Dear Hawaii,

Remember when you gave me quality time with lovely friends?

How dearly I miss them!

Love. Anna

Dear Japan,

Remember when you enchanted me with your quiet stillness?

Oh, but it was a little bit of divinity, wasn't it?

Love. Anna

I Haven't Forgotten You, China.

Dear China,

Remember that one time when I conquered the icy steps of your Great Wall?

Quite invigorating, if I do say so myself.

Love. Anna

Dear Vietnam,

Remember that one time when your bat attacked me in the Cu Chi Tunnels?

I have documentation.

Love. Anna

Dear India,

Remember when I woke up at the crack of dawn to see your white marble wonder?

Totally worth it.

Love. Anna

Dear Mauritius,

Remember when I took the best nap of my life on your beach?

Would love to do that again sometime.

Love. Anna

Dear South Africa,

Remember when your landscape took my breath away?

I'll never forget it.

Love. Anna

Dear Ghana,

Remember when I heard your rhythms for the very first time?

Unforgettable.

Love. Anna

Dear Morocco,

Remember that one time when I rode across your fine-sand desert?

Good times.

Love. Anna

Dear Spain,

Remember that one time when your waves tickled my toes?

Thanks for that.

Love. Anna

A Few Very Brief Introductions

I want to introduce you to just a couple of the key players in my lovely Semester at Sea voyage.

And I thought I would do it extra cheesy profile-pic style because, truthfully, everyone on the ship has a million ridiculous and very travel-weary photographs like this from the past three and a half months.



Meet Allison Jean Hart. She is fantastic and funny and one of the most refreshingly authentic people I know. She made my voyage daily. O how much I shall miss our bedtime conversations!



Meet Lila June Carpenter. This girl blesses me in such crazy wonderful ways. Hearts like hers just don't come around that often, which is why I'm glad I stumbled upon it. You should know now that I think she's going to change the world.



Meet Brittany Leona Mitchell. She takes lovely photographs of the world. And has the most contagious laugh ever. She's pretty incredible, not gonna lie.



Meet Bryan Lee Payne. The best neighbor anyone could ever ask for. He came over to join Allie and I for our movie nights, fort-making extravaganzas, and other random silliness--and he gave us a million fabulous memories along the way. The good news is he's agreed to be my brother, so there'll be many more to come.



Meet Don. Our extra-smiley cabin steward. He is definitely a key player in our journey, seeing as how he greeted us every morning and cleaned our room from day to day. Bascially, Don rocks our world.


Home is wonderful. And so new, even in its familiarity. So much to process...but all in good time.

Love. Anna

December 14th

I’ve fussed over this post.

Tried to find words, and couldn’t.

Words and I have a long-standing love affair, but there are moments where they fail me—and this would be one of them.

They can’t articulate all the things that are stretching my heart at its seams.

I’m so very sad to go.

And so very excited for home.

These two sentiments coexist in the most nonsensical of ways for me today.

I look forward to sharing the stories and experiences of this odyssey when I get home.

But I also recognize that no matter how specific the words or detailed the pictures, there are parts of this journey that will forever remain a secret for the world and I to share—and this enchants me to no end. The specific smells and tastes and the feelings so thick you could cut them with a knife—all gifts from the world just for me. I'm moved to a goose-bump kind of gratitude.

My heart is full. And ready for the familiar.

Love. Anna

Wrapping Up

Today is packing day on the MV Explorer.

Let me tell you, friends, it ‘s going to take some small miracle to get three and a half months of my life back into two suitcases.

But crazier things have happened, and for better or worse, I’m getting off the boat tomorrow in San Diego with my things in tow.

Wish my suitcase zippers strength.

Love. Anna

Motionless

Sitting at lunch today, we were trying to process the fact that we’ve been moving for the past three and half months.

Not just figuratively moving, literally in motion—be it running around in port or life on the ship—we’ve always been on the move.

We laughed about how weird it will be to sit in class without the rocking, to eat dinner without the rocking, to try and fall asleep at night without the up and down, back and forth motion we’ve come to know so well. Allie and I have memorized the hum of the engines, and the color gradient of sunset after sunset sitting outside on deck 6 aft. We know well the white caps that greet us each morning when we open the window shade.

