Format: Note

For some reason everyone is very excited, I think my papers on property rights in developing countries and the civil war in africa are much more interesting.

What an adventure. I spent 5 nights in the beautiful Indian state of Kerala. It was absolutely amazing. I rode an elephant, and bought a silk rug. We had the greatest guides and gave everyone of them a nickname, our favorite of course was “DJ Mo Money” he was the bus driver for most of our trip. Originally he was “Yoyo sir smokes alot”, but that just wasn’t as fun to say. Sassy aka Sasquatch was also fun, but he could only understand our dirty jokes. We never found Makak in the jungle, no matter how hard we looked. Dolly took us into the jungles of Thekeddy, he wore sandals as we tried to fight against the wrath of the leeches that sprung from the ground. I found out later after being separated from the group that we were supposed to be very quiet and stay with the others, apparently forest elephants like to kill things that are alone and make loud noises. Getting separated from the group made me think back to Goldratt’s theory of constraints, and I figured it must have been a sign when I saw “It’s not luck” in the airport bookstore. I just had to get it, I definitely have too many books on this ship now.

All of this was during the time of the elections, the communist party or LDF seemed to be very powerful. Our guides were mostly fans of the UDF party though, the “Hand” party, it looks like things are going in that direction. We were told that corruption is a large problem in the government. Communication was a little difficult for most of the journey, but because almost everything was planned we didn’t really have to say much.

I uploaded a few pictures, but the best parts are the videos. Bandwidth on the ship is simply not enough to upload videos. Some might consider this a good thing though, the video of the leeches on Cameron’s ankle is filled with blood.

The crew on our houseboat got so drunk from our drinking games that they couldn’t keep it in. They were hilarious, and we are now their “best friends”. Indian food is delicious! Casualties of this country include one pair of shoes that seem to be irreparablly damaged from our hike into the jungle.

Singapore in 3 days! Clay and I are planning on having lunch with Justin Ngyuen.

Oct 22nd – Chennai – Cochin – Cherai Pick up from Chennai and drop at Chennai airport for your flight to Cochin. Arrive at Cochin by around 02.00 pm and then proceed to Cherai to enjoy the sun by the beach. Relax for the rest of the day Overnight at Hotel. Oct 23rd –Cherai – Cochin – Alleppey After breakfast you will be taken to half-day tour of Cochin – visiting Mattancherry Dutch Palace, Jewish Synagogue, St. Francis Church & the famous Chinese Fishing Nets. After which you proceed for Alleppey where you board the house boat. Overnight stay in the house boat. Oct 24th – Alleppey – Thekaddy Morning disembark from the house boat and driven to thekkady and by evening watch the Kathakali dance performance. Overnight stay at hotel at Thekkady Oct 25th – Thekaddy Morning you can try the jeep safari which is worth to get to know more about the jungle and if lucky enough you might spot some wild animas. You can pay for this tour directly to our representative at Thekaddy. Evening spice plantation your. Overnight stay at hotel. Oct 26th – Thekaddy – Cherai Elephant ride is possible in the morning hours after which you proceed for Cherai (4-5 hrs of drive).On the way you can visit Kalady where you can visit a temple (Sri Krishna Temple) and also visit the Sri Adi Shankaracharya’s ashram, Stupa of Adi Shankaracharya etc. Overnight stay at cherai. Oct 27th – Transfer in time to Cochin airport to connect your return flight to Chennai. Tour Concludes

Things just worked out. The day after tomorrow i will begin my journeys in India. We’re riding elephants.

45 seconds ago it was sunny, now it is raining. I wish I had my camera to record everyone running off the pool deck.

My professor emailed me this morning, half of our short papers have been cancelled. Only ten papers left!!!!

