After leaving Taiwan on the sixth, we had 11 days on the ship before reaching Hawaii. Eleven days seemed like a lot, but it actually went by a lot faster than I had expected. I had some journals to catch up on for classes, we had to give our Global Studies presentation on education in China (which was brutal, as all group projects end up being), I wanted to spend as much time with my friends as possible since it was getting close to the end of the trip, and I had all sorts of TV shows to watch from Vietnam. In the end, I was able to finish 90% of my schoolwork before re reached Hawaii, making my last few days on the ship a piece of cake. I had two papers to write, two tests, and a final presentation. There was also an auction to raise money for the SAS alumni fund, which gives money for everything from scholarships to outreach programs to maintain of the MV Explorer. Everything ended up being really expensive though. Someone paid $1,600 to get off the ship first in San Diego, and boxes of Girl Scout cookies went for about $100 each. There were all sorts of random things to bid on, like ringing the bell in San Diego, reserved space on the seventh deck for the last few days of the ship, surf lessons in San Diego, and vacation homes f or the weekend. I went in for a house for the weekend in Wyoming with a group of friends because it would have only been $60 for a weekend getaway with virtually everything paid for, but the price went up way past our limit. It all went to a good cause, but it was weird to see people spend so much after learning all about poverty in other countries and out duty to help others. We also had April 12 twice as we passed the International Date Line. I went through all 24 time zones this semester, but going through the dateline really seemed to mess up my watch and laptop (I have to keep resetting them).
After eleven days, we finally reached Hilo, Hawaii, located on The Big Island, one of Hawaii’s many islands. It’s a pretty small town, very rural compared to other spots in Hawaii like Honolulu o Maui. Everyone was kind of tired and I have already been to Hilo so I was ready to just relax at this port. Plus, the lava flows were inactive. After getting off the ship, I went for a jog around with Elizabeth and Matt. It was our goal to do more running in ports ever since South Africa, but that never really happened so this was only our second run. This run was also a lot less intense than our Cape Town run; we ended up stopping a lot more and just taking in all the sights. I then walked for about 45 minutes with Elizabeth to downtown Hilo, which had a lot of shops, similar to the boardwalk in any beach town. We went out for lunch and then walked around a little more. After stopping in one of Hilo’s candy shops for things like chocolate covered coffee beans and chocolate macadamia nuts, we found our way to a movie theater, which had movies for only $1.5. Apparently, all of these movies were second run, but, thanks to the culture bubble we have been living in for the last three months, we had no idea. We thought they were all new releases. Elizabeth has a crush on Matt Damon so we saw The Adjustment Bureau, which was OK; I didn’t fall asleep, a good sign for a movie in my case. We walked back to the ship and met everyone for dinner and went with everyone to a Mexican restaurant. After dinner, we hung out on the beach for a while before coming back on the ship to relax.
The next day, we woke up and went to Ken’s, a local restaurant, similar to IHOP that everyone said we had to go to. After breakfast, I went with Steven, Elisabeth, Cass, and Ross to Rainbow Falls, which was about a half away on top of a hill surrounded by all sorts of trees. It is pretty beautiful, but I think I had seen it before. We drove back to Hilo where we ate lunch and a palm reader told me how amazing I am and how cool my life will be. Courtney and I headed off to Starbucks for free Internet and then got back on the ship. Alissa, my LLC, saw us and told us that it is our last time getting back on the ship, which was really, really depressing. Las time I remember things moving really slowly. Everyone was very laid back and no one was really in a hurry to get places. I noticed this when we would go to restaurants and it would take 45 minutes to get our food, but that wasn’t the case this time in Hilo. I don’t know if things have changed or I am just more patient. Hilo is kind of like America lite. It has all the benefits of being in America, but it isn’t as overwhelming as big cities like Los Angeles or New York. It’s a good reentry into the United States.
After Hawaii, it was time for everyone to buckle down and study for finals. Finals were easier than finals at UVA so I still had a lot of time to hang out with everyone. Somehow I managed to get A’s in all my classes (thanks in part to the wicked curve in Global Studies, and that the professor liked me). I even got A’s in Kottler’s classes, though my final papers for him were pretty much all me telling him how horrible his classes were. To celebrate the end of the voyage, we had the Alumni Ball, which was similar to specialty dining, which my friends and I had done a couple of weeks ago. We dressed up, had a delicious six course meal, and had dancing at the very end. Everyone got excited to dress up and take pictures. It was a lot like prom.
The next few days involved a lot of saying goodbye. A lot of people bought maps of the world and journals from the campus store and had people sign them, lie yearbooks. I wasn’t going to do it, but I eventually bowed down to peer pressure and bought one at the last minute. I am glad I did it though. I have a bunch of signatures and messages from people, and it was only a fraction of the people I wanted, just the ones I could find. I’m going to frame it and put it up on my wall. We stayed up all night on the least night and watched us come into San Diego, though I missed that part. I watched sun rise, though it was really cloudy, but I think I fell asleep in my cabin for twenty minutes. Saying goodbye to everyone was a lot harder than I expected. We’d only been together three months, but everyone formed strong bonds really quickly and saying goodbye to people, some of whom you may never see again, was pretty rough. After finally getting cleared to leave the ship in San Diego, I made it through customs and spent the night at Steven’s house with friends before meeting my family the next day.
It’s nice to be back in America and have my own bed again, but I do miss the ship a lot. I have to get used to doing my own dishes and making my own bed now that my Cabin Steward is gone. After being on the ship for a few weeks, I sort of forgot what my life was like back home. Living on the Explorer, with all of my friends so close and traveling around to different countries became all I knew. I spent so much time with these people, I really became close to my group of friends and it’s weird not to see them every day. I miss things like Second Lunch, watching How I Met Your Mother late at night (the slap bet I won) and always having people around to hang out with. I could always walk around the ship and find people to hang out with. We’ll keep in touch though; we have reunions planned and I text them a lot. We are all on one large Facebook thread. I also think I can handle any type of travel now (roads and cars in the USA don’t bother me anymore after India and Vietnam) and now I want to actually live in a foreign country for a while. All in all, this semester has made me more eager to learn about the world and take advantage of any adventures in life and take any excuse to travel I can. This semester was amazing and is by far one of the best things I have done in my life.
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