hi

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Pictures!

Okay here is one last post for everyone. I've been home for a month and things are going fine. It's been great to keep in touch with everyone from SAS and I hope that never stops.

I know I failed pretty bad at putting up pictures throughout the voyage, but I finally have a bunch on Facebook. I think I set them so that anyone could see them, meaning even if you don't have a facebook you should be able to click on these links and see them regardless like a photo album. It's been fun, but time to move on to other adventures I suppose. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading throughout the semester if you did :)

Pictures from the whole voyage with friends in them
Pictures taken on the ship
Hawaii and Japan
China
Vietnam and Cambodia
India
Mauritius
South Africa
Ghana
Brazil

-Thomas

One last message

One Final Blog…

We are something like 9 hours away from Ft. Lauderdale and I am sitting here waiting for people to get back to my room to have one last night to hang out. I figure now is as good of a time as any to write a closing blog.

I want to take this time to first of all say that I have never for even a second doubted whether I was meant to or should go on Semester at Sea. This program has been a constant blessing for me and while it came with its struggles financially, logistically, and stress wise, I have never done anything in my life that I consider to be as one hundred percent worthwhile as this. I would recommend the program in a heartbeat to anyone but the most introverted of introverts, and even they would have a hard time disliking this.

I have come to love the MV Explorer, and while the nights get boring often, the people are truly what make the voyage. The crew is great, the faculty is great, and the students are unbelievable. There are hundreds of awesome people on this ship and my only regret would be that I couldn’t have the time to be friends with all of them. I will miss everyone from this trip so much that it isn’t funny. I know so many people from all over the country now though that my travel schedule for the rest of my life will have no limits and no end.

I would like to thank this opportunity to thank the people who I was blessed enough to travel with throughout the voyage. Some of you I hung out with more toward the start of the voyage and I’m sorry if we lost touch, you all are awesome. Those of you who I got to know more as the voyage progressed, thank you for all of our adventures.

And to those who I have been with almost constantly for the last month and a half, You guys have meant everything to me. It is going to be beyond weird to be at home and not see you guys constantly. I literally have seen some of you for 6 hours a day (or more) for the last two months and even if we haven’t known each other for years, I consider you some of my closest friends and we BETTER keep in touch after this.

The ship is officially parked in Ft. Lauderdale and we are probably 20 minutes from getting off so here is a final travel quote to finish up this blog with. I might update it again from home with thoughts on how I adjust, but I wouldn’t count on it. This will probably be my last blog here. If anyone runs into this and wants to keep in touch, you know how to find me on Facebook, Thomas Malinowsky, or drop me an email at Tmalinowsky@gmail.com.

“A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”

