it." They took us down a road in Shibuya, and then turned the corner where there was advertisements for Manboo, some sort of internet cafe. Sketchy. The elevator was too small to carry all of us, so only about 3 or 4 of us could go at a time, and then Tori told us not to press the button for floor number 8, because it was an adult shop. Whoops. So we successfully got off on the ninth floor…and then all I saw were lights and comic books and everything screamed that this was going to be a very interesting night.
The process of checking in was quite the feat. Nobody really spoke any English and plus there were about 8 of us all together. I now have a card declaring me to be a lifelong member of Manboo. Although I don't really think I'll be going back. We went upstairs, and we all kind of looked at each other. There were little cubicles with nothing but a semi reclinable chair, a desk attached to the wall, and a computer screen on top of the desk. I felt like I was at my first job or something. I should also mention that the smoke was so strong that I'm pretty sure I smoked the equivalent to 10 packs just by being there for a couple hours. I have pictures to describe just how…intense this place was, so I'll just to upload some in the future. Trust me, words will not prepare you for this.
Everybody sent out a couple emails saying that this might turn into a Criminal Minds episode, and then we left again in search of a karaoke club. We found one relatively quick, rented a room for an hour and a half, and got our karaoke on. Taylor Swift, Spice Girls, P!nk, Journey, Mika, Backstreet Boys, and many more were sung, and it was probably one of the most fun experiences of Japan. By the time we finally headed back to our cubicles, it was about 3:30am. I left my passport belt on, put on pj pants, got a drink out of the free vending machines (which made the whole experience worth it), and tried to sleep for the next 3 hours.
At one moment I woke up and I felt like I was rocking a shaking. For a second I forgot where I was and I thought that I was back on the ship. I went back to sleep, and when I woke up around 7, I decided that that was probably the most amount of sleep I was going to get and decided to just stay awake. We all agreed to be ready to leave around 8:30, so I just relaxed and went to get more drinks out of the free vending machine. Turns out we were all awake and couldn't sleep, and we started talking and it turns out that everyone felt the rocking and shaking! So someone said that it might have been an earthquake. I'm not sure if that's the case, but it would make sense that we all felt it.
We got up, left, and went in search of a breakfast place. Turns out everything wasn't open yet, so we ended up at a McDonald's. Usually I wouldn't go for that, but the fact is that I was starving, super tired, and we all just needed some sort of energy. I don't need to spend more time talking about our McDonald's adventures.
Turns out Dahanah's boyfriend had told her about a store that seemed pretty cool, so we went in search of it. I'm pretty sure that we walked halfway across Tokyo in search of it. The entire time I was looking for places that might have flags, but alas, I was unsuccessful. We stopped a couple of places along the way, including a crepe place, and I'm pretty sure my tastebuds have never been so happy. In fact, I have decided that I'm going to eat on the 7th deck today because all the food I have eaten the last couple of days has spoiled my tastebuds. But that's not part of the story.
We ended up finding the seemingly nonexistent store (which was in a totally different district I'm pretty sure) and it was cool, but a bit touristy and expensive. We had managed to evade super touristy places so far, and as soon a we went to the store almost everybody there was a tourist of some sort doing some shopping. I thought that that might be the place where I could find a flag, but alas…I still did not find one. A couple of girls did some major shopping, and then we set out for a place to eat.
We ended up going down some random streets and alleys until we came across a legit looking place. Some of the people were looking for sushi, so when we asked if they had it, the guy said no, but that it was a gyoza place. We all decided to stay there and it was awesome! It was pretty small, but the food was amazing! We could see them making the gyoza behind the counter, and I swear my tastebuds are watering just remembering it. After we ate, we walked to a subway station, and we split into 2 groups: one who was going back to the ship for in transit, and the others who were traveling overland. I was part of the group who was traveling with the ship during our in transit time from Yokohama to Kobe.
After getting semi lost, taking the wrong train, and someone leaving a bag on the train and losing some purchases, we finally made it back to the terminal. When we were in the terminal, a lady walked up to us and said "Thank you, thank you", and then went on to say how she was one of the tour guides for the SAS trips. Emily ended up telling her about losing her bag and the lady brought us to a group of men she was with, and they spent about 20 minutes on the phone calling different stations trying to find the bag. And guess what? It was found! They described to her how to get to the station and back, and Laura and I were worried for time so we stayed behind, and Emily didn't want to go by herself. One of the men and the lady ended up offering to take her to the station where her bag was AND back to the terminal. Their kindness was just astounding, and that's just one example. When Emily got back, she told me that they bought both of her train tickets and gave her gifts and snacks along the way. It really was quite amazing.
