Ghana photos

Here's some photos from Chip from Ghana!

So it comes to a close

Today is my last day on the ship. It's really .... upsetting, exciting, frustrating, and emotional. I am really overcome with a feeling of loss because I know most of these people I will never see again, but I am also really excited for my strong friendships that have begun here and the places we can go together and the relationships we will have in the future.

I get it easy compared to all the other students because I am so lucky to have my mother and my Uncle Bruce meeting me tomorrow in Barcelona and I am so excited to see them!

So I hope you all stay tuned, I will continue to post as my mom and I travel into Eastern Europe!

Thank you for sharing this journey with me. I really think keeping this blog has been such a blessing to keep everyone updated and involved in my experiences and will make it easier to come home and readjust.

With all my love from right outside Barcelona~ Laura

Morocco pics

Walking/eating on the roof they were building

Morocco

Morocco considerably exceeded my expectations, I completely loved it. Great people and great food! Huw, Ed and my friend Kiwi and I got on a train to Marrakech the first day right away. We barely made it on the train, it was swarmed with about 250 SAS students, but we got on the very last car, in the very back and ended up having to stand the whole way on and around luggage with the door open. There was a guy standing in the back with us and we got to chatting, he was around our age, had moved to Morocco with his mom about seven years ago and he asked us if we had a place to stay. In typical fashion we didn't, turns out his mom ran a Riad in the old city, so he called in and got us a giant room. The Riad was gorgeous, typical Moroccan style with a courtyard in the center completely open and then rooms and hallways surrounding in a square and a roof top terrace. Our room had 3 twin beds and a cali king and for some miraculous reason they let me have the cali king so I was spread eagle every night taking advantage of all the space!

We just wandered around that night, found a billiard bar and the Brits taught us to play Snooker, which turns out is the worst and longest game ever. Or maybe we were just really bad...

I feel like all we did was eat in Morocco, so much good food! That next morning, we were eating in the Riad and Vivienne (the guy from the train's mom) showed up and started talking with us asking what we wanted to do that day, we said go to the Atlas Mountains. Another coincidence, her husband as it turns out, was a mountain guide, so in a few hours we found ourselves in the back of Vivienne and Mohammad's Toyota like family vacation driving into the mountains. It was a gorgeous drive and we eventually had to stop because the road actually ended and we hiked in about a mile to a village and stayed the night in a Berber village in the High Atlas in Berber Valley. They were in the middle of building another house for the family (about 20+ people living there) so we "helped" a little bit but not really. We really just ate... a lot. I felt like I was going to blow up from eating about 90% of the time. We stayed out and laid out on the roof and watched the stars which was incredible and a great way to spend our last port.

We hiked out the next morning, drove to a Berber market, drove through Oreka Valley and then went back to Marrakech and we spent the evening at the HUGE market in Marrakech just watching all the people (probably 2000 +) and doing a little shopping and then it was back to the ship the next day.

I couldn't think of a better way or better people to have spent my last port with. I am really excited to return to Morocco.

Ghana

So, Ghana.... It wasn't really what I was expecting. I thought I would love Ghana and I just didn't to be honest. I was grabbed on the wrist several times in Takoradi by men which was the first time that had happened and my roommate almost got pulled down an ally and luckily we were paying attention and said no and got out and it didn't hurt we had my 6'7" friend Chip (AKA "strongman" as the local Ghanians called him) following us and removing hands. We went to Cape Coast, hiked through the forest and walked on canopy bridges, visited a slave castle which was incredibly powerful and then stuck around for a choral concert in the castle that night. We then made our way to Accra and spent a day in the city and then I had a field lab doing a drumming workshop at the University of Ghana in Accra. The drumming workshop was probably my favorite thing that I did, but I did have a great time with my friends. We pretty much laughed our way through Ghana, I think I was smiling 90% of the time.