-George Moore

Brazil Part 2

Here is part two of my Brazil blog and the final recap blog for an international port.
The plan was to hop on a 3:00 ferry to an island nearby which supposedly was fantastic. We got back to find out the last ferry was at 2:00, so we wouldn’t have been able to make it regardless. With some extra time on our hands now we hung out on the ship until about 4:30 when our group plus Max met up to go find somewhere to watch the sunset. We went to an art museum nearby that had a Haiti photography exhibit up and then watched the sunset over the bay from on top of a balcony. It was beautiful of course like all sunsets but at this point some of us were starving. We had met a couple there, Michelle and Issac who would become our friends for the evening. Michelle was from Canada and Issac was from Brazil. Issac studied in Canada where they met and started dating, and now they were spending about 8 months in Brazil before heading back to Canada. They were the nicest people ever and we had so much fun with them that night. They took us to some part of Salvador that we hadn’t seen yet which was a series of well run street vendors serving Brazilian dishes with restaurants around to serve drinks. We sat there for a couple hours, I had this crepe/pita thing which consisted of a dry powder poured into a mold that hardened into a doughy shell thing. They then put filling on it, in my case Chicken, two types of cheeses, and sun dried tomatoes, then folded it together to make a turnover thing. It was so good, it reminded me vaguely of pizza because of the tomatoes and cheese, and I had two. After a couple of drinks there and some good conversation with Michelle and Issac, we set off in search of somewhere else.
They tried to take us to a dance place but we were far too early for it. Brazilian night life often doesn’t even start until after midnight, and it was only 10:30 at this point. We left there and headed to a more westernized bar down the road with a big famous club next door. No one ended up going into the club, Ben, JA and I played pool for a couple of hours until everyone was getting about ready to leave. We grabbed Subway which happened to be next door and was amazing, said goodbye to Michelle and Issac, and headed back to the ship.
The next morning some people were slower to get up than others, but I think everyone eventually made it up to breakfast by 8:30. We decided that it was going to be a beach day and agreed to take short naps and make it up to the gangway at 10. We made our way to the bus stop in old town and waited for a half hour with no luck, so finally we hopped in a cab for $7 US a person and made our way to Flamengo beach. The beach was so nice, one of the best I’ve been to. The sand was perfect, there were restaurants all over the place, the temperature was ideal, it was just a good day. We hung out in the sun for a couple hours then broke for lunch. JA thought she had seen a pizza place down the road so we walked to it and found that yes it indeed existed, but that it only carried about 3 of the 15 pizzas on its own menu. We all ordered a chicken and cheese thing and it turned out to be a bonafide gourmet hot pocket. It was a doughy cone roll thing stuffed with filling. It wasn’t too bad, just really different than what we expected. We went back and sat on the beach for a bit, ran into some other SASers and headed to one of the restaurants to grab a couple of drinks and fries. The fries took probably an hour, but were delicious. The sun was starting to go down so we wanted to get some swimming in before it did.
We were having a great time swimming once we found a place without rocks, but apparently there is a time on this particular beach that is NOT fit for swimming, and this was that time. The tide shifts in the afternoon I guess and it does an effective job of dragging people out to sea. Tourists die every year from it. Well we can’t read Portuguese and I didn’t see a sign anyways, so we were having a grand old time without knowing we were in danger. The waves were perfect for body surfing and everyone was having fun, when we realized we were kind of far out. Everyone kind of collectively realized it and started to try and swim back in a little closer. I realized that after swimming for 3 minutes I was no closer than I started, but others were out there with me so I didn’t panic. Eventually we looked at the shore and there were like 6 Brazilian lifeguards in full panic mode. We decided it was time to make a real effort to go in and fortunately I found a wave which pushed me nearly all the way in. We all made it out with no problem and the lifeguards explained to us that we were idiots, so we dried off and left, laughing at the story we had just made.