Well, that's my time in Yokohama and Tokyo. I still have to blog about the in transit day (yes, that deserves to be talked about), as well as my days in Hiroshima and Kobe. I think I'll save those for the next post.
As always, thanks for reading!
The travel exhaustion is really start to get to everybody, which is funny considering we have about 10 more places to go. We all look like we're extras on The Walking Dead. I think it would be abnormal if someone DIDN'T look exhausted right now.
Day 1/2-Yokohama/Tokyo:
Japan really knows how to welcome people. There was a crowd waving to us as the ship pulled into port, and they had a band playing as well! It was an amazing moment, and we're all joking that Japan has set the standards too high for the rest of the countries. There was an old man who was at the terminal, and he would wave his hat in the air and then bow to us.
After standing in the longest line I have ever encountered, we finally got off the ship around 12, and then had to go stand in line for immigration. This was the scariest immigration moment of my life. There were booths set up in this empty terminal and it was dead silent. Honestly, it looked like a scene from the Hunger Games or something. Luckily the lady I got actually smiled so I didn't feel like I was being incarcerated or anything. She took a picture, my fingerprints, stamped my passport, and then I was good to go.
There was a group of us that wanted to explore around Yokohama the first day, so we set off for a train station. We wanted to go to the Ramen Museum first, and when we were in the ticket line for the subway, I ran into my Women Writers professor and her husband. They had met a young couple who spoke English and were helping them purchase their ticket, and so they started to help us as well. When we told them were we wanted to go, they said "You want to go there? But there's nothing there!" Apparently all there is to see in that area is the Ramen Museum, so we decided to take the subway to the heart of Yokohama.
I could tell you every little thing that we did, but then I would be writing this blog until we got to China, which is actually in 2 days. We walked around a lot, ate good food, found that we really needed to know more Japanese than we did, went to the Cup of Noodles museum, and stopped at every single vending machine we saw. They really were that awesome. After dinner, Cali and I split from the rest of the group and went to the ferris wheel that was near the port. It was amazing! At the top we could see the ship all lit up on the harbor and everything.
We walked back to the ship, got our overnight stuff ready, and met the gals we were traveling with to Shibuya, Tokyo. Luckily the station near us was a one way to Shibuya, so we didn't have to trade trains or anything. A couple of girls were already in Shibuya, and we said we would meet them at the dog statue Hachi when we got there, which is apparently a statue that is very famous around Japan. I'm pretty sure I even watched a Hallmark movie about this dog with my mom a while back. We were about 30 minutes late meeting Tori and Laura, and we knew that Tori would be worried out of her mind, probably on the verge of calling Tom or Jim and telling them that we were missing.
We got off the train, and when we entered into the heart of Shibuya, we realized just how difficult it would be to find the dog statue. There were people everywhere, billboards flashing lights, and just about every type of sight and sound that we hadn't encountered since being on the relatively peaceful M.V Explorer (aside from the last 2 days before Japan where we were all sure the Captains voice was going to come on telling us to abandon ship). We ended up asking everyone we saw here Hachi the dog was, and just as promised, EVERYONE knew what we were talking about.
The funny thing is, it wasn't even the dog I saw first, it was Tori's blonde hair. By the time we got to them it looked like they were about to freeze, so they said they wanted to go check into the place they had found for us to stay before going out again. I knew things were about to get interesting when they said "Don't scream until you actually see it." They took us down a road in Shibuya, and then turned the corner where there was advertisements for Manboo, some sort of internet cafe. Sketchy. The elevator was too small to carry all of us, so only about 3 or 4 of us could go at a time, and then Tori told us not to press the button for floor number 8, because it was an adult shop. Whoops. So we successfully got off on the ninth floor…and then all I saw were lights and comic books and everything screamed that this was going to be a very interesting night.
