Sharing Soccer Across the World

The end of Cuba was one of the most rewarding, incredible experiences I’ve had the whole trip. If you remember, I was bringing some soccer balls to Ghana and Senegal. Due to ebola, that never happened so I had planned for Brasil. Again, I was stumped because many people did not think that the favelas were safe enough. Which brought me to Cuba. I never realized the poverty that is present in many parts of Cuba. Jacob and I were planning with a teacher who was going to lead us places, but we decided that it would mean more to us if we did it by ourselves and if it wasn’t planned.

The morning of the last day we set out, Jacob, Gabe, Branden and I into the streets of Havana. We wandered around town a lot until we came by a long, wide pathway that was in front of the Political History of Cuba Museum. So us four started playing 2 vs. 2 and you could only score after megging someone on the other team. After about 15 minutes, these high school aged kids came and we played 4 vs. 4 with a mixture of us and them on a team. We used plant rails as goals and it was a ton of fun! Afterward we gave them the ball we played with as they ran back for class. We wandered around more and ate lunch and ran across Natalie with my other friends but she ended up joining our group. Then we went back to that same area and by the time we got there, there were a ton of more kids playing soccer. They were younger and wanted to play on their own team. We again used a bench and backpacks as goals and the brick patterns as boundaries. We played 3 vs. 3 on our own team. The high school players were more fancy and selfish whereas these kids played more as a unit. It was still fun!

We decided to play elsewhere after giving 2 of the soccer balls to these kids. We walked through the poverty stricken communities where the whole road would be dug up. And buildings were sometimes in crumbles. We came across this fenced in soccer court with a small playground in the corner. Again we played 3 vs. 3 and used the scratched lines in the cement walls as the goal. There were a lot of kids of all ages, so we played until someone scored. Then the teams would change, but we always played together. We ended up winning 6 or 7 games and they won the last one. It was a lot of fun and these kids were the most friendliest we came across. They spoke no English at all, but through hand communications and gestures we still were able to smile and laugh and be very friendly with one another. We ended up giving them 2 balls, both of which they were ecstatic to get!

Reflecting on the day had such a big impact on me. Even though I was making an impact on the children, it also made an impact on me. I feel good that I am creating happiness within these kids’ minds and everyday lives. When we played with the second group, they were going to play with a soccer ball that had a hole in it and was deflated, but that was the only thing they had. In addition, one of the kids wasn’t even wearing shoes. Because the government at the time was and still is relatively strict, they do not allow professional athletics to take place. So these kids play soccer purely as a recreational after school activity to make them happy. They are not working towards college scholarships or club championships or to go pro. They play soccer for the love of the game, to spend time with their friends and to laugh and be happy.

And that brings me to the current day. Shortly after leaving Cuba, Obama and Castro went public with their attempt to make amends and rekindle the relationship that was lost over 50 years ago. This means that the embargo is in the making of being abolished. Both leaders and countries are making the step forward to be accepting of each other cultures and to grow since we are neighbors. One of the most reoccurring themes that I noticed people trying to explain to us was “It’s not the people, it’s the government.” The University of Havana students, faculty and staff opened us with welcome arms, the ice cream cart driver adored us, and the kids we played soccer with loved us. It may be a generational thing due to the political background between us and Cuba. Even though the past may not be forgotten, we are making steps to accept the relationship between these countries. I found it incredible how we were in Cuba several days before Obama and Castro made the announcement. Experiencing Cuba while the embargo was in full flight and trying to understand the political turmoil that was between the two countries was educational and inspiring to make a change. Then we came back to the US to see that there may be a day where US citizens can travel freely to Cuba and get to meet and experience the fun, loving people of Cuba.

And for the 6,000 photos I have collected from two phones, my camera and other friends…Lets just say it may be a while until I get them up on Facebook! But keep tabs because there are a lot of great ones!

