The night I thought we were going to die

        When we first got back to the ship from our service visit, we were in desperate need of showers – I mean desperate need. We were covered in mud, brick, sand, and filth from head to toe. My originally white t-shirt was stained orangey-brown and my jeans were gross, not to mention the sweat. After all of us took care of that we met back up with a few friends to head out into India. The original plan was to grab some traditional Indian food and then meet up with another group of friends to check out a Bollywood movie. 6 of us first decided to check out a supposedly fabulous vegetarian traditional Indian restaurant in the center of Chennai. We left the port and tried to get a taxi only to find that they were trying to rip us off completely and pay insane prices. We quickly decided that we would be taking an auto rickshaw (“auto”) or two to the restaurant. We walked the mile or so out of the port to where the auto drivers were waiting. We negotiated with two of them to take us to the restaurant for cheap and hopped in.
        I feel the need to explain these auto. They are basically big three-week scooters with an open cab on the back. The driver sits a bench in the front with no doors on either side and steers with the same handle type as a moped. The back is for the passengers and has a bar on one side to keep you in and the other side with no bar / door at all.  To start the engine up you pull a string like you would a large lawn mower.
        Now that you can visualize the vehicle, I’ll continue the story. I hop into our auto last which puts me on the side with no bar or door. As we take off, I immediately see that this is not the best seat, especially since the three of us are squished in and taking up all the possible bench room. The drive starts off a bit crazy, but nothing unlike China. The driver is driving extremely fast. However after a few minutes I see that we will be driving at the speed of Chinese drivers with a twist of Vietnam style – lanes are but a guideline. We begin darting in and out of traffic, narrowly missing accident after accident. All of a sudden we are driving neck and neck with the other auto who is carrying our friends. We laugh as we come to that realization until our drivers step it up a notch. Our driver beelines toward the other car in what seems to be a game of chicken. We all freak out immediately but our journey continues. We start drag racing our friends. I’ve never seen a driver so narrowly miss that many other cars in such a short span of time. At this point I am locked arms with Deirdre and gasping every other second. We take the lead in our race and come across a moped with two men on it. The driver and the people start talking as they drive – which they have to shout to do over the horns of all the cars around them. We begin to start racing them as the driver tells them in English he is going to run them off the road as he starts steering towards them. As they slow down the driver is looking back at them as we approach a large road side that is blocking off a lane and doesn’t seem to see it. We were approaching it fast and I got nervous and screamed bloody murder which Deirdre and Thomas thought was hilarious. My scream alerts the driver who at the last second swerves out of the way and continues on to race our friends’ auto. At this point the ride feels like a ride it is so horrifying yet fun at the same time. Before reaching our destination, we hit a road sign, narrowly miss more cars, and flip a u-turn into oncoming traffic. Somehow we reach our destination in one piece – we didn’t die.
        When we walk into the restaurant it looks fantastic but we find we had to of made reservations. We were all a bit confused since the restaurant was literally empty but asked if they could recommend somewhere else, which they did. We walked to the other restaurant with only one hurtle – we had to climb the crazy streets we just drove in. That was a process in itself, taking about ten minutes for all of us to dart and sprint across the traffic at a break. Finally we reached the other restaurant that took us in. The restaurant was delicious!! We had absolutely NO idea what the heck we were eating but it was comforting to know that nothing was meat so if it wasn’t cooked properly or looked weird we would be fine eating it. We had two bread type things, a few dipping sauces, and a yogurty mixture.. We later found these to be types of naan and different chutneys. Afterwards I had the best butterscotch ice cream I have ever had, it may have also been the best ice cream in general I’ve ever had because it was way creamier. Halfway through dinner, about 9:30, the restaurant became filled with people and we figured out why the other restaurant said we needed a reservation.
        By the time we were done with dinner it was about 10:30 and we were all too exhausted to see a movie so we took another auto ride back to the port. This time I cracked up the whole way home. Driving in those frightening cars were such a thrill, they made me laugh so hard and may be one of the best things I’ve done on this voyage so far. Hey, it’s the simple things in life that make us happy right?

INDIA Day 1 ? Dalit Service Visit

       Today we did a service visit through SAS at a Dalit or “Untouchable” village. The people who live in this village are literally outcasts. They are the very bottom of the caste system. They are so low in fact that they are often not even considered to be part of the caste system at all. They have literally been out-casted. This trip was exactly how I was hoping it would be. Not only were we there to help build rebuild their village but also to just spend time with the people who lived there.
        When we first arrived at their village we were met by a parade at the road. There were a few men dressed in costumes playing music and then a large crowd of women gathered singing along, waiting with hand-made flower necklaces to put on us when we stepped of the bus. All of the people had huge smiles on their faces and were so excited for us to be there which was so nice!
        The women made sure all of us were in the front or the middle and were gathering around us dancing and smiling. Once we got to the main part of the village, there was a space with a concrete floor and a tarp over it with a stage where they had set up chairs for us to sit in. After welcoming us to the village and thanking us for coming, they showed us a brick structure outside and took pictures of us pretending to lay bricks down. Most of us were pretty confused as to what we were doing but just decided to go along with it. After a few minutes of that, they brought us back to the stage area where the kids performed a few different dances for us. They were all different ages and so adorable. Most of the kids did traditional dances, which were really good! Two of the boys then came out and did break dancing to a Fifty Cent song which all of us were cracking up at. They both had on jeans and ghetto brand shirts, which looked so out of place next to the traditional clothing of everyone else around them. All of the dances were really cute and I loved the traditional Indian music!
