China and Japan - this is a long one...

China
Hong Kong was pretty sweeet. Walking around Monkok at night was like walking through Times Square, but it was like that on every corner! I loved the nightlife, especially the DJ’s, they were awesome! I decided last minute that I couldn’t miss China and I am so happy that I chose to travel instead of get back on the ship. I stayed in Hong Kong an extra day after the ship left, but then I got on a 26 hour train ride to Beijing. It wasn’t so bad! There were a lot of Semester at Sea kids on the train to hang out with and we had fun… I read a lot for global studies class, bleh. Arriving was a major culture shock. This was the first place we’d been that nearly no one spoke English. We tried communicate with taxi drivers to take us to a hostel but they couldn’t understand. We walked to a hotel next to the train station and almost booked a room when a girl I was with go a phone call from our friend who had traveled with semester at sea. We got the woman at the hotel to write down the other hotel name in Chinese and we met up and stayed with her and slept on the floor of her hotel room. I got to experience Tiananmen Square at night and it was stunning. We got out of our taxi and I was just in awe at all of the invisible images I saw. I kept saying to myself “I can’t believe I’m really here”. I can only compare it to maybe the feeling one would get if they walked around ground zero. It was quiet and peaceful, yet I still wanted to cry. Just knowing what had happened here. Wow. We returned to Tiananmen Square the next morning and it was a very different scene. Tourists everywhere wearing matching hats, tour leaders holding their flags… it was crowded. We bought tickets for a bus ride/tour (which was given in Chinese so I had no idea what they were learning) to the Great Wall. That was my favorite. It was just me and two other girls, we had so much fun. We had our photo shoot and stopped every two seconds to bask in the amazing view and beautiful, clear weather. Well, every three seconds we were stopped by different people asking to take photos with us – we were the only white people in sight. Two girls approached us and asked if we could talk for a few minutes. My initial thought was either they want to sell us post cards or something or they want to take a picture. I was wrong. They really just wanted to chat and practice their English. They were so kind. We told them what we thought of Beijing and our own country, told them what we study and they got really excited when I told them I sang and they asked if I’d sing for them. I immediately got kinda nervous but I thought what the hell… here I am on the Great Wall of China and I already feel like I’m on top of the world. So among hundreds of passersby I sang “the time is right, I’m gunna pack my bags, and take that journey down the road, ‘cause over the mountain I see the bright sun shining and I want to live inside the glow”. It felt great. We gave them our email addresses and one of them already sent me something hoping I’ll keep in touch and that we’ll be friends. It was so sweet. I pretty much just went shopping in Qingdoa. I was so exhausted and we were in the middle of nowhere it seemed. Two days later – yikes – I was already in Japan.