CUBA; bringing people together

Not knowing what to expect, we arrived in Cuba on November.29th. It ended up being one of the coolest ports that we visited. On the first day we had to attend an all day informational and welcome reception hosted by the University of Havana. We had to do this due to the embargo that the US placed on the Cuba back in 1960. Typically US citizens are not able to visit Cuba on vacation because it is illegal for US citizens to have transactions in Cuba which would include a ticket into a Cuban airport. But Semester at Sea has a deal with the US government that we are able to visit Cuba if we were students there for an educational purpose and the welcome reception was part of that deal. But it actually was a ton of fun! In the morning! When we arrived at the university we walked up the 80 steps together with the University of Havana students. What was planned for the welcome reception were 3 seminars about politics, economics and culture in Cuba. Then there were a ton of singers, dancers and performers that performed for us in the central square of the University. The University was not very big but it was pretty cool! After, we came back to the ship and a US foreign service worker person had a diplomatic briefing about the embargo and political situations that are between the United States and Cuba. It was interesting to see the both sides that he provided and how different they are. That night they had set up a few bands to play in the Plaza Armas. It also had a lot of bars and a ton of space to salsa! That night I salsa’ed with a University of Havana student who said he saw me earlier that day and told me I had a beautiful smile…AWE!

The next day Natasha, Emily and I ventured out into Havana explored. The first thing we did was get ice cream from a street cart. The guy’s name was Alex and he totally LOVED American’s! He had extremely good English and we ended up getting a picture with him. He sold us ice cream out of a coconut, but it was super good! But one of the reasons why Cubans are so interested in Americans is because we rarely are in Cuba since we can only be there if we are studying or doing volunteer work. Next we went shopping for a bit and got coffee and another desert! It is really cheap in Cuba. 1 CUC = 1 USD, but everything was cheap. Two coffees and a sundae was only like 5.40 CUC.

The third day was a blast. The University of Havana was opening up a new basketball stadium and they wanted to play against us as the opener! So SAS actually had tryouts for a men’s and women’s team to play in the two games. We we arrived at the stadium it was nothing like a stadium you would find in the states. The seats were just large concrete stairs, the court was slippery and the rims were not normal US standard rims. There was no scoreboard or even a clock and the score was kept by the manual two-sided flip numbers. However, the spirit of the whole event and the cheering of the Cuban students and fans were amazing. The girls team got off to a rough start but was close to winning! And then men’s team only lost by 3! But I think we should have won because some of our players said that when they were winning was when time was supposed to stop; and they ended up playing 4 minutes extra. But it was pretty neat because the University made jerseys that said USA and had numbers on the back that our players could keep! During both games we cheered A LOT. Like I lost my voice A LOT. It felt like I was at a high school basketball game with cheers and whatnot. But the Cuban fans were kicking butt with their cheering! Their volume level and rowdiness topped ours easily!

That night there was a SAS field program which was a farewell celebration held by the University. It literally was a huge dance party where beers were only a dollar! A super deal. But it was so much fun! They University students made a slideshow of pictures they took of us during our stay. There was supposed to be the most famous band in Cuba playing but due to a family emergency they had to bail. However, the replacement was this amazing 15 year old girl who had an incredible voice. She sang “Titanium” and I literally though it was the some off the computer but it was her singing it! And it was way better than the chick in Pitch Perfect! After a lot of dancing, salsa-ing we left. Then Ardy, Ann and I went jumped in the bike taxis of other SASers as they biked by. We were taken to China town where we got some pizza. Then headed back to the ship!

White Sand & Clear Blue Water

Barbados was BEAUTIFUL. I had never been anywhere in the Caribbean until this port. The people of the island mainly all spoke English. I was expecting beautiful tropical waters which I did find…not on the first day though! I was raining on the first day so we couldn’t do much walking around. A kid named Ben on the ship had rented out a shack for his birthday. So from 1-7 we all had a blast on the rope swing, high dive, water trampoline and “iceburg” climbing wall in the water. It was unlimited drinks and unlimited food! Even though it was raining it still was beautiful from the colorful woodwork of the benches and tables. It was really cool because the rope swing and high dive was off of a mini boardwalk that traveled from the shack over the beach to the water.

