We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families

"At Nyarubuye, tiny skulls of children were scattered here and there, and from a nearby schoolyard the voices of their former classmates at recess carried into the church. Inside the nave, empty and grand, where a dark powder of dried blood marked one's footprints, a single, representative corpse was left on the floor before the altar. He appeared to be crawling toward the confession booth. His feet had been chopped off, his hands had been chopped off. This was a favorite torture for Tutsis during the genocide; the idea was to cut the tall people 'down to size'; and crowds would gather to taunt, laugh, and cheer as the victim writhed to death. The bones emerged from the dead man's cuffs like twigs, and he still had a square tuft of hair peeling from his skull, and a perfectly formed, weather-shrunken and weather-greened ear.

'Look at his feet and his hands.' said Sergeant Francis. 'How he must have suffered.'

But what of his suffering? The young man in the car wreck had suffered, albeit for an instant, and the people at Kibeho had suffered. What does suffering have to do with genocide, when the idea itself is the crime?"

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with out families,
Stories From Rwanda
By Phillip Gourevitch

Taiwan Day 1

Our last international port was supposed to be Japan, but because of the tsunami/earthquake we rerouted to Taiwan. People were unhappy. Everyone wanted to go to the Philippines, then South Korea, so when we got the third choice of the vast majority of the boat people were pissed.  I wanted to go to the Philippines as well. I can’t say that I had a good reason for it, it just sounded more exciting than Taiwan, but when I heard we were going to Taiwan I maintained a good attitude: I was going to go somewhere that I would have NEVER chosen to go otherwise, and I can go back to Japan and the Philippines if I want to.

When we arrived on the first day, I chose to go with my friend Whitney on her FDP to the National Palace Museum. The National Palace Museum is an art museum of the ROC in Taipei, the capital, and is one of the biggest art museums in the world. The permanent collection is over 650,000 pieces and they can show less than 10% of the collection at one.  The collection consists of many artifacts from the QING Dynasty that were collected by China’s emperors and fought over between China and Taiwan for many years. When the ROC moved to Taiwan in 1948 they took the collection with them and hid it in a mountainside and the PRC still claim that the collection belongs to them, but Taiwan refuses to return it and now has it on display for the public in the museum.

The museum was very cool. To be honest, I’m not really an ancient artifact kind of person but I definitely enjoyed it and was glad that I went. There was huge 8,000-year-old golden Buddha statues and a huge collection of jade.  I thought it was ok, but Whitney, who is an artist, LOVED IT, so for the more art-oriented people I think it, was a lot more powerful.  I did get a delicious caramel macchiato in the café. I understand coffee.

After the museum we were already in Taipei (we docked in Keelung) so me, D, Whitney and Emilio decided to just start walking and hoped to eventually meet up with everyone else.  We stopped in a gas station and bought some snacks and drinks and just started walking down the street. I had gotten a Mike’s Hard and wanted to ask the police man if I could drink it on the street (it was 6:30pm!) and it will took awhile for him to understand what I was even asking, and when he did he laughed at me! He was like “uh, yeah….” So that was cool.  No open container laws in Taiwan.

We walked and walked and eventually decided we were hungry so we went into this little place that had a bunch of food assembly-line style. I don’t think they had ever seen tourists in their life; it was extremely “local.”  We walked down the line and pointed to what we wanted and my strategy was “if it’s chicken, I’ll probably like it,” and avoided everything else.  Chicken seemed safe, and it was. And pretty good too.

We’d been walking probably close to two hours (and stopping in stores and to take pictures along the way) and hadn’t seen anything close to a hotel so we decided to take a cab to the one hotel that we knew the name of. We got there and it was $100 a room for one night, but they made it very clear that only two people could sleep in a room and we would need two rooms.  We walked across the street and saw this delightfully sketchy little hotel with the sweetest little lady working there. And I (me, yes me!) talked down a price in an establishment for the first time in my life! I got her down from $85 to $65 for the four of us and we had the cutest, sketchiest room. It’s not that it was sketchy, kind of just old, but we were very happy with it.  When SAS takes you on trips they put you up in the NICEST places. Way nicer than I would ever stay with friends, so it was nice to stay somewhere a little bit cheaper and sketchier and feel like we were actually traveling and not being pampered.

