A Blog From A Witness.

Already Home (JayZ)

witness22 — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 02:46:05 +0000

I come home tomorrow…24 hours I will be in Norman, OK. wait. what? It’s weird to think about. To view the MV and SAS and not see it as home because that’s what it has been the past 67 days. The friendships, experiences, laughs, inside jokes, crew, staff, faculty. All seems like another life…not real life at first… but that became all I knew for a bit. This experience has been amazing and went by waaaay too fast. I will be back on SAS either as a faculty or Life long learner.
I miss my friends and family from home like crazy!! Can’t wait to see everyone!
EACH DAY GETS BETTER.
You should be the change that you wanna see.
Been an amazing summer and thanks to all who have kept up with my blog, commented and sent emails it really has meant so much, more than you could ever know. I love you all!

18 August, 2010 15:07

witness22 — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:07:28 +0000

I got a job offer with BNSF! and I am done with finals!

7525: I wish I could love every girl on the BOAT!

witness22 — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:57:00 +0000

Morocco was so legit. The first day we traveled down to Marrakech on a train that was way too packed and we actually didn’t have the sits we paid for cause they over booked it so we had to sit in the aisle and then back by the door with it open because it was too hot haha hey TIA (this is Africa) At least we had a few beers to drink on the train and a jar of nutella with anything we could scrap up to dip in it. We got off the train in what felt like to be the middle of nowhere, but ended up staying in a really nice resort just outside of the town. My plan was to stay with a different group of friends each night since it was the last port and then meet up with my zip line SAS trip the last night which proved to be pretty tricky considering I didn’t have a phone. That night we went into town to find food (mcdonalds of course ) and some alcohol. We found the “don’s” (mcdonalds) as paul would call it. By the way the first night I stayed with Paul Colin Lexi and Sophia. we got to the super market after they stopped selling alcohol so we had asked our cab driver if there was any way we could still get it. The cab driver (who obviously spoke little English) just starts driving at this point and we have no idea where he is going or if we are going to get it or just go to a bar. He takes us to this “kinda” sketchy place with all local Moroccans and walks straight to the bartender and starts saying random stuff in Arabic. We called this place “The black market” The bartender walks immediately to the back and then comes out with a bottle of liquor (charged us way too much for). We tried to go to a club that night but the SAS club everyone went to was 42 US dollars to get in and we went way too late. The next day we chilled by the pool at our resort then went into town into the square. The square in Marrakech is AWESOME. I would recommend it to all. There are many shops and stands with snake charmers and monkeys and all kinds of stuff. I was not the biggest fan of the snakes because I hate snakes and plus one of the monkeys bit Nick haha but I kept my distance for the most part ha. Luckily I was able to meet up with Courtney without a phone in the square. The souks in Marrakech rivaled that of the Grand Bizaar of Istanbul and walkin around there was pretty fun. The Moroccans weren’t as easy to haggle with and at this point I was pretty worn off from all the haggling in other countries. That night we met up with the people we were staying with at this sick place called a Riad where is like a mix between a hostel and villa. IT WAS RIDICULOUS. It had like 7 or 8 rooms and a pool in the middle of OUR LIVING ROOM. So that night we had a little pool party at our place and it was really fun. A lot of people ended up sleeping on the roof of our place that night because in Africa they don’t believe in AC the same as we do. I actually went and jumped in the pool before I went to sleep then went straight to bed without drying off haha it was the only way I could fall asleep, but still the place was nuts and the pool party was cool. The place even came with its own butler like guy. Simo was his name and that was my boy and he took care anything we needed! That night we had one of the best meals I have had on this trip. We (john Washington, Philly Jon, Bryan and Courtney and I) all went back to the square at night which the square completely transforms and all these food stands where you can sit and eat open up. It was quite the experience you walk by and the guys are all grabbing you trying to get you to come to their place but not like a bad way it was really funny actually. If you shook their hands they wouldn’t let go for a while until you looked at what they had to eat. (one guy said to me both nights “see you later alligator” and I always responded with “after while crocodile” ) One table said we could get 2 meals free