The next day we had a relaxing day on the beach. The water was literally sky blue and the sand was super soft and white! It was so soft that with some water it felt like mud! We camped out on the beach for a few hours. Some of my friends went on the banana boat which is like tubing except you straddle the banana instead of laying down on your stomach. After that we left and went out that night.

The third day Caroline and I got up early and went to the Mount Gay Rum Distillery. This tour included a lot of taste testing which makes me not want to ever drink rum straight up. But their rum is the key ingredient in their delicious rum punch drinks. The cool thing about this distillery was that we got to see the physical process of the packaging and production of the rum. At the Jameson factory in Ireland, they showed you models instead of the real deal. After that we walked back to the ship so that we could make it back for our zip lining field program with SAS! It was a ton of fun, we did about 8 or 9 different lines. I was kind of nervous at first since I hadn’t gone zip lining since I was in France in 7th grade, but it was a ton of fun! I made it to each platform (as in I didn’t have to pull myself the rest of the way because I didn’t make it). after zip lining we shopped A TON in the terminal.

Even though it didn’t seem like I did a lot in Barbados it is definitely somewhere where I will want to visit again. I loved the tropical feel and atmosphere. And it was actually water that I could swim in for a while; which never happens!

Sea Olympics

The ship is exciting sometimes! On the 7 day trip from Salvador, Brasil to Bridgetown, Barbados, we had a Semester at Sea 2014 Sea Olympics right on the boat. The middle day of the 7 days was a study day…but really a “do nothing and participate in Sea Olympics” day. On the ship every hall is separated into a different sea. There are 7 seas: Yellow Sea (my sea), Adriatic Sea, Arabian Sea, Caribbean Sea, Mediterranean Sea, Bering Sea and the lifelong learners and faculty are the SAS Seahorses. Everyone dressed up in their sea colors like people do during spirit week in high school. The big events that were held in the Union were the banner, cheer and lip sync competition, all of which my sea failed miserably…last place. However, we ended up rallying and came in 3rd overall! The best part was that we were the smallest sea on the ship! Since we live on Deck 2, we have the smallest sea. All the other seas have over 100 people in theirs while the Yellow Sea has only 60 or 70. Our RD is so cute too, she is all about good sportspersonship and cheering for everyone! We got a lot of spirit points from stuff like that!

The events I participated in were Minute to Win It and Limbo. The Minute to Win it got cut and my team came in last, but we had lots of fun! And the Limbo competition was so much fun! There were so many people there! But the SAS Seahorse Sea included the children of faculty or lifelong learners in which we had no competition with. But we put up a good fight! The starting height was low, and it got real low! i got real low, but there were other people that were soooo flexible! The other big event was the synchronized swimming competition! It was hilarious to see the sea’s competing! Teams consisted of 4 or 5 people and you could mix your own music. The team that ended up winning all had really hot guys on their team who are really funny, which made their routine funny. But surprisingly, they were actually really good. It was graceful, well choreographed and actually in sync! Everyone’s were really funny and good too! The Sea Olympics were really fun, just like Neptune Day was!(:

BRASIL; round 2

When we arrived in Salvador, I was a little sketched out because it was less of a city than Rio, but after our 3 days there I fell in love more than in Rio. The first day we went to one of the 2 markets. It was more of an indoor market and had everything from clothes, shoes, artwork, drums, tapestries, etc. We then hit up one of the beaches that was a cab ride away. Some of these ports are good like in Europe because there was a lot of public transportation, but recently most of the methods of transportation is just cabs. So it kind of got annoying when we always had to split cabs everywhere. At the beach I bought another few sarongs (the scarves you wear around your waist at the beach).

