CS

Yesterday on the beautiful waters of Dominica Casey Schulman, a senior at UVA and a Fall 2012 Semester at Sea student, died in a boating accident.

I'm writing today about Casey because I literally dont know what else to do. I did not know Casey in the slightest, and I don't know one person that is on the SAS voyage right now. But I felt, and do feel such a strong and instant connection to her, and her shipboard community. The most unspeakable tragedy that you could think of happening on Semester at Sea, happened yesterday. The sadness that is enveloping the entire ship right now, is unimaginable.

Today myself, along with thousands of other SAS alumni, friends, and family are sending loving energy to the Schulman's, Casey's friends and shipmates, and family back home. The MV Explorer returns home to Ft Lauderdale in 5 days.

The part that is hitting so close to home for me, and probably anyone that has had the gift of experiencing this trip of a life time is that - this travesty happened at the end of her voyage. At the end of this voyage she has literally experienced the world with her shipmates, and probably the best friends she has ever known. Sending so much love and thoughts and prayers of healing to her shipmates because I can not think of how horrific it would be to lose someone at a time like this. Sending so much love and thoughts and prayers of healing to her family and friends back home because I'm sure all they have been thinking about is Casey's arrival home, and getting to see her so soon.

This post was written because I feel so much love and sorrow for Casey and her friends and family. I know there are so many people out their mourning this loss, and truly heartbroken. I am hoping that this blog will find you where ever you may be in your life, or in your day and you will join me in sending some loving thoughts of healing, and strength to all of the lives that Casey has touched.

Hopefully Casey's friends, family and shipmates will find some sense of peace that she died living her life in the biggest way possible - traveling the world with her dear friends whom I'm positive, touched her life in so many ways.

To all my Fall 2011 Voyage family- I'm thinking about you all today (everyday). And sending you all so much love, and so thankful for everything we have experienced together.

XO

This One's For The Girls

It’s the end of the semester so I’m going to use everyone’s real names and if the general public can match up the real names with the pseudo names then that’ll be a cool little name game for them.

Dear Chelsea, Alanna, Colby, Courtney, Kelly, Kiley, Hana, Erin, Brittany, Brenda-

When I went on SAS I never believe that I would find friends that I could compare to the friends I have known and loved my whole life. I knew I had a wonderful group of friends, and I didn’t think my life was missing anyone in it. I have learned so much about myself from each and every one of you. I’m so much more confident, stronger, happier, and you guys have literally made me so much more stoked on life. I cant imagine this life without you guys. When I got off the boat in Frat Laudy my mom told me that she could tell that I was so much happier, and that is in all part to you girlzzzz. I will never forget the shotguns we did on the most famous land marks in the world, the laughs, the tears, the jack and cokes, the good times, the even better times, pub nights, jack ass, Alanna being a total slut (and I will never forget our last night in ft Lauderdale), me going to the drunk tank 100 times, Hana’s 21^st birthday, Chelsea screaming friends in low places on the picnic table on thanksgiving, Kelly sleeping in clubs, Colby’s hilarious and amazing fucking outfits, Courtney spending more time on her SAS video then in class, Kiley fighting a local in Morocco, Erin being so creepy and weird, Brittany being even creepier and even weirder, and Brenda being my little pot sticker.

You guys made my days, my weeks, my entire semester. Seriously you girls are the nicest most amazing girls in the world, and I would know because I saw the world… with all of you. I know not only will we see each other soon, but often. December 14^th 2011 was not the end of these friendships; I truly believe it was just the beginning. I LOVE YOU ALL SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOSOO MUCH!!!!!!!!! I’ve never met anyone like any of you. You all deserve the best the world has to offer. xoxo

Love Always,

Lilz

Dates to remember-

*March 18^th my birthday – I would like you all to come to Indiana for that.

*April Monday 16- Saturday April 21 – IU’s Little 500. If you remember all the things I taught you about raging you will freaking come to this.

*Summertime- lets all go see each other like every weekend.

Ps. Chelsea where in tarheels is that video you made?!?!? I wake up thinking about it. 

