Happy Thanksgiving from Hawaii!!!

I just jumped out of a plane!!! wicked awesome! basically I can't stop grinning... :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone and good luck surviving crowds for Christmas shopping!

see you all soon!

-Bethany

:-D

Life at Sea...

Things are going well here aboard the MV Explorer! We have a few more days at sea before we stop in Hawaii for Thanksgiving, and then we will be at sea for another week for finals… I enjoy life at sea a lot, even though by now I am quite sick of being offered potatoes and pasta at every meal. Yesterday we had a special BBQ and that was a lot of fun!

I figured I would tell you all a little about things here on the ship, since I realized that I have only really told you about all the other places I have been :) Here on the ship we have 7 decks, though the lowest is for crew only. I live on deck 2- lots of stairs to climb :) I work four hours a day in the computer lab on deck 6, though most of the time I just end up hanging out or doing homework there- we don’t have a lot of work to do :) Every four days at sea we have a Bible study and some worship time, and that’s always really nice. I am leading Bible study for the first time on the 26^th- please pray for me! We will see how it goes…  Days of the week don’t matter much here; our schedule goes back and forth between “A” and “B” days. I have two classes each day so it keeps me busy, but I still manage to have time to watch random TV shows and go on coffee and tea runs with the people who live on my hall :) Every couple nights or so we lose an hour of sleep as we turn the clocks ahead- one of the downfalls of traveling East- but yesterday we crossed the international date line and got to have a second November 22^nd! So that was cool :-D They even gave us a day off from classes so it was like a real Saturday…

Well I won’t bore you with any more details, I just figured I would check in and say hi even though I don’t have any crazy stories from ports in different countries. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! You should all eat extra pumpkin pie for me!!! Have fun…

-Bethany

 

:-D

Japan :)

I got to see two different ports in Japan, Kobe and Yokohama. The leaves were changing colors which was beautiful, and overall both cities were very nice! I spent all of my time in Kobe staying with a nearby family on a homestay visit. My family was very friendly and sweet, they had a one year old daughter named Yuki who was very cute :) I got to bike to a huge park in the area where we played on the playground (yay!) and then enjoyed a picnic with LOTS of sushi… which was  pretty good actually, though I think I prefer my food to be cooked :) It was a nice time.

After our time in Kobe we had a day off while we traveled in between Kobe and Yokohama. Do you realize that we have not had any days off since this trip began? No weekends or anything- we are either traveling or having classes. So I finally had a chance to play some guitar and relax… Needless to say, I enjoyed my day :-D

When we arrived in Yokohama my friend Kristene and I wandered around the city for a while… we found Chinatown, ice cream and a nice park :) I got to ride one of the world’s largest Ferris Wheels, visit the Ramen Museum, find a 100 Yen store (like a dollar store) and do a lot of people watching. It was a great time! It was so nice to be walking around, it was so beautiful out...

So now I am back on the ship until Thanksgiving! It is weird to think that now we are starting on our trip home. Lots (and lots!) of work to be done by then! :) And I will try to get some pictures up sometime as well! I hope that you are all doing well and are enjoying the Fall weather! I will be home soon and look forward to seeing you all! :-D

love and hugs,

-Bethany

 

pictures! (as promised)

ni hao from China!!! :)

China! So many things were so wicked amazing!

First of all- it was COLD. Yay! After visiting hot, humid countries I was excited to be in a place where I needed to wear my sweatshirt  :) Walking around Hong Kong there was an interesting combination of poor shops and beggars alongside huge, modern skyscrapers and elevated walkways. At night we took a bus to the top of Victoria’s Peak which had the most beautiful view- everywhere we looked we could see the magnificent city below us.

After Hong Kong we braved the Chinese subway to the airport to get to Beijing. There were ten of us who had put together an independent trip with a Chinese tour group. The guy at immigration laughed when he compared my passport picture to my new short hair, but they let us all into China without any problems. Yay for China! I had so much fun trying to read the signs and listen in on conversations even though I could only pick up random words here and there- my Chinese classes were quite a while ago :) Our tour got us up and moving early in the mornings, we got to see many temples and palaces and the Forbidden City. And, of course, no visit to China would be complete without a visit to the Great Wall! It was beautiful. The sun was out, the leaves were changing colors, and we had a great view from the top! The wall stretched on FOREVER- on every mountain peak in the distance we could see more towers. It was amazing :) Besides the Great Wall and seeing all the other sites we also got to eat a lot of great (and sometimes not so great) Chinese food and visit some markets. In the markets we really got a chance to practice our bargaining skills that we’ve practicing in different countries- here we basically tried to pay about 10% or less of the asked price. It was a pretty intense and interesting challenge. We had a brief scare at the airport in Shanghai when first of all no one spoke English to give us directions and then no one had ever heard of the port where our ship was docked. After bugging all sorts of people who worked there we finally got a hold of two minivans to get us back to the Explorer. We were so glad to be back on the ship! Our last day was spent wandering around Shanghai before we had to say goodbye to China.

And that has been my most recent adventures! Now I am back on the ship listening to Flogging Molly and figuring out what I need to do for classes before we get to Japan. I have pictures I am going to try to put up here soon, I promise :) Things are moving fast, and between school and work and traveling there is not much (or any) down time… but things are going well! Send along any comments, questions, snide comments or favorite recipes! I love you all and hope you are well!

 

pictures of Vietnam...

Hi friends! :)

This morning we left Vietnam at 6am- I was not awake, I said my goodbyes last night :) Vietnam was an interesting place to be, and many things made me think...

I visited the War Remnant Museum (formerly named the Museum of American War Crimes) where I saw pictures, stories and pieces of the Vietnam War. It was…intense. At times I wanted to cry. I had never thought much about the war before but here it became very very real and very very horrible. It was not easy to see but I was glad I was there. When I was looking at pictures of people protesting the war a boy next to me said hello. He asked where I was from and I said the United States, very mindful of where I was and what the United States had done to his country. He immediately smiled and welcomed me to Vietnam. I was just a small moment but I was so grateful.

 I also got a chance to visit an orphanage for children disabled because of Agent Orange from the war. Again, not an easy thing to see. But we got to play with the kids, hold them up so they could move around on their deformed legs, hold their hands as they lay unmoving in their cribs. I was surprised at how these chemicals could continue to cause problems today, and I was glad of my small chance to hold the children in this house, bounce them up in the air and make them smile.

So I’ve seen some thought provoking stuff here in Vietnam! Beyond that I have just been wandering around, eating “Pho”(a Vietnamese noodle dish) and looking at the millions of things they are trying to sell you on the street! It has been a good time, and now I am trying to get ready to land in Hong Kong next…

I love you all and I hope that you are all well! I would love to hear from any of you- just send me an email at brwakeman@semesteratsea.net :) and I will get more pictures up when I can! cheers...

-Bethany

Malaysia