and then another stand would say 3 meals free to compete for our business it was quite entertaining! So we ended up eating for really cheap and the food was sooo good. The next day Courtney and I met up with our SAS group in the square and it was really lucky that we found them because we randomly ran into them. When we approached the group the tour guide thought I was a random Moroccan trying to hassle the group. (And as I later found out he told me he cussed me out in Arabic haha) but we eventually joined the group and had a pretty good traditional Moroccan lunch. Courtney was struggling a little bit. Come to find out our tour guide Jamal ended up being really cool and we became best friends. We spend the rest of the day shopping at the square and I got some cool last minute gifts. That night SAS took us to one of the nicest restaurants in Marrakech and we had another traditional Moroccan meal with belly dancers and they made me get up and dance with them. We went back to the square after dinner to meet up with more SAS friends chillin at their Vila. Our tour guide Jamal came out with us and that’s when we ended up bonding the most. We all wanted to go to a SAS Vila party with fire breathers and belly dancers but it was really hard to find so we just chilled there. While we were walking in the street little kids kept harassing us but it was kinda funny on top of being annoying cause they followed down the street wanting money, but they were fun to play with. Like one little kid kept wanting to box me and I finally did and he starting boxing and at first it was cute and funny but then got annoying and kinda hurt hahah… the funny thing was that he wanting money from me after so I ended up giving him a dollar to hit me ha. Banks was trying to give the little kids all his money which was funny because we had to stop him. Jamal told me that one kid yelled in Arabic that I was really a “Poser Moroccan trying to act like I was an American” haha cause I guess he thought I was Moroccan like everyone else there thought I was. We got home really late that night which was a little rough considering we had to be up by 7 for our zip lining trip through the Atlas mountains but it was our last night in port so we were down for whatever. It was rough waking up the next morning but not too bad because I was so excited to go zip lining cause I have never been before. We drove out of Marakech into the mountains of the Atlas and drove through some Berber villages (I referred them Justin Biebers) once we got to almost the top we hiked another 25 to 30 minutes or so to the top where we were zip lining. The zip line was so sweet and even though I was kinda nervous, (like I made it this whole trip and all these countries hopefully I wouldn’t fall off this mountain zip lining ha), it wasn’t as scary as I thought and just really fun. While zip lining it was the thirstiest I have ever been in my life ha. The view was amazing and the only scary part was we walked across the wooden rope bridge at the beginning. I actually took a video of myself on the way down and it’s really cool and I just keep yelling TIA! TIA! the whole time haha. After the zip line we had our last Moroccan meal then hiked back down the mountain and head back to Casablanca where the boat ported like 3 hours away. They stopped at a convenient store so we could blow the rest of our Durham (Moroccan currency but at this point we had been through some many different types of currency we would all get them mixed up so I would just say Kunas(Croatia) or Dirka dirks (Team America)) It was really sad when Courtney and I had to say bye to Jamal but we got his email and I will be hittin up when I go back. We were an hour late for on ship time but because we were on a SAS trip we didn’t get dock time. I was the very last person to swipe in so I was the last one in AFRICA which is pretty cool I like to think. No one wants to do anything school work wise on the ship but since then besides school it’s been real fun and chill. We had Courtney’s birthday dinner which was an amazing 5 course meal. We also had the auction to raise money for SAS scholarships and such. Honestly I knew there were some rich kids on this boat but let me tell you it really came out during the auction. The items listed below were auctioned off and the number next to it is the amount they paid for it and yes I am not lying or exaggerated someone really paid 135 for 3 boxes of Girl Scout cookies and 300 dollars for a t-shirt., and 450 to be the first one off the ship. Tonight (when I should be writing papers for a class) we recorded a rap song to the instrumental of “Every Girl” by young money called 7-5-2-5. Me Zach, Marquette and Philly Jon, The 7525 referring to the 75% girl to 25% guy ratio on the boat of course. The chorus goes “I wish I could love every girl on the boat.” And it is a HUGE success they might even play it at the Alumni ball. I am going to bring it back with me on my comp so no worries yall can hear it. It was so fun.

Each Day Gets Better. I’ll be home soon! 1 week!