I do have one really funny story about the choral concert though. I should start off with Ghanaian distaste of photographs. In general Ghanaian people get really upset if they see you taking photos, so if walking in a market in Ghana and you take pictures you will hear about five different people start shouting at you and even running towards you. So we had been at the slave castle in the afternoon that day and saw there would be a choral concert that night in the castle (which was actually a really cool venue) so we decided to just stick around the area and go back around 6:30pm for the concert when the people at the castle told us to be there. So we came back at 6:30pm and there were almost no people in the castle for the concert, and none of the choral groups were there so my friend Huw decided to go up on the edge of the castle by the canons that overlooks the ocean and take photos. About 10 minutes later we heard all these sirens coming towards the castle and then about 10 military guys came in carrying flare guns and posting themselves around the castle. They were there because the Ghanaian minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts and the Minister of the Central Region were at the concert. So the soldiers are milling around and I see one head off to where Huw is by the canons taking photos and my first thought is "oh crap Huw is going to be in trouble with this guys for taking photos," but the soldier just headed up the steps and eye-balled Huw a few times and ignored him. So I quit paying attention and about 4 or 5 minutes go by and all of a sudden a hear a shot ring out from where Huw is by the cannons and instantly I assume Huw has been shot for taking pictures or something so I whip my head over and see smoke rising from the ground by the soldier's feet and the soldier looks stunned. Several people got up and just left from the audience, and the guys supervisors marched over and ripped the guys flare gun away and starts having a strongly worded chit chat with him. Huw miraculously showed back up and said the guy had been holding the flare gun behind his back and set it off accidentally into the ground. Luckily Huw made it out unscathed, but for about 10 seconds I was certain he was going to be Semester at Sea's funniest statistic from Ghana with "one student shot with flare gun."

I didn't take many pictures in Ghana but I will get some from friends to add later but here's the few I had!

South Africa 5

I spent most of a day trying to register for classes, but that night we all went to a local soccer game in the FIFA World Cup Stadium which was way cool. It was practically empty because it was just the Cape Town team not the national team but it was really fun to see the fans and hear the Vuvuzelas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vuvuzela)

All the Girls at the Safari

South Africa 4

Our group of friends was able to get tickets to a T20 20 Cricket match, so right after we got back from the "Safari" we got in a cab and went to the game. It was pretty interesting because T20 20 is a faster version of Cricket that is really recent and is meant to mimic American Baseball games in a way with the music and entertainment value. A normal cricket match takes about a day and these games last for about 2 or 3 hours. I read over the rules on wikipedia, plus I had two Brits with me so I had a pretty good grasp of what was going on. It was a really fun atmosphere and it reminded me of home!

South Africa 3

Safari! We went on a Safari... of sorts. We went to a game reserve about 3 hours outside of Cape Town, which is an incredibly beautiful drive. It was a relatively small reserve but we did see the Big Five which are: Elephant, Buffalo (not water buffalo), Lion, Rhino, and Leopard on top of many zebras, antelope(which have a different name but I can't remember it) black and blue wildebeests, cheetahs and crocodiles . It felt almost like a really big zoo that you could drive around in. It felt very controlled, and the leopard, cheetah, and a few lions were in in-closers apparently for medical treatment but I kind of questioned that. And then the Crocs were in a pretty small controlled area on their own probably because they don't have enough animals to balance having them out in the water. The scenery was beautiful though, it felt like I was in central or eastern Montana so I felt pretty at home :D

South Africa 2

Our third day Christine and I headed out to Stellenbosch to go wine tasting on the train early. We didn't really have a plan so we hopped off the train and decided to follow the crowd into town which actually worked and we were able to get on a bus called the "vine hopper" and went to 3 wineries. The first one we went to was probably my favorite because it was fairly low key and the owners also had a small herd of Black and Red Angus cattle that they show and I think they sell quite a few bulls. Plus they had several big cats (3 golden lions, 2 white lions, 1 leopard, 1 cheetah, 2 bengal tigers) that you could see really close so they were neat to see! Gloria, you'll be happy to know that I printed out all the notes you sent me and a tasting chart and we even looked at them while we were there! Please note me evaluating the legs in the picture.... haha ;)

Check out my friend Laura featured on the SAS Blog!

http://www.semesteratsea.org/2013/04/03/witnessing-student-compassion-in-a-south-african-township/

South Africa 1

South Africa was amazing. I walked away feeling overwhelmed with a love for the scenery, the people, the animals, and the culture and I can't wait to go back!
The first day we hiked Table Mountain which is apparently one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. It was a good hike, not too challenging and we did it rather quickly. The winds were gusting pretty good at the top so it got a little chilly but it was so beautiful. My friends Bridget, Ed and Christine did the hike with me
.