After we got settled we decided to walk! We walked through what appeared to be the local night market, which was interesting. There were a bunch of carnival games and street food.  Oh, the other thing about Taiwan, there are bakeries and pastry shops every 5 feet! They are more common than coffee shops in Seattle, it’s insane. So we walked through the market and went in and out of bakeries admiring all of the cakes until we decided we wanted to go out and realized we hadn’t seen a bar anywhere, all day.

We knew the name of one bar because Whitney had heard people were going there so we jumped in a cab there. It was called The Brass Monkey and it was basically an American Sports Bar filled with Taiwanese locals, with pool tables, foosball, and grill food. But the drinks were SO EXPENSIVE. $6 for a beer, $8 for a shot, $10 for a cocktail. This place was not night enough for that, so I put a one-drink limit on myself and Whitney ordered juice and spiked it.  Around 1:30 the bar closed and we were all tired so we decided to head back to the hotel room to hang out and go to sleep.

still alive

I realize I have made the biggest blog-mistake and have probably lost all of my reader-ship because I haven't updated in almost a month. It's been crazy though. A LOT going on. We disembark the day after tomorrow, which means back to regular life. However, if I haven't scared you off by my lack of entries keep checking back over the next two weeks because there will be A LOT going up. I am going to complete my port entries, write a little bit about the end of ship life, and about my re-entry back into the states. Y'all have stuck with me for three and a half months and if you're still around then don't give up yet.  Tomorrow is going to be extremely busy with finishing packing, convocation and then final good-byes, then off to Mackenzies' grandmas for two days, then back to Seattle, but amidst all of the hecticness I am going to get my thoughts down on paper, or a screen, or anything, especial the re-entry stuff because I'm sure I will have a lot of thoughts.

So stay tuned!!!

Oh, a few pieces of news just because I'm excited...

I have gotten one grade so far, for Global Studies, my least favorite class and I got an A-!!!
I also received an email from my professor about one of my assignments and he added on at the end "p.s. you got a 100.5% on the final exam! rock on."  Sooo I'm pretty psyched. I worked really hard in that class and it's nice to have it pay off. We had a huge paper and if I did as well as I think I did I should be golden :)

Taiwan, you lookin' mighty fine

Hello blog friends. It's been a whirlwind month of traveling from port to port to port. On the ship we call it Speed-Asia, like speed-dating, but with Asia.  We now have !!12!! days on the ship, our longest stretch yet, and it's going to be rough. I'm going to try and take this time to focus on studying, working out, and preparing to come back home. I also hope to have some reading material up for all of my lovely loyal followers in the next few days. For those of you I've spoken to, you know I didn't really like China. I'm not sure what/how I'm going to write about it.  I may end up glazing over it, at least for now, but I promise to finish my India writing and write about Taiwan which I LOVED.  Since we have finally finished all of our international ports, I put them in order from my favorite to least favorite and thought I would share that. I didn't include Mauritius because we only spent one day there and I spent it drinking on the beach, so I don't think I have a valid assessment of the country. In my defense, I wanted to go do a "Walk with Lions" program but it was Sunday so everything was closed. Also, to clarify, I liked everywhere except China. I wouldn't consider Vietnam my second-least-favorite country, I consider it my eighth-favorite.  But I consider China my least favorite. xo



1. India
2. South Africa
3. Taiwan
4. Ghana
5. Brazil
6. Singapore
7. Dominica
8. Vietnam
9. China

Hong Kong

Today was my first day in China.  Our schedule for China is a bit different than other ports. We docked in Hong Kong today, and the ship will set sail for Shang Hai tomorrow night.  The ship then arrives in Shang Hai on the 30th, and will leave the evening of April 1.  I am on an SAS trip to Beijing, which means I had today in Hong Kong, will leave for Beijing tomorrow, and stay there for four days, so I’ll miss the transit days (there are no classes) then I’ll get the last two days in Shang Hai. 

