Welcome to the future!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I got to spend last weekend in Singapore! Singapore is a very intriguing city. Being in Singapore feels like time-traveling into the future! There are big shiny buildings everywhere and the city is very multicultural. Do you know what that means? For Singapore it meant that everything in public areas was written in four different languages!

I was very lucky because a good friend of mine, Ashley, from Queen's University, is on exchange in Singapore for the semester. She showed me around the city and her school. It was really wonderful to get to talk about things from back home with someone who understands!

This is a photo of us in front of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. This is a very famous hotel because there is a large pool on the very top! A couple of my friends stayed in this hotel- it's very expensive but they thought it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Meanwhile, I stayed with Ashley in her dormitory at her university- it was very small, there was no air-conditioning (and it was very hot in Singapore!), and there were geckos crawling on the walls! It was a very different experience, but I loved being with her.

Have you ever eaten crab before? I had it for the first time. We ate a Singaporean dish called chilli crab. Even though it was cooked in a way special to Singapore, the crab was from Canada! It was very spicy but yummy.

On Saturday night Ashley took me to a light show outside the Marina Bay Sands Hotel. There was shooting water, mist, lasers, music, and even bubbles! It was cheesy but very fun.

We also went to the Garden by the Bay. Have you ever seen the movie Avatar? There are these huge lighted trees that look like they belong in that movie. They are designed to mimic how real trees work- they use solar panels to collect energy that power the lights during the night, and they collected rainwater for the nearby fountains. 

Something that Singapore is very well known for is its harsh laws. It is illegal to eat food on the subway, to spit in public, and even to chew gum! You can be fined a lot of money for all these things, and even arrested. If you are caught smuggling drugs, you can be given the death sentence, even if you are not a citizen of Singapore. Although I did not see any police officers, my friend Ashely told me there are cameras everywhere, and most of the police officers are undercover so you don't know if you are being watched. I think this is a little bit scary. What do you think? I think it's I think it is very interesting that somehow that seems very futuristic and perfect can also feel wrong.

That's all for now! It was a very quick stop in Singapore. Next we arriving in a country called Burma (also called Myanmar). What do you know about Burma/Myanmar? The whole world doesn't know a lot about this place because tourists were only allowed to begin visiting it in  2007.

Rebecca

Xin Chao!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I think Vietnam was my favourite country so far! Like I said before, Ho Chi Minh City (which is also called Saigon because Vietnam was once controlled by France) is the biggest city in Vietnam. However, HCMC is not the capital- that is a city called Hanoi, in the north of Vietnam. Many of my friends flew to see Hanoi, but I spent six days exploring HCMC!

I made many new friends in Vietnam! I was lucky enough to meet a student named Ngan who let me stay at her apartment for a few days. I felt like I was actually living in the city! She introduced me to all her friends and even took me to her class. Her friends were very nice and because they wanted to practice their English they loved to speak with me.

One of the craziest things about Vietnam is the traffic. There are 10 million in people in HCMC and there are 6 million motorcycles! They are the primary mode of transportation. Sometimes a whole family rides on one bike! Quite often, drivers don't listen to traffic lights or signs. This makes it very tricky to cross the street- it feels like you are going to be hit by a motorcycle every time you walk across the street. You have to walk confidently and at a steady pace, not running, and motorcycles will move around you! It's quite scary until you get used to it.

It's been very interesting learning how to use different currencies in all the countries I've been visiting! For example, in Vietnam the money is called "dong", and one dollar is about 20 800 dong! This meant that when ever I was going to buy anything, I had to do a lot of quick math in my head. Also, when you go shopping in a market, you are supposed to bargain! This is a kind of friendly argument to decide the price- for example, if a vendor said something cost 250 000 dong, I would tell them I would give them 100 000 dong. One trick to bargaining is to say what you want to buy is too expensive and then walk away. Quite often the vendor will grab your arm and offer a lower price.

This is a picture of a market I went to. Do you see everyone wearing those cone-shaped hats? These are a very traditional Vietnamese hat that is worn to protect people from the sun while they are working on a farm. 