But now it’s time to say goodbye, and learn how to be still again.

There is an end to every season.

Love. Anna

Favorites

Allie’s merciless teasing on a certain issue over the past three and a half months has helped me learn something about myself—I’m really, really bad at picking favorites.

I like to think it’s really just an appreciation for specificity.

Regardless, I can’t very well give you my favorite color until we clarify whether I’m painting my toe nails or my bedroom walls, am I picking a color for my next sweater purchase or my next car?

Don’t even get me started on my favorite restaurant because that all depends on what meal of the day we’re eating and how long we have to eat it.

All this is to say…there’s a question I know is coming my way very soon, and I’m already in dread of it—what was my favorite port?

In light of this dreaded and quickly approaching question, I thought it might be helpful for me break things down a bit…by category…just to get the basics out there. (Am I sounding type-A right now? Because I’m really not, I promise.)

Here we go…

Most Adventurous Port: It’s is a tight race…but I’m going to go with China on this one…something to do with climbing the Great Wall and eating duck brains.

Most Relaxing Port: Mauritius (by far). But that’s what remote, little islands are for, right?

Most Educational Port: Ghana—this country is so full of life—it can instruct the deepest parts of you.

Most Challenging Port: South Africa—the legacy of apartheid that is still so evident today was just too much to swallow.

Best Cuisine: Vietnam—I don’t pretend to have experienced the full extent of the cuisine in the short time I was there, but I didn’t have a meal that wasn’t absolutely scrumptious in Vietnam (India was a close second though).

Best Weather: Honolulu, Hawaii—perfectly delightful seventy-degree beach weather.

Best Sights to See: India—quite possibly the most visually stunning country in the entire world.

Best Shopping: I didn’t know it at the time, but probably Morocco. I guess it depends on what you’re looking for…if you want cultural goods, go to the Moroccan souks, but if you want knock-offs, then Vietnam is where it’s at.

Friendliest People: That would be a tie between Japan and Ghana—kindness was just about everywhere we found ourselves in these two countries.

I finished finals today, friends. It was brutal, I’m not gonna lie.

But only TWO MORE DAYS—and so close to home!

Love. Anna

Uncovered Redux

I had an earnest prayer coming on this voyage.

I shared it with a few dear confidants.

I asked God to teach me to be comfortable in every bit of my own skin.

Then I got on a boat.

And waited in expectation.

I would like to share with you what I uncovered.

From the middle-aged women walking topless on the beach in Spain to the Ghanaian girls shaking their belly rolls in perfect time with the beating drums to the midriff-bearing grannies of India, I began to realize that there might not exist another culture in the world with more cruel and absurd ideas about bodies than our own. And I’m convinced the implications of this are hugely profound.

At the end of the day, skin and bones are far to universal a thing to warrant the hyperawareness that invades the hearts of most every girl I know from my generation.

In spite of my earnest prayers, I never awoke in the morning to brush the eye crusties aside, take a good look in the mirror, and remark on just how incredibly comfortable with myself I happen to be—that day never came. I was hardly surprised by it because a change like that would have been far too easy and vastly unsatisfying for someone as complicated as I am.

Oh but He taught me!

In the middle of this all, He taught me how to breathe deeper and laugh harder and weep for things that matter in the world. He broke my heart for things bigger than stretch marks, and frustrated me for things larger than a longing for petite-ness. He taught me to open myself to an entirely new way of understanding bodies—that they are not to be hated or worshiped, but rather viewed as vessels through which we have the privilege of experiencing this world.

Lately, I’ve settled myself on words from a favorite book of mine—“We can never arrive, we can only become”—they hold the simplicity needed to remind me that this particular race is without a cleanly marked finish line. But I’m walking the journey anyway…so that I may know the fullness and joy that is found in and through growth and change and grace.

I am being made new.

I am a becoming woman.

Love. Anna

For Real Now

We just pulled away from Honolulu to brave the stormy seas.

Two exams.

A whole slew of goodbyes.

And four days and counting.

I’m homeward bound now.