        Finally, it was time to get to work! We discovered the beginnings of a brick building we had been pretending to build earlier would actually be what we were working on that day. More importantly, it was way more than the beginning of a building, it was a school for the kids! We spent most of the time there forming an assembly line to pass the bricks over to be used, making mortar (a mixture of sand, some gray substance, and water) and spreading the mortar between layers of the bricks we were laying. Within about two and a half hours we had built the building from just a concrete slab on the floor with four corners of bricks to almost an entire building! We had built the school all the way up to the top of a tall doorframe! It was so neat and unexpected to see how much work we had actually done that day and gave us all such a sense of accomplishment!
        After we had finished building, we were taken into a community building where a few of the village women and the man who put this program together came with us. Inside we were each given a clay pot candle that the women had made themselves. We then went around and each lit our neighbors candle and when we were finished we said together, “we light up ourselves, we light up the world”. After this the women took our candles back and arranged them into a circle and we then meditated and reflected on our day together. After this we were allowed to ask the women questions and we learned a few things. For example, the man in the room had once been part of the Dalit Caste but had converted to Buddhism so that he could escape the caste system. What was interesting was although he now considered himself to have no caste, the Dalit women considered him to still be a part of their caste. At the end of this whole experience, we found out that the $300 donation to this village from SAS would be used for three things: a years salary for a tailor to teach the women to sew / tailor, a years salary for a night school teacher for the women, and finally a years salary to teach the women how to read from a newspaper. It was so nice to end the day this way.

chu chi Tunnels!!!

     The last day five us headed out to the Chu Chi Tunnels. Today was incredible. Not only did it only cost us $5 total (in comparison to the $36 it would have if we did it through the ship) but we had a chance to interact with the local people in their daily activities. The night before I had asked the Rex Hotel how to get there and had found out there was public transportation that would take us right there. We took the bus route that the man had told us to and ended up having to transfer once. The whole trip took about an hour and a half and only cost us 40 cents each!! Transferring was pretty funny because the man hadn’t mentioned us needing to do that so we didn’t know what bus to transfer to. When we went inside to ask, the employees who worked there all pointed at one guy I should be asking so I repeated my question to him. Although I could tell he understood me, he didn’t seem to want to help because he wouldn’t look at me. Since we didn’t really have any other options I just stood and stared at him until he finally decided to use his English and tell us what to do. I personally found that whole interaction hilarious as we stood there but was really grateful when he helped! Once we got to the tunnels, we found the information of what to buy was all in Vietnamese and the woman working there couldn’t understand any of the questions we were asking. Luckily, the people behind us were students studying abroad here who could speak both English and Vietnamese so he was able to ask our questions and translate back and forth for us. It was only $4 for a tour guide, to see a movie, have traditional Vietnamese food, and to go through the tunnels.
     Our luck continued because the two boys who were studying abroad there came with us on our tour and were able to translate what the tour guide was saying the whole time. If it hadn’t been for these boys, we would have had no idea what the guide was saying the whole time so we really lucked out!! The tunnels were incredible! They were even smaller than I thought they would be and very stuffy. We were all sweating bullets when we came out of them but it was well worth it. Our tour guide also brought us through a special extra set of tunnels that apparently nobody else from Semester at Sea did. It was a really long set of tunnels that wound in different directions, went down steep inclines and had stairs up and down. Our tour guide had the flashlight and ran through it so we were forced to run through after him. Mind you by run through I mean we were squatted down and running so our thighs were on fire!! Not only were they on fire while we followed him but for the next THREE days after! I could not believe it. I had an amazing time. What interested me the most was to see all the different types of clever traps that the Viet-cong had created to cover up the tunnels. I was really happy to get to see these tunnels because they were another one of my top 3 activities!!
     After the tunnels we went took the public busses back to Ho Chi Minh City, which again only cost forty cents. The trip was so much fun because we realized we were once again on the bus with a girl who had been on both of our busses on the way there. We talked to her and her friend for a bit who were both excited to use their English. Behind me sat a little boy and his mom which was extremely entertaining because I was playing hand games and doing little things to interact with the boy who was maybe two or three years old. Even though we didn’t speak the same language at all, we were still able to play and the mom seemed happy that I was keeping him entertained. It was fun to realize that playing with kids is universal, the same anywhere you go regardless of language barriers.
     When we got back to the city we bought some last minute things – a few postcards and paintings before grabbing a quick last bite to eat at Pho 24 again before heading back to the ship to leave for India. I loved Vietnam!!!!

Mekong Delta

     The second day we left for our overnight Mekong Delta trip that we did through Semester at Sea. This trip was SO much fun!! We took a three-hour bus ride before transferring into these smaller boats with a thatched roof overhead to keep out the sun. Once on the boats we took off down the river towards one of the smaller floating markets while the tour guide explained the difference between a houseboat and a selling boat and how to tell what products the sellers are selling. After seeing that we got off the boat in a small village where we witnessed how they made coconut candy, rice paper, and popped rice. It was incredible to see how they did this because they were truly so sustainable! For fuel to make both the rice paper and popped rice they used the shucked rice part and ground coconut shell, therefore nothing was wasted. It was incredible to see the way they made each product, how diligent and patient they were throughout the whole process.
