MAJOR UPDATE

I haven't updated in a while, so this may be a little overwhelming...
Also, as a side note, SAS means semester at sea and SASers are students in the program.

To see more photos, click on the location: New York | Bahamas | The Ship
Next update will be Venezuela! ENJOY

August 31 - September 2nd The trip so far...
My room is tiny!!! Good thing I spend all my time in the lounge. Everything is so beautiful in the ship. I think it's the most luxurious place I've ever lived. I go out onto the top deck and look out over the ocean. People just sit out there and hang out or go in the pool. It's kinda like a dream world.

The crew and staff are amazingly nice. Its kind of weird being served drinks and having our dishes taken to get cleaned for us though. They even make our bed and clean the bathroom everyday. I'd prefer to do it myself, but hey, i can't complain. Its definitely going to be a big contrast to being at port. The stewards are great too, always joking around and all. The guy at the bar, Manny, knows me pretty well because I keep coming to get ginger-ale. I really need to stock up on ginger-ale in Venezuela because it makes my stomach feel nice.

So far I haven't gotten sea sick, but it's pretty funny watching people weave down the halls like drunkards on account of the rocking ship. I wonder what it's gunna be like when people ACTUALLY get drunk. I heard that being drunk compensates for the rocking so you walk normally... we'll see. We get pub nights every so often, but we're only allowed 4 drinks. People have tried to bring drinks on board. Some have made it, but others got their alcohol poured out in front of them. They even open water bottles and smell them to check.

The food is unbelievable which is great because I didn't have very high expectations. All the other kids are great, I meet at least 10 new people every day. So many from California, but still there's a wide range of where they come from. My floor is great and I know practically everyone on it so far. There are two baby grand pianos, which has made me incredibly happy. I also heard a rumor that there is a drum set on board somewhere. It's hard to listen to music now because it reminds me so much of everyone at home.

We have professional R.A.s and it just so happens that my R.A. is going to be the one in charge of the on ship TV programming. I'm for sure going to be a part of that. It ended up that this girl, Alicia, that I work with at the UCLA TV station is on the voyage too. Weird coincidence!!

I went to my first classes and the professors are really great. All three are so unique and exciting in their own way. Its pretty funny, since we are living with our professors, so we see them around all the time. We can just eat and chat with them when ever we want. My anthropology of food class also goes over alcohol and drugs, which should be interesting.

The other night I was woken to this bizarre smell of sulfur. I haven't figured out what it is yet, but at first I thought it was my roommate.

The other night we played Outburst, but it was a version from the early '90s so it was a bit outdated. Almost everyone was playing board games the other night. WILD!

They had there first drinking night, but the lines to buy drink tickets were ridiculous, so I decided against. Plus, it was like $2.50 a drink with a 4 drink max. I'll just wait til in port at Venezuela where the real party begins. I'm really excited about dancing salsa and merengue again. I went to the ship drinking hour and some friends and I watched everyone drinking on the bar deck from the deck above. My roommates already hooking up and its only the third night...


August 30th
This was it! Departure time! Getting on the boat was pretty quick and easy. A bunch of people tried to sneak alcohol on, but got it dumped out in front of their face. HA! I unpacked and explored for a while. The gym, the spa, the workout room, the pool, the basketball court... they have EVERYTHING. My roommate is Colin, who's kinda quite, but a cool guy. As we were leaving, one of the SASers mom jet skied out by the boat to wave goodbye. Quite an emotional moment for everyone!


August 29th
I had to do laundry, so I took up cab deep into the ghettos because that was the only place with a laundry mat(doing it at the Atlantis was $5 a shirt). It was a pretty sketchy place and I felt a bit out of place being the only white person there. After I was done, I caught a bus to the local market to try out some fruit. Some taxi driver walked around with me because we wanted me to have him take me back to the hotel. I finally gave in.

When I got back, I went to the beach again and met some other SASers again. We wanted to go down the water slide, but we ended up waiting an hour in line and never going down because the water pipes were broken. Later that night, a bunch of the SASers met up in the lobby again and partied at the free casino club. We got pretty hot in there so a bunch of us went to the pools and slid down the slides at like 1 AM. It was a fun night, but I had to get up the next morning at 6:30 AM...

August 28th
Today we went on a trip to rose island. This is a smaller island and no one was on it but our group. The day was super relaxing. We got to go snorkeling and kayaking too. The lunch was probably the best food I've had in a while and the rum punch was included. We tried to fit the whole family in one of those bike paddle boats, but we ended up just sinking.