With only a day in Hong Kong Hassan and I decided we wanted to have a great adventurous day with no one holding us back so we chose to separate from the group and go out alone. The motto of the day was “forward is the way!” We could never turn around unless we really needed to, like when we had to find an atm and when we almost ended up eating lunch at somewhere called “Main Street USA.”

The day started by us disembarking the boat into the HUGEST MALL EVER. Seriously, the HUGEST. MALL. EVER. It was crazy and overwhelming and our only goal was to get out of it as quickly as possible.  We eventually found our way out and started wandering the (gorgeous, expensive) streets of Hong Kong. Our goal was to take a bus somewhere but the bus system was way too complicated so in the interest of saving time we jumped into a cab and asked to go the only place we knew the name of “Stanley Market.”  The ride there with traffic was about a half hour, and on the way we passed something called “Ocean Park.” We didn’t know anything about it except on the signs there were pandas and dolphins so we knew we had to go.

We eventually got to Stanley Market and wandered around looking at everything. I have been wanting to buy a Maj set of my own in China but I didn’t find any as pretty as my moms so I didn’t get one today, but I’m going to continue on my search! My goal is still to get a Maj game going in Seattle, I really do go through withdrawal when I’m at school.  After an hour of wandering we realized we were WAY marketed out and wanted to get lunch.

We passed a really nice, authentic looking Chinese place but wanted to see what else there was and the waterfront looked nice so we went down there, only to find the most American area ever. Everyone was eating burgers and the restaurants titles were things like “Main Street USA,” “The Pub” and “American Place.” Yeah, not our style.  This was the occasion we decided it was ok to backtrack and went back to the little Chinese place and got the most delicious food, we got spring rolls and lichi wine and noodles and poached chicken and custard donut things and it was all steaming hot and absolutely delicious.

After lunch we decided… OCEAN PARK TIME!!! Ocean Park is some kind of amusement park, there was an aquarium, pandas, sea lions, some rides and HELLA gift shops. At least one gift shop per other attraction.  The strange thing about it though was the median age of the park-goers. It was probably 15% families with children, 10% teenagers, 5% foreigners and the other 70%, I kid you not, were pushy middle aged people. I’m talking single men in business suits pushing in front of us at the aquarium and waiting in line to go on “The Flash,” an upside down turny ride.  The amount of older people there was ridiculous and we couldn’t quite figure it out but I guess people do different things for fun in China.

The aquarium had some cool stuff but was VERY overwhelming. Everyone was really excited and therefore kind of rude and pushy. I got shoved several times and people traveled in huge groups of maybe 15 and would crowd around exhibits for 15 minutes, then go to crowd around the next exhibit and a new group of 15 would take their place. I don’t want to be any un-pc assumptions or generalizations but it was very frustrating and I’ll let you form your own opinion. With children I understand that they want to see the cuddle fish, it was just strange to me to have to fight over space with people in their 50’s.  There were a bunch of baby hammer head sharks and giant sting rays and that was epic.

After the aquarium I got to see A PANDA EAT BAMBOO!!! It was sooooooooooo cute. Really, so cute. There was also a panda sleeping in a tree which I thought was adorable but no one else did, they were all crowded around the panda eating and didn’t care about the sleepy one. I thought they were both equally as cute but I guess the one with the bamboo did the first mention with the exclamation marks so maybe I agree with everyone else at the park.

After the pandas we road The Flash which was basically a giant ride that spins you around and turns you upside down. Normally at this age I wouldn’t go near this thing but the view you got of Hong Kong was amaaaazing and made the whole trip worth it.  There was one moment where at the top I was upside down looking at the city knowing I was on the other side of the world from where I started, that I got here on a boat across the ocean and that north and south don’t really mean anything, they’re just labels and the earth is floating somewhere in the galaxy and for that split second everything made sense, but Hassan thinks I just thought the ride would break and I would die. 

Following The Flash we tried to keep enjoying the park but got very overwhelmed with the massive amount of pushy groups of people and decided to leave. We couldn’t leave without riding the gandala over the mountain though! It was very cool but we had to wait in line for around 45 minutes and fight off this dude in a suit behind us who kept trying to inch past, but the view was awesome once we got up there. I almost freaked out when we started discussing what would happen if it broke up luckily everything turned out all right.