Goodbye Seems To Be The Hardest Thing To Say... So Lets Not Say It

Ft. Lauderdale is where we debarked. I got off the ship carrying 5 Vietnamese Rice patty hats, wearing a XXXL T Shirt that said "Thank You Mom And Dad For Giving Me The World", gold Nike High Tops, and a neon green tinker bell hair clip that I stole from Tiny. I saw my parents from inside customs and was just ecstatic. You never realize how much you miss someone until you see them again. I walked through the security threshold to find my mother crying, with her phone out video taping me, and my dad in a gray and red windbreaker jacket smiling and waving. I walked towards them, with 9 bags in tow, and gave them each a hug. I was laughing mostly at my mom for crying, and at my dad for not crying. I told my mom to stop crying and she hands me my new phone (my old one was stolen in Vietnam by my cab driver, what………a guy). As she hands it to me she says, “LILLY! Hank (my brother) is calling.. answer it!” Allow me to let you all into my world at that time, it was so hectic all of my friends were out there saying there hellos and goodbyes and everyone is running around like chicken with their heads cut off and my mom wants me to answer my brothers phone call who is in Indianapolis. I said, “mom can you please just answer it and I’ll talk to him as soon as I put down my rice patty hats…?” Next thing I know is Freckles is in a sudden state of goo goo eyes and says, “Oh wow. Was not expecting this…” I look up and my brother and sister are running towards me. I drop my rice patty hats, and begin to cry. I was not expecting those little nuggets to have escaped school, and jet off to Ft Lauderdale to surprise me. I was in a real state of shock. My heart was racing, I was crying, and laughing simultaneously. I felt like a monkey on ecstasy. I hadn’t seen my family in 4 months and after 45 seconds of seeing them my father takes a turn for crazy town and starts whistling and snapping his fingers, “Lil get your shit and lets load it up into the UPS truck to get it sent home. I’m not paying for 11teen hundred of these god damn bags to fly home with us”. I learned at a young age to not listen to him when he begins his sentences with a shrill whistle and a snap of his fingers. So at that moment I turned on my heels and went to meet Lanz, and Chelppy’s parents.

Eventually I start to pack up my bags in the UPS truck, and then load up our rental car and the 5 of us head back to The Westin. I will never forget how weird it was sitting in that tiny car and staring at my families’ faces. I hadn’t gone that long with out seeing them in my whole life and it was one of the weirdest feelings to be reunited with them again.

Upon arriving to the Westin we are hit with a tidal wave of wonderful SAS kids that my family has to meet. I introduce them to all of the people I have been writing about all semester. The 20^th person I introduce them to is from Maine, my mom lived in Maine, they hit it off. My dad says, “yeah that’s all very interesting now lets start drinking.” We proceed to the pool bar and all order drinks. Chelppy and her dad, Lanz and her parents, Freckles and her mom and sister, me and my family, and Popeye and her family and her friend are all at the westin pool bar. It was so much fun to introduce everyone to all of the people they have been hearing about all semester. During lunch at the pool bar, we made plans to all go to Lulu’s Baitshack – our 500^th open air bar and grill we’ve attended this semester – about a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was a chilly afternoon there on the ocean, so we all went up to our rooms to get ready for the night. Dinner was at 530 pm, of course the Mack family didn’t leave our hotel until 530 pm. There were about 7 different families at Lulu’s that night and 100 SAS kids. It was so freaking awesome. All of the families had open tabs going and I took full advantage of the Mack’s tab. It was the perfect last night. So many kids were there without their families so the families that were there just ordered mass amounts of food and drink and everyone ate and drank merrily with everyone. Everyone was bee bopping from table to table, enjoying themselves. At around 930-10 all the adults headed home, and my friends and I continued to strictly party. We left at around 1130 to go to one of our friend’s houses. I went with Freckles, Lanz, and Colbz. When we got to the house I was once again on a high. I thought that tonight was so much fun, so wonderful, and I really thought that it was the perfect end to a wonderful semester. I was forgetting to dwell on the fact that tonight, really was in fact the end of the semester. Lanz came up to me about 45 minutes after we got there and said that she was going back to the hotel because her flight was early the next day. I was so used to Lanz telling me she was going in early, and I would see her the next day. So off the cuff “I said okay are you sure? I kinda wanna stay but call me when you get home okay.” That’s when it hit me that would be the last time I saw Lanz until who knows when.