That night we loved Fogo de Chao so much that we all wanted to go again…And we had a grand time! We were a party of 8, and were eating and having wine and then this large group of men sit down at a big table next to us. We get talking to them because they say they are from the states, specifically LA (because in our group we have 4 people from California), and we found out that they were working for Red Bull this weekend! There was a Street Style World Final competition going on this weekend in Salvador. It started Friday, but too bad we left Friday night. 😦 The Street Style is a sport that is sponsored by Red Bull but it is like a dual battle of soccer tricks and skills on a circular stage. Anyways, those guys were filming the competition and were hired by Red Bull! So that was cool! We ended going out with them after dinner and they were all mad chill. Later I looked their company up online and they are so legit! The friendliest, Eric, has done work for companies like Guess, Vans, Red Bull previously, etc. Anyways that was the highlight of that night.

The next day we went to the beach again! But first we went to the other market! The other market was located in the Old Town which was on top of the cliff. So there is this public elevator that takes people up and down it in seconds. The Old Town was adorable with more store type shops, but there were a lot more creepy homeless people. After that we went to the other beach. It was within walking distance from the other one but still a cab ride away overall. Once we got to the beach Natalie, Mike, Caroline and I rented paddle boards for an hour and went paddle boarding! These water situations are when I wish I had a waterproof camera or a GoPro with a waterproof case! But it was a lot of fun to just chill out on the boards and see the beautiful view of the beach and part of the city from afar. Afterwards we swam in the super warm water! Being the American college kids we were, we were loud, and laughing our heads off over stupid jokes. As well as finding the largest rock we could so that it would sink us to the bottom and we could take cool GoPro underwater pictures. Then everyone was out on the beach and Caroline and I were sharing a towel and a Brasilian guy came up to us and told us we were very beautiful, kissed us each on the hand, then on each sides of our cheeks and invited us to play soccer with them. We took them up and then Gabe joined also and we had a good little juggling circle going on. And they deemed me the best out of our group! I regret not getting a picture with them though! Once the sun set we got some amazing photos! That night we hit up a sushi place and then we met up with our Red Bull friends again.

^^taking group pictures is a struggle…my idiot friends<3

The last day was fun filled too. Nat and I signed up for the Axe Children’s Project SAS field program. The Axe Project is a children’s project that provides after school activities such as music, dance, art, fashion and their martial arts dance. It’s goal is to support them and make changes in their lives through these activities. We learned that most of the children that live on the streets are usually on some sort of drug. When we arrived at the place the older kids put on a musical performance. Some sang, some played the drums and other various musical instruments. Then we went upstairs, visited the fashion room and then visited the kids that were under age 12. They were ADORABLE!! and loved to share their artwork and do handshaking games. After mingling with the children we went down to the store, where I and everyone else bought a ton of things. 100% of the earnings go towards the Axe project. But their voice is that they make the clothes, bags, totes and other things look fashionable so that people will buy them because they like them and not because they feel pity. And they were right, their stuff was actually cute and I wanted/did buy a lot.

After that ended I went to get wifi and check out the last of the preliminary round of the Street Style competition. But we missed it by like an hour, and only saw a few kids juggling and stuff. The very last person on the stage was this younger boy, who wasn’t even participating but was soooooooooooooo good!! I was amazed, but at the same time not, because I expected Brasilians to be amazing at soccer!(: Some other little things I loved about Brasil were the acai berry bowls. Especially with mango mixed in! I loved the beachy city feel of Salvador. I don’t know if I want to come back because there isn’t a whole lot to do, and it isn’t a resort type of place, but it has definitely been one of my favorite ports!