We left Ocean Park and at that point I kind of hit a wall. The waves were REALLY rough coming from Vietnam to China and I, along with the rest of the boat, barely slept. At one point Ashley and I were each literally thrown two feet into the air off of our beds a few times in a row, lights were falling down in the union. It’s been bad. It had finally got the best of me and we decided to get back to the boat and relax.

All was fine until we ended up back in that stupid massive mall. We got SO LOST. We literally wandered around for about an hour trying to get to the gangway and find the boat and I was soooo exhausted and overwhelmed and just wanted to get into my bed that when we finally found it I almost cried, only except there was a sit down pizza hut so we decided to reward ourselves in an American way and get pizza. It was delicious of course but by the end I literally could barely keep my eyes open let alone hold a conversation so i dragged myself back to the boat afterward and got into bed and that’s where I’ve remained for the past four hours. I haven’t slept yet but definitely feel more rested.  I feel a little bit guilty about not going out my one night in Hong Kong but I just wasn’t up for it tonight. I am going to spend the next four days tarveling through Beijing and I want to be well rested for it. Besides, things are EXPENSIVE here. And I don’t need to waste money so I can feel terrible tomorrow. I very rarely have the room to myself and the boat in silence so this relaxation has been nice.

That’s about it. I will try to update about Beijing as we got along so I don’t get behind as I have in the past with entries.  Hope everyone is doing well! Sorry about the lack of pictures, facebook was blocked in Vietnam and is blocked in China as well. That’s how you know there’s something screwy with a government…  I’ll have them up as soon as I can!

Vietnam Part 2

The third day in the morning I went back to the market to buy this painting I had decided not to get the day before because I wanted to sleep on it. I decided for $15 it was worth it and the lady knocked it down to $12.  I had also seen the most amazing carry-on suitcase the day before that I wanted to get but couldn’t find it ANYWHERE. I should have known not to sleep on something I loved, I ended up looking for it the rest of the week and couldn’t find it so maybe in China. It was a tan color with maps of different parts of the world all over it, it was perfect.  Perhaps next time.

In the afternoon I decided to get a mani/pedi.  Everyone says this is what you do in Vietnam.  I was stupid and didn’t come outside with the name of the place, I just asked the driver to take me there which I should have been smarter than to do in Vietnam. In India that’s fine, they may try to overcharge you but they’re honest and good-hearted (at least in my experience) but in Vietnam not so much. The guy took me to this broken down salon with construction being done on the whole front. The lady told me it would be 400,000 ($20) dong for a manicure and pedicure which I KNEW wasn’t right, that’s more than I pay at home at my Vietnamese salon, it shouldn’t have been more than 200,00 and I said so. We agreed on 300,000. I knew I was overpaying but thought it was still pretty cheap and it would be worth it. She made me pay immediately which I did and assumed she would take me into the back and into the salon part. Nope… she takes out a fold out table, a bucket of water, some nail polish remover, five colors and a nail file. She literally dipped my hands in water, filed one of them and started to paint them this ugly pink color.  All the while she kept stopping to go outside and talk to the construction guys. I told her it was taking too long and I had to go and wanted to cancel the pedicure but she said a manicure was the same price as a manicure/pedicure and I couldn’t have my money back.  Damn.  As much as I wanted to book it out of there I wanted my moneys worth and I wanted that stupid lady to touch my feet so I took the pedicure.  I finally got out of there hot and exhausted and pissed off with the worst manicure of my life but once again, learning experience.

It turns out that a lot of people in Vietnam scam foreigners by offering services that are known to be good in Vietnam, but by being pushy and confusing and with the language barrier people get confused and they end up getting ripped off. My friend Tatiana tried to get an hour massage but had a lady rub her back for 20 minutes, leave for 10, come back for 10 and then leave to give some other people pedicures.

