Be the Zebra!

Before disembarking in Namibia, an official from the US embassy gave us one piece of advice...”be the zebra”. When a wildebeest reaches a river, he just blindly crosses and hopes he gets lucky to avoid the crocodiles. A zebra, on the other hand, waits and watches for the best opportunity to cross the river. The officials point was to be smart and cautious, and his analogy became my unofficial theme for this semester . I plan on beating it to death. When situations present themselves, my friends and I always separate them into a wildebeest options and a zebra option. I can say with confidence that I was definitely a wildebeest in Namibia, especially at night.

Overall I think Namibia is a hidden gem of the world. The towns are very nice and European and, of course, the desert is gorgeous and totally badass. I feel like utilized this attraction to the fullest as I raced an ATV through the desert, sand boarded on the desert, and flew a plane over the desert (yes it was ME flying). On the flight I also got to see several of the shipwrecks on the “Skeleton Coast”. Namibia is notorious for its fog and consequently many ships run aground. Over time these abandoned wrecks move inland so there are shipwrecks in the sand thousands of feet away from the shoreline, it’s an eerie sight.

I met some pretty interesting characters in the evening at the bars. I met a member of the Bushmen tribe whose native language involves clicks, I met a South African stuntman who is shooting a movie, and I met these two Namibian big game hunters. The two hunters even bought me a bottle (“of water”) when it hit midnight last night since it is my birthday today?. The people in general were very friendly and helpful, much unlike the people in Salvador.

I felt guilty doing all action/adventure/partying things so today I went to tour the mine that provides 70% of the world’s uranium. It was very educational and something that would make my parents feels like their money is going to good use.

I hope I have as much fun in upcoming countries as I did in Namibia

Swakopmund

I write this post from Swakopmund, Namibia

its this little colonial desert town about 20 miles from Walvis Bay where the ship is docked. This town could have come straight out of Germany, language and all. The hostel we are staying at is called the Gruner Kraz and it is just a helarious situation all around. My slight German skills came in handy for communicating with one of our German roommates. Swakop definatly has a suprisingly rich party scene which made for an eventful night last night, the details of which I will keep to myself.

Namibia definatly has ruined the chances of me ever again having fun at the sleeping bear dunes in northern michigan. It would be like going on a merry go round after a day at Cedar Point. This place has mountain ranges of pictureesque sand dunes for as far as the eye can see. Its the desert like you would see on the National Geographic channel.

Id love to say more but I'm about to go off quadbiking and sand boarding in the desert for the day.

23 hour days

We lost an hour last night, we lose an hour tonight, and I'm told we will lose an hour for the next 3 nights. I'm getting robbed of my sleep! We should go around the world the other way, I'll order the captain to turn around.

back from the jungle

The shower I had earlier today easily ranks among my top 5 showers ever. I don’t think I stopped sweating for the entire 3 days I was in the Amazon. Of course amidst my bitching about how hot it was one of our guides laughed and reminded me it is only the “dry” season. I was not amused so I challenged him to a Michigan winter and he promptly shut up.

Now that I got that out of my system I will say that my trip to the Amazon River was amazing! Since it was an SAS sponsored trip everything was handled. While it was a total pain in the rear to get out there, (3 flights, 2 buses, 13 hour total travel time) I was able to just turn my brain off and travel like a sheep, and there is nothing I love more then not having to think. We were all pre-checked in, we were rarely responsible for our own passports, and if anything went wrong I could blame someone else. ..Perfect.

Ill spare everyone my exact itinerary but highlights include several jungle treks, alligator hunting, piranha fishing, visits to a remote native tribe, visits to several other river settlements, a middle of nowhere beach party. On the last night all the various boats met at this nice riverside hotel for this elaborate tribal performance before we departed for long trip home.

Living on a regional riverboat for several days was in and of itself very interesting. The boat had 31 SASers, 2 crew, 2 cooks, and 2 guides. Now take the size boat you are picturing in your head and cut it at least in half to get the right idea of what we lived on for 3 days. It couldn’t have been more than 60 feet of 2 open air decks. We slept very close together on the top deck in hammocks, and ate buffet style below. I still can’t believe the food that the 2 cooks were able to create out of the tiny kitchen; it was very local and delicious although I am quickly beginning to regret my enthusiasm for unique foods.