Freckles and I got in the car with Lanz and we all went back to the Westin together. I gave Lanz a hug in the hallway and then started to cry harder than I maybe ever had. She was the first person I had actually said bye to. Chellpy, Hawaiian punch, Colbz, and Tiny had all dwindled away that night/afternoon. Neither of us could really say bye so we went out to the pool deck, attempting to walk down to the beach but the elevator to the beach was locked, and their was a mini hurricane brewing. So we went to this little terrace on the pool deck and sat on the couches and cried, hugged, said goodbye, said how much we loved each other, and told each other that we each deserve the world and more.

I hate goodbyes and I’m so glad I only had to say one.

I think about that conversation once a day probably. I miss Lanz, and I miss everyone so incredibly much. I think about all of the people that I have written about countless times, talked about, raved about, every day multiple times a day. Before I left for Semester at Sea my sister and my mom told me they thought I was going to fall in love while I was gone. I didn’t expect to fall in love with all the people I met, all the places I saw, and every second experience I lived. I would not trade one moment for anything. I think about you all constantly and I wish you all the very best.

This is not goodbye. Think of this as a, we will all see each other very, very, very soon.

Last Port of the semester... Welcome to Roatan Island, Honduras

When applying to go onto Semester At Sea all 467 some odd students believed our last port would be spent in Havana, Cuba. Everyone was so stoked to go to Cuba because that was such a foreign place, and in a lot of ways Cuba is a bit of a forbidden fruit to many of us. For the past 2 1/2 years I've had this special tie with Cuba, its been my goal to travel there and experience the country and the culture there. Why? Spring 2009 my grandmother died. She was such an incredible woman and I learned a lot about traveling, musical theatre, doing what you want to do, being polite, table manners, and how to be a tough person in a tough world from her. She traveled all over the world up until her last days. She's been to every continent, traveled by every means of transportation possible, she's gone to some of the most luxurious places in the world but also some of the most dangerous. The last place she was planning on going was Cuba. She had never been and it has always been a dream of hers to go there. She died before she could go. Imagine my excitement when I saw that Cuba was our last stop on our itinerary this semester.

About 6-7 weeks into my semester we were told we would not be going to Cuba because of some weird bull shit excuse that I didnt pay any attention to. Instead we would be going to Guatemala. That was so fine with me. Some of my family grew up in Guatemala and I was not mad at all at the opportunity to travel there. 3 weeks before getting to Guatemala we were told we could not go to Guatemala because it was too dangerous, instead we would be going to Honduras, and our travel was limited to Roatan Island. In any other case I would have probably been a tad disappointed that our travel was limited to one island where the travel time from one end of the island to the complete opposite side only took 45 minutes. However this was our last port and I was thrilled that we would all be on one island, so close to each other. This was a guarantee way for all of us to spend our last 72 hours at port together.

Our first day colbz, popeye, chelppy, lanz, tiny, and I get a cab to Infinity Bay - the resort that essentially our entire boat is staying at. Lanz is sitting in the front seat making plans with the cab driver. She turns around and says, "Hey guys, this guy says he has a friend that will take us snorkeling, and drive us around for like 50$ for the whole day. Wanna do that?" We oblige happily. Our cab driver, Tupac takes us to the grocery store to buy some hours de vours, then we head on over to the dock that the little motor boat is anchored at. The group of us hop into the boat and 3 mins later are stopped at this beautiful reef. The best scuba diving/snorkeling in the world is the great barrier reef in Australia, Roatan Island is literally the 2nd best in the world - and that is where i was snorkeling.. this life isnt real.

After snorkeling we went back to the resort and danced, played flip cup, celebrated McDirtys 21st birthday, etc. I spent a little bit of time bee bopping from one villa to the next - Chuck Bass, was cooking lobster and steak for dinner and making drinks with grey goose vodka. I dont even know what to say. I felt like I had to include that tid bit of information into this blog just so you all will understand the types of people I deal with.