When we got back to Atlantis I went to the beach and met some new SASers. Later, we ended up going to this club called senior frogs. That was a wild place... there was a Jamaican MC who started a congo line and had us learning all these reggae dance moves. Later that night, there were about 20 people dancing on the bar (including me) and other people who jumped into the ocean (the club opened up over the ocean).

August 27th
So I set out to begin my plan of building a sand castle. The family came with and we went to claim a spot. I started clearing out, but no matter what I did, people kept stepping over my area. It was tricky business trying to keep people away. But finally I got some walls up and people went around. One lady went by and actually started yelling at me because she had to go around. I just laughed at her, but that was probably a dangerous idea... I almost had to fight her away from my sand city.

Later on some 3 year old kids came by and I helped them make sand castles. They were more interested in tearing them down, but they were awesome anyway. I finally finished my little sand city at like 6 PM... after 5 hours. It had a tunnel system and all. A girl came by and wanted to take a picture with me and my castle.

Afterwards I went to dinner with the family and saw some dancing and fire-throwing. Then it was time to meet up with more SASers. I went to the lobby and they were ALL over the place


August 26th
So today is sunny!!! Yayyyy. We got a free brunch this morning because my parents went on this tour of time time shares. Free food tastes especially good, but I knew that already. The sister and I went to the pools. The lines for the slides were crazy since it was the first sunny day all week. Around 4 the sister and I decided to go to town to pick up some goodies. We took a taxi out there and headed for the market. Didn't have much time though.

The towns closes down around 6 or 7, because they like to get the partying going early. (Or at least that's what I was told). So far I've been offered pretty much any drug you can think of on the street. Had dinner with the parents and then took a cab back to Paradise island. I decided to go for a run on the beach. By now it was dark, but running on an empty beach was awesome, especially with the humid air. On my way back i found a bunch of buckets and a shovel. These really made my day. I'm so going to make a sandcastle tomorrow.

When I got back, these girls, who I had randomly called(found out there room number from the semester at sea message board) had called me back and we were to meet. I got down to the casino and we wandered for a big. They seemed pretty cool. We explored the "Dig" which is a bunch of aquariums and is supposed to be a recreation of Atlantis.


August 25th
Woke up and went to find a place to eat. The first place we went to stopped serving. The Atlantis is ridiculous... you have to pay for EVERYTHING. $10 for internet for a day. $15 to work out at the gym per day.

After breakfast we took the ferry to town. On the way, I saw the ship, which was completely unbelievable. it was dwarfed compared to ours, but I think ours is the most beautiful. Its hard to get use to the fact that it will be my home for 3 months. Once we got to town, it was raining intensely, but we still wandered around and got soaked. We ended up talking to this guy at a fruit stand for a while and he was real chill... AND he was a designer for some newspaper.

We got a ride to a restaurant from this random lady who worked for the newspaper. We ate conch, which is actually pronounced CONK as I now know. After we ate we went to the grocery store to get food, but it was closed and some guy said he'd take us to another one that was a few minutes away. I ended up getting separated from the family and walking around this guy for more than a half hour. On the way, a bunch of guys kept asking us if we wanted to "Party". After walking around in the ghettos and realizing I actually didn't HAVE any money for groceries, we ended up back in town and found the family... luckily.

Back at the atlantis we when to the water-slides at night. They were supposed to be closed, but we climbed up them an slid back down. After getting kicked out, we found this elevator that would take us to the 24th floor. You needed a special card to get up, but we got lucky and some employee happened to be in the elevator with us and swiped us. At the top floor, we found this hatch to the roof. The view from the roof was spectacular and a great way to top off the night. We played chutes an ladders for a while in the lobby, but it was IMPOSSIBLE for any of us to win so we gave up. I don't know how I had the patience for that game when I was younger.

August 24th
It was a big day today... had to head out early to catch the plane. I had some good double layered pizza at the airport and slept through the whole flight. It was pouring at the atlantis. By the night time it had stopped, so the sister and I went to the beach and swam in the 80° water... mmm was that nice.

August 23rd
Today was to be our museum day. We took the subway to Museum Mile and saw the Cooper-Hewit Design Museum, but it ended up being somewhat of a disappointment. We went in the Guggenheim and the Met, but didn't actually see the exhibits... maybe next time. After we went to check out NYU, which was pretty cool, but no UCLA.

