Turkey Day (July 28)

Today was Turkey Day!

We only had one day between Bulgaria and Turkey, so we didn’t have all of our classes. We just had Global Studies IN THE MORNING—stupid decision, if you ask me! We were all exhausted from Bulgaria the last 4 days and many of us were sick. If we only have one class, is it too much to ask for a single day to sleep in a little? Apparently. It was impossible for me to wake up for it in the morning- I didn’t feel good and I was so exhausted. So, I didn’t go. My day started at lunch.

With all the Alzheimer’s discussion we’ve had in psychology lately, AND with how I have noticed my body changing a wee bit (maybe from all that Italian food?), AND with how lousy I feel from not working out…I decided it was time to suck it up and start going to the gym. Michelle and I suited up after lunch and hit the gym- elliptical and StairMaster, along with P90X Ab Ribber X. :) The StairMaster was a first for me. I’ve never used one and have always been a little afraid of them- they look so hard! But, it was the only machine open so we did it. I climbed 100 flights of stairs! I was proud of myself. :) I THOUGH about doing real stairs…DAD…but then realized I might get a few odd looks from running up and down stairs. Hey, at least I wasn’t doing it at a soccer game (Dad)! :)

I jumped in the shower to rinse off, then joined my golden tanning friends on the deck—in the shade. :) I decided to go to the medical center for my …skin things… I don’t know if they’re bites or plant poison from running through the sunflower fields. But that fact that I had weird bumps on my skin wasn’t very surprising. Anyway, I went to the medical clinic when it opened and got this scrub for them- before I shower, I have to scrub the life out of these bumps, and even scrub so hard to pop them and keep scrubbing until they’re raw. Sounds fun, huh? Now that I’ve shot your appetite, let me move on to dinner.

Dinner itself wasn’t memorable, but we (as always) stayed there for two hours chit chatting. Meals are when we spend our main quality time together! Today’s topic of conversation was first kisses—oh, there were some funny ones!  

Orphanage (July 27)

When my alarm went off this morning, I jumped out of bed to get ready for my orphanage visit! I scarfed down some food and soon enough we were on the buses on our way.

When we got there, we got a tour of the orphanage and talked to the women who run it. Then we got to play with the kids! We all brought a lot of toys for them, so they loved that. It was interesting observing the kids in an orphanage, without any parents in their lives. Some were very well behaved, but others had major discipline issues. One boy ran around hitting people…he slapped me across the face for no apparent reason, then ran over to Michelle and smacked her across the head. He went around bullying the other kids too, but they just had to suck it up and deal with it.

The little girl I bonded most with was Alex. She was so sweet! I took some pictures with her, so I’ll post them when I can. :) It was a good experience!

In the afternoon, Brittany wanted to get a tattoo for her birthday (that’s today). We all went out to find a place, and she got a small heart on her foot. Before she went, there were some people getting piercings and I had to leave the room! SO many people got tattoos and piercings in Bulgaria. If they took a poll, I bet it would be well over 10% of the students on our ship. And no, Mom and Dad, I won’t be coming home with any new piercings or tattoos! On the way back to the ship, we stopped at a mini market to spend our last Bulgarian leva (lev for short), so I naturally got chocolate…and some of it didn’t make it back to the ship. Well, technically it did but it was in my tummy.

The ship left Bulgaria and we were headed for Istanbul now! Because they were so close, though, we just dropped anchor (while in view of Varna) for the whole next day. At night, we had a nail painting party again and watched a romantic comedy, of course. :) 

Salt lakes, Mudbaths, and Nessebar (July 26)

Today was lots of fun! I had another SAS trip, and this time I was going to the salt lakes of Bourgas, healing mudbaths, and Nessebar all in one day. We met in the union, got our boxed lunches, and headed down to the buses. Our tour guide was really sweet and adorable!

First we went to the salt lakes and mudbaths. We were the first people to go to the mudbaths as tourists- it’s a very local thing, and we had to get security clearances to go there. It was so hot! We all wore bathing suits, and were first instructed to get into the pink water a couple inches deep that had salt crystals all over the bottom. Let me tell you—those salt crystals HURT! We were supposed to lay in that for 30 minutes, but we only really had time for 15. I didn’t oppose…To clue you into it a little more, it smelled like I was laying in port-a-potty water. SO SMELLY. We used the salt to exfoliate, and the water was really oily. Then we walked over to the mudbaths—meaning ponds of black sulfurous mud. This isn’t your average mud, it was BLACK and smelly and chunky and gross. We covered our entire bodies in it, including our faces and a couple of us did our HAIR! Even though it smelled and was super slimy, it was so much fun! Then we walked across to the beach (the Black Sea!) and waited on the beach to let our mud bake and dry. Once it had hardened, we dove into the Black Sea to get it all off. That was fun too! At one point, we did have to remove our bathing suits to get all the salt and mud completely off, so technically the 4 of us (me, Kelsey, Katie, Kristin) were skinny dipping in the Black Sea, in mid day! Of course we were completely under the water except for our heads. Whenever one of us would dive under, there would be a huge black cloud all around from all the mud! It was so funny. Then we got out, dried off, ate our boxed lunches, and were on our way to Nessebar!