Backpack w/ patches $250

Dr. Campbell’s headband 110

3 boxes of girl scout cookies 135

t-shirt with special questions $600 for 2

country coin bracelet 300

steer the boat 475

select the dinner menu 400

first off the ship 450(Jenna)

blow the ships horn 350

map of route of ship 525

breakfast in bed by LLC (Tom) 300

red sea banner $3

The Voice records a personal message for your voicemail $120 (whitney no phone and shut off voicemail)

One day of unlimited internet 305

Be the voice for a day 300

4/5 night stay for 6 people in British Columbia ski resort 2,600

Photo session (what AS told me about that kid)-350

Steelers training camp 650

Pie doctor bowler 400 for 2 people

Write one question on the global studies final 150

Last student off the ship 500(Alex)

Makin Moves…

witness22 — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:48:51 +0000

TACO DAY!! smoothies, ping pong, sleep, movies and special dinner for Courtney’s birthday = perfect day at sea.

TIA. TIM. (This is Africa. This is Morocco)

witness22 — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 23:41:30 +0000

Well Mom you can relax now cause I am back on the boat after Morocco made it 8 countries. didn’t lose my passport and didn’t break any bones or get roofied like some kids. haha(wait idk if I should laugh at that but everyone is okay and safe on the boat) actually I was the very last person to swipe in on the boat from Africa which was really cool but I didn’t get in trouble for being late because I was on a SAS trip. Can’t believe we are done with all the ports!?! where did this summer go??? Best time of my life and so glad I did it. Now we are sailing back across the Atlantic and I’m so excited to just chill with all my good friends I have met. Morocco was AMAZING. Went Zip lining in the Atlas mountains today…no big deal. What is my life? I am so thankful cause this truly has been the trip of a lifetime and we have been spoiled with how lucky we are. I just want to travel the world even more now. So I heard from the company I worked for last summer and they were wanting to verify my graduation date and get me in contact with the HR person so I am really hoping that is a sign that I will still have the job offer from when they offered in May. Wish me luck! cause that would be amazing to have that job already before school even starts especially wish how broke I am now! ha Well I will update yall on Morocco when I get more sleep cause I think I averaged bout 3 or 4 hours a night in Morocco.

magraham@semesteratsea.net

witness22 — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 14:28:28 +0000

ok so this is kinda late in the game but because I update my blog by email cause I am out of internet minutes I have have never noticed that when I type my email address at the end of my blog that the part after the “at” doesn’t show up. (I am guessing this is why I haven’t got as many emails haha well let’s just say that’s why) so my email is
magraham”at”semesteratsea.net Just finished my global studies midterm couple days ago and a 6 page paper and anther paper for another class! (probably the worst papers I have ever written but oh well) just glad to be done. we have had a stretch of 6 days between Egypt and Morroco, (GETTIN TO MORROCCO TOMORROW last port gonna go big! ) so it’s been a stretch of 5 class days which has been a lot of class but it’s the longest stretch we will have from here on out and I got a lot of stuff out of the way so now it’s time to coast and enjoy, but hoping these last days don’t go by too fast. A bunch of guys are already planning a trip out to Cali to Cal Poly for their WOW week in sept and I really want to get out there but I am trying to figure out how I am going to pay for that Ou/Texas and Vegas on New years. but Bryan already bought his plane ticket and I really want to make it out there. Gonna be hard cause now not only do want I want to go back to the countries we have visited but I want to experience the rest of the world like china, Japan Thailand North Europe. but also travel around the US and visit the many friends all over the place. Boulder, Philly, NYC, Cali, Washington, Madison, UT, Miami.