Love. Anna

False Alarm

So...it turns out our last hurrah wasn't actually our last hurrah.

Horribly anti-climatic, I know.

The coast guard issued a storm warning, and in the avoidance of some pretty serious swells, our captain decided it was best not to sail.

Hilo, however, couldn't let us dock for another day, so last night we ended up sailing back to Honolulu.

That is where I currently find myself

What does this mean for the next six days?

Well...

Finals will still happen on schedule, which means I still have two papers due tomorrow, and two exams the day after that...so my newfound day in Honolulu is currently being spent at a random coffee shop, laptop in tow, writing about reproduction and U.S. foreign policy (separately, I should clarify).

As for now, we are planning to sail tonight, and if we do, we will still arrive back to San Diego on December 14th as planned, but they are telling us that everything is contingent on the conditions and Captain Jeremy's decision to sail or not.

I really, really, really want to arrive in San Diego as scheduled (did I mention I want to get back to San Diego on time?), so I am waiting with fingers crossed that everything works out just fine.

Papers are calling...

Love. Anna

Hawaii

I walked up the gangway for the last time today.

Bittersweetness.

When we first pulled in to Hawaii on Friday morning, I wasn’t sure if I had another port in me.

I know that must sound ridiculous, but I promise you after a continuous amount of navigating and planning and running and a constant amount of sleep deprivation, there is an exhaustion that forms deep and becomes harder and harder to shake.

Which is exactly why Allie and I choose to spend our first day in Hawaii navigating a sub-par public transportation system to the beach in Waikiki, and it was just what we needed.

We napped on the beach for hours and ate hamburgers and called home and it was simple and wonderful and restful. Later that night, we met up with the girls to celebrate Brittany’s birthday over Italian food. Allie and Brittany went to see New Moon, while Lila and I had a coffee date (I’ll pass on vampires, thanks though) and we taxied back to the boat at midnight a very happy kind of exhausted.

Day two in Honolulu, Allie and I took the bus to Pearl Harbor, which was fascinating and completely worthwhile in light of my Warfare class. We had breakfast for lunch (because, really, what’s more wonderful?), and met up with Lila at the beach after her surf lesson. On ship time was early that evening in order to make it to Hilo by 8am the next morning, which we did successfully (and with no ruff seas, as they predicted).

Day three/day one in Hilo, a big group of us girls hired the most adorable tour guide (she’s a certified hula instructor, so she threw some impromptu hula performances in there for us as well) to take us around the waterfalls and Volcanoes National Park. Hilo is a sleepy town, and it was drizzly and gray during most of our time there, but in spite of the rain, the twelve of us had a fantastic time traipsing through lava tubes and taking in waterfalls.

After we dressed and got Lila ready for her date that evening (shh…don’t tell…she’d be furious at me for doing so…but she’s just so darn cute not to), Laurel and Leanne and Allie and I went to the most wonderful, dimly lit little place for dinner. We enjoyed crab cakes and girl time and good conversation before finishing off the night with a quick trip through Walmart (we thought we’d pick up some Teddy Grahams before finals arrive in all their full glory).

And as for our last day in our last port, Brit and Lila and Allie and I laid on a black sand beach, with our brightly colored towels in a perfect row. It was gray, and the sun was nowhere to be found, but we watched the waves come in and out anyway. After it became too chilly for beach time, we went to get Lila’s nose pierced (which looks most fabulous, if I do say so myself), and we ended our tenth country with falafel and iced tea and another beloved bus ride back to climb the gangway one final time.

Bittersweetness.

Love. Anna

Final Stop

Oh my.

One final down, four lovely days in Hawaii, then two finals and a paper to go before home.

We arrive in Honolulu at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning. Allie and I have decided to treat Hawaii as a time to wind down, to rest, and to process—and what a better place to do it, no?

The weekend is near, and I hope it is a wonderful one for you.

Love. Anna

3 More Days...

Happy December, dear friends.

Can you believe it’s here already?

Allie bought Christmas window clings at the dollar store in Japan. We decorated, and Bryan came over to watch Elf with us.

It’s the little things that carry us through ten days of sailing and eight days of class.

Love. Anna