Brazil

Wow. I don’t even know how to describe how crazy/amazing/fun Brazil was. We are about to exit the mouth of the Amazon and make our way across the Atlantic toward Ghana. I can’t believe how fast this past week has gone by. A week ago I was praying I was going to make it out of the Amazon alive, and now I would do anything to go back to the land of crazy animals. We took so many pictures and video, and I can’t wait to share them with all of you when I get back. I was able to upload some in Manaus on our last day, and I’m hoping Aimee will be able to add them to this blog post.

We spent our first day exploring Manaus with a group of friends. We went shopping through the street markets, where Catherine, Matt and I bought our Indiana Jones hats. We think we look really cool, but everyone else makes fun of us. We just think they’re jealous….

We went to the Mercado Municipal, which is the local fish market. It is huge, and has thousands of live fish flopping all over. It was so cool! We walked through the whole market, and then went out back for lunch. They have all different kinds of fish that have just been caught, and you pick out your fish and they put it on a stick and cook it right in front of you. It was the best fish we have ever eaten in our lives~

We went back to the ship for a couple of hours, and then went back out for a Samba party that one of the professors had put together. I don’t think he realized how huge this was going to get, but it was our first night in Brazil with hundreds of students needing something fun to do. Manaus was ready for us, and put on a huge performance, with hundreds of people using instruments, singing and dancing for us. I think it was preparation for Carnival, and it was so amazing. After they were done they pulled all of the SAS students and faculty into the streets to dance with them to their music. It was such a different atmosphere from a regular college campus…our professors were out there with us having so much fun. We got back around midnight, and had to start packing for our Amazon adventure in the morning.

Amazon Adventure: January 24-26

Catherine and I really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into when we got picked up on Monday. We knew that we were going to be in the middle of nowhere, but we never expected to make the most amazing friends from all over the world and conquer some of our biggest fears in only three days. We picked up two guys from Germany, one from Brazil, and a girl from Switzerland on our way to the dock. Marna, our new Swiss friend, sat in the back of the boat during our hour-long trip to the lodge, and we became good friends. The three of us were kind of upset because we had been told we would see the Meeting of the Waters, and then they told us we couldn’t go see it. We were worried that our company may be a scam, but the actual company we worked with ended up being amazing. When we got to the floating “lodge”, which is really making it sound twenty times nicer than it actually was, the head guy in charge asked us if we wanted to spend the night in the jungle. He felt bad, because our tour coordinator was a scam, and didn’t want us to think that the actual place was not worth what we had paid. We decided we should do the night in the jungle, and got our stuff ready. Marna, Catherine and I got into a canoe with three Italian girls, and a Native man who was like… a foot shorter than me. He brought a jug of water, a pot, and a machete with him for our night in the jungle. 

When we got to the other side of the river, he led us on a 20-minute walk through the jungle. We finally got to our sleeping area, a small, cleared out space, with logs to hang our hammocks from and burned sticks from a previous fire. While the native, who still had no name, started chopping wood with his machete, we started to hang up our hammocks and mosquito nets. We helped him make a fire, by waving leaves and finding kindle. While we were all talking, we started to realize our native was chopping up a chicken about ten feet away from us. It was gross. He put it on a stick, and hung it over the fire. I told Catherine there was no way I was going to eat that. 