magraham @ semesteratsea.net

to the motherland camel back through the desert sand…

witness22 — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 13:47:46 +0000

Not going to lie, I was a little worried when we first got to Egypt. We ported in Alexandria and it is a lot dirtier and seemed less safe at first. Once I got used to it everything ended up being completely fine but it just took some getting used to. The first day we did a SAS trip that toured the city. We saw catacombs, palaces, the famous library of Alexandria, forts and the beaches where we ate lunch at a nice country club. Fish and potatoes. Jess, Morgen, Dan and Brandon were all on this trip. We also went to the National Museum of Alexandria where we saw some mummies and such. That night we jumped in a taxi and it put the taxi ride in Istanbul to shame. The traffic and the way the cab drivers in Egypt are absolutely insane. All the taxi drivers seem a little sketch at first as well. It was just me and Bryan in the cab to the 4 season that night and I swear I thought our driver was driving in circles ready to mess with us. But that was just me being paranoid and the driver ended up being really nice and wanted to take us everywhere and wait for us. We ended up being able to get completely across town for just 20 EP (egyptian pounds) which is like 4 bucks between the two of us. It was funny because we talked to a lot of girls who ended up paying like 50 to 80. We chilled at the 4 seasons for a while with a bunch of SAS people and smoked hookah. (Eddie thinking he could speak Arabic). The next day was so surreal I was on a SAS trip that traveled by bus to Giza (right next to Cairo) and we saw the pyramids. It’s kind of crazy to look back now and think I have already done that and it seems so long ago and almost like a dream. It was funny cause all the locals around the pyramids were pretty pushy in trying to get you to buy things or trick you into gettin on a camel then not letting you down until you would pay and stuff like that. I wasn’t tricked into that though, but within the first 5 min of being there I saw a few people from SAS on camels. After seeing a few tombs and many pyramids we went to a little bit of a sketchy part of Giza and ate at the country club. Why this next country club was in the middle of sketchvile I have no idea, but driving through the area was pretty sad because we saw the really poverty stricken parts of the country. After lunch we went on a jeep safari through the Sahara which was incredible. After the safari we rode camels back to the country club and that was equally as amazing. (Shaping up to be the coolest day of my life until the next day) My camels name was Charlie Brown and the guy leading my camel ride was pretty cool but tried to hustle me for a tip. Haha but I gave him a little cause he let me race Trevor’s camel. After we signed out of the SAS trips so we could stay a few nights in Cairo and they literally dropped us off in downtown Giza and we had no idea where we were or where to go or how to speak Arabic haha but It was kind of a cool/exciting little adventure to get to our hostel. We stopped in an exchange office and luckily one of the guys spoke English and wrote in Arabic the address of where we needed to go and we could just show it to the taxi cab driver, but that proved to be harder than we thought to get a taxi driver to take us into downtown Cairo for a reasonable price. We finally found one and we thought the traffic/driving in Alexandria was bad but Cairo was a billion times worse. And trying to cross the street is just sometimes not that smartest idea. You would have to just start walking and weave around cars and they would stop for you (most the time) We had a little trouble finding our hostel cause it was located right in the heart of downtown and once we found it we didn’t think anyone was there cause we didn’t know we had to go to the 4th floor not the 2nd. The hostel we stayed in was a little sketch at first like the building we walked into had people sleeping on cardboard on the first floor. It was only 10 US dollars a night to stay there haha so we were a little weary, but like always it worked out and ended up being pretty nice and had AC which is what we mainly cared about. Not the proudest of what I ate in Cairo but I blame it on SAS for scaring us into not wanting to get sick. But my 3 day span of food went as followed, Pizza hut, mcdonalds, hardees, kfc and TGIfridays. Haha I know I know…but at least I had those Egyptian meals on the SAS trips. That night we just wondered around downtown Cairo. It wasn’t sketchy at all after we had gotten there because it was so packed with people at all times of the night. We would see little kids out until like 3 in the morning. The next day we did one of the coolest things ever and went and rode ATVs or 4 wheelers through the Sahara desert with the pyramids in the background. (how we got to that point is a really interesting story that I will have to tell people in person) but it includes The Godfather. After we rode AtVs we went to an oil shop and some bazaar with our driver who drove us around all day. Then we went to pizza hut and to our defense we went to the one where you can see the pyramids out the window while eating pizza hut which is kind of trippy and cool. Eating Pizza hut and you look out the window and there are the pyramids! We also watched the pyramid light show from top of that pizza hut for free. We ate the Tgifridays right on the Nile as well so that’s kind of cultured right? We spent the last night on the boat in Alexandria and a bunch of people went out to a place called Mermad and our taxi cab driver ended up coming inside and smoking hookah while we were at this bar and taking care of us. It was one big fun SAS party. The last day I went and played futbol(soccer) with some local college Egyptian students that went to the University of Alexandria. It was really fun and got to meet some really cool kids and exchanged email and facebook info. Went to the mall and then back to library of Alexandria with Courtney and Philly Jon. We shopped a little bit at the market to get rid of the rest of our EPound. And I got a cool tank top and hat. And just barely made it back on the boat right before getting dock time. The next day I was worn out from Egypt but we didn’t have any class and went straight into Sea Olympics. The boat’s decks (floors or halls) are each given a sea name like mine is the Red Sea and so obviously our color is red. So we had to all deck out in red and there was a series of events each deck competed in throughout the day like Opening Ceremony (Chant) In our chant we parted the Red sea.(of course) Extreme Musical Chairs, Flip Cup, Pull Ups, Asian Cube Scramble, Dodgeball, Tug O War, Jeopardy, Donut on a String, Potato Sculpting, Synchronized Swim Pop a Shot Free Throw, Lip Sync Contest, Eating Contest Relay Race, Crab Soccer Mystery Challenge Shave the Airhead Limbo and Spirit Patrol