Our group of four grabbed a cab back while the rest of the SAS people took the bus. We made it back in pretty good time and got ready to do something that night. We grabbed an appetizer on the ship and Deirdre made it back from Sao Paolo alive. Jay also had a failed three day adventure whereby he learned Ju-Jit-Su and entered a competition that he never found, so he was back on the ship and joined up with us too. We headed to a place called Olivieras or something that Ben found in Lonely Planet. It was as hole in the wall as you can get and our cab drivers didn’t know where it was, but we finally ran into it. We sat there for 2-3 hours as we got drinks and eventually food. Some people went and played pool, I hung out at the table with others. Somewhere in the middle of it all Lindsay and Melinda showed up, back from their respective trips. We left that place and walked down the street to an open area where people were dancing and hanging out. I was pretty wiped out at this point and Deirdre, Melinda and JulieAnne were about ready to call it quits. Given that they were three girls, Salvador was extremely dangerous, especially at night, Melinda had a purse bigger than her, and I was about to fall asleep, it made all sorts of sense for me to go back too. We were going to walk but they talked me into getting a cab back. We made it back without trouble and headed inside to crash.
The next morning I was planning to sleep in but Lindsay called at 9 am and woke me up. She said they were going to the market and leaving in 15 minutes, so I got myself out of bed, ready, and we set off. Jay ended up meeting us about an hour later and our group of 5 wandered around for the afternoon. I had way too much Brazilian money, but everything was overpriced so I didn’t want to waste it. I only ended up getting a couple of T-shirts and some other nic-nacs. We grabbed Crepes at the same place as the first day, this time I ate though and they were great. JA and I grabbed internet for a bit, I bought a poor kid a croissant, and we headed back to the ship to board it for the last time before America. We were back on by about 3 where we watched the Office I think for a bit and then the ship had a barbecue to inspire everyone to make it back on time. It is so nice to have hamburgers every once in a while, we were all quite content. That evening we watched the Office some more then I hung out and watched some stupid movie with Deirdre and JulieAnne as we pulled away from Brazil our last port.
Overall, I really liked Brazil. I thought it was a blast to speak Spanish there, the country was beautiful, and everyday was fun. A lot of that is because of the people I hung out with, but it was definitely in the upper half of the ports we went to for me. It was probably the least safe and was the only one that I felt a bit threatened, but on the whole it was a lot of fun and I would return.
It is so weird to think that our next port is America. We are done with international destinations and are well on our way home. In fact, yesterday classes were over, so I don’t even have classes now for the next 8 days until we arrive. All that is left is exams, papers, both of which I am about done with, and the Alumni Ball. As I have said a number of times now, I am not as sad about it ending as I thought I would be, rather I am just sad that I won’t be able to hang out with all of the awesome friends I’ve made here anymore. I’ll update once more probably from sea, maybe more if I have anything productive to say, but that is it in terms of my international blogs.
Thanks to everyone for reading throughout the semester, look for one more update from me in a couple of days and then I will be in Fort Lauderdale, safe at home in the US of A.

