JUNE IV

UCHIAGE June 25, 2006
Tonight I held an uchiage (a party to celebrate the completion of a task) for the diving group in Mexico. The place was in Namihei, the Japanese-style bar that opens in the upper deck restaurant in the evening. Namihei is the place to satisfy my occasional craving for edamame, or plum sake. All together about 12 people showed up, and everyone thanked me again for introducing them to diving. Some had more questions on how to obtain their license, how to do a mask clear, etc… It felt great knowing that I have made an impact in some of these Japanese passengers’ lives, even if just a small one. I’m almost tempted to go and get my scuba instructor license so I can become a full-fledged diving instructor. There are so many Japanese people keen to dive, and with my Japanese language skills it may not be such a bad idea.

DAY OF CONSOLING SPIRITS June 23, 2006
Today is the anniversary of the last WWII battle on the island of Okinawa called the Typhoon of Steel, when the Japanese general surrendered and committed hara-kiri on the southern tip of the main island. About 1/3 of the Okinawan population (who were civilians) perished in the war, and many many more if you include American and Japanese soldiers. Because my Masters degree focused on Okinawan issues I ‘ve studied about and visited the island numerous times, and feel a strong connection to all things Okinawan. This is why I was excited to attend the Okinawan lectures held in the daytime and the Ryukyu festival at night. The festival included dancing, sanshin playing and karate. Did you know that karate is from Okinawa and so is Mr. Miyagi in the karate kid?

BAN OF BEER IN THE HOT TUB June 21, 2006
Tis a hard life when you aren’t allowed to drink beer in the hot tub anymore, especially when we have so many meetings in the hot tub before we watch the sunset with dolphins occasionally jumping in the distant horizon. What harsh working conditions (LOL) Well, at tonight’s hot tub meeting we drank it anyways…. Stick it to the man!

VIVA EL MEXICO! June 20, 2006
Viva tacos! Viva margaritas! Viva buying 12 mangos for a dollar! Viva my really hot dive guide! Viva Acapulco!!!! My first time in Mexico was quite a success. The day started out with a day trip of diving off the coast of Acapulco. About 20-some Japanese passengers that came to my self-planned event on diving joined the expedition, which worried me some (in case of any problems or what not I could be blamed etc…) BUTTTT, everything went extremely well. Even with the crap visibility (3 meters kids!), everyone enjoyed and thanked me profusely afterwards for introducing them to diving. It's such an amazing feeling when something you love so much (in this case, diving) can be appeciated by others in the same way. Hearing the first-time divers opinions really brightened my day. The ocean was filled with porcupine fish and sea urchins, so many that one of the divers got pricked by a sea urchin – ouch! But everyone claimed they still had a FABULOUS time. Of course, the dive center we booked with, ACAPULCO DIVERS, deserves most of the credit. They organized a killer tour with prime service, including a sexy dive guide that I am still drooling over. They even served us shots of tequila and coronas after the dive (this service should be mandatory for all dive centers.) The rest of the day I spent eating tacos and strolling around the market with some friends. Tacos were $1.50 for 5 minis, including all the hot hot hot sauce you could stand. All the sauces were spicy beyond belief, even the guacamole. This meal set my mouth on fire for at least an hour after finishing (maybe a bit too spicy for my liking.) The market had some great stuff, but surprisingly expensive. The only thing I ended up buying were the mangos (my best purchase this whole Peaceboat trip) and a copied DVD of the Divinci Code that turned out to be in the Russian language. My trip was only a day long, so needless to say I need to get myself back to Acapulco in the future to brush up on my Spanish skills and track down that diving man.

