MAY IV

FIORDS! May 23rd, 2006
Today was another post port holiday, and our ship took a day trip through the second largest fiord in Norway, called the …. Fiord (I forget, oops!) I didn’t even know what a fiord was until getting on the Peaceboat voyage, and when I was first explained what they were I expected to see a lot of ice. The real fiords (of this season at least) aren’t very icy, but still beautiful. Some parts were very narrow, and once in awhile I saw a quaint little house or small village on the banks. It was soooo cold outside, but the teachers decided to warm themselves up with some hot cocoa and baileys. Perfect way to spend the day outside!


TAK May 22nd, 2006
In case you are wondering, “tak” means “thanks”, and is the only Norwegian word I remember from the one day I spent today in Bergen. I should start out by saying “tak” to my good friend Yumi, who traveled all the way from Oslo to hang out with me for the day. Yumi, who lived in the same Japanese town as me, moved to Norway about 2 weeks before I left on Peaceboat. Our meeting in Norway seemed almost surreal, like we had just had dinner together at Jonathons (our favorite Sengawa hangout) in Japan the other day or something. We met at the port, and spent the morning in a café before riding up the cable car to the top of Mount Floyen (pic of me and troll from taken on the top of the mountain) to see the whole of Bergen below. While walking downhill it started raining, which led us to her boyfriend’s mother’s house to enjoy the rest of the day indoors where it was nice and dry. The house was up in the hills, where the view of the port was amazing. Too bad it was raining or I would have insisted we eat our lunch/dinner outside on the veranda. Although I spent most of my time indoors, I still had a great time. Prices in Norway are mad expensive (Oslo was rated as the number one most expensive city this past year) so no purchasing of troll souvenirs or anything, but it was really great catching up with my friend. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way! I will definitely be visiting Norway and my dear friend again in the near future – so be ready Yumi. Looking forward to seeing you and the trolls! Tak!

MAY III

SOUND AS A POUND May 19-20, 2006
After these two days, I now know why my sister is in love with London. She is also a Boston girl, and all I could think when passing through London’s streets is how much it reminds me of Beantown. This stop has turned out to be one of my favorites, and I can totally see myself living in London someday in the future. During the first day I had to work, touring around with students to all the big London sights such as Leister Square and Buckingham palace. I’d have to say the best part of my work was the pub stop for a pint (or two!) of cider (again, Boston reminder.) I loved the fact there are pubs EVERYWHERE and they all have cider, most times on draft as well as bottles. Luv it! The start of my crazy London evening started out in Covent Square at a pub with balcony called Punch and Judy. About 30 some Peaceboat people (this and previous cruise teachers, staff and a couple passengers) met up for some beer, including some of my friends from the 39th cruise. We reminisced about the 39th and talked about what everyone is doing now etc… it totally made my trip to London a fabulous one. After the pub and some failed attempts at finding a hopping bar nearby, the crowd decided to head to a club called Fabrique, which actually had a major lineup (including the London DMC championships) for the evening. Too bad we showed up at 1am, when there were about 150 other fools in line in the rain (on and off rain all day – さすが London!) With little prospect at getting inside we then headed to a friend’s house to crash. The next morning I grabbed a pasty for breakfast and headed out of London back to the docks in Tilbury. There were a few guests from the 39th voyage touring around the boat (including my friends from the eve before) so I had the chance to chat it up with them on the boat for a couple of hours before departure. My friend Sally has promised to send me any info she receives about jobs in London, and if the opportunity arises I would have no second guesses about moving to London for work and finding a nice British boy with sexy accent to marry.

DATE WITH THE FU’S May 17, 2006 Today we had our date with the man who bought the girl teachers at the auction last month. The man and his wife are both English students, and both came on the date. Though I am not quite sure why, we call them Mr. and Mrs. Fu, and they are the loveliest couple I’ve met in a long time. Married for about 35 years and still crazy about one another - It's almost too good to be true! We went through a few too many pitchers of beer and sang a few two many silly songs, but it was good fun. The date lasted from 3:30 until 5:30, and after the teachers meeting at 6pm I went straight to bed. There is something about drinking on a boat when it is rocking – makes you soooooooooooooo tired!