At night, Kristel and I went to see Wicked with the family. It was pretty intense—so much green and the dialogue was pretty corny that it was hard not to laugh. When we met up with Donnie again, we went on a mission to find this Italian restaurant we had seen in Times Square the other night.

After about an hour of searching, we finally found it and it turned out to be Mama Sbarros!! It had a pasta bar and they charged you by the pound. Definitely tasty. Since it was my last day, we wanted to chat out on the terrace at the hostel, but it was closed. We devised a scheme to sneak past the evil guy at the front desk and get out and enjoyed the few last hours in the nice New York air.


August 22nd
I got in contact with this old friend, Alex Hoff, who's now living in NY. Kristel and I decided to meet him for lunch. After lunch we got a private tour of the HBO building. Afterwards we went the Penguin store and oh was that fun, but I didn't get anything... yet.

We went to Brooklyn and found the most amazing museum... PS1. It was like a student version of the MoMA and a lot of the stuff was really original. After we finished exploring there, we went across the street to this place that was covered in graffiti.

A guy who lived there said we could go up to the roof. It was crazy!! Everywhere around was tagging!! After we took about a million photos, we headed to L.E.S. to meet Donnie. We found this nice health food place that had chai. The guy didn't know how to make it blended, so we had to teach him. He was scared he was doing it wrong and gave us a bunch extra.

We went upstairs and they had a patio on the roof, so we watched the sunset. After meeting up with Donnie, we searched around for a place to eat and ended up at a Asian tapas place. Later on, we took the ferry to Statin Island and saw the statue from a distance. It was pretty tiny.


August 21st
I had brunch with the family and then took the sister to go shopping downtown. Later we went back to get ready for Kristel's birthday dinner. We went down to SOHO and found this gallery that hadn't been opened yet. The artists were inside hanging out and we went in to talk with them.

After, we ate dinner at this amazing Malaysian restaurant. We really cleaned off the plates. To make the night perfect, we went over to a Brazilian restaurant where they had music. We had some delicious coffee and this chocolate dessert that was unbelievable. This girl started dancing to the music and she was pretty good.


August 20th
So I finally was fed up with my hair being in my eyes all the time. Especially since it's extremely humid and the hair was really weighting me down. I decided it needed to be cut and Kristel volunteer for the task. I figured she'd trim the front so I could see and then just shape the rest. An hour later and a pound lighter, I found myself with short hair again. Definitely a change, as you can see. By that time, we were pretty much starved, so we headed over to the local deli once again. They didn't have the tortellini special, so I got their amazing lasagna like the day before. We went to the grocery market, which are a lot different from in LA. It's impossible to find anything and half the stuff is above you. We decided to take the subway over to Williamsburg, since we heard it was the hip place to be and plus there was supposed to be some festival going on.

As soon as we walk out of the subway station, some guy hands us a flier for the festival we wanted to go to and gives us exact directions. HOW CONVENIENT! We have an hour to kill before it starts, so we wander around the town. Almost every wall is filled graffiti... and this isn't just the quick and dirty stuff, this is serious graffiti. Some of the artists styles are even recognizable. The colors are really amazing because there is such a broad range and interesting combination. We head down to the festival and there is some folksy type group playing as well as artists painting a wall.

After a bit, we continue on down to the waterside and check out manhattan from across the canal. The town is really relaxing and much different from down town. Everyone is out walking their dog or just enjoying themselves.

We search out this thrift store that Kristel knew about called "Beacons Closet". It turns out to be a really amazing place. I mean, normal thrift stores have a pretty limited selection and all the good stuff is always the wrong size. But this place had some really great stuff that actually fit. I ended up getting a cool pair of vans, cause they were just to nice to pass up. Kristel and I both got vanilla chais at this nice place and that got us pretty wired. It was just the boost I needed to keep me going.

After that we went to this gallery opening party that we had heard about. When we got inside it was at least 100 degrees in this tiny room. You could barely breathe and the place was packed. When we went outside there was this guy who wanted us to take his picture, so I did... he was a bit drunk though. We headed over to Little Italy, but it seemed like China Town had taken it over. We had dinner with the parents and then went back.