BUENAS DIAS ACAJUTLA June 17-18, 2006
Our stop in El Salvador was the last overnight trip of the cruise – boo hoo!! The GET teachers had all planned to travel together to do some canopeeing (flying across the jungle like George of the Jungle) and relaxing by the beach, but it just didn’t work out. Due to uncontrollable circumstances we split up and did our own thing. I felt fortunate to make my way into the guy group and finally have the chance to do some bonding with the boys - better late than never! We left the desolate town of Acajutla in the afternoon and headed to the beach town of La Libertad. Our taxi truck came so fast we had to bag our lunchtime beers to go (see pic.) Once in Libertad, the soccer fiends jumped out of the truck on first site of a television to watch the World Cup on TV. Don't get me wrong - I like soccer, but with such a short time in El Salvador I couldn't understand why these fools wanted to just sit and watch TV. Jackie and I were not having it, so we took to the nearby beach for some swim action. The waves in El Salvador can be vicious (big surfer area,) and the undertoe was the strongest I’d ever felt before. After a tiring try at wading and semi-afraid of being swept out into sea with the sharks, I gave up on swimming and decided to head to the local market for some shopping. I guess after more than two months of walking through local markets the novelty has worn off, because I couldn't find much of anything to buy. But it was fun for people watching, and to get a feel for the local atmosphere. The lot of us did happen to come across an icecream shop, with the cheapest ice cream I've purchased since the age of 10. If you'd ask me about the most dangerous place in El Salvador. I had a $.35 ice cream sandwich and a $1.00 milkshake - such a fatty! The night involved a nice dinner by the sea followed by a few drinking games - my new found favorite being “fuzzy duck.” (Ask me how to play later!) Before my departure to bed I decided to be spontaneous and jump in the motel pool with PJs on and all, which sent a wave of others doing the same. I won’t mention any names but some might have opted for a more natural approach – BRIAN!
The next morning I spent walking along the fishing pier (while the boys sat and watched MORE World Cup, those crazy Europeans!) to eye the catches of the day. Out of the eels, rays, turtle eggs. etc… I’d say the most unusual were the baby hammerhead sharks. This guy had about 15 of them on his cutting board. What I would give to see them under the water alive! Peaceboat was to depart at 5pm which gave us little time to hang out in La Libertad, so after a quick supermarket beer run in La Libertad our new El Salvadorian friend we met at the market the night before drove us all back to Acajutla for 50 bucks. In such a poor environment, it was strange to see him with his $35,000 2007 model truck, and according to him he has two other brand new cars back at his house. A 20 year-old El Salvadorian, the driver said he made his bucks in Virginia working as a carpenter for 4 years. The story just didn’t add up, and to top it off he couldn’t speak any English. Weird…. After returning to the port town of Acajutla and indulging in some more cheap ice cream (this time I only had a single cone and ice cream float!) I called it a day and boarded the ship.

JUNE III

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEREK June 15, 2006
Happy birthday to the big D! Yet another fun-filled evening of drinks and laughter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEVI June 14, 2006
It was GET teacher Levi’s birthday today. Happy quarter of a century man! We drank and danced all night. It was the most fun night I’ve had in a long time, partly thanks to the good tunes of Sublime coming from Matt aka Sheepy’s ipod.

CANAL DAY June 13, 2006
Today the ship passed through the Panama Canal. My second time to pass through by ship. The canal is suprisingly narrow - the ship almost touches the sides at times. It's much different from the wide area of the Suez.
Interesting Panama Canal Facts – the largest sum of money paid to pass through the canal was by the container ship Maersk Dellys, which paid US$249,165.00 for passage in May of 2006. The least expensive toll was $.36 to American adventurer Richard Halliburton who swam the canal in 1928. The average toll is around US$54,000.