BRASIL!<3

I swear that I keep falling more and more in love with every port we visit!! Brasil was AMAZING. We were in Rio de Janeiro for 3 days and then in transit for two and then in Salvador for another 2. The first day wasn’t so much. My Comparative Politics: Democratization class visited 2 museums about the history of the country, it was really boring and our tour guide talked so fast that I could barely write anything down! So after barely learning anything on the field lab our teacher still expected us to write a 8 page paper comparing 2 times periods of Brasil’s history and link it to their political backgrounds. So it ended up turning into a research paper which I was not happy about because I already have 2 on my plate. To make it even better I lost my phone that night…So excuse me if some of the photos are of bad quality because the burn phone I have does not have a good camera. And sometimes I hate to lug out my larger point and shoot. But the next day in Rio we went to the beach area of Copacabana. It was beautiful! And we shopped A LOT because it was very cheap. There were a ton of blanket kiosks as well as awesome surf shops! We bought cute bracelets and cover-ups from the blanket shops and we also found this adorable hand designed surf shop where I bought 3 tanks(: at a good price too!

That night we went to a Brasilian BBQ restaurant. It wasn’t your typical BBQ as we think of it in the U.S. It was actually really fancy and expensive but the whole setup was awesome and definitely worth it. So you first got a picture of a cow divided into about 20 sections of meat. Then you got a round card, red on one side and green on the other. And after you get the opportunity to get something from the salad bar, the servers came around with fresh, juicy meat on skewers if your card was on green. If you felt full or just wanted a break from the unlimited amounts of meat your were receiving, you flipped it to red. It was so overwhelming but really fun. I got to try the hump of the cow and the heart of either the cow or lamb…i forget. They also had lamb, which I wasn’t very fond of. But surprisingly the hump of the cow was so delicious! The sirloin was some of the best I have ever had before!! Good thing there are chains of Fogo de Chao in the states!(:

The third day in Rio was no sunny. It was extremely cloudy which pissed me off because we were going to do Christ the Redeemer statue and Sugarloaf, except we only ended up doing Christ the Redeemer because you could barely even see him when we were at the top! But hey, Ardy’s GoPro picture of the 5 of us made the Top 10 Instagram pictures from Rio!(: After we took the tram up and down from the statue, we walked along Copacabana again. We got coconuts fresh! We saw them picking them from the trees and they slash it on the top and bottom, then carve out a hole in the top, stick a straw in and then you’re good to go! We also saw a ton of sand castle artwork of the city of Rio. Once back on the ship, we had 2 days of tanning (only one because it rained the other) but we also played soccer with the Brasilian Youth Ambassador college students and that was a ton of fun too! And yes, they are really good!

But I will keep this post short and sweet so that you all won’t get bored reading about Brasil! But Salvador is up next!

NEPTUNE DAY!!!

And a little of Halloween on the MV Explorer. So Halloween was interesting on the ship. Some people dressed up for the whole day and some just for the dance at night. One kid named Kevin dressed up as this kid named Rory who is from Australia and always wears flowered button ups and a hat and usually always is carrying around his GoPro. But the dance was like a middle school dance. But we still had a good time. It was held in the union and there were costume competitions. There were some good ones, like one of the Field Program directors was “dock time” wearing scrubs with different amounts of dock time on him. Some other good ones were Roshan (the coolest crew member!), Dan dressed up as the most typical SAS kid, and tons of people were chefs! I myself didn’t really plan ahead and decided about 30 minutes before the dance that I was going to dress up in a toga as a Greek woman! Easy peasy!

But the big thing was NEPTUNE DAY! So, on Semester at Sea or any other time when you cross the equator, there are specific traditions. On Semester at Sea we were woken up at 7:30 AM by all the crew and some SAS administrative members by pots, pans, drums, singing etc! Then at about 9 o’clock the festivities began! “King Neptune” gave us a grand ‘ol speech telling us that we were polywogs and were turning into shellbacks by doing these traditions. In order for us to become a shellback we had to get “fish guts” (normally it would be real fish guts, but on our ship it was something else) dumped on us, then jump into the pool, and then kiss a real fish and King Neptune’s ring as we got out of the pool! We did it in a group of 6 friends so it was a lot of fun! Another SAS tradition was to shave your head!!! So lots of the guys shaved their heads, or got mohawks, and some ladies shaved patches of their heads, parts or the underneath part! It was a ton of fun! For an hour we had a rager up on the 7th deck…IT WAS AWESOME. And I am getting so freakin tan, its awesome too! But I didn’t even expect this day to be fun, but it was a blast!