VINO TINTO POR FAVOR! May 16, 2006
Bienvenidos to Bilbao in Spain! I’ve been to Spain for vacation in the past, but this was my first experience in Basque country – known for its separatist inclinations, wine, and Guggenheim museum. Although the museum did sound tempting, another teacher Beth and I decided to spend our only day on a Peaceboat tour for some vino. The tour took us two hours inland to the area of Riojas, a famous winery area in the Basque region. We left the port at 8:00 and drove to a winery museum in the town of La Guardia (after seeing countless signs with the town name I finally figured out a few hours later why the name La Guardia seemed so familiar to me…duh!) The museum bit was a tad dull, but afterwards we strolled around the town itself, which in my opinion was even more spectacular than Taormina in Sicily. The town looked like it was straight out of the early 1900s, with old architecture, tiny alleyways, and stone pathways. Plus, unlike Taormina there were very few tourists. On the tour we visited one of the wineries in town and conducted some taste testing in the wine cellar (at one time there was a total of 320 private wineries with cellars in the town.) After taste testing (on an empty stomach) we headed back to the museum to enjoy an extremely posh meal outside underneath a huge white tent, with traditional Basque food (fois gras pate, Basque sausage soup, lamb, and a huge piece of custard cake) and bottomless glasses of wine, one for blush and one for red. Except for the Japanese lady next to me who proceeded to get totally wasted and passed out, everything was fabulous. The breathtaking scenery of endless fields of grapes and mountainous terrain only added to the brilliant atmosphere. After the tour finished we had some time to head into the city center for some city walking, shopping, and internet, and picked up some sandwiches and beer at the pier before heading back on the ship. I also caved and had a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds, which went perfectly well with my Corona thank you for asking.

MAY II

SANSHIN May 14th, 2006
I bought a sanshin (Okinawan banjo) last year in Okinawa, and have since played it maybe three times. I brought it with me on Peaceboat thinking someone might be able to teach me some sanshin techniques. It just so happens that there are a few Okinawans on the ship, and they started a sanshin workshop today. We are going to learn how to play a particular song and then perform it in front of the other passengers. I am hoping to keep up with it this time around!

END OF VACAY May 12th, 2006
After 11 days of vacation, the teachers are back at work today. Boo hoo! Actually, I’m not that sad. It will be good to get back on a schedule. I would never guess these kind of thoughts could from me, but visiting so many countries in the past 11 days has been quite tiring.

WINE AND CHEESE, PLEASE May 11th, 2006
The teachers had a special secret wine and cheese party today. Everyone had to bring a bottle of wine and some cheese to share. Both wine and cheese were exceedingly delicious, especially the parmesian. The only sucky thing about the party is that it started at 3pm – it is dangerous to drink red wine so early. I was in bed by 7pm!

FREEDOM DAY, F- YEAH! May 10th, 2006
Today was freedom day, a.k.a. "Americans aren't allowed to step foot on Libyan soil" day. Even with the appeals to Libyan officials by Peaceboat staff, Americans were still denied the visa. One of the guest speakers who works at an NGO in Palestine fighting for the rights of Palestinians was also denied the visa because of the Israeli stamps in her passport (pretty ironic, don’t you think?) So instead of getting off the boat we celebrated "Freedom Day" with sunbathing, playing Spades and watching movies. We also toasted to the U.S. and our freedom to drink red wine. Although, I'd have to say the best part of freedom day was in the evening, when our lovely colleagues came back bearing gifts of falafel and Libyan souvenirs. After stating in the past that I was most looking forward to visiting Libya and then not being able to get off the ship, and then having the non-American teachers rave about the country and how it was their favorite destination it was a pretty disappointing day. It reminded me of my previous Peaceboat voyage in 2002, when the Pakistani journalist wasn't allowed off the ship when it docked in India (due to bad relations between the two countries – you know, Kashmir, Punjab, etc...) I remember waving to her as I made my way off the boat. Even though she was smiling on the outside I only now realize how she really must have felt on the inside. To be part of an organization that tries to spread peace through intercultural exchange and awareness, only to be denied the access to do so totally sucks. I’m not sure when I’ll ever have the chance to get to Libya again, but I hope it will happen again someday with more than just a lousy view from the deck of a ship.
* It may be fair to point out the reason why Americans were denied visas (so I’ve heard.) A Libyan official was recently denied a visa to enter the country upon arrival to the United States, so Libya has decided to do the same to Americans. Supposedly, in recent years the U.S. and Libya have improved their relationship through various agreements, including more lenient immigration procedures, and on previous Peaceboat voyages Americans have had no problems receiving Libyan visas.

CHANCE TO MEET KADDAFI May 9th, 2006
Today at the teachers meeting we were told there is a slight possibility the Americans MAY be able to get off the boat in Libya, although people with Israeli stamps in their passports are out of luck. We were also told to hide our alcohol, porn and Israeli flags since Libyan officials will come on the boat to do random room checks. I immediately went to my room after the meeting to put my soft porn (Cosmo magazine) in my luggage for safe keeping.