     The people were so hospitable and allowed us to have samples of all of their products, after which we had the opportunity to purchase some if we wanted. While watching the rice paper get made, they informed us that the woman making them worked all day long for only $2 per day. To put that in perspective, most of the t-shirts we all bought in Vietnam off the streets were $2. When we found that out we all thought only two dollars, that’s a steel we can buy more than! To us it was absolutely nothing, to her it was a full days work. When I thought about it that way I felt terrible, she worked so hard and made so little. After seeing all three of these things made, they poured us all tea and allowed us to try a few different kinds of snacks including fresh ginger, more popped rice, and a few other things.
     After enjoying their snacks we hopped back on the boat where we got to try an array of fresh fruits such as jackfruit, dragon eyes, mango, mini bananas (I forget what they are called) and even coconut milk! The coconut milk was nothing like I expected, very sour and nothing at all like milk. After enjoying those fruits most of us ate our boxed lunch from the ship because we had an hour boat ride ahead of us until we reached the fruit farm. Here we saw how they grew and farmed these tropical fruits and what they looked like naturally. After that we were given more tea and got to sample even more fruits! They were delicious and afterwards we were all stuffed!!
We took a short ride to the other side of the river and hopped back on the bus and then transferred to a ferry. The tour guide did not warn us of where we were before we got off the bus – which was the middle of a busy street. Deirdre stopped walking at one point which caused her to almost get hit by a motorbike which stopped just in time but then another bike almost crashed into it and a third bike had to swerve around those two and us. The noises that came from that interaction were both terrible and frightening. After that we had to walk into this caged in area where motorbikes were almost running us over left and right. When we finally got up as far as we could we had to wait until the gate opened. Once it did, it was a free-for-all with the bikes speeding off and the people trying not to get hit. Finally we made it outside and onto the footbridge and walked until we reached the ferry. The ferry was jam packed with cars and people and moved at a snails pace – I have never seen a ferry moved so slow yet finally we reached the other side.
     Next we hopped back on the bus for less than five minutes before reaching our hotel. We checked in and met our roommates and then had an hour before dinner. Deirdre, Kerry, and I went exploring for foot massage place for Kerry. When we couldn’t find a place we headed back to the hotel and went to their facility. The hotel’s facility wasn’t generally for foot massages, generally it was for men, so they thought it was a bit weird for us to be there but they said she could give her one. When we came in the women were wearing extremely short outfits and giggling at us. The whole atmosphere of the place was actually quite funny so we were cracking up the whole time. After she was done we waited in the lobby for everyone to come down and then headed out for dinner. We went to a restaurant down the road that had a set menu, which was nice because it allowed us to try many traditional Vietnamese dishes. There were about seven courses. We had fish in clay pot, garlic green beans, soup, rice, spring rolls, fried pumpkin and a fruit bowl for dessert. It was all delicious, even the ominous fish in clay pot.
     The next day we had breakfast at the hotel. Apparently the traditional Vietnamese breakfast is something similar to what we see at dinner with fried rice and meats and all types of dinner food, which I thought was interesting. However, they provided us with a traditional western breakfast of eggs, toast, yogurt etc. as well, which was very thoughtful of them.
     After breakfast we took the ferry back over to the boats, which took us to the famous floating market. The floating market was a spectacle definitely worth seeing. The entire extravaganza seemed so out of the ordinary to me. The houseboats that were selling things had “flags” on them to show what they were selling. These flags were made of a large bamboo stick with the fruit or vegetable they are selling hanging from it. This allows buyers to decide whether they want that product or not before reaching the boat. It was interesting to see how the people who live on these houseboats not only live on them but work there as well. The front of the boat is dedicated to selling their products and the back is their home. The amount of days the people spend at the floating market is directly related to how quickly they sell their products. It is considered really good if they sell all their products in one or two days. It is bad to be there for three. While living on the boats, parents with children older than four have to leave the kids with their grandparents back at home. However, if the child is four or younger the parents will use their children to sell more products. We had many boats come alongside ours while at the market where the kids would be yelling hello and staring at you holding out the fruits or drinks or whatever their parents were trying to sell. We were told we were not allowed to buy from any of these people because it only encouraged exploiting their kids.
      After leaving the floating market we got to get off at a local community where we were able to see how the boats were made and watch how broken rice was made in an old-school factory where the machinery was made of wood and very little metal was used. When we arrived at this village two little kids ran up to us and were more than happy to pose for us to take pictures. It wasn’t until we were leaving that I realized they were not saying hello but were actually saying moneys instead. The children in this area were used in all sorts of ways to help the families out, it was quite sad.
     Next we went back to our hotel to check out and then have lunch. Once again we were given a set menu, which was incredible because it consisted of all things I never in my life would have tried but most of which was delicious. We started again with spring rolls, then we had green beans in garlic, then sea bass in sweet and sour sauce, then shrimp in fish sauce, pumpkin fritters, rice, soup, and finally fresh fruit for dessert. After lunch we got back on the boat to take a four hour bus ride back to the ship where we decided to have dinner and lay low for the night.