That night I also got proposed to on the beach by Texas. That was fun. I agreed whole heartedly. After my marriage proposal my friend Rachel and I left the villa to go get dinner. We wound up going to this restaurant on the water with 4 locals. Hmph. Dont ask. They took us out for lobster and steak and bought us beers and shots of tequila. Friendly bunch of gentleman. Luckily Rachel and I did NOT get kidnaped or raped. One of the first things I learned on SAS was to trust the people you meet, but to keep your guard up. Thats what we did and it really ended up going quite smoothly, and we got a free lobster dinner out of it.

Our 2nd and last day on Roatan Rach and I headed back to Infinity Bay and met up with everyone. Texas, Popeye, Will, chuck Bass, and Freckles were already up and at em. and when i say at em I literally mean Chuck Bass had a bloody mary and was adding hearty amounts of tobasco sauce to it, and freckles was on her 7th cosmo, and popeye was on her 4th jack and coke. While Texas was acting like a 45 year old business man and sipping on a beer or some shit. That ended rather quickly and breakfast cocktails were rapidly placed into mine, Rachel, and Texas' hands. Everyone at the table was doing their best to postpone a gnarly hangover, and succeeding at it rather nicely. Before I knew it Freckles already had the hiccups and was snuggled up on the sand with a stray Labrador retriever. . . what... an asshole. After breakfast beers and breakfast burritos our group moves inside to one of the villas due to a massive monsoon and wanting to start making cheaper drinks. Everyone is starting to get pretty drunk and so Texas and I come up with a brilliant plan to just terrorize the absolute SHIT out of everyone. First up- suicides. Now the suicide is a little something Texas and I invented in Costa Rica. They are only to be strictly made on your last day in port, at a hotel, at a resort, morning after a party/event, etc. You take all of the left over alcohol and mixers and put them in the blender along with ice, mix it up and you have a suicide. No recipe really necessary and the one thing that is absolutely CRITICAL is that you put all random stuff in it. You dont know how it will turn out and thats part of the fun- almost always it turns out bangin. In this particular suicide we had a couple different types of vodka, dark rum, jack daniels, purple gatorade, sprite, orange juice, ice, and SPF 4 Banana Boat Dark Tanning Oil. Honestly- best suicide ever. Texas didnt tell anyone what was in it, just started serving out the cups by the mass. Everyone drank up and thoroughly enjoyed their sunscreen. Texas and I quickly became bored with the whole tricking people into drinking absurd drinks so we chose a victim to fuck with. Her pseudo name is Anal. Shes so wonderful, awesome girl, awesome sport. Texas and I chose her because we wanted to freeze someones t shirt. We went through all the rooms and the only T shirt we could find was Anal's so she looses in many ways. I start pouring Anal a couple shots, a couple drinks, just really making sure shes in a good mood so when she finds out her alpha phi philanthropy t shirt has been frozen, she wont get that mad at us. Right before we leave the hotel we toss her t shirt back to her. God bless Anal. She is all smiles and really takes it like a total champ.

The frozen t shirt marked the last of our fun at Infinity Bay. We all left and headed back to the ship. That is when it really hit me that this was all coming to an end. Roatan Island was the best final port we could have had. we were all together, none of us had a plan or a care in the world. All we wanted and needed was to be with each other. And thats exactly what we got to do. It was an amazing final 2 days in port and I will treasure them always.

Pura Vida

I’ve almost traveled literally around the entire world. As I stepped off the boat and into the beautiful, and tropical Costa Rica, I couldn’t help but feel so close to home. It gave me butterflies, and made me smile ear-to-ear hearing people speaking Spanish for the first time in months. Walking down the steps of our ship and smelling the salt water, hearing Spanish, and feeling the tropical sun beating down on us that morning, instantly sent me into a whirlwind of flashbacks: senior spring break in Mexico with 45 of my dearest friends from High School, 8^th grade and Junior year spring break in the Dominican Republic with my family and our dear family friends Larry and Becky. I felt like I was at home. After walking down 37 steps from the fifth deck of the ship, to the parking lot in the port, I let out a little shrill of excitement. The crewmembers – 5 stories above me – yelled down, “Lilly Mack, shhhhhh.” I don’t have that much of a distinctive shrill do I? – yes. Yes I do.