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2 Week Atlantic Crossing

DEATH. 2 weeks on a ship…In the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Good thing I’m with people I like, but at the same time I need some alone time. Like now, or any other time that I’ve been writing my blog, since I had like 5 to catch up on. I splurged on a leather journal in Italy, but I yet have to write in it. I think I will dedicate it to Sandra. She always wanted me to travel too and now she can listen to the amazing stories I am experiencing and the things I am learning about the countries I visit and about myself.

5 days ago we left Barcelona, Spain headed for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Again, the ship food gets OLD, but thank god for the 24 hour snack bar and the grill on deck 7! Too bad it costs money but its worth it! Literally pasta and potatoes every single night. Along with school work…which no body does because how can you study when you are on a fricken boat?!…we do keep ourselves busy. I am co-president of the SASFC on the boat, and we play every night for about 2 hours. Its 3 vs. 3 on the small basketball court and we use the space underneath of the pool chairs as our goals. Games are 5 minutes a piece or whoever scores first. Winner stays on, loser gets off, or if a tie both teams come off. But during the 2 week voyage we are holding the SASFC World Cup. We have 27 teams consisted of 3 each with at least one girl on the team. We are currently in the group stages and then moving to the bracket. I have Jose and Branden on my team. But Nat’s team is nasty, and shes super good haha. Other things I keep myself busy with are getting snacks on deck 7, tanning between classes, chilling in friends rooms laughing my ass off, and just socializing.

The SAS talent show was last night and it was AWESOME. Students, lifelong learners and the children on the boat participated. And everyone was cheering during and after every single performance even if they didn’t even know the person. It made me realize how much of a community this ship is. SAS always talks about the “shipboard community” at every lecture or pre-port, but it never really clicked/experienced it until last night at the talent show. Also later in the 2 week voyage the Songwriters Anonymous club is holding a showcase which will most likely be amazing.

Before we left Barcelona I also bought tons of snacks…but I almost have eaten them all…..But I am getting to the gym more which is good because I eat so much on this boat cause I get bored easily! Whoopsies! But the other day Nat and I did a bridge tour which was a tour of where they steer and control the ship. There were a lot of computers and lights, nothing I wanted to touch!

But it’s lunch time now! More pasta and potatoes!

FC Barca

Ever since our itinerary changed and I knew that FC Barca was playing (Ajax from the Netherlands) while we were ported in Barcelona I was so stoked for this port! SAS bought 300 tickets for a field program but Kelli, Cat and I had Kellis dad buy us our own tickets because we wanted to experience the fans rather than be surrounded by SAS people. It was great. But the first day we found another BEAUTIFUL air B&B for the 2nd and 3rd nights. After that we walked along La Rambla street which was the main touristy street in Barcelona with tons of shops and restaurants. We shopped for a bit and then headed to the beach. However I’m pretty sure that we picked the touristy beach, like super touristy. Every 30 seconds (literally) there was someone coming up to us asking us if we wanted mojitos, sangrias, beers, massages, scarfs, etc. It was super annoying because we could barely enjoy our time without being interrupted. But we also met these hot Dutch guys who were laying out next to us. They had been in Barcelona for several weeks working, and were also going to the FC Barca game…but cheering for the Ajax obviously hahaha. After the beach we went to get a fish pedicure! So you don’t actually get your toes painted but its like a cleansing pedicure. You put your feet in a tub with these tiny fish and they eat the dead skin off your feet! It tickled soooooo badlyyy and I was laughing for so long!