It was the best chicken I have ever had in my entire life. Native man must have put some secret recipe on it from some spices in the jungle or something. We ate out of leaf bowls that he made for us, and we had to use the multi talented machete to carve utensils out of wood from the ground. It was kind of cool being resourceful and having everything we needed to survive with the minimal amount of supplies we brought. The sun set after we ate dinner, and we all looked at each other, wondering what we were supposed to do. We had little flashlights, but nowhere to sit and no games to play. It was 7:30, and we just started to get ready to go to bed. We finally asked our guide what his name was, and we’re not sure if we pronounced it correctly, but he was known as Almodo for the rest of the trip. Almodo asked us if we wanted to go on a tarantula walk before we went to bed. The other girls wanted to go of course, so Catherine and I went along. Well…the walk took about 30 seconds before we saw our taranch, which really made us feel comfortable with our sleeping arrangements. We went back to our hammocks after, and started playing the famous person game. Between the 7 of us, there were four native languages (Italian, Swiss-German, English, Portuguese), with the language that everyone could speak to each other in being Spanish. It was really kind of cool to be with so many foreign people after being cooped up in a ship with hundreds of Americans. Everyone went to bed around 8:30. Catherine and I stayed up all night. Every hour or so we would whisper to each other and make sure the other was awake. It was scary hearing all of the animals around us. Almodo told us the next day that there were wild pigs running around, which is probably why I thought Indians were running through our camp in the middle of the night, planning to capture us and eat us for breakfast. Almodo kept us safe, and would get up throughout the night to check and make sure we were still alive.

I got out of my hammock as soon as there was some light, and watched as Almodo started the fire again, and made coffee. He always caught me staring at him, and would laugh. I just thought it was so legit that this guy lived on his own in the jungle sometimes, had feet that looked like hands because he had never worn shoes, and used one machete to do everything.

After everyone got up, he made us breakfast with the eggs he had brought, and we made our own version of a Tiger muffin (Pacific b-fasts) with a cracker and egg. Then he told us that we would go on a jungle walk, which really turned into a jungle hike. He started on a path, and then decided to wack his machete through the untouched parts of the jungle, and looked at the sun and trees to find his way. I thought we were definitely going to get lost and never be found, or just eaten by an anaconda. But he found his way to everything he wanted to show us, and we were back to camp in two hours. We packed up our stuff, and headed back to the beach to be picked up by the canoe. We had to wait on the beach for a while, and Catherine and I interviewed each other on video about our night in the jungle. We just watched all of them last night, after I put together a video of our trip, and we can’t believe how delirious and just ridiculous we are in them. Hopefully I’ll be able to upload them once I get to Ghana.

What is going on in Egypt?

Can someone email any updates on what is going on in Egypt to begeck@semesteratsea.net ?
All I know is that there is protesting, and that Brendan is in Cairo right now.
Thanks~

WE ARE ALIVE

We got back from the our Amazon adventure thing yesterday evening alive...barely. The past three days have been CRAZY. We had so much fun, made really good friends from all over the world, and managed to survive the ridiculousness of being in the middle of nowhere with scary animals all around us.
I don't have much internet time here in Manaus, so I'm going to try and upload as many photos as I can, and just write my blog on the ship while we cross the Atlantic these next ten days.

Hi all. We are currently sailing down the Amazon river. We’ve been here since Thursday, and we arrive in Manaus at 8am tomorrow morning. We had U.S. embassy representatives join us on Thursday, and I had the opportunity to meet two of them. The US Ambassador’s wife, Gisela Shannon, met with Matt, Catherine, and me after a Foreign Service presentation. She was very nice, and it was so cool for us to get to talk to all these important people. Mrs. Shannon and another woman from the Embassy came to my Sociology class as well, to talk about family violence in Brazil, and it was really interesting. We also had a personal video message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, telling us to take advantage of every opportunity we are given on this ship. He was on the Fall 2010 voyage, and is a huge supporter of Semester at Sea. Brazil is our first multiple night stop, and we are very excited. Tomorrow we’re just going to hang around the city, and do some shopping and sight seeing. We’re also going to try and find a good Brazilian Barbeque. They’re supposed to be fun, with really good food. We leave on Tuesday for our Amazon adventure…We’re a little terrified of the animals that will be out while we’re sleeping in a hammock in the middle of nowhere. Catherine and I were laughing about the fact that we tried to sleep outside on the second deck of a cabin in Northern California last December, and ran inside when we thought we heard a deer below. I hope our guide has a big machete that can take down any anacondas that try to swallow me. My dad says I’m being a little dramatic, but I’m just trying to make it out the Amazon alive. I saw a moth the size of my palm today; it was kind of cool to watch from a distance. No pictures….I ran away when it started to fly.