And let me tell you it was intense! Because the sea that won got to get of the boat first in Norfolk. So the whole day people were yelling and chanting. And we, the Red sea started off DOMINATING. I did Dodgeball and Asian Cube Scramble and the Lip Sync Contest. We won Dodge ball and got 3rd the cube scramble. In the Lip Sync contest we did like a Egyptian theme at the beginning and Tom dressed up like Moses led us out then we took our blankets from our rooms and covered him up while we dance around him and they played the song Buttons by the pussy cat dolls (haha) and he took off his like Moses robe until he was down into his speedo and we drop the blankets and they started playing the “Too Sexy” song and all the guys danced to that. It was pretty funny but there were some really good other ones. We started to trail off throughout the day and ended up getting 4th place which was still pretty good and at least we didn’t lose to the faculty like Zach and Courtney sea haha. That was probably one of the most fun days on the ship. It sucks that we only have one more port left. Definitely don’t know where the summer went and not ready for it to be over at all. Thanks for the read. email please cause it’s been slow lately. Magraham

Each Day Gets Better.

RISE UP. I want to fly SO HIGH!

witness22 — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 14:37:38 +0000

Wow. How amazing Egypt was. Completely different part of the world compared to Europe, but I completely loved it. We had this thing called Sea Olympics the day after Egypt and it was one of the most fun days on the boat. It was pretty intense and competitive. Only one more port left which makes me really sad cause I really don’t want to get off the boat but I do miss everyone! Just wanted to blog real quick and let you know I survived Egypt but will definitely have to go into further detail later (well from the stuff I can actually blog about cause I don’t want to scare my sister and my mom again haha) later cause Egypt was quite the experience!

Turkish Delight

witness22 — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 22:14:09 +0000

Istanbul, Turkey what an amazing place. It was the first port that was a bigger culture shock than the rest. I believe Turkey is something like 95% Muslim. Istanbul has so many beautiful mosques and is located right on the Bosporus. The first day there I went out with Zach, Nick, Nicky, Eric, Jackie, Christen, Laurel(Shay) and Meredith. One of the amazing parts of Turkey is the ability to haggle prices. Usually a vendor will start you off with a ridiculous price and then you have to bargain him down to at least half if not more. It is like a sport or competition and as you all know I hate shopping but when it’s like this it was actually really really fun. It was really funny we all got these little Abu hats(like the monkey from Aladdin) and the guy offered Zach 1 for 20 lira( 1.5 lira =1 USD) and Zach and Nick thought they were really getting a deal cause they got him down to 2 for 20 lira. Then we literally went about 150 meters and the next vendor offered us them for 5 lira and we all just started busting out laughing and Zach and Nick got pretty pissed haha so funny. Then it was a joke on all of us cause we saw them for 2 liras like 30 minutes later. The dean on the boat told us all this would happen and its just one of those things you got to just go with. After seeing a few historical sites like the serpentine column(i think that’s what it was called) we had lunch at this cool little place where we sat on the ground and had kebabs and Turkish tea(so good). I loved the people in Istanbul everyone we met was so friendly and all of them were HILARIOUS. Our waiter ended up giving us free apple tea and that stuff is so good too. After lunch we went to Hagia Sophia which used to be a Christian church and was later converted into a Muslim church. Our tour guide was legit and had us laughing pretty much the whole time. Then we went to the Blue Mosques which is one of the most famous mosque in Istanbul. We had to take off our shoes and all the girls had to cover up with scarfs. We took some time there to sit on the carpet take it all in and snag some photos. Then we visited some more mosques and museums and a really cool park. I love how chill Istanbul is a lot of the time you just chill have a meal and smoke some hookah. Peach, Watermelon and Strawberry. That night we all went to a restaurant that overlooked the city called 360 . we didn’t stay out too late cause a lot of us had overnight trips the next morning.