Vietnam!

     Pulling into port here was the first time I truly felt I was not in American anymore. As we road down the river that would take us into port for four hours you had the distinct knowledge and feeling that you were in Vietnam. The scenery was outrageous. Palm trees and jungle is what lined the river.
        Deirdre and I woke up at five a.m. to watch us pull into the river. It was incredible to see at night because you could barely make out what was around you in the water – later you would find out it was floating motors all around you waiting in the water. Although we couldn’t see any of the scenery really we were able to witness the customs officials getting on the ship while both their boat and our ship were moving. They had driven their boat up right alongside ours and had made it so that the men would be jumping from their boat onto something that sticking out slightly from our ship as one of the crew members on our ship grabbed their arms and helped them on. It was nuts, they definitely had some courage!
        Later that day we headed to the Ben Thao market which is a market filled with cultural souvenirs as well as knock-offs. We bought so many souvenirs we had to drop some off at the ship before heading back out! DVD’s here were incredible here! Only 60 cents a movie! Needless to say I got 11.
On our way back to the ship, we passed our friends headed to where we just came from so Deirdre and I decided to go out to dinner. We got some terrible advice from the local shuttle man who told us that we should go to the floating dinner boats right across the bridge from where our ship was. He told us the bridge was unwalkable so we took a cab which ended up being completely ridiculous priced and unnecessary. Not only would we have been able to walk it, but we would have saved ten dollars as well. We definitely got taken advantage of because our ride took literally one minute total. When we went to try to eat on one of the boats we found that they would not accept dollars – they were the only place we encountered that wouldn’t take them – and that we didn’t have enough time to take their currency out of an ATM before the boat left for the cruise part of the dinner. Slightly frustrated we decided to check out the street across from the boat because it looked promising.
The traffic in Vietnam was completely insane and the road we needed to cross to get to the other street was insane. As we stood baffled looking at where we were supposed to walk we thought there was no way in hell we could cross without getting killed. It was a six-lane road, three lanes going each way, with no middle divider to wait on between each side and no traffic light to stop the movement of constant motorbike traffic. Finally an employee nearby came over and helped us cross the street telling us to keep at his exact pace. Once we made it to the other side we were cracking up and so relieved because there was no way we would have survived that on our own.
     Eventually we figured out we were right near the Rex Hotel – where the free shuttle from the ship dropped us off to get conveniently into town. We had heard of a place called Pho 24, which served the infamous pho of Vietnam.  It was absolutely delicious!! Pho was described to us as a comfort food in Vietnam and kind of like our chicken soup. It is soup with noodles and beef, chicken, or the type of meat you choose. We each got some pho as well as sprig rolls – which to our surprise had meat in them but were still very tasty – and a papaya smoothie. It was so delicious we took our friends there on the last day as well right before we got back on the ship!

Hong Kong or Hawaii?

     We started off Hong Kong on the wrong foot. After getting off the train we were supposed to cross over some bridge to go through customs but we misread how the arrow was pointing and started walking in the complete wrong direction. We walked through a really sketchy part of the city where there were homeless people scattered along the side of the road making fires and setting up a place to sleep. As we continued to walk we couldn’t find any signs as to where customs was. Finally we headed back to the train station to look again and realized we had to go upstairs before turning instead of just turning like we had done.
        Once we figured that out, it got much easier. Customs was like a huge maze. We had to wind this way and that way and get our passport stamped three different times but finally we made it into Hong Kong. From there we took the subway to the area of Kowloon near the ship where we knew there were hostels and other places to stay. From here we found a YMCA to stay at. It was really cool! It was set up dormitory style with two sets of bunk beds in one room so we all got to stay together comfortably. The next day we woke up incredibly early to watch the ship pull into port which was a neat sight since we generally do not see it from that point of view. 
        A large reason we got up early to see the ship pull in was so that we could eat breakfast on the ship because we hadn’t had any real food besides for candy and hard-boiled eggs since two mornings before for breakfast. Unfortunately, customs for the ship took too long, so we missed breakfast. Instead we waited outside on the gangway for about an hour before one of the important crewmembers felt bad for us and got customs to let us on early. We all rushed to our rooms to shower, unpack our belongings, and stuff all our weird smelling clothes from the train in our laundry baskets. After that we relaxed for a few hours until lunch.
        After lunch Deirdre and I took the ferry to Hong Kong Island to explore Stanley Market. We took a public transportation bus out there, which was surprisingly a great way to see the island. It was a double decker, flat front bus so we sat on the second floor right in the front and got an incredible view of the city. Hong Kong was nothing like I expected. It seemed like a vacation spot and reminded me of Hawaii a bit. I want to go back there on a break at some point because I enjoyed it so much! Most people didn’t see the beaches, but they were gorgeous!! Stanley market was a block away from some of the beaches and ran into a row of restaurants that were right along the boardwalk. Stanley market ended up being a great place to purchase cultural souvenirs.