Entering the Amazon

We entered the Amazon around 1 am this morning. The water is really calm compared to the Atlantic, but it looks disgusting. It's a muddy brown color, and there are a lot of sticks and things in it. We can see land really close to the ship. It's all very green. I can't believe we are actually going up the Amazon. I've posted the trip that Catherine and I will be doing once we get to Manuas. We arrive on Sunday, but our trip runs from Monday to Wednesday. Thanks to Mama C, aka Catherine's mom, and her good friend, Kathie, for planning our entire Brazil trip for us!

I hope I pasted the right one....they had given us a couple of options.
KARLI: We're also going pink dolphin watching, and asking our guide if we can swim with them FYI :)

DAY one:

- 08:30 Pick up at the hotel reception and directly to the docks.

- 09:00 The Boat cruise to the Lake Janauary seeing the meeting of the waters.

- 11:00 Change to canoes to enter waterways and stopping for dolphins observation, Vitoria Regia, etc.

- 13:00 Regional fish lunch with natural juice drinks, piranhas fishing, and Sun set appreciation,

- 17:30 Alligator spotting, dinner and back to sleep (hummocks or beds).

Day two:

- 05:30 Boat trip to see Sun rising, birds, nature along river shore.

- 08:00 Breakfast

- 09:00 A three hour jungle expedition.

- 12:00 Return to the lodge/Boat for lunch and natural drinks,

- 15:00 We leave the lodge and go camping in the Jungle,

- 18:30 Night walk in the jungle, nigh canoeing, spear fishing and alligator spotting and other surprises.

Third day:

- 08:00 Breakfast back in the lodge/boat,

- 09:00 Pay a visit to a jungle village. Possibly get to see lots [sloth, monkeys, birds, tarantulas, etc],

- 12:00 Lunch time then on the boat to head back to Manaus.


TOP 3 GAMES WE'VE REINVENTED TO TAKE UP TIME:

1. Blind Man's Bluff:
One person is blindfolded and kicked out of our cabin. Then we shut all the lights off and hide somewhere in the room. They have to come back in and find us. Silent Marco Polo in the Dark, aka Blind Man's bluff.

2. Ninja
Too hard to explain

3. Matt and I started playing a darts game with the magnets on my wall. We get points for hitting different parts of my Dominican painting.


If you can't tell, we have way too much time on our hands.

1/19/11- Inu's Story

We had a guest speaker come into our Global Studies class, and I put together my notes to write a blog about it. A native of Huntington Beach, Jeffery Kottler is a professor of Psychology on our SAS voyage, and an author of over 80 books on psychology phenomena. He overheard me talking to someone on the first day, and we found out we live just a few miles from each other. He talked to our class for over an hour about an organization he began with a story about a girl named Inu. His lecture made such an impact on all of us that I want to share as much as I can remember with you.

Inu’s Story: 
The average annual income of a family in Nepal is $200. It costs $50 per year to attend public school. 
Professor Kottler spoke about a trip he made to Nepal, in which he discovered the kidnapping of young girls in a local village. The principal told him that lower caste girls started to disappear at anywhere from 8-12 years old. They are taken or sometimes sold by their families, and transported to India to become sex slaves. One by one, each girl in the school would disappear. Professor Kottler spotted a girl alone in a corner, and asked about her. The principal said “That’s Inu. She’ll disappear very soon.” 
Professor Kottler asked how much it would cost to keep Inu in school for another year. He was told it would be “too too much.” He asked again, and the principal told him that Inu would need uniforms for each season, and books, and many other things.
The total cost was going to be $50. Professor Kottler took the money out of his pocket and handed it to the principal. He told him it was to keep Inu in school for the next year. The principal said he would, and put the money in his pocket. 
Professor Kottler began crying, and his doctoral student (a woman from Nepal) came up to him. He felt like he had done a good thing, but his student was not so sure. She reminded him of where the principal had put the money, and asked him if he really thought that money was going to save Inu’s life. She said that unless he told the principal that he would continue to check on Inu, she would be gone before anyone could notice. He didn’t know what to do. He had places to travel to. This village took a long time to get to, and he was going to have to keep finding his way back. On the other hand, he was saving one girl from being sold, and giving her the opportunity to become educated.
 This story took place when Inu was 12 years old. She is now the first college student from her village, and studies TV and radio production at Thailand’s most elite university.
 “Empower Nepali Girls” was established to provide educational opportunities for lower caste girls. In a country where most women are deemed more worthless than a goat, Professor Kottler’s organization now supports 150 girls in nine villages throughout Nepal.
We watched a video that was just taken when he was in Nepal three weeks ago, and the girls were being interviewed on their future. Every girl said she wanted to become educated so she could help other poor people. 
It is estimated that 12,000 girls are sold each year to brothels. Education is the only thing that can help save them.
 I’ve posted the link to the foundation’s website: 
www.EmpowerNepaliGirls.org. 
Its headquarters are located on 9th street in Huntington Beach, right by a lot of you. Check it out, and get involved.