9 am rolls around and Popeye and I have boarded a bus to take us ZIP LINING through the rain forest 15 minutes away from our port. I can dig it. Our tour guide teaches us the most commonly used phrase in Costa Rica, pura vida. It means pure life/good life/its all good. Pura vida can be used in just about any situation. Someone asks how you are, pura vida. Someone asks you if your food is okay, pura vida. Someone asks you if there is a problem, pura vida. I’m thinking I just found my new tattoo.

We pull up to the Zip Lining facility and right away get harnessed up, and loaded up into the bus, and drive up to the top of this mountain of rain forest. I’m like 5^th in line to jump off of this platform and go flying through the air, above millions of trees, above a rain forest, in Costa freakin Rica. Immediately I get butterflies and start the inner dialogue. “Self- why in the freak would you do this? You hate roller coasters. Shut up. This is not a roller coaster. Just breathe. And Enjoy the ride, and the scenery you weirdo.” Breathe in, breathe out. Then I push myself off of the platform and go skyrocketing above the rain forest. I don’t think I have ever in my life breathed in such fresh, clean air. (By the way Costa Rica is a super cool country for two reasons: 1. They have abolished their army. No army for them. Because they are happy people living the pura vida and don’t need to fight. More power to em. And 2. They have the smallest carbon footprint in the world. China has the biggest, America has the second biggest.) It smelled like salt water, fresh rain, clean air, wet tree leaves, and flowers. For the next 2 hours we zip lined off of 12 platforms and on 8 different lines. Every line was faster then the last. The last two lines I get a running start and go about 40 MPH through the air. There is a long, clear blue, rushing river to my right, mountains all around me, trees under me, and birds flying next to me – never thought I would say that. After Zip Lining Freckles, Meg and I catch a 20-minute bus ride to Puntarenas. Puntarenas is this little town right on the beach. There are miles of open air restaurants, shops and street vendors right on the beach. We go to a restaurant right across the street from the beach share chicken fajitas, and chips and salsa. Frecks and I each got ourselves a little hard earned margarita and Meg enjoyed herself a little pina coloada, action.

Sitting at dinner looking out at the ocean and the orange Costa Rican sunset with Meg and with Freckles, I was so happy that Freckles told me about this semester abroad opportunity. And so thankful that she had the courage and the brains to go on this and to tell me to go on this. 6 more days until I’m home… I cant believe this semester is almost over. Apparently in the end you start to think about the beginning, and it seems like yesterday that I was having still, the best conversation I’ve ever had in a little bed a breakfast kitchen, in Montreal with Lynn. I feel like it was yesterday that I was packing up 2 suitcases of clothes in my room and my dad came in and told me he was so proud that was all I was taking. I feel like it was yesterday that the idea of making a wish in the wishing well at the Taj Mahal, and hiking the Great Wall of China was a dream that would probably never come true. I feel like it was yesterday that I was waving GOOD BYE to my mom on the pier in Montreal. And in just 6 short days I will be waving HELLO AND HOLY SHIT YOU ARE THE BEST PARENTS EVER to my mom and dad at the pier in Ft Lauderdale. But until then I still have one more entire day in Costa to the Rica, and 2 days in Roatan Island in Honduras (google image that shit by the way. GORGEOUS!)

It feels so good to say with every ounce of passion in my body that I am without question – living the pura vida.

I'm Thankful For My Family For Giving Me The World

It is Thursday November 24^th 2011 and I am standing on a black sand beach in Hilo Hawaii. There is not one inch of white sand. The entire beach for as far as I can see is black. The gorgeous dark blue ocean is in front of me crashing over hundreds of black lava rocks peaking out at the shoreline. Its thanksgiving morning and 100 of my friends are on this beach cooking out, throwing footballs, swimming, climbing rocks, and drinking beer. We have two grills set up on this huge molten ridge. Three guys are dressed in American flag t-shirts working on the grill cooking burgers, hot dogs, and chicken. There is a huge picnic table covered in chips, salsa, guac, mustard, ketchup, and beer. I’m walking along the ridge to go to the other side of the beach with Popeye and Freckles. As we are walking over we stop to have a chat with our friend Mule. Mule is wearing some stupid outfit and a backpack. Sticking out of his backpack is a pair of water flippers. He looks like a 6-year-old man-child. In the middle of our conversation Mule says, “Do none of you guys see that huge ass turtle right there.” We turn around and there is a MASSIVE sea turtle right at the shoreline eating. Popeye freaks out because she has a sick and twisted obsession with sea turtles and knows everything about them. She said that it has to be at least 100 years old. Sea turtles are SO RARE to find/see. Let alone BIG SEA TURTLES! Two minutes after being there I saw one. What are the chances?