The process of checking in was quite the feat. Nobody really spoke any English and plus there were about 8 of us all together. I now have a card declaring me to be a lifelong member of Manboo. Although I don't really think I'll be going back. We went upstairs, and we all kind of looked at each other. There were little cubicles with nothing but a semi reclinable chair, a desk attached to the wall, and a computer screen on top of the desk. I felt like I was at my first job or something. I should also mention that the smoke was so strong that I'm pretty sure I smoked the equivalent to 10 packs just by being there for a couple hours. I have pictures to describe just how…intense this place was, so I'll just to upload some in the future. Trust me, words will not prepare you for this.
Everybody sent out a couple emails saying that this might turn into a Criminal Minds episode, and then we left again in search of a karaoke club. We found one relatively quick, rented a room for an hour and a half, and got our karaoke on. Taylor Swift, Spice Girls, P!nk, Journey, Mika, Backstreet Boys, and many more were sung, and it was probably one of the most fun experiences of Japan. By the time we finally headed back to our cubicles, it was about 3:30am. I left my passport belt on, put on pj pants, got a drink out of the free vending machines (which made the whole experience worth it), and tried to sleep for the next 3 hours.
At one moment I woke up and I felt like I was rocking a shaking. For a second I forgot where I was and I thought that I was back on the ship. I went back to sleep, and when I woke up around 7, I decided that that was probably the most amount of sleep I was going to get and decided to just stay awake. We all agreed to be ready to leave around 8:30, so I just relaxed and went to get more drinks out of the free vending machine. Turns out we were all awake and couldn't sleep, and we started talking and it turns out that everyone felt the rocking and shaking! So someone said that it might have been an earthquake. I'm not sure if that's the case, but it would make sense that we all felt it.
We got up, left, and went in search of a breakfast place. Turns out everything wasn't open yet, so we ended up at a McDonald's. Usually I wouldn't go for that, but the fact is that I was starving, super tired, and we all just needed some sort of energy. I don't need to spend more time talking about our McDonald's adventures.
Turns out Dahanah's boyfriend had told her about a store that seemed pretty cool, so we went in search of it. I'm pretty sure that we walked halfway across Tokyo in search of it. The entire time I was looking for places that might have flags, but alas, I was unsuccessful. We stopped a couple of places along the way, including a crepe place, and I'm pretty sure my tastebuds have never been so happy. In fact, I have decided that I'm going to eat on the 7th deck today because all the food I have eaten the last couple of days has spoiled my tastebuds. But that's not part of the story.
We ended up finding the seemingly nonexistent store (which was in a totally different district I'm pretty sure) and it was cool, but a bit touristy and expensive. We had managed to evade super touristy places so far, and as soon a we went to the store almost everybody there was a tourist of some sort doing some shopping. I thought that that might be the place where I could find a flag, but alas…I still did not find one. A couple of girls did some major shopping, and then we set out for a place to eat.
We ended up going down some random streets and alleys until we came across a legit looking place. Some of the people were looking for sushi, so when we asked if they had it, the guy said no, but that it was a gyoza place. We all decided to stay there and it was awesome! It was pretty small, but the food was amazing! We could see them making the gyoza behind the counter, and I swear my tastebuds are watering just remembering it. After we ate, we walked to a subway station, and we split into 2 groups: one who was going back to the ship for in transit, and the others who were traveling overland. I was part of the group who was traveling with the ship during our in transit time from Yokohama to Kobe.
After getting semi lost, taking the wrong train, and someone leaving a bag on the train and losing some purchases, we finally made it back to the terminal. When we were in the terminal, a lady walked up to us and said "Thank you, thank you", and then went on to say how she was one of the tour guides for the SAS trips. Emily ended up telling her about losing her bag and the lady brought us to a group of men she was with, and they spent about 20 minutes on the phone calling different stations trying to find the bag. And guess what? It was found! They described to her how to get to the station and back, and Laura and I were worried for time so we stayed behind, and Emily didn't want to go by herself. One of the men and the lady ended up offering to take her to the station where her bag was AND back to the terminal. Their kindness was just astounding, and that's just one example. When Emily got back, she told me that they bought both of her train tickets and gave her gifts and snacks along the way. It really was quite amazing.
Well, that's my time in Yokohama and Tokyo. I still have to blog about the in transit day (yes, that deserves to be talked about), as well as my days in Hiroshima and Kobe. I think I'll save those for the next post.
As always, thanks for reading!
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