Day 13: 1/21...no wait!...1/22 The Lost Day, Immigration Forms

                In the middle of the night we crossed the International Date Line which made us skip an entire day!  So it’s like I didn’t even live through January 21, 2013! I guess we make up for it when we gain an hour almost every night when we travel, but who’s counting?  It is a really weird feeling though to be almost a day ahead of everyone back home.  It’s like I’m in the future and have already lived the day that they are about to live.  I think about it too much sometimes and cause my head to throb with how weird of a concept it is. 

Today was designated as a “study day” instead of being an A or B day, but rather than catch up on all of the reading I had to do I spent a good chunk of my day filling out all of the immigration forms for the countries we’re going to.  Luckily there was a PowerPoint with step-by-step instructions on how to fill out each form, so I don’t think I screwed any of them up (or at least I hope I didn’t).  The rest of my day was spent doing many things; however, none of them really consisted of doing actual school work. I have lost much of the motivation I had once had to do my schoolwork which is very unfortunate considering I’m only about ¼ into the semester.  Hopefully I’ll be able to get into my classes more in the next few weeks otherwise this whole school thing will come to bite me in the butt!

Day 12: 1/20 Mermaids and Trivia

                When you’re on this ship all the time with not many forms of entertainment, having a good movie on the loop can be a very nice treat.  When said movie is Disney it makes it 100 times better, and when it is The Little Mermaid it makes it 1,000 times better!  In the time in between my classes, dinner, and trivia, I’m pretty sure I watched the movie 4 or 5 times (and watched it more the next day).  Disney movies will probably be one of the greatest little delights I will have on this ship.  Apparently there will be more throughout the voyage, so I’m excited for that!

                The trivia night was pretty fun and interesting.  I actually learned quite a bit of random pieces of information.  Some of the things I learned were: there are 418 cabins on the ship, the leftover food on the ship gets ground up and pulped out into the ocean, there are 8 inhabited islands in Hawaii, 2/3 of eggplants are grown in New Jersey, the index finger of the Statue of Liberty is 8 feet long, there are very few teams in the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB that don’t end in “s”, the first bathroom scene was on the show Leave it to Beaver, there are 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet, corn originated in Mexico, and pineapple originated in Brazil.  There were a ton of other questions, but I don’t remember them all.  Even though we didn’t win, it was a good time!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHEN!!

Day 11: 1/19 Bleh Kind of Day

                Today was not a very good day for my stomach.  The seasickness started again; it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as it was the very first day, so I guess that’s good.  I think it is just being at the front of the ship that really gets me sick, but let me tell you it is not fun at all!  I spent the day kind of in a daze and really didn’t do much besides sleep and eat.  I did sign up to be on an intramural soccer team though, which will hopefully be fun.  It’s 3v3 (which isn’t my favorite), on a hardwood type of surface (even though it isn’t hardwood), and in the basketball area which is pretty tiny.  It will definitely be interesting so stay tuned for how it actually goes.  Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLY!!

Day 10: 1/18 Sudden Goodbye

                Being in this part of Hawaii was very nice.  It was a wonderful temperature outside with the sun shining for the majority of the day; I even tried to get my tan on for a little bit.  I wish we were able to get off the boat, since there was an actual beach and I know this part of the island and some people here.  The reason we couldn’t is because it would cost a ton of money and we would have to go through customs again (I think) and it just wouldn’t be worth it.  I was going to lunch when I noticed that the boat was moving!  I suddenly freaked out because I wasn’t expecting to leave until later in the day.  Keenan and I started talking on the phone.  He tried to get me to go to lunch and just say goodbye then, but I was starting to freak out a little bit because I knew in the back of my mind that I wouldn’t be able to hear his voice for a long time.  I was trying to hold on until the very last possible moment to say goodbye, and then the phone call suddenly dropped.  In that moment my heart dropped and my stomach twisted into knots.  I frantically tried to get service and call him back, but ultimately failed.  I guess that was just the universe teaching me to not be so greedy and to learn to let go… dang universe!

Day 9: 1/17 Stuck in Honolulu with a Bunch of Idiots

                As I woke up this morning we were still at sea.  My roommate made me panic though because someone told her that it only took around 3 hours to get to Honolulu, so maybe we already stopped there and left.  This worried me because I was planning on talking to Keenan one last time before we didn’t have cell service any more.  I frantically ran to the TV to check the map of our location (which is always on channel 1), and found that we hadn’t reached Honolulu yet.  After a big sigh of relief I got ready for the day.  After my class, I was still waiting to get close enough to land to get service; in the mean time I checked my email and read our sea update that our RD (resident director --- each sea has one) puts together each day with some reminders, notifications, events, and stuff like that.  At the very top it said that there was a mandatory meeting for all students tonight in the Union.  There was also an announcement telling the shipboard community about the meeting and stressing that it was mandatory.  We also learned later in the day that we were going to stay in Honolulu for the night to avoid a storm and would leave no later than 1800 the next day. 