I have 2 personal highlights from the trip. The first was on the second night when I woke up in the middle of a clear night and just laid there looking at the stars and listening to all the sounds of the rain forest (monkeys fighting, thousands of different birds making their calls and the hissing and chirping of countless insects). I have to admit that the rain forest café does a pretty good reproduction of the rain forest's sounds. The second highlight was playing a pickup soccer game with the Amazon natives in their village (“Cowboys vs. Indians”). We lived totally different lives and couldn’t communicate at all but we could still high five each other after a good shot and laugh together when I totally miss the ball and fall on my own ass.

As for the city of Salvador, I didn’t spend much time there and I am glad I set it up that way. It’s a cool city to explore in a day but it is also the dirtiest city I have ever been in and I never felt comfortable as people were always hassling me, trying to rip me off, and looking for a good opportunity to grab my camera or backpack.

A couple final notes:
1.      Mom I’m sorry but I lost your flashlight while alligator hunting
2.      I think it’s amazing that 670 kids spread out all across Brazil and all made it back on time and in one piece
3.      If America is so great and Brazil is such a subpar developing country, why did I get a meal or nice snack on all of the 5 flights I took within Brazil (all perfectly on time), and in the US I would be lucky to get peanuts on a transcontinental flight (after being delayed for an hour).  Just a thought.

Brazil!!

Early tomorrow morning we finally get into Salvador. I guess we will have a more elaborate then normal disembarkation process as Brazil requires that each person be cleared through customs on the ship and face to face. This process should take 2-3 hours at which point we have a diplomatic meeting and only then can we disembark. Last night we had a cultural briefing (how to be respectful) and tonight we had a logistical briefing (how to stay alive) so I should be good to go. Tomorrow I get the day to explore Salvador before taking a 7 hour plane ride deep into the Amazon for my 3 night riverboat expedition. I'm really excited and hope I can make it there and back without any problems.

When I get home I think I will drop everything and pursue a career in professional volleyball.

latitude 0 degrees 0 minutes and Neptune day

Two nights ago we were barely able to see the North Star on the horizon and at about 8:30 last night the ship crossed the equator to much fanfare. We all filled the decks and waited for the ship to sound the horn signaling we just crossed into the southern hemisphere, at which point everyone cheered like it was new years. In celebration, today we don’t have classes during a festival called Neptune day, the purpose of which is to please the sea god Neptune.

 
We were awoken at about 7:30 this morning to a procession of crewmen dressed up like Roman legionnaires walking through the hallways blaring horns and banging on drums. Basically to satisfy Neptune one must get drenched in fish guts and then have their head shaven: I of course did both. I was among the first to have some sick fish oil concoction poured all over my head (Amanda got it on video). Tons of people then got their heads shaven including a quite a few girls. Two lucky raffle winners even got to lose all their hair at the hands of the captain himself.

I haven’t had this little hair since I first grew hair.

        Once all the festivities were complete the fun was far from over. As the crew was cleaning the deck someone realized that the soapy deck turned into a perfect slip-n-slide and within a few seconds everyone made a giant circle and people would get running starts to slide on their stomachs from one side to the other. Once the ships officers got wind of this they quickly stepped in and then drained the pool for the day as punishment. O well, today was sweet!

Inter-room prank wars have begun

The girls next door totally owned me yesterday so its ON!

Also I am now the "captain" of my "sea" and have to meet for an hour every other day with the captains of other seas and various faculty to organize events and motivate competition between the seas.

The crew

This is my third time writing this email since the network goes out every time just as I try to send. The connection on the ship sucks

I need to make a special note of the ships crew because they are amazing. Everyday they clean our room and bathroom, make our beds, and change our towels. They seem very devoted to keeping the ship looking brand new; Last night at 2am I found several crewmen vacuuming the floors, polishing wood trim, and scrubbing some bronze handrails. The food has been much better then I expected, and the crew serves us drinks and clears our plates. Basically we are being treated way better than any college punks deserve to be treated.

On a separate note I received an email from my mother yesterday. Not asking me how I am doing or how the experience of a lifetime is going, but rather enlightening me to the fact that on a previous blog post I said "me and my friends" instead of "my friends and I". I sincerely apologize to my mom and everyone else for my obscenely sophomoric grammar. I have now implemented a 12-step editing process for each post to prevent further grammatical atrocities.