Day 2

I probably had the coolest most cultural things happen in Turkey. The second day I had to be up by 5:30 to catch a plane to the middle of Turkey called Cappadoccia. I didn’t want to tell my mom or sister but after this flight I was in Asia(so that makes it 4 continents in a couple of months) and only about a 30 to 45 minute flight from Iraq. Haha Anyways Cappadoccia was absolutely amazing. It’s like the Grand Canyon of Turkey. It’s hard to explain what it was like but all I can say is to Google it. Courtney, Sloan Addison, heather Nurus and Alex were all on the trip The first thing we did was went to this really cool cave. Maybe one of the coolest things I have ever done.(but I have said that a lot I think) but definitely was. It was this cave that went like 40 meters down and it was a little underground village. 5000 Christians used to live down there to escape prosecution. There were all kinds of crazy tunnels you could get lost end and signs to indicate where the churches, kitchens and other stuff were. We actually did almost got lost and me and this one kid were late back to the bus and thought they had left us haha the bus leaders had to have hated our group because we were always late for everything. The rest of the day they showed us around Cappadoccia and our tour guide(a lil hard to understand) told us all about the history. When we stopped for lunch we had a pretty interesting experience. Overseas they usually take longer for meals and we only had an hour for lunch and it took forever to get our meal and some people were wanting to just walk out and not get dock time(is where you can’t get off the boat for a certain amount of time) and others wanted to wait. One girl just straight up walked out and half the others were about to and we ended up getting togo boxes and they just guessed a price for us to pay and I am pretty sure half of them didn’t even pay for the the meal. It was really awkward and especially being in another country and having a waitress that spoke no English. We stayed at a really nice hotel in Cappadoccia called Dinler and had an amazing buffet with a ridiculous dessert spread. That night we had a performance by the Whirling Dervishes. Which was really cool because I learned about it in my Understanding Music classes in intersession before the trip at OU. They literally spent in circles. The whole time. -Courtney. The next morning at the hotel we had another amazing breakfast spread. The rest of the day was filled with more site seeing of Cappadoccia and we saw some really cool rock formations and climbed pretty high and got some cool pictures. We headed back to Istanbul and the flight was a lil sketch. We had some turbulence right before we landed and I was just happy to be on the ground. We all went out that night and chilled and smoked hookah. It was a really good chill time. It’s funny though because we were from American a lot of time they would just bring us stuff out and expect we would pay for it. Like we wore smoking hookah and they just kept bringing out tea and watermelon and you would either just have to say you didn’t want it or you weren’t going to pay. This was similar with taxi they would tell you a price and then try to make it higher at the end and a lot of the time you just would have to give them the price from the beginning and just walk away. We ended up after hookah going to find some bars and clubs and while we were walking we ran into some of our local Turkish friends from the first day at the hookah bar. They showed us around and told us all the places to go. It was actually funny cause they kept kinda just poppin up out of no where. Like the next morning we were going to the Bizarre and we ran into one of them on the streets and then the last night we were going to one of the bars and stopped in a random restaurant to use the WC(bathroom) and one of them just happened to be working there. It was really crazy but really cool. He was about to get off work and he ended up taking me and John (Washington) and Courtney to this really cool park that overlooked the entire city at night. Earlier that day me and Courtney had an amazing/awesome time at the Grand Bizarre which is the coolest/biggest market I have ever seen packed with people yelling for you to come in there store and buy their stuff. And they had absolutely everything that you could imagine there. They all would say “hi friend, excuse please, where are you from?, which way? This way, today it’s almost free, jimmy, “ and called Courtney ”Angelina