Hi everyone! Sorry for delaying the Ghana updates… I’ve been back in class mode and trying to catch up on my school work. Brace yourselves; this is going to be a long one…
Port #3- Accra, Ghana: As of now, Ghana is in the #1 position for favorite country. I absolutely loved it. Every single person that I met was so friendly, welcoming, and helpful. The locals would go out of their way in order to help the tourists, which is something that I have no seen in any other place. When we first arrived we spent the day wandering through Accra, which is the capital of Ghana, stopping at various markets to do some shopping. Everything was SO cheap. Like ridiculously cheap. I’m pretty sure that the group from our ship helped those people to make more money in that single weekend than they would in an entire month or more. It was insane. We made sure to get back to the ship at a decent hour that night because the next day was a busy one.
I was up and on a bus at 7am for another Semester at Sea day trip. This time we took a 3 hour bus ride to a monkey sanctuary where we walked through a small village and encountered tons of monkeys. I even fed one a banana! I held out my hand with the banana and the monkey peeled it right out of my fingers. They weren’t scared of us at all and walked around just like a human would… except they’re much better at climbing trees than we are. From there we went on a hike to the largest waterfall in all of western Africa. I can’t even begin to describe it, so you’ll just have to wait until I post the pictures. It was amazing, the waterfall itself and the hike up to it. Everything was so green and beautiful. From there we went back to the ship where we decided to take the night off because we had another early morning the following day.
On the third day I had a trip to the Cape Coast (formerly known as the Gold Coast) of Ghana to take a tour through 2 slave dungeons and castles. The drive to the Cape Coast provided me with the experience to see how so much of Ghana lives. It reminded me how poor the country actually is. It was the Africa I pictured… dirt roads, grass huts, women walking around with the giant baskets of food on their heads, children weaving on the side of the road, small shacks and vendors that would run out to the bus in hopes of selling us something, and so much more that talking about it doesn’t even do it justice. Yet amidst all the poverty, you still get the feeling that the people there are genuinely happy. They would smile and wave at us as we drove by, and they loved the cameras. When we finally got to the Cape Coast I was shocked by the huge fishing markets that I saw. It was so unbelievably crowded, and what they call fishing boats in Ghana is what I would call a large canoe. It was amazing to see them carry such large nets filled with fish off these tiny boats. The beaches there were very pretty as well. Anyways, back to the slave dungeons and castles. The first one we went to was St. Georges Castle, or the Elmina. This particular castle shipped out more slaves in the history of the Atlantic Slave Trade than any other place in the entire world. The next one we went to was the Cape Coast Castle. It was pretty incredible to stand in those castles and know what happened on that ground in previous years. We walked through the dungeons where they would keep the women and men and saw many of the things that were used to torture them. It was an extremely moving day, and it would be impossible to try and explain the things that I saw. I am so glad that I went. We finally left this part of Ghana at the end of the day and headed back to the ship in Accra.
That evening I went out with a bunch of my friends into town where we went to a place that is considered a favorite by the locals. It was an outdoor spot where a live band was playing “hip-life” music. (Hip-life is the Ghanaians version of hip-hop.) It was so much fun to be able to interact with the locals and talk with them. They were so interested in America and wanted to know all about the music I listen to (of course I was happy to share this information with them) and they wanted to know about each city that every one of us was from. I have quite a few new friends who claim they want to visit Chicago now haha.
The next morning, the last day, I went to an orphanage that was about an hour away. It was so amazing to see all of the children of all different ages. They were so happy to see us, and for many of them, we were the first white people that they had ever seen. They were fascinated by us and wanted to touch our skin, and again, loooveed the camera. They were adorable… but don’t worry, I’m not turning into an Angelina Jolie. Overall, Ghana has provided me with extremely eye opening experiences, and well as experiences that were nothing but fun. I had such an incredible time there, and I am so happy to have seen a country that many are not fortunate enough to visit. I would absolutely love to go back.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Picture update
So you get kind of restless when you're on a ship for 5 days in a row... so I thought I would add a few more pictures on here while I have the time from my trips in Spain and Morocco.
