Hola from Madrid, Spain!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

Can you believe that I'm coming home in two days? I can't! I am very excited to get to see my family and Bancroft again!

I have spent the past two weeks in Madrid, the capital of Spain. It's a beautiful city!



This is the town hall! It used to be the post office as well.



My uncle and his family, who I'm staying with, love watching soccer (or football, as it's called in Europe). They took me to a live game and we sat only six rows away from the field. People love soccer here just as much as Canadians love hockey!

Something that I think that is very different from home is the Spanish concept of the day. Most stores don't open in Madrid until around 10 AM, and then close for the "siesta", or lunchtime/nap time, around 2-4 PMish. And then it doesn't get dark until around 10 PM, and that's when most people eat dinner. It isn't very common for the streets and restaurants to be busy until midnight!

Just over two days from now I will be home! Mrs. Simpson and I are hopefully going to figure out a time for me to come see you guys before the summer begins. Can you believe that this is the last entry I will write to you guys? I've hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures around the world as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

See you soon,
Rebecca

Hello from Glasgow!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

The last place I was in was Glasgow, Scotland! I was lucky enough to be able to stay with a good friend of mine named Rachel. It was so much fun having someone show me around their city. Glasgow is the biggest city in Scotland, even though it's not the capital. It is a beautiful city, but it rains every day there! That was the only thing I didn't really like about it.



This was when we spent some time exploring a botanical garden. One day we traveled to small town called Balmaha to go hiking up a large hill called Conic Hill. From there we had a fantastic view of Loch Lomond. In Scotland lakes are often called lochs - you may remember this from Loch Ness, where the famous Loch Ness Monster lives.



This is what Loch Lomond looks like!

Scotland is the second last country I am visiting. Right now I am writing this from Madrid, Spain, where I am staying with family. It is very sunny and warm here, much warmer than Scotland!

Hello from London!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

It's rather strange not to be writing this on the MV Explorer, but rather I am sitting in my friend's apartment in Glasgow, Scotland! I think I'll take a couple minutes and tell you about London.

We disembarked the MV Explorer for the last time in Southampton, which was about an hour drive away from the Heathrow Airport. It was sad saying goodbye to many of my friends, but I am hopeful that I will see them again one day.

From the Airport we took the Underground into the central of London. London is a huge city! It has been a settlement for over 2000 years and currently has a population of over 8 million people. The Underground, or 'The Tube', is the oldest underground rail system! It is incredibly efficient for getting around London.

I saw many famous places in London that you probably recognize! See if you can guess what they are before I tell you!



How about this? It is Tower Bridge! It was built in 1886 and is one of the most iconic sights of London. The River Thames flows through London, so there are many bridges to cross it.

Or this?



This is Big Ben! It is a famous clocktower attached to the Parliament - did you know England has a very similar political system to Canada? That is because ours was modeled after theirs! Also, although many people call the clock tower itself Big Ben, Ben Ben itself is actually a bell inside the tower! You can also see the London Eye in the background. It is a famous ferris wheel.

Or how about this?



This is Buckingham Palace, where the Queen of England herself lives! You know the lady on all of our coins? That's her. When we visited, the flag at the top was raised, meaning she was there.

Finally, how about this building?



It is Shakespeare's Globe! If you remember, I am a theatre student so it was very cool for me to get to see a Shakespeare play performed here. This is not the original Globe, as it was demolished in 1644, however it is a close approximation of what William Shakespeare and his fellow actors would have performed in, very close to the spot where the original playhouse once stood.

As you can tell, I got to visit a lot of awesome places in London. It is a city with so much history and culture so I can't wait to go back one day and see more of it. In a few days I'll tell you about my time in Scotland!

Salam from Morocco!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

The MV Explorer just left our final port, Morocco! In Morocco the vast majority of people are Muslim, and many people speak both Arabic and French. Sometimes they spoke Spanish too!

The ship landed in Casablanca. It is famous for having the third largest mosque in the world, called the Hassan II Mosque. It was beautiful both inside and out!



These are what the windows inside look like!



A couple friends and I traveled on the train to Marrakech, a city on the edge of the Sahara Desert. It felt like being in a fairy tale! In a large square called Jamma El Fena there are snake-charmers, monkeys, and magicians. At night the square filled with these food vendors and we ate the most amazing food.



A common food in Morocco is tagine. It is a style of cooking where food is placed in a clay triangle pot and placed in a fire. I tried a couple different kinds of tagine and they were all very good! Also something famous in Morocco is mint tea! It is very sweet but very yummy. I drank a lot of it.



We stayed in the medina in Marrakech, which means 'Old City'. Most cities in Morocco have medinas, where the city is oldest and is surrounded by walls. The streets are very narrow and it is very easy to get lost in the alleys, it is like a maze. Fortunately, many locals are willing to give you directions.



Finally, we traveled to Rabhat, which is the capital of Morocco. We spent a lot of time looking at the ocean, and we even went surfing! It was cold, but we were wearing wetsuits so we stayed warm.

