Johnny and I (Photo taken by Farmer)

 

April 20th, 2009

This morning I woke up ready to go sky diving and hoping the weather would be nice.  When I went outside to meet our shuttle it was still dark out and a sprinkling a little but I was sure it would clear up.  We all got in the shuttle and headed back to the airfield.  When we got there we all signed up and waited in turns to go up and jump.  Three planes went up and everyone jumped then it was our turn. 

 

We had all started writing things on our hands for our pictures in sharpee and it was finally our turn to jump.  I gave one of the girls my video camera and asked her to take a video of me landing.  I first met my tandem Masters’ his name was Johnny and then my photographer Farmer who I had met yesterday and had asked us to go to the beach with him and a few of the guys but we didn’t have any of our things.  He was a real smart ass but a pretty funny guy.  Johnny was really laid back and nice he has done around 10,000 jumps and had already jumped once this morning.  Johnny taught me what I was supposed to do when we jumped and we did one practice.  We were then ready to get in the plane!!! We all climbed in and sat down in one big group there was the five of us girls and then each of our tandem guys and then a few photographers.  One of the girls guys was barefoot, I asked Johnny if that was a good idea, He said I wouldn’t do it but he does that all the time.  The whole way up I just kept looking at how pretty the island was and how blue the water was. We kept rising until we reached 15,000 ft the place we were going to jump from out over the water.   Farmer kept asking if I was nervous and I said no but he said he was.  He then kept opening the door which we were sitting right at and hanging out to take a few pictures then asking again if I was nervous, I still wasn’t.  I wasn’t nervous at all.  I looked down and noticed Johnny and few of the guys had what looked like an air pressure device or something and noticed Farmer didn’t have one.  I asked why not and he said it was a fun meter and he didn’t have fun.  I then said you’re going to need to be a little more excited if you’re going to be jumping with us and taking my pictures. Johnny then strapped me to his harness and we were getting ready to go.  Farmer opened the door and I looked at him and said “I guess I’m a little nervous now!” The next thing I know my feet were dangling from the plane Johnny pushed us out and we did a few rolls.  I was so excited I screamed a little and then just started laughing.  I was looking all around at the water the island and enjoying the free fall.  I then looked up and Farmer took a few photos.  Johnny then spun us around quickly a few times which was such a rush.  Farmer came by one more time to take few more pictures.  After about what felt like a minute Johnny pulled the shoot and we slowed down.  He showed me North Shore, part of the island and where all the rest of the girls were floating about over the water.  We slowly moved our way inland until we were above the ground and ready to land.  We reviewed how to land and then we got closer and closer to the ground.  We landed perfectly with both of us standing.  I was happy to be safe on the ground but wanted to go up and do it ten more times!!! I now understand why these guys do this job.. It looked great a group of friends who all hung out and did what they loved and on days like yesterday when the jumps got cancelled they got the day off and just went to the beach.  The guys reminded me of my dad and his guy friends with all kinds of nick names and cracking jokes the entire time with one another. 

 

After that we all paid and headed back to the ship.  I made it back in time to meet up with Dylan and the girls before they left for the beach.  I ran up and got ready for the beach.  We took the bus to Waikiki again got starbucks to wake ourselves up and went to enjoy the sun, sand and water.  Courntey, Amanda and Jess had all gone on a hike that morning so Abby, Dylan, Anna and I went to the beach while Erika and Kelly went to lunch.  When Erika and Kelly got back from lunch we had been in the sun too long and needed a break, so we got up to walk around a little.  We walked around for a little and then went to Cheeseburger in Paradise, where I

. 

April 19th, 2009

This morning we arrived on Oahu. As we were pulling up on the dock it was funny to see so many people and awake and on their phones because everyone phones finally had service.  I am actually really glad that most people don’t ever have service because then we wouldn’t all be so connected as one big community if we all had access to phones at all times.   At breakfast Courtney, Anna, and Kelly who were going to go sky diving with me today had decided they didn’t want to go.  I was going to meet my shuttle at noon but knew there was shuttle at 10 that I was still going to try and catch and go by myself.  Although I had remember hearing Lauren and Shaena talking about sky diving at 10 the day before in global studies, so I found them at breakfast and made plans to meet with them in Laurens room at 9:15/  When I met up with them I found out Nel and this girl Becca were also coming.  We went outside to find where we would meet the shuttle.  There was a large group of us and we were all afraid we wouldn’t make the shuttle.  So when the first one arrived everyone piled in sitting on each others laps, the driver than said there would be one more shuttle in ten minutes so we waited for the next one.  When it got there we all got in with another group of kids and I feel we had more room than the other van had so I was happy about that.  Some of the other group went to boulder too and I had met a few of them before so that was nice. 

 

When we got the company it wasn’t that reassuring that on the field where the sky divres landed there was a woman on the ground and an ambulance soon showed up to take her away.  I heard rumors that she broke her back but also that she jumped alone.  Even after seeing all of this I was still not nervous at all.  We signed the wavors which on ever page said “YOU MAY DIE!!”  This made Lauren extremely nervous but I still felt fine.  We had watched one group of jumpers land already and were told it would be another hour or so before we jumped because there were so many people ahead of us.  So we went and got a hot dog and chips from a little stand, and enjoyed hanging out in the sun.  45 minutes later a weather watch was in place because winds from the South had become too strong to jump.  I can’t remember how much longer we waited maybe 2 hours for the wind to die down which never happened.  So we made plans to come back tomorrow morning and the company would have a shuttle pick us up from the ship at 6 am.  They told us that our best chance to jump was to go as early as possible because the mornings were almost always calm. 