In Nessebar, we pretty much just walked up and down the streets and shopped here and there. And of course got ice cream. :) We indulged in some huge greasy pizza that was really cheap, and LET me just tell you how AMAZING it was! It really made me miss Italy! Well, at first it was amazing but then my stomach pain kicked in, of course! I got a couple things in Nessebar while we were looking at the different shops. Then it was time to go, so we loaded up onto the bus and were on our way back to the ship! On the way back, we were all given paper and told to make something that represents our favorite part of today. Kelsey and I teamed up and made a 3D collage of mud-covered people in the blue water (Black Sea). I’ll post a picture when I can! We won first place on the bus. :) And all we did was tear the paper! Kelsey did the water, and I did the people. We were so proud, we felt like we were in kindergarten again! Then our tour guide sang us a Turkish lullaby and really wanted us to sing her one in English. Someone got up to lead and we sang Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and it made her cry!!!! She was SO sweet. We found out later that she was blind her whole life until 3 years ago when she got surgery, and that she loves interacting with us because it makes her feel more human. She was amazing and adorable!

At night, we went back out to the beach bars, but we were pretty exhausted from the long day so we didn’t stay out very late. When we got back to the ship, I staked out in Tymitz Square, sending emais while stalking the free ticket box. I’d been trying to buy an Orphanage visit ticket from some for awhile, but everyone had already sold them so I was hoping someone would change their mind last minute and put it in the “magic” free ticket box. Sure enough, a girl came by the counter and lingered a bit, looked through the buy/sell notebook, and finally dropped a little golden ticket in the box. I waited for her to walk out of sight, then JUMPED up and it was none other than an ORPHANAGE visit ticket!!!!! YAY!! Well, then I had to get to sleep because the trip left bright and early!

Jeep Safari (July 25)

*Two things I forgot about yesterday’s Donchevo village visit:
1) When we were walking down the street, a donkey pulling a cart went by so I took a picture. Then a sweet Bulgarian lady came running over to me with a bouquet of flowers for me! It was so precious! She had just picked them from her garden and wanted me to have them. :)
2) I forgot to mention that we got to visit the kindergarten! It was a Sunday so they didn’t have class, but it was still cool seeing their classrooms. Aside from the alphabet, you would’ve thought it was a kindergarten in the U.S. There were bright colors all over, paintings that the children made displayed all over, and even a wall with golden stars for behavior and rewards. I remember that distinctly from when I was in kindergarten! We also got cute handmade cards as we walked in, and ANA gave them to us! :)

Okay, now back to today! :)

Today was the long-anticipated JEEP SAFARI! I had no idea what to expect, except that we’d be in open-top jeeps driving through the trees and countryside of Bulgaria. A group went yesterday and said it was amazing, so I was really excited!

We met out in front of the ships where our jeeps were waiting for us. It was just Michelle and I going together, so we got to make some new friends in our jeep. There were 10 jeeps total! Our driver was crazy- it was AWESOME! First we stopped to get a beautiful view of Golden Sands from above. It was pretty! Then we were on our way. We were driving on not-roads, where other jeeps had driven but very holey, bumpy, and uneven. I was sitting in the back on the side, and kept having to duck so I didn’t get hit by all the branches!! When we would emerge from the trees, all we could see for miles was huge bright golden sunflower fields. It was incredible. We stopped at a brandy distillery (again), but I already had enough of that stuff (by enough, I mean I fiery sip).