August 19th
Got up way to late today, but now I'm pretty rested. I went outside to go on my laptop and it started pouring like MAD. After a little bit, it stopped and we went to this amazing italian deli. The lasagna was huge and awesome. Then, we walked down to the Chelsea District. We found this little park, but then this guy came and told us we weren't supposed to be there if we didn't have kids. Out of nowhere, this lady (who has a kid) yells "they're friends of ours". We just kinda play along and find out that we might have gotten a citation. Good thing we had went in the gate that had the list of rules.

We walked on the pier for a bit and saw this game of dodge ball. It was a bunch of little kids, but there were a couple older, councilor looking teens. One of them was playing and he would nail the kids with the ball whenever he got it. It was pretty intense. Afterwards, Kristel road the electric pony and relived her childhood. I was a pretty big moment for her, I'd have to say.

We wondered through some of the galleries for a bit, but most of them were closed until September. In one, there was this awesome musical instrument made out of a Epson Dot-matrix printer. I really want one. After the galleries, we ran over to the MOMA because they had this special thing where it was free on fridays. There were about a million other people there though.

They had a lot of cool stuff there, especially architectural and design stuff. It was really neat to see so many of the things I study about. There was some really good photography there also. By the time we got out it was past 8, so we went to find dinner. We finally settled on sushi. Then we decided to go up the empire state building.

On the way there, we came upon this family of three. First, the girl "drops" her cell phone, even though it looked more like she threw it to the ground. Next, the dad some how steps on this box and gets his foot stuck in it. And finally, some drunk, laughing guy totally runs into the mom. To top it all off, they asked me for directions and I think I told them the wrong way. Well, they're never coming back, that's for sure.

When we got to the ESB, we spent a good 15 minutes or so just standing there and finally decided it was too expensive. Instead we took the subway to what we thought was going to be NYU, but somehow we ended up across the Brooklyn Bridge and half way to Coney Island. At that point we decided it was just best to head home for the night. Note: the subway tunnels are like being in hell.


August 18th
So I got to the airport and waited for the kids for two hours. We ended up taking the airtram + train to get to our hostel. On the way, I saw some amazing graffiti, but it went by so fast, I couldn't take a picture. We got to the hostel and had to go wonder around because our room wasn't ready. We headed up 8th and checked out shops on the way.

We end up in central park and decide to look around for the concert venue for the Death Cab show that night. The park is enormous though, I would've never imagined it that big. There was a lot of construction going on, which was too bad, but we got around it. We finally ran into the concert venue (very lucky). They were still setting up, so we just hung out for a while. Then we wondered some more to the motor boat lake, turtle pond, and castle.

New York is actually a surprisingly clean place, at least the parts we were in. A lot more so that lots of L.A. Some of the buildings are really amazing too. Even though everyone seemed to be in a rush, for us, time was going really slow. Maybe it's just the mindset of being on vacation. After the park we went back to the room and put our stuff away. Then we went out in search of pizza. We went to over 5 different places (which isn't difficult since they're on every corner. Finally, we decided on one of them. After ordering the pizza, we took the subway back to the concert.

The line to actually get it was enormous!!! Good thing we didn't have tickets. A bunch of cool people were sitting on this giant rock so we went up there with them and ate our pizza. I think some of them wanted some though. We could kinda see the stage from the rock, but not really. I was pretty tired, so i feel asleep. It's amazing how comfortable rocks are when you're tired. When I woke up the concert had started.

The Stars were the first band playing. They are really amazing and I loved them by far the best. The crowd inside was really bad, so I'm glad we were outside with the cool people. The Decemberists and Death Cab for Cutie weren't that great, but I didn't expect to much from them anyway.

After the show, we wandered down to times square somehow. We just kinda ended up there, I don't really remember how we got there. It was really intense with all the lights. Then we got a Jamba Juice. Of all the places in all of Times Square that we decide to stop at, it's JAMBA JUICE. Well I can't say it was bad though. Afterwards, we headed back to the hostel and crashed because everyone else in our room was already asleep.


August 17th
Getting packed yesterday got pretty wild. Just the thought of packing for 4 months is a lot to handle. Going to UCLA, I have never really had to worry about going without things for extended periods of time, since I could just come home on the weekend.

The fact that I will be gone for so long still hasn't hit me though. I don't even know how to think about being away. And it sure doesn't seem like I will be going back to school. It's going to be interesting seeing how everything has change when I return home. We will be back in the Flores home. I feel like a lots going through my head right now, especially about people i will miss.