        That night we made it back to the ship right at 8 p.m. to watch the famous light show. Our ship was in the perfect location to have an amazing view of the show. It was so neat to watch, it reminded me of a more sophisticated Las Vegas. By that I mean they used the lights in an organized way for entertainment instead of just having lots of lights (although Vegas’ are extremely cool too). After that since we were extremely tired still from the long trade ride the day before, we just used the free Wifi in the mall that was there immediately when you stepped off the ship (to get out of the port you even had to walk through the mall).
The next day we explored the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. We wandered up Nathan Street and went to Temple Market. That night we took our friend Zach as on a surprise trip to a restaurant that is featured on the travel channel that Deirdre has dreamed of going to for years: the Modern Toilet restaurant. The restaurant is completely bathroom themed (in case the title didn’t give that way for you). You sit on toilets, eat over a sink with a glass table over it, eat out of urinals, western toilets and eastern toilets, and sometimes even sink. The walls are decorated with pipes, toilet seat lids, mirrors, showerheads, and more! (I’ll put up pictures as soon as I get Internet again!!) Zach loved our surprise!!
        After the restaurant, we headed over to the SOHO section of Hong Kong where they have a famous walking escalator that takes people for blocks and blocks. It was created to help the flow of people walking to work every morning in that area. The escalator goes in one direction in the morning and the opposite direction at night to take workers to and from work each day. On either side of the escalators are countless restaurants and bars. We took the escalators all the way to the end of where the restaurants and bars are. Then we walked down the whole thing stopping in to see the prices at the bars. We found they were a bit pricier than we were hoping for and had a more laid back, quiet setting so finally we asked a group of people in their 30s where people our age would go to bars and they sent us to a district about five minutes walking district away.
        When we arrived in that district we found it was more what we were looking for – two full streets of bars erupting with loud music and cheaper prices. We also found it was where at least half of the students on our ship were located. We quickly found in this area it was completely legal to drink your drinks in the street and carry them from one bar to the other. It reminded me of a street my mind wrote to me about in New Orleans when she went on the cruise for Dot’s birthday, which made me smile because I loved it as much as she said I would. Although the drinks were less pricey here, word spread like rapid fire to check out the seven eleven at the end of the road because the prices were so low there. I think we must have made that store have record sales for a Tuesday night there for the amount of our students that kept running in and out purchasing drinks. That was one of the most fun nights out I’ve had so far, it would definitely be a fun place to vacation with friends.
        The next day was our last day in Hong Kong and we spent it walking along the boardwalk along the bay and checking out the lady’s market further up on Nathan Street. The last thing we did was buy a pizza from Pizza Hut. This Pizza Hut was NOTHING like the ones in America. It was just like a five start restaurant complete with linen tablecloths, cloth napkins, and a full menu with tons of options, pizza being at the back. It was a crazy contrast to see from our Pizza Huts and let me just say they had a heck of a better pizza selection than we do for sure!

Transportation to and from the great wall, two nights of hotels, food, the forbidden city and tiananmen square for less than $150 - WHAT?!

     Crossed off one of my top three adventures on this trip, I GOT TO CLIMB THE GREAT WALL!!!  :) I’ll come back to that later but I will forewarn you that this is going to be a long post, apologies in advance…
        The first port we pulled into in China was Shanghai. The port itself had a really pretty view! There were a bunch of cool shaped buildings and towers encircling us that were lit up really pretty at night. Our first task when we got to China was to head straight to the train station to try to get tickets to Beijing. For the past couple weeks everyone and anyone from students to lifelong learners to the inter-port students who lived in China had told us there was no way in hell we would be getting train tickets to anywhere in China if we didn’t purchase them in advance, which we did not. However I had gotten the idea of getting train tickets once I got there through a student on the ship who had studied in China for a semester and traveled there extensively before so I of course disregarded all of the other people’s negative response to our idea. Eventually, I found my friend Catie, who like me, thought what they said didn’t matter and we would find a way to get to the Great Wall somehow, that it may just take us longer to get there or back to Hong Kong. In the end, two of my friends Deirdre and Rachel heard the cheap prices we would be doing this for and skeptically decided to come with us. It wasn’t until the moment that we got off the ship and saw how many other people were headed to the train station that I had my first thoughts of doubt that we may not be able to get there…
        Regardless of the doubt, we spent ten minutes trying to communicate to a cab driver we wanted to get to the train station and then stuffed five of us in a four-person cab as we took off. Let me tell you, it was NOTHING like riding in a cab in the U.S.! Think of the WORST driver you have ever driven with or seen and now multiply that by seven or eight and imagine a whole road filled of that type of driver as well and then you will get an idea of what this short cab drive was like. Not only did I fear for all of our lives, but also even more so for the many poor pedestrians we almost took out and killed on the way there. I found myself gasping, closing my eyes, holding my breath, and holding onto Deirdre for about 95 % of the trip.  Let me tell you, THAT was an experience within itself!
        Once we got to the train station we got in the English speaking booth line and got up to the counter where they were not only able to seat all four of us together but we were also able to pick any time we wanted to get to Beijing the following night. We were all thrilled (me being probably the most excited because I had been so adamant we would be fine doing this that I would have looked ridiculous had we not been).  With our tickets in hand we set out to explore for the rest of the day.