Then we drove farther and stopped at a giant sunflower field so we could run around in them and take pictures. The only bad part was….I was wearing shorts and flip flops, and so was most everyone else. There were bees on pretty much every sunflower, so we had to be careful! It was sooooooo much fun running through them though and posing in the middle of a huge sunflower field for a picture. We ran back out, hopped back into the jeeps, and kept on going. I noticed on my legs that there was a little red bumpy rash in a line…uh oh. With my skin, I should have anticipated it. I didn’t know what poisonous plants they have in Bulgaria, so I kept my eye on it. Whatever the bumps were, whether from plants or bugs, they kept getting bigger and started getting pus-filled centers (sorry). I figured if they kept getting worse I’d go to the clinic in the morning to make sure it wasn’t the same type of thing I got in the Bahamas (that I had to take antibiotics for). After sunflowers, our next stop was a honey tasting one! We got to try all different kinds of honey—and even see some of the bees flying around us that made it (not my favorite thing!). I was having really bad allergies, and someone told me that if I eat the honey from the area it might reduce my allergies a bit. I don’t know if this is true or not, but they were pretty sure it would work…soooo I ate tons of honey. :) Delicious! We learned that if you put the honey UNDER your tongue, you get more flavor and it’s almost a bit spicy. I like eating it normally! Then we only had 2 more stops- our next one was a shooting stop! We all took turns trying to hit a target. I was “THIIIIIIS close” according to the guy who was helping out there.

Before I talk about our last stop, I’m going to say a little something about the jeep part. Has anyone been on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland? Yeah, this was like that BUT ON STEROIDS. It was so bumpy we had to hold onto the frame above us so we wouldn’t fly out. Sometimes there were ditches and one side of the jeep’s wheels would be down in the ditch, and the other up on higher land. At some points I was convinced we were going to flip! We sped through big puddles and mini ponds and randomly did donuts, spinning around crazily and then speeding off. Mom, you would have hated it and Dad and Rob, you would have loved it. :)

Then our last stop was lunch. Because I still wasn’t feeling well, I ate a bunch of bread and just tried the kabobs. Oh, and I had watermelon too! I wish I could have partaken in eating more of the culture’s food, but it would have not been fun for my stomach and I knew it. Above our table was a little bird next with little tiny baby bird heads sticking out, their beaks almost bigger than their heads! The momma bird kept coming and feeding them- it was so cute! Then the jeep safari drivers all came marching in and played music and we all danced to it. It was a blast! On our way out, Michelle and I stopped to say hi to some sheep and goats. As we were baaa-ing at them (communicating, of course) and taking pictures, their owner came out and was herding them a little but was smiling at us so we knew he didn’t mind. Then we went over to the gate side and started talking to the goats again, and the Bulgarian man disappeared. As we were still obsessing over the goats, he came back and had little sunflowers for us and put them behind our ears! It was so sweet! Then on the way home, we realized we could stand in the jeeps so we were on our feet the whole way home. Of course once we got back to civilization, we’d have to quickly plop down if we saw police. It was so fun- I felt so carefree!

When we got back to the ship, one of our guides’ mothers was at the port with her news crew (National Bulgarian news) and wanted to interview some of us for the news. A couple people talked about Semester at Sea, and Michelle and I stood in the background smiling, with our sunflowers behind our ears! Once I got on the ship and stripped down, I noticed that I was wearing full white clothing…meaning, I was brown and dusty where my shirt and shorts didn’t cover, and the rest of my was “Julia white.” Needless to say, I hopped in the shower right away and scrubbed all the dust off!

At night, we went out in Varna. There was a musical festival when we were there! We went to the festival and it was classical music that night, and it was at the Roman baths. It was so cool! Then we went down to the beach where bars lined the shore and hung out there for the rest of the night. We actually ended up having to “babysit” some people and bring them back to the ship, which always takes away from the experience. While on the beach we found THE grossest fish thing. There’s no way to explain it. It was like oozing this puss stuff and was soooooooo gross, so naturally we took pictures. I think I’ll spare you guys and not post the pictures!

Then we came back to the ship, and that concludes day two in Bulgaria!

Donchevo (July 24)

Let me start by saying that today’s trip was my favorite Semester at Sea experience thus far. I visited a small rural village in the countryside of Bulgaria, population 950. This little town of Donchevo has seen outsiders one time before us, about 40 years ago when an American researching their culture spent one night. After that, we were the first they’ve seen.

The drive there was beautiful. We had no idea what to expect- we were in Bulgaria. I had to look up where it was when I found out we were going there! We all loaded into a bus, and a lot of us passed out on the drive. Just before I fell asleep, I glanced out the window and noticed a quick sight of bright yellow sunflower fields peeking through some trees along the road. My eyes widened and that was it- no sleeping for me! Just then, the trees opened up and there were sunflower fields forever; they were endless. Yellow, yellow, yellow, as far as the eye could see. It was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen. For about the next hour, we drove along these fields- field after field of bright gold. When we finally arrived, we were greeted right off the bus by some wrinkly and wise old women. We smiled with them back and forth, and then some teenage girls walked up with a huge platter of bread, as a greeting offering. We each took turns tearing bread off, and dipping it into the paprika spice and salt. Oh, and did I mention that everyone in the entire town was dressed in traditional Bulgarian garb? They were all so cute in their red and yellow! Pretty much the whole town was out and in their traditional clothes, waiting for our arrival. After we were greeted with the bread, they gave us each a little cluster of geranium leaves. That’s their welcoming tradition.