                The mandatory meeting started and it was the Executive Dean (Tom) who was speaking.  He started off with saying, “This is not going to be a dialogue.  This will be a monologue.  I will be speaking to you and you will not have the opportunity to talk or ask questions.”  He went on to explain that there was an incident in Hilo the night between the two days we were there where a hotel was basically trashed.  He said that 200 students were staying in 32 rooms.  The lobby and many rooms were trashed, and someone puked in the elevator so they had to completely take out the carpet in the elevator and replace that.  There were hundreds of empty alcohol containers, and people were recorded on video coming in with alcohol.  There was one lady from the University of Hawaii- Hilo who was staying in the hotel and didn’t get any sleep the day before an interview because of the students; now it is rumored that the university won’t have any affiliation with SAS (don’t know if that’s true or not).  The hotel security kicked some people out, but no one was arrested by request of SAS.  He said that if it weren’t for this request that many people would have been put in jail.  He then went on to say that these people were very lucky that this didn’t happen in a different country, because if it were in some other country they could have easily been put in jail or caned or some other form of punishment and SAS couldn’t do anything about it.  I knew that there were some kids on this trip that came for a booze cruise and are just here to party, but seriously??  That is just amazing to me that people would even do that.  They really are lucky that this happened on U.S. soil and not in another country, but it shouldn’t have even happened in the first place.  Like Tom said, “At what point did you think this was okay?”  I just don’t understand.  I haven’t heard of anyone getting kicked off the voyage, but I’m sure there will be a ton of people that will have points.  If I haven’t mentioned how points work, there are a certain number of points that each action receives and the max you can have is 10. After that you get kicked off the voyage, and, no matter where we are, it is up to you to get back home.  I really hope people don’t act like this again because not only does it look bad for SAS, but it is also a danger to them.  Hopefully people wise up, or else I really do think that the consequences will be a lot more severe.

Day 8: 1/16 Markets and Waterfalls

                Today I woke up nice and early to head into town with some people.  We got to downtown Hilo and went to this coffee shop with wifi so some people could use the internet to skype or update their blogs or whatever.  After some time spent there, we went to the Hilo Farmers Market which happens on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  At the market there were a lot of fresh food vendors and craft vendors.  The food ranged from fresh coconuts to pineapples to rambutan to coffee to fresh fish. I didn’t get any food, even though now I kind of wish I got something because fresh food is somewhat limited on the ship.  I did buy some things from the other parts of the market, but caught myself several times wanting to buy something and then thinking, “There are so many other countries you’re going to go to. You don’t need to buy this.”  In any case, it was fun to just walk around and see some local crafts and things that people had to sell. 

After walking through the whole market, we decided to go to Rainbow Falls which is a waterfall near town.  Luckily, when we went, there were other people that also were heading there.  Otherwise I don’t know if we would have found it on our own because it was kind of tucked away in an unusual spot.  There was a designated spot where people went to take pictures of the falls from a distance, and it was a very pretty waterfall (pictures will show up at some point hopefully).  We then ventured up towards the top of the falls.  On our way there was this giant tree that was more like a jungle gym for people of all ages.  It was really easy to climb, so Shelley and I were having fun climbing up, around, and through the tree.  After some play time in the tree we went to where the falls started.  We walked/hopped across some rocks and went towards the cliff overlooking the falls.  For a while I was just amazed at how cool it was to be up there near this beautiful waterfall, but after a while I got a little anxious being so close to the edge and went back away from the cliff.  It was pretty crazy how much water falls from this waterfall, but how little water looks like is feeding into the falls from the top. 

After some time, we went back towards town to get some lunch.  We went to this place called the Wiki Wiki Kitchen and got some laulau which is pork that is wrapped in some sort of leaves and steamed.  It was pretty good, but not my favorite thing to eat. After lunch we went back to the market to pick up some things that we weren’t sure we wanted earlier but now wanted to buy.  While in the market, Shelley decided she wanted some shave ice, so we went to an ice cream shop near the market.  While we were in there, there were some other SAS students who just bought some ice cream that was a bright purple color.  They told us that it was delicious and they highly recommend getting it.  The ice cream was ube flavored; ube is a purple yam and is similar to a sweet potato.  I ended up getting an ube ice cream cone, and I have to admit it was quite delicious!

We headed back to the ship around 4 because we wanted to make sure we got there with plenty of time to spare in order to not get dock time.  Dock time is a penalty that SAS gives for different reasons, but the main one is if you’re late getting back on the ship in a port.  What it does is it makes you have to wait a certain amount of time (correlated to the punishment) on the ship before you can get off in the next port.  Dock time can range from an hour to a day to an entire port, so it isn’t something I was looking to get.  When we got back on the ship I had plenty of time before we were scheduled to leave the port, so I utilized the opportunity that I still had cell service to facetime with my family and Keenan.  I miss these people dearly, so being able to talk to them outside of email made me very happy.  Tonight we leave to head towards Honolulu to stop for fuel, so that will be the last time I will have cell service and get to do things like talk to people back home on the phone.

Day 7: 1/15 Land Ho!