CAKE IN DA FACE May 7th, 2006
Today was the English language program coordinator's birthday. Audrey turned the big 3-0. After we sang happy birthday to her at dinner she proceeded to slam her head into the cake (NO ONE pushed her – it was of her own doing.) It was the most fabulous thing I have seen all week.

LE GRANDE BLEU (Sicily) May 8th, 2006
Peaceboat arrived in the land of the mafia (tee hee - Just joking ya'll) this morning. The boat docked in Catania, the second largest city in Sicily. I have been happily anticipating this port for a number of reasons including but not limited to food, men, wine, and more food. Some of us teachers decided to skip Catania all together and take the train 45 minutes to Taormina, a small seaside town where both Le Grande Bleu and parts of the Godfather were filmed. The scenery was breathtaking! The town itself is located on top of a big hill, and the small café-lined streets and old architecture was exactly how I imagined Sicily to be. I walked the town by myself for a bit, stopping at a trattoria for pizza and locale wine for lunch. The town is so tiny I could walk by myself, yet not feel alone. I kept running into both teachers and Peaceboat passengers, hopping from one group to another. After returning to Catania in the evening I met some peeps for dinner and had Catania’s specialty, pasta alla Norma (pasta with red sauce, eggplant and salted ricotta cheese.) On the way back to the ship we decided to buy some cheap wine to stow away on the ship since most of us are becoming poor from high bar bills. I won’t mention who (not me, thank goodness) but there is one teacher who’s up to 70,000 yen (about 650 dollars) and we still have 2/3 of the cruise to go!


CAKE IN DA FACE May 7th, 2006
Today was the English language program coordinator's birthday. Audrey turned the big 3-0. After we sang happy birthday to her at dinner she proceeded to slam her head into the cake (NO ONE pushed her – it was of her own doing.) It was the most fabulous thing I have seen all week.

MAY I

AFGALISTO! (GREECE) May 6th, 2006
After the Greek night, I was looking forward to taking my first step onto Greece – a country I've always dreamed of visiting. We only had one day, so I tried to make the most of it by taking the train with D to Athens and exploring the Acropolis (which was amazing by the way.) Afterwards, we decided to check out the European Social Forum, grabbed a couple of signs and joined in the march to say no to war. I guess the whole idea of the forum was to bring together groups from different nations (mainly Europe) to denounce war and to also voice their own political ideals (most of which you might guess were socialist.) I've been to a few U.S. protests before, but this was my very first experience with a European "peaceful" rally, with broken glass, cars on fire, tear gas and all. There were police barricading both the main police station and the U.S. embassy, and some the more rampant protesters were throwing U.S. pennies and rocks at them. It was apparent that a few were crazies there just to cause a scene, but from most protestors I did sense a feeling of togetherness and desire to express their opinions and stand for what they believe in. At one point we climbed to the roof of an old abandonded building to see a bird's eye view of the march. I'm pretty bad at estimates, but I'd guess there were well over 20,000 participants.
After losing jost of our group in the crowd Megumi and I went for some dinner before heading back to the ship. My Greek experience was definitely one in a million. It's surprising how much one can do in only one day.

GREEK NIGHT May 5th, 2006
Tonight was Greek night. I guess this is an event they do on every cruise before arriving in Greece, seeing as the ship, ship owner, and many of the crew are actually from Greece. It cost 4000 yen (2000 for staff, hee!) for a scrumptious buffet of kebab, spinach pies, feta cheese, etc… and all-you-can-drink beer and wine. I definitely had my fill of both food and wine, and ended up partaking in some Greek dancing after dinner, where we all joined hands in a large circle and foolishly kicked our legs and hopped around in a clockwise direction. It was the most exercise I’ve gotten in weeks.

LA ARRABIA April 29th, 2006
Today I held another self-planned event – ARABIC. Not like I should really be teaching Arabic, especially since I haven’t studied OR used it in the past six years, but I still can remember the very basics such as greetings and numbers – things that can be used in the next few countries we will visit. I was a little worried about people showing up, but about 40 people came to learn for the hour-long class. Some people came up to me later to ask for extra Arabic cheat sheets I made for people to take with them when they enter Arabic-speaking countries. It’s good to know that my 3 month stint in Egypt has payed off in some way!