The second day we saved for the big game! Branden, Jose and I pre-gamed beforehand and then went to the game! Walking into the stadium was incredible. I didn’t get there super early but just the whole atmosphere, people everyone and seeing the pitch that was completely perfect. I took so many photos with my real camera and took a sick pano with my phone. We weren’t in the nose bleed seats, but we were pretty high. We had corner seats but I’m glad we weren’t situated on an end line because we were able to actually see them play. One of the SAS sections was close but on the end line with no depth so couldn’t see the good action. I tried to get close ups of Messi, Neymar and Pique. Suarez wasn’t playing because he was still out on suspension. But too bad we weren’t there for a few day later because FCB was playing Real Madrid a few days after we left! Now that would have been so badass!

The third day we first went to the Picasso museum. It was hidden in an alley way that you wouldn’t expect it to be. It actually took us a while to find it! But inside there were his earliest works, sketches, and small paintings. Then there was his larger paintings and some sculptures such as plates and bowls. The special exhibition was photographs of part of his life, kind of like an insight behind the scenes. It was pretty cool. After that we went to the Sagrada Familia church done by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. It is half famous because he began the construction of the church but never finished it…it still is under construction, and plans to be finished in 2026. After that we then went to Park Guell. And if you ever have seen America’s Next Top Model, one of the earlier cycles they went to Barcelona and they did one of the final things was through one of the tunnels in the park! It was pretty cool, and you got a nice view of the city! The last day we just walked around more, ate breakfast, shopped and brought a lot of snacks back to the ship for the 2 week voyage we have next!

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Aside from my day to day activities, I HAVE to talk about the night life in Barcelona…Sorry Mom! I’m legal here! But night life in Barcelona was crazyyy! So in Spain they have a real siesta (nap time pretty much) usually from 4-8 so places would close down. Then the restaurants and places would open back up at 8 for dinner and stuff. Going out, the clubs didn’t open until 2 AM, so you had plenty of time to eat dinner, pre-game at a bar, then hit up the club. They had some pretty cool bars in Barcelona too. One was called the Dow Jones bar, after the Dow Jones crash. So every drink/alcohol would be on the board like a company would be in the stock market. The prices changed based on who was buying what drinks/how much of each drink was being bought. And every now and then the stock crashed and all the prices of the drinks dropped to their lowest point. It was really cool! Another bar we went to was named Chupito’s which is hands down the coolest bar I’ve ever been too.It has a younger age base because it is a shot bar. On the wall there is a list of about 200 types of shots…most of which you have no idea what they are. Every shot is 2 euros except the specials, but you get them and each type of shot has a different “activity” that goes with it. Granted the shot wasn’t all alcohol, it was mixed with a tiny bit of flavor. But some cool ones was the marshmellow one. You had the shot, then you had a marshmellow on a stick and they would put alcohol on the metal sheet bar top, light it, and you roasted your marshmellow until the fire went out, then dipped it in your alcohol then took the shot. Another was the mouthwash one. You had a shot of absinthe and you had to swish the shot i your mouth for 5 seconds then drink it. Another was just a plain shot where they lit the whole shot and around it on fire, then you literally drank the shot while it was on fire out of a straw. Then for a beer there was the Monica Luinski (spelling?)…now this one is definitely not suitable for the internet so definitely email me and ask me about it because it is HILARIOUS. We also went to some really fun clubs, but the attire for some of the clubs in Barcelona was very dressy. One called Opium wouldn’t let you in if you were not dressed up enough or were wearing not wearing fancy enough shoes. But other clubs like Sutton didn’t have dress codes and what not…There Mom, my rant is over!(:

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I loved Barcelona so much!!!

Ciao!