        We started off the day by getting lunch at a dumpling place across the street. Then we hopped in another cab to get Bund Street, which was supposedly the best place to shop in Shanghai. It was at this point that we experienced our first touristy moment in China: we were completely ripped off by the cab driver. It had cost us about 30 cents each not even to get to the train station and ended up costing us $3 dollars each on the way back. Mind you I realized $3 is practically nothing for a cab ride, but in China, that price is absurd! You can take a cab 20 minutes away and it comes out to about a dollar per person. Needless to say the cab driver had gotten us good – he had seen we were trying to get another cab driver to understand where we wanted to go for about five minutes and once he saw us completely frustrated he came over and spoke English to us and named a price that nobody really listened to because we were all so happy someone understood us finally.
        Once we got to Bund Street we walked around looking for this huge black market center with no luck of finding it so we continued to wander down random streets just shopping. Finally, we encountered a little girl who was so excited to use her English that she ran up to us and asked us if there was anything we were looking for or she could help us with. She was so adorable the whole time, her face lit up with excitement as she told us where to find the market we were looking for. What was cuter than the girl herself was the look of pride on her parents’ faces as she chatted quickly on with us in English. Taking her directions, we found the black market, which was enormous! There were so many shops it wasn’t even funny! We never would have found it if it hadn’t been for that girl because from the outside you couldn’t even tell there were more stores inside. You had to go through the outside stores to get to the inner mall that was many levels high and filled with goods! The shops closed at four that day due to the New Year so my only purchase was a pair of wool socks to keep my feet from falling off the rest of the trip!
        The second day Deirdre and I did a trip through the ship called Tasting the Daily Life of a Shanghai Citizen. The trip was awesome. We started off by going to a residential community where we would get to go inside an Elder People Club as they called it. Here we learned a bit about life as a Chinese and Shanghai citizen from the Neighborhood Committee. After speaking with them and drinking tea in their large, traditional cups we got a tour through the whole facility and then hopped back on the bus to check out their local free market where they do their daily food shopping. It was here that I saw some of the most disturbing sights of China; I gagged multiple times throughout our tour. This market knew of all the ways to make food look the least appetizing possible, and displayed the food in that manor. Not only were there dead fish hanging to dry from the ceiling to dry, but behind the fresh cut meat were the animals cut up and hanging from one of their hind legs from the wall or pieces of their faces displayed on the table in buckets right next to the meat – for example there was an entire bucket filled with cow noses right at the front of one of the tables. It was by far one of the most disturbing places I’ve been too and the smells were horrific. It is a place I am glad I saw once but have absolutely no plans to ever go back in one again. While we waited for people to finish up in the market, I looked at a different market across the street and found all five seasons of lost there for only $4! I finally got to finish what Mia and I started watching this past semester, which I was so happy about!!
        Next we took the bus to visit our host family who was preparing lunch for us. We split up into groups of eight and went inside to meet our families. The lunch was delicious! Our host went over the top and cooked us so many traditional Chinese dishes! When we first got there, there were about eight or nine dishes already sitting in the center of the table. They were all sitting on a lazy Suzan in the middle of the circular table, which was actually a really good idea for dinner parties because it makes it really easy for each guest to reach all the plates without having to reach over others or passing the plates a bunch of times. We were all so thrilled to have all of that food and only continued to be more thankful when our host brought out ten other plates over the next hour or so. We ate wonton soup, duck, spring rolls, rice, General Tso’s chicken, green beans, snap peas in a sauce, tomatoes, robin’s eggs, pork, sea cucumber, beef balls, shrimp, fried chicken, winter fruit and pumpkin fritters for dessert and that is only to name a few. By the end of lunch we were all stuffed to the max as the host pleaded with us to keep eating. It was a real treat!     
        After our meal with our host we saw a tour of that area of Shanghai and then as a surprise our tour guide took us back to the black market we had been at the day before! I got so many things for so cheap like new Uggs, long champ purses, an iPod shuffle and a North Face hiking backpack to climb the great wall with! It was amazing to see how inexpensive things were! Once we got back to the ship we unloaded all the purchases we got quickly, packed our bags for Beijing, grabbed some dinner and then headed off to the train station. We met a man at the train station who was originally from Pittsburgh but lived in China for a few years who told us all about hostels once we got to Beijing and let us know we were in fact waiting for the right train. Finally we boarded our train, which looked more like an airplane than a train in America would. It had two seats on one side and three seats on the other and each row of seats had a ridiculous amount of legroom. We lucked out with seating on this ride because the man who sat in the only open seat in our row ended up being so helpful to us. We were talking with him and telling him our travel plans and had mentioned we would be taking the train back to Hong Kong from Beijing when he interjected and brought it to our attention that there was no such train. He gave us the name of a city just outside Hong Kong, which we had to travel to first before traveling across the water to Hong Kong by foot so that we could go through customs and even wrote out in Chinese what route we wanted to take so we could easily get the tickets. After that, the train ride flew by since it was an overnight train that was only ten hours long.
