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!