1/19/11- Dominica



Hi Guys,
 Sorry I haven’t updated you on my adventures in Dominica. We’ve been back on the ship for two days now, but it’s been pretty busy with classes and ship life. Dominica was AWESOME. First of all, it is not pronounced in the way I am sure you are all reading it. The stress is on the second “I” in the name, so it is pronounced “Do-min-neeee-ka.” It looks silly, and we catch ourselves saying it the wrong all the time. We woke up at 6:15 on our first day, and filmed the ship arrive in Dominica. We wouldn’t be docking until 8 am, but we could already see the island. It was rainy and foggy, and we were worried that it would be bad weather all day. We took pictures of the island, and of us on the ship. People were allowed to get off the ship at 8am, but groups that had SAS trips leaving right away got to get off first. We left around 8:35, and met up with our canyoning group. Richard and Liz brought us up in two vans to their guest cottage. It was so beautiful. We looked around for a while, and then started getting ready. We had to put on full body wetsuits. We also had wetsuit jackets. Next they harnessed us up with a bunch of gear. We also had helmets, and Catherine and I had decided to buy a Go Pro camera that we could video our rappelling with. We were able to switch the camera from helmet to helmet so we could get both of us. We had a 20 minute training, where each of us practiced rappelling on a 5 ft wall, and then we were off to the canyon. 
We had to hike for about 10 minutes before getting to the start of the water. I was more nervous about falling on the rocks while climbing to each spot than I was about the rappelling. There were fifteen of us, so it took a while before it was our turn. We quickly learned that it was way better to go first, because you could swim in the water below while you waited for everyone to catch up. When it’s your turn to go, Richard hooks you up to all of the ropes, and they have a guy waiting for you at the bottom as well. You hold the rope in one hand, at your side, and give yourself slack as you repel down the waterfall. It didn’t take too long to get down on the first one, and everyone cheered when we got to the bottom. Once I was down in the pools below, I could see that people were jumping off this big rock into the pools. We took lots of pictures with our friend Brandon’s waterproof camera, and people started doing flips off the rocks. 

Some falls we rappelled down, and others we just jumped off of. I think the highest one we rappelled down was thirty feet, and jumping was 25. It was so awesome, and I’m so glad we decided to do this. It was not a Semester at Sea sponsored trip, but I’m hoping more people hear about it for the next voyage because it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever done. I’m putting together a video of all our pictures and video. 
They had lunch for us when we got back, and we got to try some of the homemade chocolate they had just made that morning. I tried coconut chocolate and mint chocolate. We celebrated that night at all the bars and clubs they opened up on a Sunday night just for us. 

I spent my second day wandering around the town by the ship. Before Semester at Sea announced Dominica as one of the islands on their itinerary, I had never heard of it before. It is one of the world’s best-kept secrets. I hope all of you get to go there at least once in your lifetime. The people are all so nice, and the island is gorgeous. The cottages we went to before rappelling would be a perfect getaway, and definitely a top ten place to stay. I will try and upload our footage of canyoning as soon as I get to an internet café in Brazil. We are currently 20 minutes away from entering the Amazon! We will be going up it for 3 days before we get off in Manaus. 


