Port Louis, Mauritius and Chennai, India

Hey everyone!
I am indeed posting two blog posts close together, the first I wrote right after South Africa but didnt have the means to post it. Anyway we left south africa and made our way north which was extremely rough and was not fun for my motion sickness-prone body. I was relieved to arrive in Mauritius where we only had 12 hours. Most people assumed that this meant that we only had 12 hours to get a drunk as possible and there were many incidents as a result.
I, on the other hand, just needed a break. I wanted this day to be my spring break. Me and a few people hailed a cab and managed to make it out to a small island where we spent the day in the shallow, warm waters drinking mild alchoholic beverages. The beer, Pheonix, may have been the best beer i have ever had. We chilled with the locals and laughed about how we were on a small island off a small island off a large island off the coast of Africa. It was rather amusing to think about. It was a lazy day in which I came back only slightly tipsy, sporting a beautifully red sunburn and very sandy swimsuit bottoms.

I eventually found out that nearly the entire boat had gotten terribly drunk on their day adventure. This was the last strike for semester at sea and the program is no longer allowed to return to the island. One guy nearly died and was taken to the hospital and rejoined the group in India. He was saved only by his outstanding academic record on board the ship.
The sea between mauritius and india was as smooth as glass, literally. The Indian ocean looked like a calm lake that just kept going. It reflected the sunset perfectly. One of those nights they turned off the lights so that everyone could view the stars. On the ocean, they rival even the stars over Yellowstone on a clear night. It was beautiful and a good excuse for the entire shipboard community to lay out on the deck together in a mosh pit of sorts and play drums while star gazing.

India. How do I even begin to describe India? It has been hard enough trying to describe these countries for how I see them and how this adventure has effected me but India is far harder to write out. If you haven't noticed, I am no writer. I struggle with expressing myself with words. I am much more apt at doing so with art. I will attempt to describe this but only in brief.
Chennai is in Southern India which differs quite a bit from northern India. The people in Chennai are dark skinned, traditionally dressed and their culture is less tailored to tourism. That is not saying much being that the entire country seems to be a huge tourist trap.

The cheapest form of short-distance transportation is by Autorickshaw. If you dont know what that is, it is the death trap in the picture above. Those little motorcycle/cart hybrids go up to 60 miles per hour and can make hair pin turns around various regular hazards of Indian roadways. Being an extremely population dense country, Indian roads have a certain hierarchy demanding respect on the crowded streets. At the top is the Sacred Cow and Buffalo. I am not joking. If a cow decides the middle of a major highway is a good place to lie down and take a nap, no one will protest. They will just navigate around the cow and be on their merry way. Even if that involvs driving off road. Then comes the bus which is the most physically intimidating followed by the car, the auto rickshaw, the motorcycle, the pig, the human pedestrian and then the dog. No one likes the dog.
We rode many Indian auto rickshaws in Chennai. The first day we went out to go shopping for the absolutely stunning textiles India has to offer. we were bombared by people wanting to sell us things or take us places, nothing new. By the time we returned to the ship we felt the need to wash not only our bodies but our eyeballs, our mouths and even our lungs.
The next day we shopped some more, getting used to how the people bargain and trade which is a game of deception and bluffing. I am proud to say that I am quite good at it!! Then I met a semester at sea group and we took a bus to the airport. Indian airport security is not bad at all actually. You can even take a water bottle with you if you want. You dont even have to take off your shoes. I guess that may be unsafe but "unsafe" is a relative term that means much less  to me than it used to.
After arriving in Delhi we found our huge luxurious hotel and crashed. Early the next morning we found ourselves at the train station before the sun had come up. It was creepy and we had both young, dingy looking children and old, dingy looking men begging us for money and food. The terrible truth about giving to beggars in this country is that they probably answer to some overlord that will collect everything they got from sympathetic tourists. You have to just ignore then which, to be honest, takes a little bit of your heart.
We spent a 3 hour train ride to Agra half sleeping while men with food walked up and down the isles. If you have ever seen slumdog millionare you know what our train looked like. It is identical. Anyway after a ton of logistics including making it miraculously to the hotel, we headed off to Agra Fort. The fort was huge and absolutely stunning, almost as stunning as the Taj.

Once we actually made it to the Taj Majal the sun was starting to go down and the effect on the building was increadible! It was a beauitfully constructed architactural marvel made out of white marble. We got to simply sit and relax for a few hours up there. which was a nice break from the people that ablely persued us to purchase their variious wares. Many of them being as useless and pointless as the snowglobe of the Taj.
The next day we went to another palace in a deserted city. That too was pretty cool. The people I hung out with were what really made the trip. I made fast friends with my assigned roommate for the trip and made other friends being our group was a small 20 people. My trip leaders were from colorado and I felt a bit of kinship with them.

I did have some minor ear discomfort on the trip but I managed to ignore it fairly well. The plane ride back made it even more uncomfortable.


The last day in India, we got a rickshaw ride to the zoo where we saw white tigers and even got to ride an asiatic elephant through the elephant exhibit. The babies were so cute!!
Anyway since then I have had a bit of a cold. Yesterday I was not doing well but today I am doing alright. Recently the Tsunami in Japan has been a big worry on the ship. We now get the news broadcasted to the ship so I know what is going on in Japan, Libya, Egypt, ect. For those of you who do not know, our trip to Japan was cancelled because our group thinks that our arrival will hamper aid efforts in the country and fears for our safety. They are currently trying to find another port in which we can go instead.
I also want to send out a big thank you to Granny and Papa who got me a cake for me and my friends to enjoy on the ship! We really loved it and everyone thought it was really adorable. Things like cake, soda and candy are worth a lot more when you are at sea and do not have regular access to them! THANK YOU!

Well until next time,
Genevieve