And then this neexxxttt one... is of me actually jumping! They applauded my wonderful performance afterwards.
This is a photo inside the beautiful Hassan Mosque. Casablanca, Morocco.
I thought this was a pretty neat photo of the impressive spice vendors in the markets of Marrakesh, Morocco.
Kelsey, Kate, myself, and Kaitlyn after a long day of bargaining in the big market of Marrakesh.
This first one is from a beach in Spain where the local kids were jumping off the sea walls into the water. A few of my friends and I decided to join them. This picture is of the kids making fun of me for being nervous, or at least I think that's what I think they were doing. (Again, my spanish is limited...)
Okay, so maybe they weren't that impressed with me. They loved the guys who were brave enough to try dives and backflips though. This was definately a memorable experience because it was our only time where we really interacting with kids in Cadiz. Plus I figure it was good practice for emergencies in case I ever have to jump overboard... just kidding. Did I mention that I hung out with Victoria Beckham while I was in Morcco? Okay, just kidding again... but that was the name of my camel. Isn't she precious?
I thought this was a pretty neat photo of the impressive spice vendors in the markets of Marrakesh, Morocco.
Kelsey, Kate, myself, and Kaitlyn after a long day of bargaining in the big market of Marrakesh. 
I hope these pictures give you all a better sense of how I am spending my time while I am in each country! I'll be sure to post an update as soon as I am back from Ghana. Interesting fact: When our Semester at Sea ship docks in Ghana, we will be the largest group of Americans to ever enter the country at one time. Pretty cool! Talk to you all soon.
Love, Alex
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Blog post #1 from the ocean!
Hiiiiiii to all who are reading this! Sorry it has taken me so long to post an update on here, I’ve been very busy! I am currently on the water along the western coast of Africa. For those who don’t already know, you can go to Semesteratsea.org and the website will show you exactly where the ship is on a world map. It’s very cool. Anyway, I will do my best to update you all on the past 3 weeks without writing a novel on this thing. So, here we go…
Before I get into any of the countries, I’ll start with the ship. To clarify to everyone, apparently there has been some confusion, I am on a “ship.” I am not on a boat. Also, I am on an “academic voyage.” I am not on a cruise… well, at least what the teachers on here want us to tell all you guys back at home. But who are they kidding, I lay out by the pool every other day and they clean my room every single day, fresh towels included! How nice is that? On a more serious note, I do in fact have classes. I really like all of my teachers, and while they do not seem terribly hard there is plenty of work to be done. What I find very interesting is how the teachers incorporate the countries we are visiting into the lesson plan. So, very often, my assignments will have to do with the places that we dock at. I have been meeting people from all over the country, and a few from around the world. Out of over 500 schools that are represented on the ship, the University of San Diego has the most students on board, 43 to be exact. So it’s great knowing so many people already, but also meeting new kids at the same time.
Port #1: Cadiz, Spain.
Beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, incredible… basically any positive word that you could think of will describe Spain. While many students ventured to other parts of the country, I remained in Cadiz the entire time because 3 of my very good girl friends from USD came to visit. They are studying abroad in Paris (sounds rough) and found a cheap flight to Spain to see me and a few others. It was so great to see them. My time in Spain consisted of what I like to call the 4 S’s: Sun tanning, shopping, seafood, and sangria. Oh and uuuh school activities. So lets make it the 5 S’s. There was a great beach, La Playa Victoria, which is rated one of the top beaches in all of Europe that I went to almost every day. They had great little cafes and restaurants right along the sand that were perfect to stop in for tapas right before siesta time. There was a bit more of a language barrier in Spain than I had anticipated, but luckily my high school Spanish classes came back to life and I was able to communicate pretty easily. Except for the one time that I thought I was ordering some ham dish for dinner (the ham in Spain is supposed to be incredible.) and I accidentally ordered ham and eggs. Oops. Other than that, Spain was full of nothing but wonderfulness. I have no complaints at all. Well, except maybe the lack of sleep. Spain sure does stay up late… seeing the sun rise before going to sleep definitely had its tolls on me. But it was worth it.