THE PYRAMIDS, AGAIN (EGYPT) May 3rd - 4th, 2006
Our ship arrived at Port Said at 10pm in the evening on the 3rd, so we really only had one day to spend in Egypt. I wasn't too upset, seeing as I've already had the Egyptian experience twoce before (once when I rode on Peaceboat in 2002 and the other time when I briefly resided in Cairo back in 2000.)
The first eve was spent in Port Said with some of the girl GET teachers. We got some falafel (or tamir as they say) and relaxed at a cafe with some apple sheesha. The next morning the International Division of Peaceboat (teachers, interpreters, other international staff) took a bus tour to see the Pyramids. Our bus was part of a 10 bus convoy (almost all the Peaceboat passengers take a tour to see the Pyramids) on the way to Cairo. We had police chaperones in the front and back, and they blocked off all the streets with machine gun-armed police in Port Said for the buses to pass. This was the first time for me to see such a lock down, but it was also the first time for me to be traveling in this country with such a large amount of tourists. Supposedly it was for our safety to travel as a group, but I think a line of 10 huge buses is more of a sitting duck then just one. There was a bombing last week (in Dahab, a breeding ground for backpacker tourists and also where I got my scuba license) and I am assuming Egypt doesn’t want any more screw-ups with tourism, but to block off all the roads just for tourists is unbelievable. I kind of felt like I was the president or some other high ranking official. Anyways, seeing and experiencing the pyramids with my new Peaceboat friends was nice, but there wasn’t much time and we had to be rushed around. The pyramids looked a bit different from the last time I saw them. It could only be my imagination, but more of the blocks seemed to have fallen and were missing, which made me a bit sad. There was also some construction being done on the Sphinx and scaffolding materials were in the way of snapping any good pics. After our speed racer bus tour around the pyramids, we were left with only two hours to roam around downtown Cairo. We were dropped off right in front of the Cairo Hilton, and a wave or nostalgia hit me. This was my old hang out hood! I took to shopping with my waning Arabic skills and also hit the Koshari stand, twice. At one point one of the shop keepers offered 200 million camels to marry me (to which I politely declined.) I don't think I could ever deal with the polygamy, and I'm not sure my family would really appreciate 200 camels anyways...

SUEZ CANAL May 2nd, 2006
Today we entered the Suez Canal. It is supposedly a grand sight to see. I went up on deck a few times to get a glimpse of some bridges and such, but mostly stayed down below during the day watching the movie Scratch. There were some rumors of pirates on the ship but I wasn’t lucky enough to spot any.

OLD CAMEL (JORDAN) April 30th - May 1st, 2006
Wow…………… was I wrong about this country! I figured since it sits right next to Egypt, Jordan would be pretty much the same. The food and environment were pretty similar, but the people were extremely different – in a good way. Don’t get me wrong, I love Egypt and its people, but the haggling and such really gets to me sometimes. For the most part, the Jordanians I met on this trip were genuinely friendly without any expectations. We were constantly being invited into houses for tea, which usually led to discussions on United States politics and Palestinian issues etc… I find it of great interest and importance to hear the opinions of the international community. Every time I mentioned my nationality I heard nothing but nice things about the American people, and grievances about the 9/11 incident. "It’s the U.S. government, not the people" that Jordanians aren’t very fond of.
On the first day of my stay, a group of us teachers (Brian, Dave, James and I) went to Petra – 2 hour drive from where we docked in Aqaba. If you’ve ever seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Petra is the shown in the last part of the movie when they go in search of the Holy Grail. This place was amaaaaaaaaaaazing. Four hours is NOT enough time to go trekking around, which is all the time we had before having to head back to Aqaba. The place is huge, and since I spent a lot of time talking and chillin' with the local Bedouins I wasn’t able to make it to a lot of the caverns and other sights. Not too worry though. I did get to see the so-called pinnacle of Petra (see pic.) and I a few some camel friends, too. After returning to Aqaba that eve we had a huge meal of baba ganoush, hummous, kebab and pita for approximately two bucks each. It was one of my best meals and a total steal!
The next day the same group went diving in the red sea. There were some broight corals and fish, but the true highlight was the sunken ship. The dive guide took us into the hull at 20 meters below and at the very top was an air bubble. Inside the bubble we could take out our regulators and actually hold a conversation!
I loved every bit of my trip in Jordan, except for the bit about me being an old camel. Supposedly unmarried women over the age of 23 are considered "old camels", which is what the taxi driver kept joking about when we visited his house for tea on the first night (He was 34 and married a 19 year old.) I'm more partial to the idea of being "single and fabulous." I think I'll stick to that!



LA ARRABIA April 29th, 2006
Today I held another self-planned event – ARABIC STUDIES. Not like I should really be teaching Arabic, especially since I haven’t studied OR used it in the past six years, but I still can remember the very basics such as greetings and numbers – things that can be used in the next few countries we will visit. I was a little worried about people showing up, but about 40 people came to learn for the hour-long class. Some people came up to me later to ask for extra Arabic mini phrase books I made for people to take with them when they enter Arabic-speaking countries. It’s good to know that my three month stint in Egypt has payed off in some way!