PANAMA IS OKAY IF YOU ARE NOT JAPANESE June 12, 2006
The GET teachers decided to turn a deaf ear to the warnings and snuck out of the port today for the 5 hours we got to spend in Panama. I mean, we aren’t Japanese tourist targets and don’t have huge cameras dangling from our necks so we all figured things we be fine. Guess what?!?! It was TOTALLY fine – no problemo. The group hired a van to take us to an old seaside fort called San Lorenzo. It was such a beautiful place, and NO ONE else was there for us teachers (this is a rare occurance when you are traveling on a ship with 1000 other tourists.) After exploring the fort's nooks and crannys we all headed down to the beach and swam in the ocean for an hour or so. It’s a good thing I didn’t know until afterwards about the water sometimes being shark infested!! One of the locals actually came to retrieve us after a few storm clouds appeared because apparently the sharks seek shallow waters during a storm. I'm glad to have still have all my limbs intact. After feasting on some fresh coconuts the group headed back into town, passing through the Gatun Locks in the Panama Canal. Although warned of the inner city dangers we stopped in town for dinner and shopping. At the restaurant I realized just how dangerous the area could actually be after noticing a guard at the front door sporting a very large machine gun. And this place was total fast food, not a bank! I wonder how many people tried to rob the place for arroz and carne in the past…

BEWARE OF ARM CUTTERS June 11, 2006
Today we had our port orientation for Cristobal, Panama. Even though we will be docked in Cristobal for one whole day and night, the boarding limit is at 7pm for safety purposes, which means we get a measly 5 hours of time to spend off the boat. Supposedly it is the most dangerous city in the world, especially for touristy Japanese. We are not supposed to venture outside the port if not on a ship tour and should refrain from wearing jewelry for fear of getting our fingers or arms cut off or something like that. I am wondering why Peaceboat even stops at this location if it is that bad.

YAH, MAN! June 10, 2006
Today was my very first time in Jamaica, a place I have been wanting to visit for a very long long time. It was only one day (wah!), but a fabulous day nonetheless. I decided to go on a PEACEBOAT snorkeling eco-tour that started with a lecture on the effects of water pollution and coral damage at the Montego Bay Marine Park Resource Center. Afterwards, we headed to one of the dirtiest beaches I’ve ever seen to do an hour of beach cleanup. You should have seen the enormous amount of garbage we collected in such a short time. Alls I can say is "dirty diapers galore!" Our guide from the Marine Park explained that throwing garbage in proper receptacles is not a common occurrence for most Jamaicans. They’d rather throw their garbage on the ground than use bins (although I didn’t see any bins at the beach for people who care to throw things in.) It was probably a strange sight to see about 30 Japanese people picking up trash on a Jamaican beach, and a few locals came over to talk and thank us for the nice job we were doing. The job was dirty and hot, but rewarding to see (at least) half a clean beach after we finished. The hard work was followed by a jerk chicken lunch, and then a ride on a catamaran through a mangrove bay. The NGO staff from the Marine Park were there to point out different species of mangrove and marine life (check out the jelly fish!) After our Mangrove tour we went out near some coral for snorkeling. There weren’t that many fish to see which was a bit dissapointing, but it was nice just being out in the ocean to swim. I did see a few crown-of-thorns starfish, which definitely isn't a good sign (they kill the coral, man.) The best part of the tour was the catamaran itself, with all-you-can-drink rum punch and beer, blasting reggae tunes and a fun lot of Jamaican crew – all of whom danced it up on the way back to the docks.
The evening was spent at a reggae concert on the beach. What a fun event! I also randomly met up with Armstrong, one of the Jamaican cooks on the ship. He picked a few of us teachers up in his jeep and drove us around town for sightseeing and fresh mangoes (6 for 1.00!!) I’d have to say I wouldn’t spend my one day in Jamaica any differently…

JUNE II

SHOCKER June 10, 2006
I got on the scale today. It said I weigh 4 kilos more than I did before getting on Peaceboat. Is that even possible? Screw!

BOOKS FOR JAMAICAN CHILDREN June 9th, 2006
Today and tomorrow the GET team is organizing the Jamaican book project, which is an event put on to raise money and books for the Jamaican Boys and Girls Club every time the ship goes to Jamaica.
The way it works is like this :
1. GET teachers and other Peaceboaters collect donated childrens’ books and bring them on the cruise.
2. We sell each book for $10 buck
3. The person who buys the book writes a message in English to the Jamaican children in the book.
4. The book is donated back to the Jamaican Boys and Girls Club. Clever idea, isn’t it? The Club gets both books and funds. So far about 2,500 dollars has been raised and 250 books have been donated. すごい！