This morning I woke up extremely late, it was around lunch time. I really have little choice on days with the boat rocking alot. Whenever I’m not lying down for too long I get sick. I had to switch back to a full patch instead of the half patch, the rocking of the ship has gotten a little too much to bear. When I finally got out of bed and after I almost fell over in the shower, I was surprised to find a special email. A Chapman alumni had arranged a special meeting with cake and a group picture tonight. First I want to note I get very angry when people try to add things to my schedule without asking me first. We had already scheduled a “special dining experience” for Sara Legrand’s birthday. If it weren’t for the last line of the email I would have responded with “NO”. We were to take a group picture for the Chapman magazine with Archbishop Desmond Tutu. So instead I responded with “Some of us are very busy, at what time will the photo be?”. Our dinner was absolutely excellent, if I didn’t feel nauseas from the motion of the boat I might have been even happier. We interrupted it with our photoshoot, I had to awkwardly say “We’re pretty busy, could we take the picture”. The photographer said “well if you want to tell the archbishop you’re too busy than tell him” I looked over and we started to take the picture. I find it amazing that no one seems to take responsibility on the ship, it’s as if everything is up to a higher power. I mean honestly just because we’re at sea that doesn’t mean we don’t have other things to do. I have a calendar and I have things to do, don’t treat me like a child. I’m still sad I lost my shoe… It’s difficult to dress up with sandals or tennis shoes. Happy Birthday Sara.

Sean is sicker than anyone else on the ship (getting my own room was a great idea). Sara had a great 21st, I plan on having many more delicious dinners. I have lots of time to work on my next couple papers, and I got an A- on my last big paper! Also we’re renting out a club in Singapore for just semester at sea students.

Ryan snuck yellow fin tuna on the ship. I just had sashimi for dinner!

We spent one night in Mauritius, and what a great place it was. I have a feeling I will never go back, but it was an interesting experience. On the first day we arrived to see a fairly dirty country. Other than the coastline and fancy european resorts, mauritius is filled with smoke from the constant burning of sugar cane fields and the disheveled people. We took a taxi to the tamarin resort and went for 2 scuba dives which were also interesting. Not only did the air taste weird, my octopus broke underwater, my primary regulators mouthpiece feel off and my mask had a small hole. From now on I’ll get my own equipment for dives outside the US. We saw plenty of aquatic life, but most of the coral was dead and the visibility was marginal at best. The most exciting part was seeing fields of bubble coral as a school of fish swam by. I couldn’t get the videos I wanted because the underwater cameras buttons don’t work underwater. We ended the dives with a delicious beach barbecue, some locals selling items came up to the island where we ate and sang us the traditional island tunes of Bob Marley. The Coca-cola in Mauritius is produced there and I would consider it to be significantly better than the Coca-cola in south africa, it doesn’t have the weird bitter taste. We took a taxi to the Intercontinental resort, and on the way over Lauren Lindstrom fought with the driver in french, I spoke to him in english, and Stephanie Roy thought that speaking only spanish would get us a better price. When we got to the hotel Megan O’neil and I pretended to be dating and took a golf cart to our room, Clay Sara Legrand and Natalie Shah had already spent most of the day there and were in the hotel room next door. The hotel was absolutely beautiful and was packed with rowdy semester at sea students, the hotel shut all the bars down early because one of the students threw an empty glass at the bartender. In the beginning of this trip I used to wonder why there were so many rules, and why everyone was complaining about all of us being “ugly americans”, now I see there are way too many “children” on the ship. Most of the student are sophomores or juniors, and for some of the worst offenders this is their first semester of college. Dinner was excellent and very expensive, I ate with Megan O’neil and Olivia Lange, our bill was 230 US dollars and we only had one drink each! In the morning we took a catamaran out for the entire day, there were only 5 guys on the boat and 22 women. Our catamaran dropped us off right next to the ship, we just had to go through customs and take a water taxi. Our water taxi’s steering wheel broke and we made lots of little circles before we got to the ship with 3 whole minutes before the deadline. Casualties of Mauritius include one of my leather shoes (somehow fell off our boat), and my favorite swim trunks remain in the hotel room. Phoenix is the local beer in mauritius it is delicious, the rum isn’t too bad either. Six days until India, I can’t wait to get off the ship.