Even though I was very warm in Vietnam and always wearing shorts, many people wore long-sleeve shirts, pants, and even face masks! In North America many people think it is beautiful to have a tan from the sun. However, in Vietnam, it is thought that lighter coloured skin is more beautiful so they cover themselves from the sunshine!

As always, I tried many new foods! I ate a duck egg, except it was the kind of egg where there is a baby duck inside. You crack open the top of the egg, drink the juice inside, then eat the inside with a spoon. Although it might sound very gross, it really just tasted like normal eggs!

Also, Vietnam is very famous for it's delicious coffee. Because of the heat, I tried this ice milk-coffee! It was very delicious.

Finally, I went to many museums in the city. Although you may not know this, but there was a war between Vietnam and the United States from 1956 to 1975. In Canada, we do not learn a lot about this war in school because we did not send anyone to fight in it! Unfortunately, the United States was very violent and did many bad things in Vietnam, including dropping very harmful chemicals in Vietnam. There are still many people effected by these chemicals today. Sometimes we may not be aware of the bad things that happened to others around the world because it did not happen in our country, but it is still important to learn.

As I write this we are crossing to Singapore from Vietnam! It is lunch time and the ship is rocking back and forth, so much so that some dishes have been sliding off the table!

Rebecca

Ni hao!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I am so excited to tell you about my adventures in China! Visiting China was especially meaningful for me because my Mom, Mrs. Isaak, went to China when she did Semester at Sea in 1981! I have heard all her stories and was excited to see the places she described to me.

The MV Explorer docked in Shanghai, but on my second day I travelled with a tour group to Beijing. It was about a two hour plane flight. It was kind of chilly in Shanghai, but it was very cold in Beijing! Probably almost as cold as it is in Bancroft is right now, although there was definitely less snow.

In Beijing we took a bus to the Great Wall of China! In total, we hiked about 20 km over the course of two days. We started in the Gubeikou section, which is one of the oldest parts of the wall, close to 2000 years old. A lot of the Wall in this section was falling down. During the second day, we were in the Jinshanling section and hiked towards the Simatai section, which was only built about 600 years ago, and has been preserved much more.

Some sections of the Wall were very narrow or very steep! At a couple points, I was using my hands to make sure I didn't fall backwards.

On the afternoon of my second day in Beijing, we went to the Forbidden City. It was constructed from 1406 to 1420, and there are 980 buildings surrounded by walls. The Emperor of China used to live in the Forbidden City with his family, and up until 1912, no common people were allowed inside! Even if you climbed a tree to peek over the walls, you could be executed! Another interesting fact I learned is that the colour of the roof of a building was very important in ancient China. You were only allowed to have a gold-coloured roof if you were very important, like the Emperor. Everyone else has to have grey roofs.

In China I continued to work on my chopstick skills! All the restaurants I went to were "family style", which means the table was round and there was a giant spinning disc on the middle of the table. The waiters would bring out many, many plates of food and we would have to use our chopsticks to pick what we wanted and put it on our own plate! I ate Peking duck, a famously delicious way to cook duck, and potatoes covered in carmel, which were very tasty.

While in China I also tried lots of different types of tea. I am used to making tea with a teabag and hot water, but making tea in China is an art. There was this one kind of tea made with small ball of tea leaves and a flower compressed into a small the size of a ping-pong ball. When you pour hot water on it, the flower opens up! It was delicious and beautiful.

As you may remember when I visited in December, I have blonde hair and blue eyes. While this is very normal in Bancroft, in some places in China seeing someone with blonde hair is very unusual. Often in the city Chinese people would ask to take our picture because they had never seen someone who looks different from them! While we were Beijing, a mother asked me if I would take a photo with her little daughter. It is interesting to think about the differences like this between Canada and China.

After Beijing my group flew to Hong Kong. Did you know that Hong Kong is technically separate from China? There is a different government and different money. The lights of the city were unbelievable! It felt like when the sun went away the city lights were just as bright!

Tomorrow we will be arriving in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh City is the biggest city in Vietnam, and the weather says it is going to around 25 degrees Celsius! It is going to be very strange to be going from cold Beijing to very hot Vietnam!