I got back to the boat to take a nap but Andrew called and wanted to hang out so I put my stuff down, changed and went back to the Rex to meet him. We jumped into a cab and asked the driver to take us to a “nice Vietnamese restaurant” and luckily this guy pulled through. We went somewhere that appeared really nice and got the most delicious chicken, duck, appetizers and cocktails for around $20 altogether.  Afterwards we noticed a sign for massages across the street.  It was in a nice building so we determined it was safe and not a scam.  We each got 1 hour massages for 139,000 dong… about $7.25.  And they were GREAT!  I haven’t been able to crack my back since, it was definitely one of the best massages I have ever gotten, I fell asleep halfway through, and when I left the girl a 50,000 dong tip, or $2.50, she just about fell over. Andrews girl did offer him a “happy ending” although he turned it down, I’m pretty sure he’s the only American guy to ever do that, but he has very strong views about prostitution and I respect him for that.

After our massages we headed back to the boat and changed and went to one of the port bars with everyone to wait for Hassan and Whitney to come back from Cambodia. Eventually they got back and I went out to Apolacylpse with some friends. What was supposed to be a fun night was still fun I guess but was once again ruined for me by people who can’t hold themselves together.  A girl got too drunk and I ended up babysitting her all night which is fine, I don’t mind being there for my friends, but eventually  when endearing stumbling turned into barging out of a hotel room and walking alone down alleys I was not happy anymore. I literally chased this girl barefoot and dragged her back to the hotel and spent two hours trying to reason with her. At around 4:30 am she was being irrational and making phone calls to go home and I couldn’t deal with it anymore so I tagged Hassan in and went to the room to try and get some sleep. That was the first and last time I will get a hotel room in port. It’s elaborate, a liability, dramatic and I really like my own bed. At least when we go back to the ship people contain themselves but when they know they have a hotel room they tend to get way too drunk.

Maybe I’m being too high and mighty because I know that everyone drinks, that I drink, that I have been too drunk and it’s a normal part of college and adult life but I have standards and I wish other people did too, this isn’t freshmen year, we’re not 18.  I got too drunk the first night in Dominica and promised myself right there it wouldn’t happen again and I would not have to be taken care of again on this trip and I have held to that. I am more than happy to take care of someone once, twice, but the same girl shouldn’t have to be taken care of every night in the same port, it’s not fair to everyone else.  Several people in Vietnam didn’t show up for their commitments with me or other people or their FDPs because they were too hungover and I’m not ok with that.  You need to at least show up to cancel and not leave people hanging.  Anyway, that’s my rant. To clarify, I am not against drinking or my friends drinking or anything like that, I just  think we’re at an age where it needs to be done responsibly.  Especially when we have so little time. If someone wants to waste 1 of 5 days in a country hungover, 20% of their time that’s their thing but I’m not going to waste my time.

Anyway, Hassan took over and talked some sense into her which as good. I fell asleep around 5 and woke up around 6:30 with the sun. I had barely slept but didn’t really feel comfortable in the room so I decided to try and skype Rollie. I packed up my computer into my industrial protection strength pacsafe backpack, put on my fanny pack and was off.  This was the first time I had to cross a road in Vietnam by myself. The roads are CRAZY. Cyclists back and forth constantly. You have to just walk across the street very slowly at a steady pace and they’ll go around you or so I’m told.  I never quite figured it out and was terrified so I developed my own method. Find an old Vietnamese person, stand shoulder to shoulder with them, do whatever they do and no matter what don’t look at the bikes an inch away from your stomach. 

Even though I only walked about 10 minutes away from the hotel I ended up in the least touristy place possible. Everyone was staring at me, no one spoke any English and normal life was just going about. It was cool to see it without the influence of people trying to sell things or get me on their bike or cab or whatever, to just exist in the environment and see how it worked. Eventually I found an outdoor café with a sign that said “wifi” so I went in and sat down. After a lot of gesturing I managed to get what I think was iced coffee although it was very strong and I could barely drink it.  They did have a sweet wifi connection though and I got to skype for close to an hour with no problems which is very rare. 

After the skype date I wanted to cry at the thought of trying to cross the street again so I just grabbed a motorbike back to the hotel and woke everyone up. We walked around for awhile and ended up stumbling into a really expensive mall where I wouldn’t touch anything although I did buy a delicious homemade donut.  The hard thing about Ho Chi Minh is that literally all there is to do is party and shop. To do anything cultural aside from the War museum you have to go at least 3 hours outside the city and I just wasn’t in the mood to do that, I wanted to relax, I have traveled out of every port so far and just wanted to kick it. 