        The next morning we arrived in Beijing at 7 a.m. and once again immediately set out to find tickets for our return trip to Hong Kong except this time, things were not as easy. We discovered the people in this part of Beijing were not as American-friendly as we had found in all the other places. When we got to the ticket booth and showed the woman the card our train friend had written out for us, she told us that there were no tickets and we had to go to another station. I was convinced that I had seen seats available and she just wasn’t selling them to us (we had heard from Chinese students that this happens). As we were discussing this a man behind us offered to help us try to get them. Pretty soon we were watching him bang the window and practically spit on it because he was so angry at what the woman was saying. When he turned back around he told us that we should go to the west station because there was “bad service here”. We all knew then that what I had thought earlier was correct: they would not sell us tickets because we were American. 
        At this point we headed outside to try to find a bus or cab to get to the other train station but found nobody outside liked us much more than inside. Nobody was willing to help us and the few who seemed to want to help were only trying to scam us. We had people try to take us in unmarked cars as “taxis” where they wouldn’t use meters so that they could charge us ridiculously high prices. When we asked for them to use the meter they laughed in our faces. At this point we headed back inside because we were frustrated and freezing – not that inside was any warmer because it was not heated at all. Finally someone who spoke English told us to use the subway station to get there, which we ended up doing.  When we got there we were redirected from booth to booth, continuously being told that there were no seats available until the 25th, which was useless to us since the ship would have left Hong Kong by then and we would have to fly to Vietnam. We asked if we could take connecting trains instead, but quickly found there is no such thing in China. We then used our fallback plan: we would catch a train back to Shanghai and then fly to Hong Kong, which would still be pretty inexpensive. Unfortunately we found that there were no tickets to Shanghai either. At this point we started getting nervous. Finally we were told to go to the English-speaking booth where we were told we could get standing room only tickets, which we gratefully took. To put it in perspective, this train was a 25 hour ride so standing was in no means ideal but we figured it wouldn’t be so bad because after the night most people would get off and then we could sleep in their seats during the day. As it turns out, it did not work that way, but you’ll hear about that in a bit…
        Now that the tickets were out of the way we started our quest to find a hostel. With a map in head we walked towards our destination . . . only to find that neither of the hostels we were looking for were there. We decided to turn down a random street and just hope for the best there or at the very least find a large hotel that could give us information. It ended up being the perfect street to turn down because immediately on our right was an international travel store. We rushed in there only to find out that they did not speak English. Bummed, we headed back into the street where a man tapped me on the shoulder saying “Great Wall?” and showing me a brochure. We all looked at each other and then asked the guy a few simple questions but found he spoke little English. All we knew was it was 150 Yuan (relatively $22) and we were supposed to get back at 7 p.m. We decided that we could always find a hostel later and skeptically hopped on the tour. While waiting for the bus to leave we saw Semester at Sea students who we knew were doing the Great Wall leave on a bus from right where we were so we were immediately at ease.
        Our tour was way cooler than we had ever imagined. First we stopped at the Great Wall. We got to hike so many sections of it! The steps were insane. They were all different sizes and depths. No two steps were alike, some were incredibly small and some were so tall you had to grab onto the step above to pull yourself up. It gave the wall much more character than I would have originally thought. As we continued to hike up it there were towers every so often that you could go in and look out of! It was a really neat experience. All along the wall as you hiked up were vendors on the flat parts stationed they’re trying to sell you all kinds of souvenirs. It was an incredible view to look out and see different parts of the Great Wall stretching out all around you as far as the eye can see and it was a whole other experience to look down and see how far the ground was from where you were standing. At one of the higher parts of the wall, Deirdre and I were having Catie take a picture of us jumping in the air on the Wall. When we were finished I heard a tap on my shoulder and two giggling girls were motioning for us to take a picture with their camera of them doing the same thing. When I agreed they were immediately so happy and giddy, giggling like children. That interaction was my favorite part of the Great Wall. When I got back on the bus, I was elated, ecstatic – I had just done one of my top three activities of this trip!!
        After getting back on the bus we looked at the time and realized we had many hours left! We thought we would be going to another section of the Great Wall but what we ended up doing was so much better than that! First we stopped at a jade market where we got to see tons of jewelry. On our way out we were surprised to find we were also receiving a traditional Chinese lunch that was included in the tour. One family immediately came over to us and grabbed us by the arms excited for us to sit with them, which we happily did. We were given rice, soup,  vegetables and an entire fish – scales, bones, eyeball, fins, everything! We weren’t sure how to respond to the fish but the people didn’t seem to notice at all. Needless to say I ate a nice bowl of rice and had some soup. It was delicious! After this we made another stop at a dried fruit store which all the Chinese people were going crazy for, purchasing so much of everything, it seemed like candy to them. After that we stopped at an ancient Chinese village which literally appeared as though the people living there were told danger was coming and they immediately just left. It was very interesting to see.