Then we got to walk around the town and get a little tour. We first went to the little brandy distillery and each of us tried a TINY TINY sip of it. FIRE WATER, I tell you! A couple guys on the trip were getting really bad heartburn from it for the next 3 hours…it was that intense. Then we walked through the streets to look at some of the houses and gardens people had. There was only one we were supposed to go see, and only their garden. We ended up going into multiple houses and being able to eat some of their freshly picked produce! How did this happen? They were thrilled that we were coming to visit their town, so people would see us walking down the street and insist that we come in so they can show us their houses and gardens, and give us some of their food. None spoke English, but a smile is really all you need to communicate. At one house, we got to see sheep and a PIGGY! It was awesome. The younger generations that are still in school know a little English because it’s being taught in their classes now, but it was pretty much limited to “Hi” and “Where you?” (where are you from?) and the rest was mostly gestures. The gardens were incredible. They had so much food they were growing—they needed to, because what they harvest now is what they have to eat the entire winter. Then we saw a barrel-making shop which was really cool. My favorite part was the band saw that took up an entire side room! It was huge! Nothing like the one I used for my robot design project this year. After that, we went to the church there. The bottoms of the seats lining the walls were about 6 inches long- just enough t barely prop ourselves against it! From walking around the town, I noticed that everyone in Donchevo had their specific jobs and specialties—mayor, barrel maker, brandy distillery, and so on.

When we finished our little tour, we met in a little mini park (shady area with trees) where a HUGE feast had been set up for us. It meant so much because these people did it from the gratitude in their hearts- they weren’t getting paid to do any of this. The food they were giving us was using some of their food for the winter, but they didn’t seem phased at all—they loved that we were visiting, and we so hospitable. A group of old women were lined up in a half circle with linked arms, dancing to the music being made over by the microphones. Then some younger girls joined in. They danced and sang and performed for us as we ate the feast they had provided for us. It was incredible! Honestly, I’m trying to do my best to explain it but I know there is NO way I can convey how amazing this trip was. As I mentioned before, it is my favorite experience thus far on Semester at Sea!

I was still not feeling too great, so I was very careful with the food. I mostly ate bread and watermelon. I felt bad not taking the food, but I knew it was better than feeling miserable on the bus on the way back. I tasted a couple other things and they were delicious! When we were finishing up eating, the Bulgarians came over and got us to dance with them, and attempted to teach us. This went on for a long time, and after awhile I went over to say hi to the little kids—I couldn’t help it, I just LOVE kids! I had my camera with me, so after introductions (involving pointing at saying names), we started our photoshoot. The kids LOVED it! They all wanted different combinations of people in each picture, and they HAD to see it afterwards. It was really fun. Then I went over to a very young little girl sitting with her mom and aunt (I think). She had the most tender little baby voice and had the sweetest, softest face. Her name is Ana. We smiled back and forth for awhile and laughed about some things, and then I taught her to play patty-cake so we were playing for awhile. Then her mom was talking to her, I think trying to convince her to sing a song to it that she knew. Sure enough, her tiny little voice started singing a little song as we went. Then came the end of the game—patty cake, patty cake, patty cake…and all of the sudden she pulled her ears out and stuck her tongue out! That’s how their rhymes ended I guess! It was just the cutest thing ever. I have a couple pictures of/with her and CANNOT wait to post them!!! The Ana and I danced a little, and then it was time to go . :( None of us wanted to!! The little kids clung onto us as we walked toward the bus and wanted more and more last minute pictures. I felt like I’d known these people so well- they were so welcoming and told our translator to tell us that if we were ever near them for some reason, we are more than welcome to come stay with them for as long as we want. Everyone there was so proud of their little town and their culture. I LOVED IT!!! Seriously, I wish I could just convey the feelings and atmosphere of the whole day!

When I got back, I was exhausted. No going out again for me! I stayed on the ship the rest of the night with the girls and we all shared about our first day in Bulgaria. Keep in mind that Bulgaria wasn’t supposed to be on our itinerary—it replaced Egypt when things got touchy there. And I am SO glad we came to Bulgaria!

