When I got back on the ship, I had to write a vignette for my travel writing class. The focus of the class is food, and we're learning how to write about food throughout our voyage. We spend a lot of time watching Anthony Bourdain and watching his episodes, because my professor loves him. The only guidelines we got from my professor was to write about food and write in first person, present tense. Here's my vignette about Vietnam:
I remember saying, "I'm never eating another fish again." I was seven, at the dinner table with my parents and my brother, eating yet another fish. And I was done with it. Flash forward thirteen years, I find myself in yet another fish predicament. Sitting on the Golden Cruise in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, I'm staring at the set menu. Fish, shrimp, squid, prawns, octopus, clams, crab. Even mystery seafood spring rolls. If it lives in the ocean, I was probably getting served it. There is no chicken or pork to be found on the menu. No comforts of landlocked Indiana. The dread builds up as the tables fill around me and the countdown to lunch continues. There are two ways to deal with this situation: to eat or not to eat.
Honestly, I'm a nonconventional picky eater. I will (probably unfairly) decide not to eat things just by the name or description. However, if something looks good, despite my opinion on whether or not I've liked it in the past, I will eat it. For example, almost any fried food; more specifically, fried mushrooms from Cruiser's Grill in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. I'm not a mushroom fan. I can say I've probably unknowingly had them before, because I'm sure my mom's snuck them into chicken casseroles or between the layers of meat and pasta in lasagnas. But my first positive experience with mushrooms happened when they were battered and fried, and of course, covered in ranch dressing. So as I consider this, I decide to be open-minded. This seafood is steps away from the frozen fish sticks I've eaten in my childhood.
We're spending the night on the boat, so it's got to be fresh, right? I'd just take it one dish at a time. The first plate is set down before us. Shrimp. With eyes. Pass. The next is a stuffed crab. The sharp-edged shell on the bottom of the crab freaks me out a little, but I'll try it. The table filled with other Semester at Sea students seems to be entertained by my reservations to try the food. I lift the fork with a tiny bit of crab to my mouth. Not bad. Although I'm squeamish at the thought of eating a crab, the taste isn't awful. I get up to go to the bathroom and return to a giant bowl of clams. I'm not sure how to eat them, and figuring that out seemed like a lot of effort. The lunch progressively gets better as more and more plates are placed in front of me, the highlights being mystery seafood spring rolls, fried rice, and finally pineapple.
I haven't gotten a grade back from my professor, but I'm not that worried. We peer edited our first drafts, and Clarissa told me it was funny. So if it's not, blame her.
After almost 24 hours spent in Ha Long Bay, we took the three hour bus ride in Hanoi to spend some time there. By the time we had gotten off the mini-cruise and eaten lunch, it was past noon, so we didn't get to Hanoi until after 4. We were there just in time for a underwater puppet show. That was an experience, but mostly because of all of the other tourists that surrounded us. One thing I've learned on the trip, that I kinda already knew going in, was that not many Americans travel around Asia, particularly a large group of college students. I lost count of how many pictures were taken with us or of us.
My last day in Vietnam was spent in Hanoi and on a plane back to Ho Chi Minh. We visited the Confucian temple of literature, where we got to explore. It was a really exciting to be in Vietnam because it was Tet, or the lunar new year. Growing up in Hong Kong, we had celebrated Chinese New Year, and it's very similar in a lot of aspects to Tet. But it was interesting to experience it in another country. So all of the temples and pagodas were bustling, and all of the stores and markets were closed. It wasn't so good for shopping, but I enjoyed witnessing the celebrations.
Now, I'm back on the boat. We passed Singapore yesterday, and could see it from the boat. We also had a study day, which means no classes. I promise you that very little studying happened. It was Sea Olympics. Basically, every hallway on the ship is assigned a sea. Mine is Arabian, so we all wore orange and nominated our mascot to be a tiger. Throughout the day, the entire shipboard community competed in events such as lip sync, tug of war, synchronized swimming, speed chess, relay race, rap battle etc. We were awarded points as a sea the entire day, and my sea came in third (out of seven!). Honestly, I didn't expect us to do as well as we did, because our preparation was a little shabby. We did lose to all of the children and old people on the ship, which is a little embarrassing, but our lip sync at the end of the night killed. It got a standing ovation from the crowd, and I was definitely proud to be an Arabian Tiger. Most of my friends are in the Yellow Sea, and they lost. So sucks for them. But it was all friendly competition, and we got to spend a day with no worries. I wish more days were like that on the ship, because we get stuck in such a routine that sometimes we forget to take a break and have fun while we're at sea. This voyage is flying by, and I can't believe that exactly two months from now, I'll be getting off the ship in Southampton.
In two more days, I'll be in Myanmar. I'm signed up for another field program with SAS, but I have a lot of friends going on it and we get to see elephants, so I'm excited. Hopefully it'll be a good experience. I know virtually nothing about Myanmar, so I'm excited to be there and experience a new culture.
Feel free to email me if you're bored! lauren.wiley.sp16@semesteratsea.org
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