I swear to God that each port we visit I fall more and more in love with it! Rome was amazing. I think I loved it so much because there was so much history behind everything that as there. Yeah I might have done the touristy things, but who cares! I personally stayed in Rome, but other kids on the ship went to places like Florence, Venice, Pisa, Capri, etc. But that just means I’ll have to come back! We docked in Civitavecchia, Italy and Rome was an hour train ride away. So the first day we hopped on a train and headed for Rome. We found this gorgeous Air B&B apartment which was only 5 euros extra than a hostel per night, which was a deal! After we put our stuff down we headed for the Colosseum which was so amazing. I had never seen any ruins before so I was just awed. I loved it and I loved being surrounded by so much history. Lots of pictures were taken in the Colosseum! We then got the famous Italian gelato outside the Colosseum at a little cafe with lots of outside tables. Before coming to Italy I thought everyone was just saying that gelato was good and that it was being talked up to something it wasn’t. But let me tell you, you’ve never tasted gelato until you’ve had the real deal! It was amazing! I got strawberry gelato with strawberries and whipped cream. Because I had a field lab the next day, I had to be back on the ship by midnight, and the last train out of Rome was at 9, so I left then!

My second day in Rome was spent with my Nutrition Around the World Class on our field lab. For the first part of the field trip we spend about an hour and a half in a market. In class we were split into groups and in the market we had to observe the food choices in our groups. We had to compare prices and types of food and which food had the most abundance. The second part of the lab we got to make our own pasta! I was so stoked! We went to a cooking school and we got to make our own shells and ravioli. The shells we did individually but for the ravioli it took the whole class to flatten and expand the pasta dough! Of course I got volunteered to keep leading out the pasta out of the flattening device! And you had to hold and pass it so that the flat pasta sheet was laying on top of your hands…not your palms. They do this so that your finger pads don’t make indents in the pasta sheet. But it eventually took the whole class to feed the pasta in and get it out AND each person had to rotate around. It began with individual sheets, then you would combine 2 and re-flatten each pair so that it would get longer, and then keep repeating the process until all the pieces were combined into one! After we got to eat our own pasta that we made with bottles of wine(: I’m pretty sure our whole class agreed that our teacher was drunk on a half bottle of wine!

After the field lab I signed out so that I could stay in Rome and didn’t have to go back to the ship in Civitavecchia. With two of my classmates we visited the Pantheon. Which is a building that is a dome atop of a cylinder. If you added the bottom half of the dome, it would vertically fit inside of the cylinder! At the top of the dome there is an open circle called the oculus. It was pretty cool since I learned about it in my Great Structures class! After that I met back up with my friends at the apartment and we wnt to the Spanish Steps. At the top of the steps is a cathedral or church that was under construction but I’m not sure what the significance of the steps are since there wasn’t touristy information type things. After that we headed to the Trevi Fountain…the same one in the Lizzie McGuire movie! However, it was under construction 😦 But they had a ramp set up so you could still walk and throw your coin in.

The third day we conquered the Vatican City…in case no one knows, its where you can find the Pope.But we went through the Vatican museum and the Sistine Chapel, as well as the St. Peters Basilica. All were amazing, huge, with great paintings and architecture! Paintings that Michelangelo did were everywhere! On the ceilings what looked 3 dimesional was flat. Michelangelo’s paintings were so good it looked 3D!! The Sistine Chapel was cool, you had to be quiet and were not allowed to take any pictures. But St. Peters Basilica was even more impressive. The inside was HUGE, like the ceilings were so high up and the domes were amazing. The architecture was incredible with so much detail. Everyone looked like little ants compared to the structure!

The last day we souvenir shopped then hopped on a train back to Civitavecchia. I had dock time so I had to be back on the ship at a certain time. But my friends are the best and did the same as me. We just tanned out on the pool deck (deck 7). It was so nice out and I got lots of sun!(: I loved Rome because it was a city but not a city you would think. It wasn’t like Paris or New York City. Yes the public transportation (metro/subway) sucked because it was unbearably crowed at all hours of the day, but the streets were not at all crowded like you would think it was. If I could describe it I would maybe call it a peaceful city. Partially because there was so uch history everywhere!