Port #2: Casablanca, Morocco
After Spain, we had one day at sea and then we reached Casablanca, Morocco! While Casablanca may not have been the greatest city ever, I still learned to love Morocco. On the first day, which was unfortunately raining, a large group of students left the ship and walked to the 3rd largest mosque in the world, The Hassan Mosque. While it is the 3rd largest, it is actually the tallest that exists. It was beautiful. There were all sorts of colorful tiles and designs, which I learned later were all over Morocco. We took a tour of the inside where we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with scarves. While Casablanca seemed to be pretty broken down, the Hassan Mosque gave us all a little glimpse of beauty. Oh, I forgot. I went to a restaurant and they had a dish named after Obama. I kid you not, everywhere I have been someone mentions Obama. Annnyyywaayyss………
I signed up for a few Semester at Sea sponsored trips in the summer before I left, and one of them took place in Morocco! So on the second day I hopped on a bus with about 40 other students for a 3-4 hour ride to Marrakesh, Morocco. Marrakesh is known for its huge market where you can buy almost anything, literally. But before that, we had a camel ride planned. Yes, I just said camels. We were on the camels for about an hour where we rode through a palm tree grove and into a Berber village. All the houses were made out of mud, rocks, and straw. As we rode through the village, all the kids would run out of their homes waving and asking for us to take their picture. They loved it. Among the people were chickens, roosters, sheep, dogs, and cats. It was a very eye opening experience to see how so many people live in Morocco. Following the camel ride, we went to the largest restaurant in Marrakesh which can seat over 1,000 people. It was huge, beautiful, and the food was amazing. Lots of meat, carrots, olives, and toonnss of cous cous (the food so nice they named it twice). We stayed at a hotel that SAS booked for us in advance, and the following morning we woke up for a tour of the city and some free time in the markets to shop. I visited another mosque, a few small markets, and then the larger one that everyone knows of. There were snake charmers, trained monkeys (on chains, very sad to see), fortune tellers, palm readers, and then a vendor or shop for just about anything you could imagine. It was fun, yet sometimes a tad scary, interacting with all the people and bargaining for items. Lets just say I didn’t make too many friends in Marrakesh because I never paid for anything unless I got them below the halfway mark of their initial price. Mom and Dad would be proud. I was able to get lots of great gifts, so come Christmas time, be on the lookout for a present with your name on it. The next day I got back on the bus and we made the trip back to Casablanca. It is not difficult for me to say that Marrakesh was way better than Casablanca, but both places were still experiences that I am glad to have had.
As of now we are sailing down to Ghana! I should arrive in about 4 days, I think. I have a few trips planned which include a hike to the largest waterfall in Ghana where we’re supposed to see tons of Mona monkeys, a tour of historical slave dungeons, and a visit to an orphanage. I cannot wait to get there. With all that said, I think that’s about it for now! I will try to post blogs more often so there are more that are a little shorter! I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all very much! If you have any other questions about my trips or just want to say hi, please e-mail me at acbozich@semesteratsea.net I love e-mail, so don’t hesitate! Talk to you all soon.
Love,
Alex
Before I get into any of the countries, I’ll start with the ship. To clarify to everyone, apparently there has been some confusion, I am on a “ship.” I am not on a boat. Also, I am on an “academic voyage.” I am not on a cruise… well, at least what the teachers on here want us to tell all you guys back at home. But who are they kidding, I lay out by the pool every other day and they clean my room every single day, fresh towels included! How nice is that? On a more serious note, I do in fact have classes. I really like all of my teachers, and while they do not seem terribly hard there is plenty of work to be done. What I find very interesting is how the teachers incorporate the countries we are visiting into the lesson plan. So, very often, my assignments will have to do with the places that we dock at. I have been meeting people from all over the country, and a few from around the world. Out of over 500 schools that are represented on the ship, the University of San Diego has the most students on board, 43 to be exact. So it’s great knowing so many people already, but also meeting new kids at the same time.
Port #1: Cadiz, Spain.
Beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, incredible… basically any positive word that you could think of will describe Spain. While many students ventured to other parts of the country, I remained in Cadiz the entire time because 3 of my very good girl friends from USD came to visit. They are studying abroad in Paris (sounds rough) and found a cheap flight to Spain to see me and a few others. It was so great to see them. My time in Spain consisted of what I like to call the 4 S’s: Sun tanning, shopping, seafood, and sangria. Oh and uuuh school activities. So lets make it the 5 S’s. There was a great beach, La Playa Victoria, which is rated one of the top beaches in all of Europe that I went to almost every day. They had great little cafes and restaurants right along the sand that were perfect to stop in for tapas right before siesta time. There was a bit more of a language barrier in Spain than I had anticipated, but luckily my high school Spanish classes came back to life and I was able to communicate pretty easily. Except for the one time that I thought I was ordering some ham dish for dinner (the ham in Spain is supposed to be incredible.) and I accidentally ordered ham and eggs. Oops. Other than that, Spain was full of nothing but wonderfulness. I have no complaints at all. Well, except maybe the lack of sleep. Spain sure does stay up late… seeing the sun rise before going to sleep definitely had its tolls on me. But it was worth it.
Port #2: Casablanca, Morocco
After Spain, we had one day at sea and then we reached Casablanca, Morocco! While Casablanca may not have been the greatest city ever, I still learned to love Morocco. On the first day, which was unfortunately raining, a large group of students left the ship and walked to the 3rd largest mosque in the world, The Hassan Mosque. While it is the 3rd largest, it is actually the tallest that exists. It was beautiful. There were all sorts of colorful tiles and designs, which I learned later were all over Morocco. We took a tour of the inside where we had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with scarves. While Casablanca seemed to be pretty broken down, the Hassan Mosque gave us all a little glimpse of beauty. Oh, I forgot. I went to a restaurant and they had a dish named after Obama. I kid you not, everywhere I have been someone mentions Obama. Annnyyywaayyss………
I signed up for a few Semester at Sea sponsored trips in the summer before I left, and one of them took place in Morocco! So on the second day I hopped on a bus with about 40 other students for a 3-4 hour ride to Marrakesh, Morocco. Marrakesh is known for its huge market where you can buy almost anything, literally. But before that, we had a camel ride planned. Yes, I just said camels. We were on the camels for about an hour where we rode through a palm tree grove and into a Berber village. All the houses were made out of mud, rocks, and straw. As we rode through the village, all the kids would run out of their homes waving and asking for us to take their picture. They loved it. Among the people were chickens, roosters, sheep, dogs, and cats. It was a very eye opening experience to see how so many people live in Morocco. Following the camel ride, we went to the largest restaurant in Marrakesh which can seat over 1,000 people. It was huge, beautiful, and the food was amazing. Lots of meat, carrots, olives, and toonnss of cous cous (the food so nice they named it twice). We stayed at a hotel that SAS booked for us in advance, and the following morning we woke up for a tour of the city and some free time in the markets to shop. I visited another mosque, a few small markets, and then the larger one that everyone knows of. There were snake charmers, trained monkeys (on chains, very sad to see), fortune tellers, palm readers, and then a vendor or shop for just about anything you could imagine. It was fun, yet sometimes a tad scary, interacting with all the people and bargaining for items. Lets just say I didn’t make too many friends in Marrakesh because I never paid for anything unless I got them below the halfway mark of their initial price. Mom and Dad would be proud. I was able to get lots of great gifts, so come Christmas time, be on the lookout for a present with your name on it. The next day I got back on the bus and we made the trip back to Casablanca. It is not difficult for me to say that Marrakesh was way better than Casablanca, but both places were still experiences that I am glad to have had.
As of now we are sailing down to Ghana! I should arrive in about 4 days, I think. I have a few trips planned which include a hike to the largest waterfall in Ghana where we’re supposed to see tons of Mona monkeys, a tour of historical slave dungeons, and a visit to an orphanage. I cannot wait to get there. With all that said, I think that’s about it for now! I will try to post blogs more often so there are more that are a little shorter! I hope everyone is doing well, and I miss you all very much! If you have any other questions about my trips or just want to say hi, please e-mail me at acbozich@semesteratsea.net I love e-mail, so don’t hesitate! Talk to you all soon.
Love,
Alex
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