                From talking to a friend who did SAS in a previous semester, she suggested seeing the sunrise and watching the land emerge in the horizon in every port.  This idea really sounded like a cool thing to do for all of the ports, so today I started my day early (or what I thought was early enough) to see the sunrise and look for land.  When I got up to the 7^th deck, the land of Hawaii had already made its debut in the horizon, but the sun hadn’t risen yet.  Unfortunately, there were so many clouds that there wasn’t a very good sunrise; hopefully the other ports will be better.  In any case, it was very exciting to see land for the first time in about a week!  But what the majority of the people on the 7^th deck were doing, and seemed the most excited for, was using their cell phones since we now had service.  It was quite amusing to see how attached people (including myself) became to their cell phones for the time we were in Hawaii.  I think one of the things I’m looking forward to during this trip is not being so dependent and attached to technology, but for the time being it was nice to be able to call and text people on this trip and people back home.

After eating some breakfast, we had to wait for the immigration process to begin.  It took a good 2 hours or so to go through immigration which kind of worried me since it was just into Hawaii.  I wonder how long it will take for other countries.  How they did it is they call up every person to go through customs (in groups) and then we are let off the ship.  First they called up faculty, staff, and lifelong learners to go through customs, then they went through each “sea” starting with the 2^nd deck and moving their way up to the 4^th deck (my sea was last to be called).  All we did was go up to the faculty/staff/LLL lounge, picked up our passport and showed it to a Hawaiian Customs person, and then gave our passport back to a worker.  It seemed like it was pretty quick, but there were a couple of people who didn’t go up and so everyone had to wait until they went up there and went through the process.  Once everyone was cleared, they allowed people who were signed up for field programs (trips planned through SAS) to get off the boat first because many of them were on time constraints. 

I signed up to go to Volcanoes National Park through SAS because I didn’t know anyone who was planning a trip up there, and it was something I wanted to do while I was in Hilo.  I mean how many times in your life can you go see an active volcano? Then again this volcano wasn’t erupting or anything (I didn’t even see any actual lava), but in any case the volcano is active.  When I got off the ship, I had to wait for the bus that would take us up to the volcano, and while I was waiting I noticed that I was swaying.  It was the weirdest feeling to be on solid ground, so my body was swaying from habit of being on the ship.  I don’t really know how to explain the sensation but it was a wild feeling!  I finally got on the bus and our first stop was the caldera of Mauna Loa (I think that’s what it’s called) which was pretty cool and pretty impressively large.  In the middle of the caldera there was a spot that steam was coming out, and just below the steam was where lava was trying to surface.  We then went to a spot where a large amount of lava flowed many years ago, and now the lava has hardened into lava rock.  It was wild how much lava had come out of these fissures because there was a large amount of land that was covered by this lava.  Our guide told us that it was probably about 10-12 feet deep.  We also saw some molds that were formed around trees; when the lava flowed and moved around trees, the difference in temperature of the trees and the lava caused the lava to “freeze” and turn into lava rock and the tree would burn inside of the lava so there was just a mold of what used to be a tree.  During this part of the tour it started to rain pretty hard.  I was wearing a light rain jacket, but it wasn’t enough; I was so soaked that the rain permeated through my jacket.  We then made our way to this area that was almost like a rainforest that contained a lava tunnel in the middle of it.  The lava tunnel was made when a lava river flowed and melted through a rock, forming a tunnel.  It was really cool to go through, and apparently there are a bunch of them around the world and some can be miles long!  During this, I ended up wearing one of the ponchos that the bus had, which was a one-size-fits-all deal, which means it swallowed me up.  It was pretty funny to see some people who were probably about 7 feet tall wearing the same ponchos and having them come to just above their knees, and then mine coming to maybe the middle of my shins.  The interesting thing about the Big Island of Hawaii is it is in the middle of trade winds so it has many different climates all across the island; one side gets a lot of rain while the other side is more barren (I find this pretty fascinating but that could just be me).

When we got back to the ship I went to take a shower since I probably smelt like a wet dog, and then I waited for Jillian and Shelley to get back to the ship so we could all go to Walmart to pick up some snacks and last minute things we forgot.  While I was waiting I got to facetime Keenan which was really nice.  I don’t know how I would function on this kind of trip if I couldn’t email or skype with people back home.  If I had to rely on letters I don’t know how well I would do with homesickness.  When we went to Walmart, it was a pretty typical Walmart with the exception of a Hawaiian souvenir section and that the McDonalds in the Walmart sold taro pies (like their apple pies but with taro).  I got one because I was curious; it tasted really good but was kind of odd looking because the inside was a purple color.  We stocked up on some snacks (which I highly recommend for anyone who is going to go on this trip because you will get hungry in between meals on the ship) and we got some coloring books (which I also recommend because they are awesome!).  We decided to stay on the ship for the night to save some money.  When we got back from Walmart, we just unpacked our new items and then watched Ted and colored.  Surprisingly, I was the last one awake.  For anyone who knows me, this is very rare for me to not fall asleep during a movie.  For the past few nights I haven’t slept great, so maybe that had something to do with me not falling asleep.