Here’s the link if you want to check out the website for our canyoning tours and guest cottages:
 www.extremedominica.com




January 15th

Hi Guys-
So I’ve decided to keep a word document journal of every day, because I went to write my blog post for the past two days and could not even remember what happened yesterday. So much goes on in a day, and it'’s already hard to keep track of everything, so I'’m going to “type” everything down from now on. I think the last day I have on the blog was Thursday, Jan 13. Sorry if these blogs aren'’t super interesting! We haven’t gotten into a port, so it’'s pretty much the every day routine stuff. I swear they'’ll be a little more exciting after we get off the ship, but until then I need to keep Grandma happy by posting “EVERYTHING.”☺

I had my first class, Global Studies, on Friday morning. Catherine and I are both in the same class, so we walked up together. This is the one really big class that everyone is required to take. Our professor spent the time talking about the syllabus, and then the geologist on the ship talked to us about where we are and where we will be going. It was all really interesting, and he gave us a heads up on passing Montserrat tomorrow. We were separated into random small groups of seven, and Catherine and I were randomly put into the same group out of 50 groups..crazy. We do research with our group on a certain subject in a country we are going to. We have chosen to research about poverty in Ghana. For my section, I will be researching how poverty affects education in Ghana. I’m also hoping to get onto an FDP that goes to a hospital focusing on women & childbirth, so that I can compare child-birthing methods in Ghana to that of the United States.
I was done with classes by 10:30, and had the rest of the day to lay out and relax.

Today was way busier. I had three classes pretty much in a row. My first class, Physical Oceanography, is pretty much a repeat of the Geology class last summer. Luckily I realized that before I left, and brought my all of my notes from it. I signed up for an FDP (kind of like a Field Trip that you do with a professor in a port) in Mauritius. We will be taking a glass bottom boat out to the coral reefs and studying the marine life. Afterwards we go snorkeling. We'’re required to do at least one per class, and I thought that was a fun one. My second class was Sociology: International Perspectives on Violence. This class seems pretty interesting. I’m not quite sure what FDPs I'’ll be doing for it yet. My third class is Abnormal Psychology. During our next class, we'’ll be given a group, a disorder and a country that we will research. No one else but our professor knows what we have, and we study it for the entire semester. On the last day, we present the case to the class without saying what it is, and they have to try and figure it out. I think it will be fun. It'’s really cool for us to be studying all of the places we'’ll be going to. The professors base their classes on the port that we will be arriving in next, so the information is relevant to our destinations. The classes are pre-requisites for nursing school, so it'’s nice to get them out of the way, while still learning a lot.

We arrive in Dominica in 8 hours! A group of us are going to wake up at 6:30 so we can get to breakfast and watch as we get to port. We’'ve never gotten up early enough to make breakfast… so I'’m really hoping we stick to our plan! We’'re going canyoning tomorrow morning. We’'ll be repelling down waterfalls, and jumping in crevasses filled with water. It looks pretty crazy, but really fun-

Hoping to have wi-fi while we’re there so I can upload some pics!

Greetings from the MV Explorer!!

I am ON THE SHIP!!! Everything is so crazy here! I met up with Matt (he had
gone to dinner & Senor Frogs with us on our last night in the Bahamas) and his parents the morning of the 12th, and we took a cab together to the ship. His family is from Truckee in Northern California, and they were so nice and helpful on our last day in the Bahamas. They wouldn't let me help pay for the cab, and Mr. Hardy carried some of my luggage all the way to the ship with me (there's a LOT of it). Catherine was working outside, so she came over a couple times while we were waiting in line and took pictures with us. It took about 35 minutes to get through the security line, and when we got out of the building the ship was right in front of us. I took video and pictures of us walking up to the ship. Ok, so somehow I ended up in a huge room on the third floor! I definitely paid for a room on economy or 2nd, so I'm not quite sure why I got it but it's so nice! The room is meant to be for three people, but there are only two of us so we have lots of space. I ate lunch with a couple of guys who live by me, and my roommate came a little after lunch. Her name is Sara and she's from Dallas, Texas and is really nice. Catherine met with the head nurse, and told her about me going into nursing after graduation. She's an ICU nurse at UCLA, and wants me to be introduced to her and I am SO excited. I guess she told Catherine it's too late for me to do work study, but that I might get to do things in ports or something along those lines.