Rebecca

Answering your questions about Japan!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I just returned home to the MV Explorer after China! I thought I'd
answer your questions about Japan before I tell you about my adventures
in China.

The green tea in the picture I showed you was very thick and tangy. It
wasn't sweet or bitter like most normal teas people drink in Canada or
USA (those are normally called "black tea"), but strangely both. It was
very sweet when used in cakes or ice cream. I'm not quite sure how to
describe what it exactly tasted like! You might just have to travel to
Japan and try it for yourself someday.

The monkeys we saw were still wild animals, even if they were very used
to humans. You also weren't supposed to look them in the eye either,
because they might think that means you want to fight them!

In Japan many people speak a little bit of English, but even if they
don't, many people we met were very friendly and helpful! Sometimes we
communicated with gestures and sometimes with pointing to what we wanted
to ask. I was also very lucky because for most of the trip my friends
and I traveled with someone who spoke Japanese! His name is Micheal, and
he is an American student studying Japanese in Tokyo for a year.
Something really interesting he taught me is that it is a lot easier to
learn to speak Japanese than to read it. This is because you have to
memorize over 2000 symbols in three different types of writing!

We got to Tokyo on a train which took about half an hour, and then we
traveled on a bus overnight from Tokyo to Kyoto, then finally another
train to Kobe!

I'm not sure what picture you were looking at, but I wore jeans the
whole time in Japan. It was like Fall in Bancroft- a bit chilly but I
only needed a sweater and long pants.

Hello Mrs. Menard! It is so lovely to hear from you. I'm so glad you get
to follow my trip.

I'll tell you about China very soon!

Rebecca

Konichiwa!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I just returned to the MV Explorer after spending 6 days exploring Japan. It was an incredibly awesome experience. I did so many cool things that I don't think I can possibly describe all of them to you! I will do my best to share some of my favourite things. 

I mentioned to you that Tokyo is an enormous city, and it certainly felt that way! We lived in a neighbourhood called Askusabashi (pronounced A-sock-sa-bash-e), but we traveled all over the city using the subway. We got really good at using the subway, even though the machines and instructions were in Japanese!

One day while we were there, we went to a part of the city called Shibuya. It is famous for being filled with very bright lights, as well as being home to the biggest cross-walk in the world. It is sometimes called the "Shibuya scramble", because all the traffic lights stop so people can cross the street in any direction.

One extremely yummy part of Japan was the food! Do you know how to eat with chopsticks? I didn't! I had to learn. I had plenty of practice though. I tried sushi for the very first time- sushi is different types of raw fish with rice! I also ate fried octopus! Trust me, it might sound kind of icky but it was very delicious.

After Tokyo my friends and I traveled to Kyoto. I told you that it is a city famous for its history, and this was very true! Every block you walked down there would be a temple or a shrine that is hundreds of years old.

We went to one famous one called Kinkaku-ji Temple, or the Golden Pavilion. As you can see below, it lives up to its name! The upper two levels of the temple are covered in gold foil. It was built in 1397 by an emperor to be a guesthouse but after he died, it was converted into a temple. Near by, you could buy charms that are supposed to bring good luck and fortune. I bought one that will hopefully help me do well in school!

Here is a photo of my friend Shelby and I in front of it!

On the same day we stopped at a small tea shop. Green tea, while being a type of tea you can drink, is also often used in many foods in Japan. I tried green tea and green tea sponge cakes, and I also ate green tea ice cream the day before! Like the sushi before, I learned I shouldn't be scared of food just because I haven't tried it or because I think it's strange.

On our second day in Kyoto we took a train to a part of the city called Arashiyama. There is park there where you can see macaque monkeys. They are the only species of monkey that live in Japan. We walked to the top of a mountain, and suddenly we were surrounded by monkeys! They are very used to people, so they would walk very close to you, but you are not allowed to touch them. If you go into a little house, you can feed them through the bars!

Japan was so much fun and I learned so many things, but now I am back home on the MV Explorer! I have two days of classes and then we arrive in Shanghai, China.

I'm very tired because of all the adventures I had, but now I need to rest up, do some homework, and repack for China! I will be traveling to Beijing to see the Great Wall.

Sayonara,

Rebecca