"A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles"

-Tim Cahill

Brazil Part 1!

Here is part one of Brazil, our final international port:
We arrived in Brazil to cloudy skies and what appeared to be imminent rain. I did not and still do not own a rain jacket nor an umbrella on the ship, so I decided to pretend like it wouldn’t happen. Six of us, myself, Jay, Lindsay, Jose, Melinda, and Eric set off to check out Old Town Salvador. We found the elevador, a giant elevator that took us up the 15 stories or so to the top of the cliff which is where old town started. We started wandering with a vague idea of finding food and ended up running into a guy who seemed to think he could take us to a restaurant. We followed him for what seemed like forever until we ended up in some back alley at a restaurant that was closed. He got the owners to open it somehow and we sat down to eat. The food was a meat and bean dish that you mixed with rice and some delicious but extremely hot sauce. It was so good compared to Ghanaian and ship food. We ate for quite a while and by the time we were done, it was full out raining. We walked outside in the rain for a while before stopping at a music store to get out of it. No one bought anything and we felt uncomfortable so we left again, this time stopping at a Crepe place to grab even more food. I was still full so I didn’t bother, but they were really delicious.
At this point it was nearing noon and we wanted to head in the general direction of the elevator and perhaps shop a bit. We found that pretty much all of the shops were closed due to a federal holiday so instead we took out money from the ATM and decided as a group that a city tour would be a good idea. At this point we had already heard stories of people getting mugged in plain daylight in the exact area we were in, so we were a bit worried anyway and wanted to get safely inside of a car and out of the rain. We took the elevator down and walked back to the ship where there was a line of cabs waiting. We found one that could comfortably fit six people and agreed on about $15 US a person, which in hindsight was way too much. It turned out to be a relaxing cab ride, but it was pretty much a two hour cab ride that we paid for. We stopped at an old Catholic church, a lighthouse, a pretty famous fort I guess, and drove through old town which we had already been to at that point. Salvador is beautiful though and it was still fun to see it all from the relaxation of a car.
JulieAnne was going to go to Sao Paulo to meet up with one of Deirdre’s friends from back home, but wasn’t able to get a plane ticket. She tried at the airport that day and still couldn’t get one so she headed back to the ship and met up with us to go to dinner. We also picked up Ben, Alex, Mike, Max, Nick and set off in search of a Beef Bonanza restaurant as Ben put it. These restaurants are somewhat unique to Brazil and were fantastic. What happens is you get this little coaster thing that has a green side and a red side. If you leave it green side up, they come in waves and offer you meat. They bring it out on giant skewers cooked to perfection and cut off slices that you grab and put on your plate. It was mostly pork and beef and it was all pretty delicious. You got all you could eat so we all stuffed our faces pretty full. There was a salad buffet and dessert cart too, but none of us got much use out of it. By the time it was all said and done, our bill was about $1000 Real for the table of 13 or so, which was $600 US. Definitely the most expensive meal I had on SAS but it was fun. Afterwards we had a massive disagreement with the shuttle van who thought that we had not paid for our return trip. We thought we had and so obviously there was a bit of a conflict. The main problem in our case was that most of us literally were out of money because we spent way more on food than we thought we would. Eventually they comped our ride back because they understood that it was the first night and if they didn’t take us back they would have a hard time getting business for the next 4 days. We got back to the ship shortly and I at least went to bed in a food coma.
The next morning the plan was to hit the road fairly early and try and make it to a resort 75 km away, Costa de Sauipe. The resort had 5 hotels and a golf course, and four of us were planning on playing there. Our group was myself, Nick, Ben, Alex, and JulieAnne. We found a bus headed in roughly the right direction so we hopped on. I had a phone interview for an internship at 10:30 and realized soon after getting on the bus that I would still be on the bus when the time arrived. The ride was pretty loud and bumpy, but when the time came I went to the back away from the engine and did the interview which went as well as could be expected given the circumstances. I’m sure it didn’t hurt my chances that I was on Semester at Sea calling from Brazil, not a whole lot of people can say that. Midway through the call we had to change busses so I wandered around aimlessly while the others pretty much held my arm and dragged me in the right direction. We ended up on a much smaller, more comfortable and more importantly quieter bus and from then on it was way easier. I’m really thankful that the people I was with were understanding of my situation too, they were a big help.
So we road in this van for about an hour and eventually got out at the gate of Costa De Sauipe. We walked to the reception desk and found out that for the all inclusive part it would be more than $200 a person and that did not include golf (All Inclusive my rear). We found out that they had a more reasonably priced facility that was not all inclusive so we headed there to check in and had about an hour argument with the guy at the desk over what we were going to pay. They had a “3 person” room with ironically four beds, one of which was easily big enough to fit two people. We told him we would take the room and thought we shouldn’t have to pay too much more than the quoted cost of 330 real. Eventually we settled on like 550 real, 110 a person, which is like $60 US. It was more than we would have preferred, especially given that we were going to have to share rooms, but we just wanted to get going.