Leaving the port in the Bahamas was so much fun. The parents were going wild down below, and some even ran along the side of the ship as we started moving. I have pictures and video, but I can't send those through the internet so you'll have to wait until I get into a port that has wifi.

The past two days have been filled with orientation meetings. They have been long and pretty brutal. I got seasick last night, but had ginger ale and felt a lot better by the time I went to sleep. We have different activities we do on the ship. The students and passengers are all divided up equally into different seas. Catherine and I are both in the Caribbean Sea. There's a Sea Olympics halfway through the voyage that we'll participate in, and we make cheers and do other fun things together. We were also divided into small groups of about ten people that we will meet with every once in a while and talk about experiences in ports. We have a professor, a field trip coordinator and a lifelong learner leading our group.

We arrive in Dominica on Sunday the 16th, a lot sooner than I thought. I'm excited to start getting into the regular schedule tomorrow. I have Global Studies tomorrow from 9:20-10:35, and then I'm done for the day. So much has happened since we got on the ship, and I'm probably forgetting to write a lot of it, but I'll update soon-

Miss all of you~
Bridget

Ready to set sail on the MV Explorer

Hi Everyone!
Sorry I haven't been on here for a couple of days. We have had so much fun, and little time to go on the internet. Our hotel is amazing. There are pools everywhere, with caves and waterfalls you can go in, and we are right on the beach. Catherine came in yesterday (Monday) afternoon around 3. She was so excited to see the view from our hotel, and it still hadn't hit us that we were in the BAHAMAS. A year ago, we would have never thought that we would be here during our last semester of college.
We put on our suits, got drinks at the bar downstairs and went straight to the beach. It wasn't too hot out, but was still pretty nice weather. We took lots of fun pictures of us jumping on the beach..we were REALLY excited to be reunited after a month of not seeing each other.

We met up with my roommate and her friend back in the hotel, changed into clothes and went to Senor Frogs for dinner. We got there pretty early, and had no idea how crazy it would get a few hours later. It was soooo much fun. SAS students started trickling in throughout the night, and it was packed by 10. The workers at Senor Frogs were so fun, and we had a lot of fun...

Catherine and I took a cab back around midnight and went to the pool and jacuzzi. Catherine stayed in our hotel that night, but had to get up in the morning to go to the ship and start her work study.

After Catherine had left, Olivia and I headed down to the beach. There was a local man selling coconut drinks on the beach, and it was really fun watching him cut it open. I tried real coconut for the first time. I thought it was kind of gross at first, but by the end of the day I loved it and ate almost half a coconut. We just hung out around the pool/beach all day and caught up on some reading we need to do for classes. Catherine got back from work around 6:45 and we went downtown to the "Fish Fry" for some authentic Bahamian food. I'm really trying to taste all of the different foods, but it's hard not to want to order chicken fingers when I see some of the things on these menus. We really wanted to try Conch before we left, so we got a platter to share of grilled conch, lobster, shrimp, and conch fritters. The grilled conch was rubbery like calamari, but was pretty good! We took pictures, but they're on Catherine's phone so I'll have to upload them later.
After dinner we walked down to Senor Frogs again and had so much fun with the workers and other SAS students. Everyone is so nice and excited about leaving tomorrow~
I have to get up in 4 hours to pack and leave for the ship so I'm going to sign off the internet- This is probably the last time I will be able to update my blog myself since we only have email for free on the ship. I'll be emailing Aimee my blog posts from now on, and she will be posting them (thanks aimers).