A couple hours later I’m sitting out on this huge mass of molten rock that extends out into the ocean. Just enjoying the day, gazing into the ocean AND I SEE ANOTHER MASSIVE SEA TURTLE SWIMMING AROUND AND EATING!!! What in the heck are the chances??!!

I was really quiet that day in Hawaii. Everyone was having so much fun and enjoying themselves, partying, clownin around, etc. I was having fun but I spent the whole day thinking about my family. I would NOT be on this black sand beach in Hawaii on thanksgiving with 100 of the most amazing people I’ve ever met if it weren’t for my family. I would not have seen two endangered sea turtles in one day, in Hawaii, if it weren’t for my family.

Popeye had a bomb facebook status idea the other day… I’m going to steal it and edit it for things that I’m thankful for—

Thank you to my family for giving me roots, and thank you for giving me wings. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to ride camels in the dessert in Morocco, teach at the city of refuge school in Ghana, dive with sharks in South Africa, snorkel in Mauritius in the clearest water I have ever seen, touch the walls of the Taj Mahal in India, jet ski and skinny dip with Jelly Fish in Malaysia, kayak Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, hike the Great Wall of China, shop in the Harajuku district in Japan, have a Thanksgiving Cookout with my friends on a black sand beach in Hawaii and play with sea turtles. I owe you all so much. I will never forget this experience. I love you all more than anything in the world.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! See you at Christmas.

"I read memoirs of a geisha and thought: not a bad gig." JAPAN

As I sit down outside on deck 6 on the back of the boat and look out on the night sky and the black ocean and think back to my time in Japan just 4 short days ago the first thing that comes to my mind is- fuck off Tokyo.

I could go about this blog the same way I’ve been going about all of the other ones but I think for Japan I’m just going to get right down to the nitty gritty because I’ll be honest I’m still battling a stupid fever that I caught in Japan.

Our first night in Japan I pulled an all nighter. Why did this happen do you ask? Because we were an hour subway ride away from our ship that night, and went on ahead and found out that the subways close at midnight and don’t reopen until five AMer. Coolie. Went on ahead and stayed up until 5 am to catch the subway home. Didn’t get home until 715 AM. Went to bed until 9. Freckles comes into our room and wakes me up and says its time to start making our way to Tokyo which is roughly a 5 hour adventure. I tell Freckles to fuck off kindly and I go back to sleep until 4. I wake up shower, get dressed, pack and throw Frecks a bone and head to Tokyo with her. Lets fast forward 5 hours later.. we get off the bullet train in the middle of UNREAL Tokyo Japan. Its everything I imagined – bright lights, tall buildings, bustling city, people everywhere, not to mention wonderfully NICE people everywhere, tons of neon signs for hotels, restaurants, etc, and I am looking around with an innocent smile and bright eyes. About an hour, and 7 hotel lobbies later we are royally fucked because every hotel in Tokyo Japan is booked full. Even this sketchy hotel with a creepy guy working the front desk. How is this happening? I am a firm firm firm believer in EVERYTHING happens for a REASON but I can not fathom or begin to imagine one good reason as to why this is happening to me and my friends right now. So as we are meandering the streets of Tokyo we see a little taste of home/South Africa there is an Irish pub luring us in. Celts is the name of the game. There is a sign on the front of Celts that says “Hot Beer. Lousy Food. Bad Service. Have A Nice Day.” I thought that sign was so funny, and not serious. Took a picture of it and everything. Had about 3 beers at Celts with Popeye and Freckles and some critter rings and a pizza. Big mistake. After a nice little dinner and casual drinks we rented a Karaoke room until 5am to sleep in. I gotta tell you guys- I did NOT sleep great on the karaoke room floor. Got about 2 solid hours of shuteye. Sleeping in a karaoke room in Japan would be like trying to sleep on the floor of Kilroys Bar at IU during Little 5. Asians go banana-fucking sandwich for karaoke rooms. There wasn’t 10 minutes of peace and quiet, but really what did we expect?