Japan – Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, Hiroshima, oh my
Made very good use of my Japan Rail pass that I bought in Vietnam. I realized something now. Until this voyage I’d never passed the border of my own country – it had always been a dream pushed aside, too expensive and out of reach and then boom it hit me – here I am in Japan, my last foreign port of this long voyage that flew by so fast and I have a new attitude. Traveling is one of the best ways to learn. I live about 15 minutes south of Boston and I’ve been nervous to take the subway to get around because I just didn’t think I could do it. Welllll there will be changes. I’m about 3 hours away from New York City, and maybe 6 or 8 hours away from Canada… the opportunity is there for me to explore and I ask myself why I haven’t taken it yet? Well it’s time. Well…. It’s almost time. My goals for the summer are similar to those of last year, make money, right? I am so broke it’s like incomprehensible and I happily keep digging myself into more and more debt and damn it’s so worth it! So basically I’ll be working all summer and if I can afford 30 bucks a month for the gym I’ll be doing that, but if not I’mm buy a cardio kick boxing tape and do it up in my tv room.
Oh yeah Japan… I had to get my Rail pass exchanged and reserve seats for all my traveling, but my issue was – I had no plan yet! So I decided to take a risk and I booked my seats and that was that. All the touristy stuff in Kobe was closing by the time I was done so I went bowling with friends and went out for a little at night. Bright and early I was off to Kyoto with some great people! We stayed in a Japanese style hotel for 50 bucks each and got dinner and all we could drink hot sake and beer. Yup even after going to college I still can’t drink beer, it’s gross. The food was awesome and we had so much fun. We saw so many shrines and temples while we were there, I even heard a Buddhist monk chanting in a room off of the main room. Tried sushi for the first time… not a fan but hey I tried. I bought chop sticks so mom we’re having a Japanese hot pot night when I get home ☺ hehe. It was getting late and I had to catch a train so I said by to the group, got in a taxi and headed for the train station. I thought I was going to be late, my heart was pounding. I made it though. I was on a the Shinkansen (bullet train) bound for Tokyo with no plan for a hotel, I had no idea if the girls I was going to meet were even in Tokyo yet because they hadn’t emailed me yet. So yeah I knew I had an adventure ahead of me. My friend Senkei who I hung out with in Kyoto wrote down a bunch of places to visit in Tokyo and I knew I had to check out the nightlife in Tokyo so when I arrived at the Tokyo station I struggled for a few minutes to find the subway, but then I headed to Roppongi. I walked around outside and found a coffee shop where a boy spoke English. He told me where the nearest internet café was and I went to check my email again… then it felt like 7 tons had lifted off my shoulders, I finally got an email from the girls and they were actually staying on the street I was already on. I started walking there and as I waited at an intersection to cross I hear “Kimmy??” what were the odds one of the girls found me and we ate. We went out to the clubs at around 12:30 and by the time we left, it was daylight. I had so much fun! We went to the Tokyo Tower (that was SWEET!) and then took the subway to Asakusa to see a beautiful temple swarmed with tourists. I was so exhausted so I took a cat nap before I left the girls and hopped back on the subway to Tokyo station to head back to Kobe. I woke up early to catch my next train to Hiroshima. It was my first trip that I really did alone. Didn’t meet anyone or anything. I just really felt like as an American it was very important to see it and I’m glad that I did. It was a clear cool day and I was amazed to see the last standing building amongst the completely rebuilt city. I was a little rushed because I had to take a street car back to the train station in time to make my train. But I got to see the cenotaph for A-bomb victims, the flame of peace, the children’s peace monument, the peace fountain, and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. When I get to Hawaii I intend on visiting the Arizona monument as well. I guess I should do something to make me feel bad for my own country because we’re not on good terms right now. So there was something about Japan – it was clean, peaceful, everyone was so kind, their crime rate is like nothing! I wonder if it has to do with the fact that they have pretty much no military anymore…. Gee that sounds like a pretty good system. Who knew the most developed country in the world didn’t have a military? (get over yourself America, you don’t have it all together anymore, give it up)

I’ll be back in the United States in 7 days… another week later I’ll be on the mainland and homeward bound. I can’t wait. I miss it a lot. I want my mommy! I miss Erin and Matt and all my friends and David! But I can’t wait for Katie’s wedding to see the whole family again! I love you all, see you soon!

After Vietnam

I have to stop writing a diary. Each step I take throughout a given day is not important. Yesterday I felt like they were, but I changed my mind this morning. I want to say that this past week has changed my mind about a lot of things. I used to think I was smart because I graduated high school with high honors and I’m pretty good at comprehending what my teachers tell me. But do they even know what they’ve told me? I subject myself to a system of “this is what it is” followed by exams so that one day my degrees will get me a job, but I will say this diploma represents what I have memorized - what my teachers know – and it’s time to learn the truths of facts. It’s time to get down to business. I’m talking solely about history. I’ve always hated history classes starting from the day I had the pledge of allegiance memorized. Ok I’m 19 years old, I just looked up the definition of the word allegiance, (because no one ever told me)it’s kind of frightening: loyalty or commitment of a subordinate to a superior… “I pwedge aweegents to the flag of the United Sates of America (pause) and to the republic, for which Richard stands, one nation, underdog, indervisable, with libery and justice for all.” So perhaps when I was four years old I didn’t have the pledge exactly down pact, but “that was what it was”. Don’t we all just love children? We can’t wait to make them our parrots, we even want our kids to be just like us. Yeah, they’re a fresh clean slate so we’ll teach them of this wonderful thing called democracy where we choose how we live and we have a voice and we can trust our government because we elected those endearing officials who care so much about the individuals. I used to say I hate history. Let me correct myself – I hate when someone teaches me history and then grades me on what I’ve absorbed. Who has the authority over me to determine what I should accept as truth? That the answer to number 28 is in fact C, so if I don’t circle that letter I will fail? Maybe I’m not as mad about what they’ve taught me as I am about what they haven’t taught me. Before I went to South Africa if you mentioned the word ‘apartheid’ I might have guessed that you were talking about a new brand of sneaker, or maybe it’s the name of some suburban town. Why didn’t I know about it? How about – “Kim, what do you know about the Vietnam war?” Hmmmm I gotta think about this. Oh I know that a lot of people in the United States opposed it. Probably because of the draft, and no one wanted to go fight. Not exactly sure what the war was about. I know we eventually put up a monument to our soldiers in hopes that the people of the US would support the soldiers, even if they didn’t support the cause. Where was it that all the students went to protest? Tienanmen square? Hahaha goes to show how much I learned about Beijing. So I’ve developed a new slogan – GO LEARN SOMETHING. Then relearn it until you understand it, don’t memorize and don’t believe it. Anyway so I wasn’t going to travel in China because I’m out of money, but I think I’ve changed my mind. I can’t let this opportunity go so I’m going to borrow money everyway I can and sleep on the great wall or on a park bench if I have to so I can make it to Tienanmen Square and feel it. I’m gunna go learn something from the people, maybe read some books, but if it’s in writing it might not be trustworthy. I’m not done figuring me out, but I’m just beginning to understand at least which way I need to start turning in order to head the right direction. “Travel makes you wiser, but less happy” – Thomas Jefferson

