Category: Semester at Sea

halong bay. How long is it. we may never know, but it is the most beautiful place ive ever been.

halong bay in the morning! pho is excellent.

We’re about to reach Ho Chi Minh City! My spot messenger should be working again also, so that current location button should be updated shortly. Tomorrow is a Nike factory tour, I’m very excited. Sean and I got lucky, apparently only 30 out of the 100 people who signed up actually get to go. I don’t want to ruin my fancy new shoes so I’ll be wearing adidas on this trip, hopefully things don’t get weird. I heard that some guys on the ship found a place to shoot a rocket propelled grenade, I’m jealous. The day after tomorrow we’ll be flying up to Hanoi and then we’re going to Halong bay to stay on a junk ship for 2 nights, very very exciting. Although these adventures will be exciting, I feel I’m missing out by not going on the Cambodia trip. It is important for all of us to understand the dangers of a government with too much power. I’m glad things will likely begin to change tonight in the US. Yes I just did that.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has just lead us in prayer for our fellow semester at sea student Genna Gaylord. She is suffering from Malaria in ICU at a hospital in Chennai India. She’s been in a small room with no windows, no tv, no internet, and only Indian food for 12 days. We understand that she is not doing very well at all. Everyday the Dean’s memo says she will be out soon, but she is currently on a ventilator as three quarters of her total lung volume is collapsed. We all hope she gets better soon.

Today we spent some quality time with our long lost foreign friend. Clay and I had McDonald’s for lunch, but Justin got us to venture to the bottom of floor of one of the malls. The food was awesome! I surprised at how clean everything was, probably better than conditions at home. We sampled some mochi had some delicious meat on a stick and had the best juice, the steamed cakes were not steamed they tricked us. I actually wish there were little juice stands at home. We ended up eating at TGI Friday’s it was delicious, and a little weird because all the staff was wearing costumes. Halloween doesn’t really seem to mean much here but a large portion of our ship is going to try and celebrate. Justin and I had a conversation about Chapman and he encouraged me to take a class with Dr. Booth, I think I’m going to try and audit his Economic Development class in the Fall. Hopefully we get to visit with our local singaporean again for lunch, 36 hours in singapore isn’t enough time.

Just had a great conversation with our taxi driver from singapore, many of my taxicab conversations are interesting. He explained to me that the strict price controls make his job very difficult, he said he can’t make more money by working harder “It is all luck”. In the downtown there is a government tax on driving in certain areas, called the “ERP” our driver said he calls it the “Everyday Rob People”. As Justin Bieber came on the radio he sang along, and he was surprised to learn that Justin is a young boy and not a lady. He actually said “I always thought this was lady” multiple times. I like singapore. Dinner with Justin was excellent too, my tummy hurts of fullness. No Singapore Slings for me, the alcohol prices are very prohibitive. We’ll visit the tailor in the morning I feel like things are going to turn out well.