THIRD SIGHTING June 8th, 2006
I saw dolphins again! Woo hoo! Still jealous about the girl who saw a shark…

THE BIG APPLE June 6th, 2006
I had forgotten how much the U.S. rocks! Yesterday was a perfect evening - spent watching The Wives of O.C. while eating take out Chinese with my NY friends Leila and Crystal. Today I got to see David Letterman live, something I have ALWAYS wanted to do but never had the chance. David Lettermen was as funny as ever. It was interesting to se how they actually taped the show, and how the crowd was warmed up. Dave came on early and asked the audience if they had any questions. A guy a few seats next to me asked why Dave always wore white socks. When the show started taping Dave actually began with the lines “Welcome to the Tonight Show, what color are your socks?” It was hilarious! After the taping I met up with another NY friend Iwan for a pizza and bagel run before returning to the ship. The night departure from Manhattan was breathtaking. It was the first time for me to see the Statue of Liberty in the evening, all lit up. My time in NY was excellent, special thanks to my friends. One more day of the big apple would have been great, but what can you do? At least I have a big fat package of American goodies from my sister to savor for memories of home. Thanks Jen!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY June 5th, 2006
Today I am in NYC. I have already had my pizza and must now go for some bagels and cream cheese. Took a stroll through Times Square with some of the GET teachers and harrassed some police officer on the street for an answer so I could score some Letterman tix for tomorrow's taping (you need to answer some Dave trivia to get free tix and I personally did not know the answer.) I guess the special guest is Bonnie Bunt and the musical talent is Elvis Costello. yippee! It is also my sister's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Jen!!!!

AMERICA DAY June 4, 2006
In celebration of our upcoming approach to New York, we've turned today into America day, f-yeah! The four American teachers held a mini Jeopardy event with American trivia and a special category on NYC. The hardest question for the Japanese passengers seemed to be in the “Begins with a P” category – “Persecuted for their religion, they were the first European settlers in the New England area.” Only one group came up with pilgrims for the right answer. After the game show we headed to the sports bar for American music night for drinks and dancing. Each of the American teachers put on four of their favorite songs (btw. Meribon’s playlist consisted of Summertime/Fresh Prince, Groove is in the Heart/Deee-lite, Boss DJ cover/Jack Johnson and Back of the Bus/G Love,) followed by a set of American rock music put together by Britman Dave. I went to bed soon after my songs were all finished so I could be well-rested for the next day!

JUNE I

WHAT DO AMERICANS REALLY THINK? June 3rd, 2006
Tonight the four American teachers (and 1 web writer) held a discussion to share our opinions about American culture, politics etc… A large number of people showed up to ask us about our feelings towards George Bush, 9-11, patriotism, etc… It was a huge success! At one point someone asked if so, why we are proud or happy to be from the United States. It really made me think (I was a bit stumped at first.) What would any of YOU Americans say? I guess I'd have to say that being American gives me the ability to be almost whatever it is I want to be. Traveling throughout the globe has allowed me to see how many opportunities Americans are afforded and just how much freedom we have compared to others. I think that a lot of Americans do take this for granted, though, and that is unfortunate. You really need to step outside of your box or comfort zone to see this reality. For example, when I traveled to Morocco from Spain for a couple of days and found out that even though Spain is only an hour ferry ride away most Morocans cannot travel there because they are refused passports. Another example would be when my Palestinian friend Walid had to get to the airport in Israel. A car drive from his house to the Israeli border under same circumstances would take about 1.5 hours. It took him 10+ hours to get to the border because the conflicting curfews in each Palestinian region make driving illegal. This means he had to walk with his luggage and bolt behind a tree or something every time he heard a tank approach for fear of being shot. Or the smoked rats sold at street vendors in Laos for lack of affordable food. Of course I don't agree with everything the U.S. has to offer, but I am glad to have been born and raised as an American.
Anyways, due to the big turnout we are planning to hold another session before arrival in Alaska.