Malaysia

Easily one of my favorite ports so far. I loved every port for many different reasons. In terms of places I’d go back to or even live, South Africa wins and Malaysia follows it. I flew to Kuala Lumpur where I spent most of my time, I’m so glad I did. It sounded cool at first but it was a huge hassle to get off the boat and back on. We didn’t have a dock so we had to take life boats to and from the port and the ship. It took forever and it was an incubator inside those things. On day 1 I pretty much just walked around Penang, got some great lunch, bought calling cards and used the internet. At night I went to a shadow puppet performance, which was really cool! We learned about the tradition of Wang Kulit (that’s what it’s called). The puppets are made out of goat or cow skin, and even though you only see their shadow, they are very intricately painted. The art work is really cool. I was very interested in the music. In Malaysian music you hear many different gongs, drums, and the lead instrument is the Seranai,which is similar to a clarinet or an Indian Nagaswaram. I won’t give you a lesson on Wang Kulit here, but if you want to learn more, just ask ☺. My flight was at 8am so I had to get up really early to get there on time. I had the best blueberry muffin of my life at the airport cuz it’s been so long… anyway my first day in Kuala Lumpur was so cool. I met up with my group at this hotel (The Royale Bintang) and we had a few ideas of what we wanted to go check out. After talking to one taxi driver he told us he’ll take us on a tour for 4 hours for 200 ringgits (between 9 of us it costed like under 7 bucks for the whole time). We went to a huge Chinese temple that was really colorful and had awesome architecture. There was a tourtise pond there; there were a million turtles it was cool. We went to the King’s palace (well the gate at least). It was kinda like Buckingham with soldiers who don’t move and some sat on glides dale horses (I don’t think I’m spelling that right but whatever). We went to the Batu caves and climbed 271 really steep steps and then some when we got inside ( I slipped and fell inside because it was wet, my butt’s blue… not fun) there were shrines inside and monkeys everywhere. They were kinda scary, they chased us. There were roosters and doves inside too… kinda random. Went up the KL tower, 5th tallest tower in the world I’m pretty sure. Cool view of the city and their twin towers. I got some sweet pics of those towers from the bottom too. We ate thai food that night, not a big fan, then checked out the night life. The night life was awesome. Turns out I stayed in the hotel that the club was at the next night. Everyone left in the morning so I took a taxi (or teksi as they write it) to the Cabana Inn and spent an hour waking up my lazy friend. We just wandered and ate some crappy American Chain food – pizza hut for lunch, TGI Fridays for dinner… SOOOOOOOOO GOOOD. I miss our food. I took a teksi by myself to the airport an hour away and hopped back on a plane to Penang the next morning. Did very little shopping and just got info about class registration and stuff before getting back on the boat. It might not sound like I did too much to get that “cultural experience” but after India I don’t know how NOT to enjoy every day. I’m so thankful for life and it’s just so humbling to be able to talk to people around the world and just share our views and get along. I’m happy ☺