See you all in 3.5 months!

View from our balcony in Bahamas

My roommates said something about a pool and ocean view last night, but I had no idea that I would wake up to this in the morning. Not sure if I ever want to leave....

Welcome To The Bahamas

Finally getting to writing on this after a really, really long weekend. Good news is: I made it to the Bahamas! We bought a different flight on Friday morning because we were worried about my layover in Atlanta. This flight went straight to Miami, and it worked out perfectly because my original flight ended up being canceled and  I would have been stuck. We got an email from Semester at Sea today, and I guess a bunch of students are stuck in the storm and can't get to the Bahamas. 

Anyways, last night we had a Bon Voyage party with family and friends. 

It was SO good to see everyone one more time. People stayed until around 10, and I stayed up packing and re-checking all of my passport and visa info until 3am. We left for LAX at 4am and everything went super smoothly. 

There were 3 SAS students sitting by me during our layover, and we shared a cab to our different hotels once we landed. It was fun seeing the entire customs section of the airport in the Bahamas filled with SAS students and families. Olivia (my roommate in the Bahamas), her friend from home, and three SAS students who all go to Vanguard with her were waiting for me to get to the hotel so we could go to dinner. We ended up walking to this Italian place a couple blocks down. It was late by the time we got back, and we're all super tired from traveling so we decided to call it a night and the guys headed back to their hotel. 

I wish I could tell you all how beautiful the Bahamas is, but I got here at night and have not been able to explore or see anything yet at all! I guess I will just have to update this soon. Our plan for tomorrow is to do this snorkeling adventure. It's a four hour tour, and they take us out on a boat. The first hour is exploring a cave or something....the second is snorkeling around a shipwreck....and the third is snorkeling with sharks ( I guess they put bait at the bottom way below us and we watch them). I'm not completely sold on the idea....I was all about the cage diving with Great Whites in South Africa when I'm in a cage...this just sounds crazy though! I guess they're little sharks though so I guess the next time I update this you'll know if I chickened out or not! 

Ok, I'm running on one hour of sleep so I'm going to wrap this up. I miss you all! 

<3 B

Message To My Best Friend- By Joshua Revives

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all of my family and friends!
2010 ended with lots of parties, surprises and fun-
My dad surprised us all and flew Brendan home from Washington D.C. for my mom's (Dec 16th) birthday. They canceled his earlier flight to Syria, and he stayed in HB for his birthday and Christmas.  Brendan left for Beirut, Lebanon on Wednesday and will make his way to Syria soon after New Year's to study Arabic. After a couple months of studying, he and his girlfriend Quinn will be attempting to be the first people to walk the entire (700 mile) Abraham path. It will take them a couple of months to follow the path through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. The path is a connection to people of all faiths and cultures and serves as a reminder of our common origins, despite cultural differences. Brendan says it's pretty safe..... but we are all still hoping it goes by fast and he gets back home soon.
Raffi also left from LAX on Wednesday to go to Mexico City and surprise his mom. His sister picked him up, and they had a big New Year's with his family in Mexico. He'll be there for the next month.
Our house is getting smaller and smaller. A week from Sunday, Connor will be the only kid at home!

I'm starting to think a little about what to pack. I've looked at blogs of some of the other SAS students and they had their bags packed like months ago....
Now that two of the boys are gone, and Connor goes back to school on Monday, I think I will get everything ready to go in the next few days. I got a big Nikon camera for Christmas that I love and am starting to use. I also got a really cool backpack from REI that I'll take on all of our trips off of the ship.

Catherine and I have started thinking a little bit about what we want to do in each country. Brendan said that when he was on it people always wanted to do something different than what they planned, so we shouldn't worry about buying trips and planning things ahead of time. Then again, this is coming from the guy who is going to walk 700 miles with just a compass....not exactly my idea of fun!

Thank you SO much for all of the stickers that were sent to my house. We have 85 packs of stickers, more than I ever imagined getting. There will probably be a thank you video soon from K&K:)