I went back to the boat for lunch and all of a sudden my exhaustion from only sleeping three hours the night before hit me and I decided to take a nap. I passed out until about 6 when my friend Amy called me so we could go pick up our dresses. I woke up still delirious but we made it to the tailor.  My dress is cute and fits well but the tailor took a lot of creative liberties in toning down how elaborate the dress was so it really looks nothing like the picture.  It’s still cute, but it’s kind of low cut but also kind of long so I’m not sure what to do with it yet. I’m sure it will be a nice spring in Seattle dress and I’m excited to wear it when I get home.

We walked around the market for a bit but at around 9 I was exhausted so I just went back to the boat.  I had missed dinner so I went up to the 7th deck to get a pizza and Bill Cuff, who directs a lot of the surface trips on the boat, was up there.  I went on my service trip in India with him and have talked to him a few times since. He asked what I was getting and I said a pizza and he said “You know what, I’m going to buy it for you, just for being the kind of person you are.”  Skipping out on going out and going back to the boat turned out to be one of my best decisions. I sat on the deck talking to Bill for over an hour all about people on the boat, relationships, personal growth, decisions, service work and all sorts of things and it was really great. I’ve never really had a “mentor” before but I really respect him and he’s definitely becoming someone I trust and is helping me process some of the things I’m seeing and doing on this trip.  At around 10:30 we said goodnight and I went back to my room and passed out.

I woke up pretty early on our fifth and last day in Vietnam. I called Whitney to see if she wanted me to take her to the market since she had just gotten back from Cambodia. She wanted to sleep awhile longer, so we agreed to meet at 10:45 and I watched my 50 cent “Easy A” and cleaned my room.  At 11 her, D and I left to wander and shop. We got some really good sandwiches, bought some snacks for the boat and got some last minute gifts. After an hour Whitney left to go to the War museum and D and I decided to try again at mani/pedis. She had a brochure for somewhere so we thought it would be more legitimate. Oh BOY it was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hands down the most awesome mani/pedi I have ever gotten. You could get the basics for under $10, but for $34 I got the hand/foot spa package and it was soooo wonderful.  I had one girl doing my manicure while another did my feet and they did all of the scraping and washing and those little scrubby beads and dipped my everything in wax, it was awesome and MORE than worth it.  My feet have never looked better.

Afterwards we headed back to the boat. D was tired and got right on but I decided to head to the port bar to do some last minute internet and youtubing and hang out with some friends.  I got back on the boat at 5:30, exhausted, and was passed out in my bed by 7.

Some people loved Vietnam and can’t wait to go back. I would like to see more cultural aspects of it but I did more than enough going out/shopping and was sick of it by the end.  I don’t think Vietnam is on the top of my list for places to return to and that’s ok.  India and Cape Town are still my favorites, but we’ll be in China tomorrow and I’m excited for that.

Vietnam Part 1

I've been trying to do my blogs in order but Vietnam is done and Singapore and India Days 5 and 6 aren't so I'm just going to post Vietnam now because there's a chance the other three won't be done until after China, where I'll be TOMORROW!!! Enjoy!


Vietnam was good.  It wasn’t great but it was good.  When we left India I was digging my nails into the ground, leaving parts of me left and right as I was dragged back to the boat but leaving Ho chi Minh I picked up my bags, waved good-bye and walked across the gangway without looking back.

In every country we’ve visited so far we have been warned extensively about the safety and about getting ripped off and everyone became kind of desensitized to it but in Vietnam shit went down. Although I got ripped off a few times nothing too bad happened. My friend Alice was pulled off of a motorbike and scraped up the side of her face when someone on another motorbike tried to grab her purse that was wrapped around her arm.  My friend Paige had her purse snatched by someone as a motorbike as she walked down the road, and another girl named Michelle was dragged about 15 feet down the road and scraped up her entire shoulder when someone tried to grab her messenger back that was over her shoulder.