 

We then took a shuttle back to the ship and got ready to go to Waikiki.  After getting a starbucks lemonade we headed to the beach.  We took a taxi so we could meet up with our friends as fast as possible because the bus would take about 45 minutes.  On our drive to the beach everything began to look really familiar from when I was here in highschool my with water polo team.  When we got the beach I called the girls to meet up with them and hang out.  I got a hold of some of them and met up to  walk around Waikiki strip and grab some lunch.  After hanging out for a bit we went back to the ship to get ready to go out for a nice dinner. 

 

We met around 7:30 to head out for dinner.  Kelly had called a Mexican restaurant and made reservations, we were all so excited to finally eat Mexican food it had been months.  When we sat down we told our waitress exactly that and enjoyed a really long dinner where we all so stuffed afterwards we had to go walk around after to make ourselves feel better.  We again walked around Waikiki and enjoyed the beautiful night, since I wasn’t 21 I decided to head back to the ship because I also had to be up and ready to go sky diving at 6. 

April 18th, 2009

Tomorrow we will arrive in Hawaii!! I am so excited to go sky diving and to be on the beach and off of the ship for a few days.  Tonight after preport Beau, Jessie, Alexa and I all watched Blue Crush to get ready for Hawaii.  I had a hard time falling asleep and don’t think I feel asleep until around 1.  We had to be up at 6 for a face to face inspection, but once I feel asleep I woke up at 4:45 and couldn’t fall back asleep.  Neither could Beau so she got up and went to the gym 15 minutes after she left I was still awake and did the same.  I ended up being really happy I was awake because it was so pretty outside to see the lights of the city as we came into port.  I also got to watch the sunrise as we came in  which was really gorgeous.  

April 15th, 2009

 

Today was just another day on the ship although we did have to sign up for our ambassadors ball dinner table.  At first we were going to make a table with Erika, Kelly, Anna, Courtney, Dylan, Abby, Jeff and myself but by the time we got in line and to the table the big tables were all full.  The line was extremely long and wrapped all the way down the hall.  We stood in line for an hour or so and finally got a table of 6 with Anna, Courtney, Abby, Dylan, Jake and myself.  I am really excited for the night and to wear my dress I had made in Vietnam.  We even go to choose our menu which I thought was nice of SAS.  Other than this I have just been doing school work, eating, working out, and hanging out but tomorrow our sea has a social which I am really excited about.  Brad has set up a social for us in the faculty staff lounge with fruit and chocolate, cookies, small quiches, spring rolls and mini burgers.  The food all doesn’t seem to go together but it should be nice to have some good food because food on the ship has really been going down hill. 

April 10th, 2009

This morning I woke up and got ready to try and get on the SAS Mt. Fuji trip.  It was my last day in Japan and pretty much the end of the trip; I wanted to make sure I had no regrets and saw as much as possible.  It was hot outside yesterday and so I decided to wear shorts and sweatshirt thinking I would be perfect, not thinking that I would be heading up into the mountains.  Either way I was ready to go and had my fingers crossed I would get on the trip.  When I got to the terminal Abby was already with two other girls to get on the trip.  The line slowly grew and I was happy I had gone down when I did.  We all formed a line outside near the buses I think total there was maybe 12 or so of us trying to get on a trip that was supposed to be full.  As the trip was getting to leave they started do a count of all the people and then writing tickets to us waiting in line.  She got to me wrote me a ticket and then looked at Abby and said I need to do a recount.  I waited for Abby on the bus hoping she would get on and she did. While we waited for the trip to leave we noticed that all the people who had waited in line got on the trip.  I was really surprised and happy they made room for everyone because there was clearer empty seats on the buses.  There was one thing though I was slightly worried about because we weren’t listed as being on the trip from the beginning we couldn’t grab one of the lunches that was in the union for the people on the trip.  I also didn’t eat breakfast because I wanted to get down early to wait in line, oh and one more thing I had only about 2 dollars left on me in cash.  I was excited to be on the trip but slightly worried about how I was going to eat for the day but knew that would be figured out somehow. 

 

Most of the day was spent driving to different points so we could see Mt. Fuji from different angles and perspectives.  We did go as close and as far up as possible to the top where there was snow and I was in my shorts and sandals.  Although it really wasn’t that cold because the sun was out, and it was really really pretty outside.  When we made one stop at a visitor center to watch a video and buy some souvenirs Abby and I found some Japanese snacks we weren’t sure what they were but we thought this might be our only food for the day so we bought them.  When we got on the bus for our next long drive we opened them and they were actually really good but I still have no clue what it was.  Later on in the day we also were given everyone’s left overs from their lunches so we were able to eat. 

 

Okay enough about whether or not I got to eat and more about Mt. Fuji.  It was extremely large and very beautiful.  I was really glad Abby and I had made it on the trip because I felt I was spending my last day in Japan seeing something important.  Japan was an extremely clean country and extremely easy to travel.  I loved it and its people. 

 

When we got back to the ship we had to get in a very long line to do our face to face disembarkation.  This was the first time I think I had seen the entire group of 700 students in one room; we were in the terminal of the port.  I had never realized how big 700 people looked and why when we come to a country we will run into SAS kids everywhere or meet people who say oh you are on that ship aren’t you. 

Yokahama Baseball Game