Jolie, spice girls, Britney spears, shakira, charlie’s angels” We went into one shop and me and Court were on our game and made friends with these guys and they gave us apple tea and had us laughing the whole time. They kept saying that we were married and calling Courtney Angelina Jolie. We ended up getting really good deals from her and she got a Burberry coat and I got two lacoste polos. I ended up going back the last day with John(Washington) and he saw me and completely stopped talking to the other people and came running up to me and did the little kiss on the cheeks thing(kinda weird but really funny) and was really cool he remembered me and was so excited. He ended up giving John the same deal. After the bizarr Courtney and I went to a Turkish Bath. AND WOW… what an experience that was… We went to this historical Turkish Bath place that had been open SINCE 1584…ha yea 1584. A Turkish bath is when you go to this place and you have to get completely naked except for a towel kinda like a sauna and you’re in the room with all these guys and these big huge hairy Turkish men pretty much wash you completely. Yea REALLY awkward at first but once you got used to it it was really relaxing. Like you lay on the huge heated slab and the guy scrubs you with the pad that rubs all your dead skin off. Then they throw buckets of water on you. Then wash you completely and are kinda rough at times haha like the guy popped my neck. Then they wash your hair which I don’t have much to wash right now so he kind of just massaged my scalp a lot also again kind of rough. It was really funny cause I had no idea what was going on at first and it was really awkward and me and mike were in there and we just looked lost. After the bath we got a oil massage which was probably the best part cause it was soo relaxing. I was so tired after the Turkish bath and all I wanted to do was go back and sleep but we all ended up going out and went to a place called Ridden and it ended up being really fun. It was funny on the way home I was even bargaining the price of a kebab at a kebab stand and got it spicy(probably not the best idea but it was so good) I just think it was funny you can even haggle on prices of some foods. That night we had an INSANE cab driver who I think thought he was in NASCAR or something and we were all really happy to get out by the time we got back. The next day we went back to the Grand bizarre and me and John(wash) went crazy on the shopping and haggling. It was fun I feel like I could go there for a week and not get sick of it. Like we were bout to leave and all I had left was 10 Turkish Lira(cause I had to get rid of all my Turkish currency) and we were walking through a part of the bizare that was really aggressive and stopped and talked to this guy who wanted 140 Lira for a bottle of lacoste cologne. I ended up getting him down to TEN… 10 lira haha it was pretty awesome. Then I also had this one dollar bill (USD) that was I was trying to get rid of but it was really wrinkled and had a few rips and a lot of people when take it, in fact one guy was bout to then he gives it back to me and says …”no no no es broken es broken” haha So I was walking through and saw a guy selling packs of socks so I offered him the “broken” dollar and he was says no 10 dollars and I was nooo but he had already y taken my dollar and said follow me. So I start to follow him and we had been walking for a while and I stop so John could look at jerseys and I tried to yell at the guy and he keeps walking so I am like oh well forget it it’s just a dollar. So we were at the jersey stand for at least 10 minutes and up walks the same guy later, let me remind you it’s REALLY crowded in this area, and he walks up and places a toy in my bag and doesn’t say a word and walks off. Haha it was really funny but at the same time really commendable he could have easily walked away with my dollar but he came all the way back and found me. Hmm Idk it made my day ha just seemed cool. We also were really craving burger king(ha) and ended up pigging out there. Just headed back to the boat after that worn out. Turkey went by waaay too fast. We had a couple of days of class on the boat and another quiz and tons of stuff due for class that I continue to procrastinate on. We had another dodge ball game which is always a good time I think we are in the final four now! Turkey was awesome can’t wait to go back. Still loving life and loving the boat. Thanks for reading I know it’s so long. Appreciate all the emails and texts.