The first day in Vietnam I had an FDP for my journalism class where we went to visit a UPI photographer during the Vietnam War and then went to the Vietnam War Remnants Museum, formerly known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes.  Visiting the photographer was very cool.  We went to his home and sat barefoot in a circle on his port where he showed us some of his work and answered questions. For anyone who has seen the famous picture of the monk in lotus position who lit burning after he lit himself on fire, this man took that picture.  After visiting him we went to the museum which was very tough for me. I wrote a little bit about it in my last entry but it was definitely a trip and absolutely the most important thing I saw in Vietnam. It was just floor after floor of pictures.  My dad compared it to the Holocaust Museum and it was definitely similar to that, but what almost made this more difficult is that I felt responsible. At Yad Vesham it was “How could someone do this to us?” and at the Vietnam War Remnants Museum it was “How could we do this to other people?”  Soldiers would go into villages on rampages and just kill women and children.  Maybe it didn’t go exactly like that, but there were pictures of children with gun wounds, of dead women holding dead babies, it was very stressful.  There was also an entire floor dedicated to victims of Agent Orange, people in the worst shape I’ve ever seen for generations after the war. Fourth Generation babies born today are still being effected by the Vietnam War both in Vietnam and the US. It is extremely sad.  One of the most touching moments of the day for me was walking out of the museum, the first floor is open to the outside and it was pouring rain so maybe a hundred people all of different ethnicities speaking different languages were huddled on the steps waiting for the rain to slow so they could leave and an acoustic version of Let It Be was playing with a harmonica carrying the melody and I just felt very connected to everyone in the world, it’s so easy to look past wars and natural disasters and everything else where the numbers are statistics because they’re just that, statistics, and we are such a small percent of the world that we think it will never happen to us and it lessens what happens to the people it does happen to, but the people in Japan or Libya or anywhere else could have been me, could have been Jake, Rollie, Aunt Amy, Erin, Ben, any one of my family or friends or it could have been someone who I could have met in the future, a friend or lover or teacher, and I was just filled with really contradicting overwhelming feelings of love and loss.

After my FDP I went back to the boat and tried to relax and get into a right headspace for the night.  All of my friends had gotten pretty drunk early in the day so it was tough to find everyone and get organized because very few of us have phones but eventually I found everyone at the Rex Hotel and since we knew everyone from SAS was going to a club called Apocalypse Now we went to Lush and were the only white people there. Score. 

We had a good time hanging out and drinking until my friend Victor, who likes to flaunt his wealth by buying bottle after bottle, threw up so we started to head out.  We walked outside and a guy started yelling out of the window of his cab at my friend Aidan.  His comments were kind of derogatory, kind of flirtatious and she loves attention so she kind of went with it.  My friend Andrew then walked over towards the car and said something, I’m not sure what, I think he was defending Aidan and he guy called him a “faggot” and got out of the car. The next few moments were blurry but the next thing I knew Aidan and D were holding the other guy back and I was holding Andrew back and the guy was screaming at him “You white fucks don’t own the world before, you’re nothing” and a lot of other derogatory things to that nature.  Andrew is a skinny 18 year old kid and this guy was at least 35, I have no clue what he was doing messing with a child but it was pretty bad, they kept yelling at each other and trying to fight for about 15 minutes until we got the guy into his can and left.  Andrew was pretty shook up about it but even more upset we wouldn’t let him fight, but getting thrown in Vietnamese jail isn’t worth proving any kind of point, and in this case I have no clue what the point would have been. I know white people are disliked in a lot of parts of the world but even as a white woman I have always been treated nicely and with respect so this was the first time I had seen outward racism.

Eventually we got everyone back to Victor’s hotel room and ordered about five plates of French fries from room service because the language barrier wouldn’t allow us to order anything else and as everyone started to fall asleep I headed back to the boat because I kind of like sleeping in my own bed.

The second day in Vietnam I woke up to meet everyone to go shopping but of course they were too hung over and didn’t show up.  The one thing that frustrates me on this trip is that people drink so much that they fail at their obligations the next day. I’m all for drinking if people want to, and I like to a little as well, but when we have such a small amount of time in port it’s not worth it to me to miss a day for being hungover.  Eventually I found my friend Paige during lunch and we decided to go shopping together.