    Finally, we stopped at one more place. This stop was by far the most interesting because we had NO idea where the heck we were. When we got off the bus, the four of us were herded by one of the tour leaders (who spoke minimal English) off to the side as the rest of the people got off the bus and headed inside. The tour guide motioned to follow her as she lead us through a dark parking lot towards the only bus that had lights on. She seemed to try to send us on that bus but the driver said no and so she brought us back to where we originally started. We kept trying to ask what was going on but she couldn’t understand us. We finally got her to take us to the building so we could use the light of the building to look at our sheet of Chinese sayings to see if those would help us talk to her – they did not. However, we found the people standing on the front porch of this building spoke English and were able to translate to her if we could go inside. She finally agreed but had us sit in a room labeled “VIP Lounge 16”. I left the room to go to the bathroom and on my way there found that as I walked by women would close sliding glass doors with frosted glass as I walked by and stand in front of them. I told my friends this when I got back and we began to wonder even more where we were. We decided to try to go in a room. We all left our VIP Lounge to try to enter a room only to have the same thing happen: a woman close the sliding glass door and step in front of it to block us out. We motioned we wanted to go in only to be told that not only could we not go in but were motioned we had to leave the whole place as well. We kept motioning back and forth, us pointing into the room, the woman pointing at the police officer inside, to us and then outside. Soon our tour guide came out and from the gestures we understood she was saying we were with her and we were to stay but she would take us back to our room. She then took us there and closed the door, leaving us with a woman to guard us inside. We tried to ask her where we were, but she too did not understand.  Once the first person from our tour wanted to leave, we were told to leave with them and sit on the bus to wait for the others. We still to this day have absolutely no idea where we were.
Once the tour bus got to Beijing, we set out to find a hostel or hotel. We checked out a few until finally finding one we liked. It was only $10 each and it was so nice!! The next morning we got up extremely early and walked to the top of a hill at a temple that overlooked the Forbidden City to watch the sunrise, a tip we got from the man we met in the train station. It was gorgeous and incredible to see the city wake up and come alive. After that we grabbed some breakfast and coffee at KFC (which has breakfast stuff like McDonalds does at home). Then we explored Tiananmen Square and then headed over to the Forbidden City. Once again we lucked out and happened to encounter an English-speaking tour guide who was a college student about our age. He gave us a lot of really interesting facts about the temple as well as about Chinese life. At this point it was almost time for our trip home so we left to grab some candies and snacks for our train ride before hopping on a bus that took us to the train station. On the bust we met a nice boy about our age who was eager to use his English and offered to take us to where we needed to go in the train station once we got there. Once he showed us where to go he showed us a place to eat as well and then we went our separate ways.
Finally it was time to get on the train. We hopped on and were taken back as to how many people had standing room only seats. Once the train started and things settled down we were able to sit down in the aisle, only to find we had about enough room to sit Indian style in the aisle and that was it. We were packed into the aisle like sardines. We figured it couldn’t be so bad, as soon as morning came people would be getting off as soon as morning came. We were so far off in thinking this though. At every stop along the way for 80 percent of the trip MORE people got on at each stop, making us more and more squished each time. Although this sounds terrible, the train ride was actually incredibly fun!!
     The train we were in looked nothing like a normal train with airplane or car style seating; instead it was set up with two rows facing each other with a table in-between.  There were four people on one side of us and 6 on the other. This set-up was really neat because our car became like a community. After awhile we got bored and took out a deck of cards to start playing. A man nearby motioned he was going to watch us but instead I dealt him into a game of war. Through gestures we were able to explain the rules. After playing for awhile we looked up to find many of the people on the train were watching us intently. People were even standing on their seats to get a better look. We took out another deck and started playing with more people. Eventually when the game of war was over, the man started doing magic tricks for me. After awhile he taught Deirdre and I a new game of cards and then later we taught him yet another one. He was really bright man because the game we taught him was even hard to explain when you can speak. After that cards got old for us but the men at the man’s table asked if they could use them to play (through motions – only one person around us spoke English and even she spoke very minimal). As it got later in the night, people settled down even more and the people in seats started to sleep. I can barely remember what we did all night but I know we just moved around a lot, getting of the way for one of the train employee who would come through our car screaming things we couldn’t understand. Throughout the whole night we all slept about 45 minutes to an hour tops – except for Catie who slept the whole night with her head under one set of seats, her torso across the aisle and her feet and legs under the other set of seats. When morning came, families were eating their noodle bowls and fruit and other food they packed as the four of us munched on candy. As the day progressed, everything we took out the people around us were so interested in watching. As I made a bracelet out of string, the people would crouch around me and come closer to see what I was doing. I showed the women and even a few men how to make it. One girl watched me so intently that when I was almost done she motioned to me if she could see it. When I handed it to her she was able to make a row of the bracelet from watching me for so long. The same thing happened when Rachel took out her knitting. Later on when I was writing postcards, the people were even interested in that, trying to mimic with napkins the angle at which I held the postcard to write, which from the look on their face was a definitely an unfamiliar way to do so.
     Overall, the train ride was incredible. Later in the day, the magic trick man offered us hardboiled eggs and fried lotus root plants, which we quickly accepted, our teeth hurting from eating so much candy. I had never imagined a train ride being so much fun! We had all thought it was going to be terrible however I ended up loving it as much as I loved the Great Wall. Getting to interact and know the people on the train was an experience we never would have gotten had we not of had standing room only seats. By being right on top of everyone, we were almost forced to interact and get to know those in our immediate surroundings. The people we met were so much fun and genuinely nice. One man allowed us to have his seat for a period time and then gave it to us when he got off the train the next afternoon which was amazing because we got to rotate sitting on it and stretch our legs a bit. All of the people around us tried to help us the best they could with the language barrier. It was an experience I would never take back and hopefully one I’ll never forget because of how kind the people were and how enjoyable they made our long, long journey.