magraham

Each Day Gets Better.

IOS. M-I-N-E.

witness22 — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:39:55 +0000

The most fun I have had on this trip was Greece. I will definitely be going back some day. I really liked Athens it was a really legit city. And I think of all the places even Italy I liked the food most in Greece. I literally lived off kebabs which you could get for like 2 euros. The first day in Greece we stayed in Athens and went and saw the Acropolis which was amazing to see. My profile pic on facebook is actually already a jumpin pic I took there with Misha. Bryan, Philly Jon and Brandon all went up there and got some cool pics. It was soo hot I can’t even imagine Egypt now….. funny thing happened on top of the acropolis, a lot of people on the boat call me Marcus Aurelius. Well Danielle saw me on top of the acropolis and yells “Marcus Aurelius” and then this other girl that I know Michelle says to her “Look at you knowing people’s last names” hahah it was hilarious I still don’t let her live that one down. We have a thing on the boat called special question of the day and “The Voice” announces them usually at lunch and they are always hilarious like the one above. I am going to try and remember some more and blog them all one day. We all went to to some other historical stops and a few museums and did some shopping around at the markets and stuff. Then we met up with some other people to eat kebabs and get drinks. The first night we went out for a few drinks at some Irish pub called O’Connell just like in Norman. It was pretty chill cause most people had to catch really early ferry’s to the islands the next morning. A lot of people went to an island called mykonos, but we decided to go to an island called Ios and I am really happy we did cause it was a lot cheaper and it was so fun. Plus when we go out usually in some place it’s like all of SAS takes over the place so it was nice to go out and not be all SAS. There were so many Australians and Irish on Ios and they definitely all like to party like I have never seen before. Our ferry was at 7 in the morning and we were suppose to be there an hour early so it was rough getting up but we all made it and just passed out on our ferry which was pretty nice but it took like 4 hours to get down to the island. One guy that was with us went to the bathroom when we were getting off and had to go a couple hours farther south to another island then all the way back but he eventually made it. The place we were staying we actually had no idea if we even had the place because we had been emailing the hostel owner, George(Markos Village I will go back), and he was really vague about if we got it. We asked him all these questions like do we need a passport? And all he responded with was “ok we’re good get off the boat and go left down to the beach” hahah so we did that and eventually we found George and he ended up being so tight and our hostel was incredible. It had a huge balcony overlooking the city and the pool and like 3 rooms and a kitchen. We met some really cool Australian girls and they came and hung out with us on our balcony and we ended up going out with them. The next day we went down to this beach and it was like spring break down there. It was a really good time got some cheap kebabs like usual and was pumped when we ran into some good SAS friends(Zach, Nick, Jess, Lauren, Morgen, and some girls from SAS who stayed the night in our vila) and hung out with them all day on the beach. We had a real nice sit down dinner that night and all grabbed some naps before we went out. In Ios it’s crazy because everyone naps til like 11 30 or midnight then don’t go out til like 2 and the clubs don’t really get going til like 330or 4. pretty intense stuff. That night we were up for the sunrise and it was like 6 to 630 and people were still SHOWING up to the club. Never seen anything like it. A lot more Australians showed up and hung out on our balcony again that night so that was pretty legit. The next day we were all really sad to leave Ios and wanted to stay for another night but didn’t want to risk getting stuck in Greece in case of a strike or something.(Paul and Colin stayed and made it back at exactly 6(on ship time)) The ferry back to Athens was not the greatest bc it was 4 hours back but didn’t sleep the whole time like the first one, but zach and nick had be laughing most the time and just replaying the whole Ios trip. Plus we were watching these terrible Greek American(Paris Hilton was in it) knock off sitcoms and Nick was just giving us a play by play(hilarious) since we couldn’t hear it and spent like 30 mins trying to get them to turn it up. When we got back to the ship (like every time) it was nice to be “home” I have mentioned It before but it really feels good to get back to the ship after a trip or something. I love the ship! We were all missin Ios and tellin stories and messin around with this game we learned in Ios. But we were all so tired and worn out but it was our last night in Greece and especially cause it was Jess’s 21st bday so we all decided to still go out(of course). We went to this really cool area of Athens and it was hella(i know I know) packed which none of us expected at all but it ended up being really fun. The last day I just wanted to sleep all day and go get mcdonalds and that was the plan but then I ended up going with Adam and Spencer into the markets in Athens and I am glad I did cause I ended buying 2 pairs of Ray Bans(thinking about giving a pair to my sister if I can’t find what I was originally going to get her) for like 6 Euros each and a really tight Messi jersey for 15 euro . I think I underestimated Athens I ended up really liking it and Greece as a whole was the most fun but I still think I liked Dubrovnik, Croatia so far the best but it’s really hard to pick at this point. Thanks for the texts and emails and keep em coming! I am working on responding to them it’s just hard with limited internet.

magraham

Each Day Gets Better.

inside Hey! Are you American?! AF!! living room french fries, rooftop of scorpion, 1st night, rise up rainbow song, Sfing, m-i-n-e, Greek Goddess, Colorado BP, Scottie, Lela Irish, Empire State of Mind, sparklers, on the ledge for hours, disco 69. Rehab tanks, creepy clown shirt, 36 hours, heart to heart, wtc, zachattackrock, wifey *