We went to the big market and this was the first time I got ripped off although it was my fault. Actually, just kidding, the first time was the first ay. The money in Vietnam is hard to understand. 100,000 dong is $5.  To get pretty much anywhere on a motorbike it’s a dollar.  Oh yeah, the motorbikes! So there are some cars in Ho Chi Minh but not very many. Everyone  get’s everywhere by motorbike.  The streets are filled with them, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There is some system they all use to drive but I could not figure it out for the life of me, it’s like traffic laws don’t apply in so many of these countries.  On my first motorbike ride I was terrified, clinging to the guy for dear life, but by the end of the week I was a total pro.  There is a helmet law which means everyone on a bike has to wear a helmet which I loved, and it’s strictly enforced. Anyway, the first night I took a motorbike and only had 100,000 dong and the guy refused to give me change. Oh well.  Then, this next day I accidentally handed the guy a 500,000 ($25) instead of a 50,000 ($2.50) and he BOOKED it.  I have never seen anyone move that fast. Either way, when you’re traveling every time something goes wrong it’s a learning experience. Things need to go wrong before you learn how to do them right the next time.

Shopping was VERY overwhelming. Ben Thurn Market is packed with more stuff than I have ever seen in my entire life. Seriously, my entire life.  And bargaining is HARD, most people won’t budge more than a dollar and I ended up walking away from a lot of stuff. I did end up ordering a dress and buying some cute clothes and gifts.  We then headed to Saigon Market for northfaces and movies. They didn’t have any northface vests, and I was honestly just really overwhelmed, so I didn’t end up getting any but I DID get some sweet movies. I got maybe 8 DVDs for 50 cents each, not sure if they all work or not yet, I bought every season of the Simpsons for Jake for $35 and every season of Monk for my dad for $12.  And for myself, I bought the most epic thing ever…a Discovery Channel Box Set for $35 which has LITERALLY 319 programs. Yeah, it has every program in the Nature Biology Series, World Culture Series, History Human Series, Travel Exploration Series, Life Series, Military Series, Architecture Series, Secret History Series and Universe Series. To say I’m pumped is an understatement. I mean, my secret motive was the Nature Biology series and more specifically Wolves At Our Door because in the US that DVD costs $25 on it’s own but now I have 319 PROGRAMS.  Megahau5, I know you have Thursday nights reserved, but I want to implement a Discovery Channel Monday where we’ll learn shit. I’m trying to watch “Unwrapped: The Mysterious World Of Mummies.” 

After shopping I came back to the boat to relax and couldn’t find anyone anywhere. Eventually at 10:30 I decided to go to bed and on my way to my room ran into Dan, my friend Jeff’s roommate who looks like a sexier Tiger Woods (by the way, did everyone hear that Tiger Woods is now dating Alyse Lahti from my high school???? She was on the varsity basketball team!) and was like “Where are you going? Can I come?!” and he goes “Yeah, meet me upstairs in three minutes” so I RAN to my room and put on the first thing I saw which luckily was a black dress.

We went out and met with some of his friends and Jeff who is a good friend of mine  and tried to find something to do. First we were outside a wall and it opened and we walked into a giant elevator??? Like a room, but it was an elevator.  It took us up to a karaoke bar/casino but the karaoke was all filled up so we left. Then we decided to walk to Lush and try to find other sassers but heard some music and decided to follow it.  We went up two flights of stairs and ended up in a small hookah bar blasting terrible house techno music.  A girl we were with had been talking about hookah all night so we decided to stay for awhile.  We sat there kind of looking around and realized there were only men…and they were only playing Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, and “happy birthday” but techno style (that was strange)…yep, we had accidentally stumbled into a gay hookah bar.  Everyone thought it was funny and it was kind of a blessing because there were no prostitutes trying to lure in any guys (they are everywhere in Vietnam at night sadly).  At around 1:30 I got pretty tired and headed back to the boat to get some sleep.  What can I say, I don’t think I got the party animal gene.