That all aside the next day we wake up at 5 to check out of our room and head to the train station in search for a hotel of any kind. The trains in Tokyo don’t start until 7am. So what do I do? Take a little cat snoozer with Popeye and freckles on the train station floor. (Exhaustion is an under statement.) We are all 3 literally curled up in 3 little balls on top of each other like little kittens. About an hour after thinking its acceptable to clonk out on a Tokyo train station floor, I am awakened by someone standing over me and yelling “NO FUCKING WAY!!!!!” I blink my eyes slowly awake, and as my little eyes adjust to the morning light I see Lanz standing over me with a bright orange hiking backpack and leather vest.

Lanz- I took the overnight bus here BY MYSELF in hopes I would find you guys somewhere. (mind you none of us have phones. My phone and Popeyes phone has been stolen, freckles phone wasn’t on, and Lanz phone doesn’t work across American borders… but she brought it abroad anyway.)

I finally realized why god didn’t want us to find a hotel room that night. He wanted us to sleep on the train station floor so Lanz would run into us and find us. Thank g.

With the help of Lanz, we make our way to the Mariott, get a room and pass the fook out. I wake up in a cold sweat and rush to the bathroom to toss my cookies at about 1 pm. This continues until 1 am. Every hour, pretty much on the hour, for 12 hours I woke up from my sleep the first sleep I’ve gotten and days, to blow chunks. The critter rings from stupid fucking celts gave me the worst food poisoning ive ever had.

That being said I stay in bed for 36 hours while my friends explore Tokyo.

Oh so this is a cute little story- that night I was sleeping and shaking convulsively and felt like doo doo baby, and I dozed off at around 11 pm after a good vom sesh. I had a dream about my sister. I dreamt that I was feeling really frazzled and scared and awful and my sister walked up to me, was smiling, and put her hands over my ears and pressed her thumbs against my temples. Then all I could hear was flutes and classical music playing, the sound of the ocean, and a rushing river. I felt so peaceful and relaxed and at ease. For the first time in months I felt like I was at home. And I could feel my heart slowly stop rushing and begin to slow down to a normal beat. I woke up at 1am and was smiling, and then for the rest of the night I felt normal again and much better.

Next day- I wake up, brush my teeth, I’m shaking violently like a leaf, but other than that feel rather optimistic and perky about the day ahead seeing as I will be off to the Harajuku district in Tokyo. Get a little breakfast, head to Harajuku, and do a little retail therapy.. by a little I mean a sick sick sick amount. That night we go back to the ship and I kiss the door to my room. I have never been so happy to see that little shanty room.

On our last day in Japan, I was pretty much over it and ready to just watch episodes 1-12 of Trueblood season 4. Got guilted into exploring Yokohama Japan.

Im so HAPPY I went out that last day. We met up with HP on our way off the boat and we went with her to go get internet – which was an epic fail so instead of appeasing my friends and family and uploading facebook pictures, we bought starbucks Christmas drinks, a bottle of baileys to remind us of home, and went on a ferris wheel ride. HP wanted to try and rock the cart we were in so I had a miniature heart attack and peed myself. The view over looking Yokohama was so beautiful. Japan did me so dirty in so many ways but at the end of the day I found myself marveling at how unreal lucky I am and at how unreal my life is.

Ps. Allow me to explain the title of this blog- the night I was dying in my hotel room freckles, popeye and lanz were getting ready to go out and I was face down with no pants on and my hair up in a band secured with a Silly Band literally- they do NOT make moments lower than that… In the middle of that scene Freckles chirps up out of no where and says “ya know when I read memoirs of a geisha I thought….. not a bad gig” There are no words. Later that night she said if she was a geisha her price would be a crisp 500$... that is the person she has become.