After that the last tee time at the golf course was approaching so we (the guys) headed off to get that settled while JulieAnne stuck behind at the pool. We got to the golf course and paid for 18 holes. It was a very poorly run course, they had no snack bar, no drinks, and the only golf balls they sold were used ones for something like $4 US a ball. We eventually got everything all set for about $120 a person and set off to play. Our first nine holes took about 3 hours, we were in no hurry, and as we were going to start the second we realized that it was getting dark and was about to rain. On the bright side there was a cool rainbow we saw. Anyway, we managed to get a rain check for the second nine and headed back to shower up and get ready for dinner. We ended up eating at a Mexican restaurant which was DELICIOUS. It might be because I hadn’t had Mexican food in forever, but they had really amazing food. We left there and walked to the beach where we hung out for a while in the dark. We then went back and watched some music for a bit and then swam in one of the pools we weren’t allowed in. Ended up calling it a night before midnight and prepared to wake up at about 8 am for breakfast.
The sun rose super early so I was wide awake far before I needed to be, but when breakfast time came everyone else was up and ready to go. The breakfast was not that great, we all pretty much had bread and juice, but that’s okay, it was included. The other guys went off to play golf, but I felt bad that JulieAnne was stuck alone the day before and I wanted to try windsurfing, so I decided to hang back. We went and tried to find windsurfing on the beach and because of the language barrier it didn’t work out. Actually I haven’t mentioned so far, but Spanish is doable in Brazil. They speak Portuguese, but Spanish is close enough that they kind of understand it. By the end of the port, my Spanish had improved 10 fold and I was doing a pretty darn good job of communicating. The one time I went to Mexico I was intimidated to try Spanish, but now I really want to go back to a Spanish speaking country and use it. It was seriously so much fun to speak a different language passably.
Okay so back on track, we are at the beach and I have no idea how to say windsurfing, so when I asked about it they were confused. They seemed to think it existed, but then suddenly it didn’t. Instead they offered us surfing, so we said okay. Surfing turned into swimming lessons, which turned into Capoeira lessons (Dance/Martial Arts), which turned into non-permanent tattoos. Realizing that it wasn’t working, we laughed it off and bailed. We headed to the tennis courts in the middle of the resort and played tennis for 30-45 minutes. It was so much fun and we would have played longer but a guy came out and was not happy about us wearing flip-flops, and then mine broke so we called it quits. We walked back in the direction of the beach and pools and one of the resort staff came and told us to come play volleyball. It ended up being JulieAnne and I playing for about an hour of 6 on 6 volleyball with a constantly rotating crowd of Brazilian men, most of which were probably 50+. Neither of us was any good, but we had a ton of fun and improved throughout the time we played. Someone eventually got hit in their groin by the ball and we used it as an excuse to leave, I think our team won.
At that point it was about 11 and we had told the others that we would meet them at noon. We decided to go pool hopping at the pools for the more expensive hotels until we got kicked out. We had clear wrist bands on, and all of the rich place people had orange and pink ones, so we kept our wrists covered with our towels and hung out by one pool for a while even talking with some of the staff guys. Water aerobics was starting and we wanted to swim, so we hopped to an even bigger and more awesome pool down the way. The pool was a series of like 9 pools, mostly connected, with palm trees between them and bridges and yeah, it was completely a stereotypical resort paradise thing. We got into the pool as quickly as we could to hide our wrists and stayed there for a little over an hour. In the process I learned how to do both front and back flips like a pro in the water from JA. Apparently I was terrible at them, probably because I never took swimming lessons, but I’m legit now. At that point it was just after noon but I was convinced that the guys would be late coming back from golfing so I made the executive decision not to hurry back. We went to the snack bar by the pool and stole the all inclusive drinks, snacks, and ice cream. They had really exceptional ice cream and cheese popper things. Feeling quite proud of ourselves and full of free food, we made our way back to our side of the resort where the others had of course been waiting since noon like they said they would. They didn’t really make it clear to us that we were meeting people back at the ship at 2:00, so we were on different pages, but regardless we had to get a cab back for $30 US a person and didn’t make it back until just before 3:00.

Last Port Down

I'll do a recap blog relatively soon, but this is just to say that we have left Brazil, our last port of call and are officially on the way home. Since about India it has been clear that the end is coming, but it is all too real now knowing that the next foreign port is our own home. It has been such a fun journey and it sucks that it is coming to an end, but I will be glad to be home. 10 countries in four months has been intense and while you probably could never get me to admit it in person, it will be nice to be stable for a while. I will miss the ship a ton and will miss the friends I have made even more though. When you are on a 500 foot ship there really is little to do and you have to rely on people to get you through it. That means that there are friends on the ship who I hang out with for hours upon hours literally every day. I can't possibly explain how weird it is going to be when I get home and realize that I am in the middle of the country with friends pretty much on all of the coasts, unable to walk down the hall and say hey to them. It will be a challenge but a ton of fun to keep in touch and figure out ways to see everyone. Though I might be ready for a break now, this has made me want to travel to more places badly. Some people save money in hopes of buying a nice car, a new computer, clothes, or whatever, but I have found traveling to be so rewarding, especially with other people. I hope that when I get home and as I get older I will be able to continue to see the world with friends.

So yeah, Brazil blog is coming when I get to it, just wanted to post a quick update. Hope this finds everyone who reads this well!

Thomas