Alzheimer?s Disease (July 23)

Today in psychology, we focused on Alzheimer’s Disease and discussed it for all of class. It’s what we’ll be studying for the next few days. Alzheimer’s is so feared because it involves losing a person’s memory- virtually who they are, and there is no cure. I’ve always been interested in it, so I’m really glad we’re studying it right now. We’re learning all about the research that has been done so far, and ways to push back the age of onset. It’s different because there really isn’t any concrete proof for anything, which is so rare in this day and age, especially with the amount of research done. It’s almost frustrating, but at the same time it makes a cure so much more desirable. We watched some films of lives of people at different stages and how their memories function. And the research- yes, there are plaques, but the plaques don’t always correlate to Alzheimer’s or no Alzheimer’s—many people with plaques show no sign of the disease. It’s all so unknown still!

I was able to eat kind of normal meals today…very bland ones, but that’s better than I’ve been doing! I did my laundry today—desperate times call for desperate measures. I wore a sundress today. Why did I wear a sundress today? Because it was the only thing left that was clean! So when I say I did laundry, now you get it a little more. It took FOREVER and there was laundry…EVERYWHERE…ALL OVER…in our room. I found hanging spots in more places than you can imagine- I was hanging clothes from wall lights, curtains, our big picture frame on the wall…had them spread on towels and plastic bags all over my bed and the floor…and that didn’t even include the bathroom. I hung things from the clothesline, from the shower frame, from the shower head, the curtain. Starting to get the idea? And in our rooms, clothes do not dry quickly. Unfortunately, the clothes had to stay there for a couple of days.

At night, I went to a photography seminar that was really interesting. Karyn Planett has given a few of thesse lectures that I’ve gone to, and they’re great. Because we are both travelers and photographers right now, we need to find a balance. We don’t want to focus too much on the photography such that we miss out on the purity of the moments, but we don’t want to miss a great shot! She told us to view ourselves as travelers with cameras. When possible, take the perfect shot. But when the scene isn’t perfect, or it isn’t appropriate to take pictures, just take the moment in because the memory will be just as amazing, most of the time better. I found her seminar really helpful and loved seeing some of the pictures she’s taken around the world!

We had Bulgaria preport and learned a little bit about the country. We even learned some Bulgarian words that would give us the basic foundations for communicating. After preport I went to a Women’s Bible Study and we studied Ruth. We were going to paint nails after that, but we were all exhausted and went straight to bed!

Happy 23rd birthday Rob!! :)

Class & Tummy Aches (July 22)

This morning when I was getting ready, my new ring broke! It had a little kink it in, and when I bent it a little to resize it, it snapped there. Woops! IF ANYONE HAS a soldering iron, I want to use it when I get home to fix my ring! It should be a pretty easy fix.

I took all my new meds and headed off to class. The first thing Brittany asks when I walk into psych is if I can eat- why? Because it’s TACO DAY. Noooo! We only have 2 taco days the whole voyage, and this was number 2! And I can’t eat. :( Bummer!

Now fast forward to lunch- you have to understand how long it’s been since I’ve had even mock Mexican food. Like, way too long. I knew it was probably a bad idea, but I REALLY wanted just a little taste! I got a taco and got through not even half, then realized (felt) how stupid it was and stopped, moving onto cup of noodles and Sprite like a good girl. And I think I got some fro yo…that seemed to make my stomach feel the best. The pool bar guys thought I was a fatty, ordering so often from them!]

Because I can eat such a limited list of items, I got soooo hungry. In the afternoon, I had to get another cup of noodles. Those things really don’t fill you up! These next few days will be a hungry few…

Before dinner, I napped and blogged a little. Then at dinner, I got my cup of noodles and tried half of an open-faced peanut butter, honey, and banana on toasted bread (and was thinking of you DAD!!). After half it was time to stop. I just wanted some substance! I was so darn HUNGRY!

Our dinner conversations tend to go on for…oh, about 2 hours or so (we’re always the last to leave) and tonight’s conversation was about how all of our parents met. It was a fun story time! Then after dinner we watched the sunset, and just as it was getting dark we passed through the Bosphorus Strait- right through Istanbul! We passed under a really pretty lit bridge that was doing a light show, AND we saw fireworks! To our right was Asia, and to our left was Europe. We could even see the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque from the ship! It was like a little teaser for Istanbul. It’s so much prettier and more colorful than I ever expected! I think I’m going to like Istanbul! Did you know Istanbul is located on 2 continents? I didn’t! Maybe I’ll get to go to Asia in a couple days!

When it got even later, I went up on deck and had some alone time with just me, the stars, the ocean, and God. It was refreshing. This was one of the first times I was really alone, and not in my room. It was so refreshing!! Once I got tired, I headed to bed.