SEX AND THE CITY June 2, 2006
Tonight was the first of a series of self-planned events the Americans are putting on before arrival in New York. Another teacher Beth and I organized an informal drinking event to discuss Sex and the City. Besides us two, about 4 people showed up. There were so many other events going on at the same time I had a number of people come up to me beforehand to say that they love SAC but were too busy to come to the meeting. Oh well... It was fun to talk about being single, fashionable, and fabulous.

GO YELLOW June 1, 2006
Feeling a little better, I have decided to partake in the Sports Day festival outside on the deck today. There were about 400 + participants broken up into four colors based on zodiac signs. Libras, which is my sign, belonged to the yellow team. I played in a number of events, including the tug of war and obstacle race. Yellow won a couple, lost a couple. My team ended up in second place, which isn’t bad, but we missed out on the first prize all-you-can-drink party that took place the same evening. 残念だ！

SICK May 30, 2006
I’m, sick. My two roommates have been sick, so it was only a matter of time before it was passed on to me. Damn!

FORMAL NIGHT May 29, 2006
Tonight we are celebrating Titanic – one of the most famous movies in Japan. ALL Japanese love this film, and since the ship is sailing near the area where Titanic sunk Peaceboat believes we should celebrate that - quite bizarre. On the 39th voyage everyone dressed up and had a candlelit dinner with gorgeous food. On this voyage the passengers do the same, but do to limited seating us teachers and staff get to dress up and eat in the crew mess hall on plastic chairs and tables. Really romantic! At least we got free wine.

THE LONGEST STRETCH May 28, 2006
This is our first day across the Atlantic – the longest stretch with no break at sea. I’ve heard rumors of passengers going nuts during this time in the past. The food has also gotten remarkably good. Get coordinator Audrey says it’s all psychological. Appease the masses so they don’t jump overboard.

SHAMROCKS AND GUINNESS GALORE May 26 – 27, 2006
Peaceboat arrived in Dublin today, quite close to the city. Some friends and I got off the ship at around 9:00 and opted for the 40 minute walk to the city center rather than take a bus (didn’t know where the bus stop was anyways J .) The plan was to do some city sightseeing, so we headed to the famous Trinity College, the oldest university in Ireland. At the college you can see the 8th century Irish manuscript of Gospels called the Book of Kells, supposedly the oldest surviving book in the world. When we found out it cost about 10 Euros to enter the Book of Kells room, we decided to skip it and just tour around the college campus. The campus visit was interesting, and helped me plan out my evening after my friend noticed a DJ Qbert flyer on one of the student notice boards. Can you believe the one night he performed in Dublin was the night I was there? After realizing that my friend Dannette was as much of a fan as I, the both of us proceeded to the music stores to buy pre-sale tickets. Two of the stores were sold out, the last record store we tried had only two tickets left (fate?) score!
I had a gorgeous “thanksgivingness” feast at one of the pubs for dinner. Oh, and of course I had a couple pints of cider – it goes so well with turkey, cranberry and stuffing! In the early evening I met up with a big group of Peaceboaters at one of the touristy pubs in the Famous Temple Bar area for some Guinness. My stereotype of the Irish was reinforced with all the drinking and singing going on around me. The Irish teacher on board had his family there as well, and they actually broke out into the Irish jig at one point in the night! My friend Dannette and I left early and headed to the club, where fortunately we had tickets because the same day tix line was insanely long. After a long wait with a couple of Red Bulls, DJ Qbert finally came on at about 2:30, but it was well worth it! He played an amazing set. Other than the Irish crowd being a bit drunk and rowdy (I swear about half the crowd had no clue who DJ Qbert was – they were just there for the beer and party) it was a great night.
The next day was beautiful outside, so I spent it walking around the town. I meant to go to the Guinness museum, but for some reason I had it in my head that silver shoes were a necessary purchase and that I must buy them now. In the end I got my shoes, and I hit a pub with some friends before heading back to the ship. I have a feeling that I’ll be back in Ireland some day in the future, so I can put off the museum until then.