I am very sad that Morocco was the last port for Semester at Sea. The next time I get off the ship I won't be getting back on again! We arrive in London in three days, and I just finished writing all my tests for my classes. Next time I write to you I will be in London, England!

Bridge Tour of the MV Explorer!

A couple days ago I went on a tour of the bridge of the MV Explorer! The 'bridge' is the command center, where they steer the ship from! Normally students aren't allowed to see the bridge, but the tours let us see how the ship works.



There is always one or two crew members whose job it is to look out at the ocean with binoculars, all the time. There is a lot of fancy electronic equipment that lets the MV Explorer crew see ships in the distance, but sometimes machines don't work, so there is always one person using their eyes to make sure we are safe!

This is the view from the bridge!



While we were up on the bridge the ship was on auto pilot so no one was actually steering! This is what the steering wheel looks like.



Below is a picture of the nautical flags. They all mean different things. Also, when we arrive in a different country we are required by law to hoist the flag of the country we are arriving in!



Finally, they let us try on a Captain's hat! What do you think? Do you think I could be a Captain one day?



Tomorrow we arrive in our final port, Morocco! I am very excited but also sad that it is the last stop on Semester at Sea before we disembark the ship. I can't wait to tell you about my adventures in Morocco in a couple days!

Akwaaba from Ghana!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

The MV Explorer is sailing away from our second last port, Ghana! Ghana is on the west coast of Africa, with a population of approximately 24 million people.

The first day I was in Ghana I got to work with an organization called Pencils of Promise. Pencils of Promise helps build schools in rural communities that can't afford to. Without these buildings, students go to school under trees outside. We got to see a completed school that Pencils of Promise built, as well as help with one still under construction. It made me think about how thankful I am for having grown up in a country where I can go to school in a building, with chairs, desks, school supplies and everything else that you need to learn.



The next day, my friends and I traveled to a city called Cape Coast. In Cape Coast there is a very famous castle. There was a horrible time in human history when people enslaved others just because the colour of their skin was different. Europeans captured Africans and treated them very badly, taking them to the Americas, although many of them died before they even arrived. The Cape Coast Castle is a place many of the slaves were held before being put on ships.



Although it looks beautiful, we also saw the dungeons where many Africans died. Even though history like this might be sad or not fun to learn, it is still important to remember so that we can stop something like this from ever happening again.

Also in Ghana I got to meet up with an old friend of mine from Bancroft! Rebecca Malloy was my babysitter when I was little but now she is working in Ghana. We hadn't seen each other in 10 years so it was cool to find her again on a beautiful beach in Ghana. We talked about what we miss about Bancroft and Canada, but also how awesome Ghana is.



That's all for now! I have a couple special pictures for you that I'll post in a few days. Meanwhile, I have a lot of homework to get done!

Molo from South Africa!

Hello Mrs. Simpson's class!

I just spent the past week in South Africa! It is an incredible place, and possibly one of my favourite places so far! I got to do and see so many things, but I feel like I barely scratched the surface. I think I want to go back one day.

When I woke up the first morning in South Africa, I saw this outside my window! I had a perfect view of Table Mountain. Table Mountain surrounds Cape Town, the city that we were docked in. Can you guess why it is called Table Mountain?



Here's another view of it.



Later in the week, I would hike up this mountain! It took about 3 hours and I was exhausted at the end. However, there was a cable car that took us back down the mountain in 3 minutes.



From the top of Table Mountain we could see all of Cape Town and we could even see the ship!

One day I took a train to visit a small town called Simon's Town. It is famous for a national park called Boulder's Beach that is home to an African Penguin colony! These are an endangered species of penguin that only live along the coast of Africa.



They were very cute and a lot smaller than I thought they would be, only as tall as my shin. However, you are not supposed to touch them because they will bite you!



There were a lot of cool things to see, but there were also a lot of important things to learn in Cape Town.

For many years in South Africa, people were told by the government where they had to live based on the colour of their skin. This was called apartheid. People fought to end this system but the government threw them in jail for many years. This includes a famous man named Nelson Mandela. He was imprisoned for 27 years before he was released! He then became the President of South Africa and worked to reverse all the bad things that were done during apartheid. It is important to remember that this wasn't very long ago! Mandela was elected in 1994, a year after I was born. Your parents probably remember this being on the news.

I traveled to Robben Island, the prison where political prisoners were kept for many years. I got to see Nelson Mandela's cell, where he lived for 18 years.



Something fascinating about South Africa is that there are eleven official languages! It is a very diverse place with many different people. One of the languages is Xchosa - but you don't pronounce the "X", because it is a clicking sound you make with your tongue! It is a tricky language for people to learn because of the clicks. An easy word is "molo", it means "hello"!

Is there still snow in Bancroft? It was colder in South Africa, I often had to wear a sweater, but we are now sailing closer to the equator again, where it will be much warmer again. I wish I could send the warm weather to you!