Day 35 and 36: Portugal
I have a new found respect for surfers. Being slammed in the face with salty waves every 10 seconds is not that much fun.
The beach that we surfed at had crazy waves! We all rounded the corner on the bus and started freaking out. Compared to the waveless beaches that I have been to in Connecticut and Florida it was very intimidating. They were of average size but they came really frequently. It was also really windy out which made it feel significantly colder than it was. And it was cloudy. Standing on the beach and looking at the ocean was extremely intimidating.
There was a snack bar/beach shack right on the beach. It was there that we kept all of our stuff and did our yoga. We split into two groups. Half of us did yoga first while the other surfed and then we switched. I did yoga first, which I was glad I did because it warmed me up. We did yoga to Reggae music, which was an interesting take on it. It wasn't the most elaborate yoga session I have ever been do, we just did sun salutation and shavasana, which is when you just lay in corpse pose and meditate.
I love yoga and I haven't done it since school in the spring so it felt good. Our session lasted a little less than an hour, so we watched the other group surf. It looked like a lot of fun.
We were given wet suits, thank god. I was terrified that the water being cold would ruin the experience for me. I felt all official when I put it on.
He had us form a circle on the sand and then draw a surf board at our feet with our fingers. The wind was so strong that it was really difficult to hear him, and he soon gave up trying to talk to us as a group.
They brought three surf boards out and put them in the middle of the circle. Three of the guys worked together and took one of us at a time in order to find out what side we were: regular or goofy.
Regular was when you stood on the board with your left foot in front, goofy with your right foot.
I am goofy. Obviously.
To figure it out he had me stand on the board in each direction while he lifted it into the air and moved it around. Which ever side you felt the most comfortable on, the most balanced, was your side.
After we all figured out our sides he gave us the four steps to standing up. Once you started paddling and felt yourself picking of speed because of the wave, this is what you did:
- Push yourself up with your arms. Like cobra pose in yoga
- Put your bum to the right if you're goofy, left if you're regular
- Plant your back foot on the board
- Push yourself up and replace your hands with your front foot.
Yeah right, I was doing great until that last step. I'm seriously supposed to just magically push-up myself into a standing position and then magic my foot in front of me while not losing my balance? Sure.
The trick was to keep your body weight centered and low.
After a while of practicing this with the instructors, we headed out to the water.
The current was so strong that we had to walk a significant way down the beach so that we would eventually end up back in front of where we started. It was really hard to walk down the beach with the surf boards, the wind was so strong that it would whip you around.
They had kept telling us that the water was 22 degrees Celsius. Which is somewhere in the 60s. But it was so cold out that it was hard to believe that the water was really that warm.
They were right though. There was no immediate shock walking into it. We all just plunged right in. Thank god it wasn't cold.
We waded out pretty far, surf boards floating on the water. You had to guide your board over the incoming waves by pushing down on the back of it as they approached you. The boards were attached to us by a line velcroed around our back ankle. For safety we were all spread out in a line instead of front to back.
We went out far enough that once a wave came the water was up to my neck. At that point one of the instructors had me lay down on my board and guided me so that I was facing the beach. Once a wave was coming he told me to start paddling. When I felt myself gain speed I pushed myself up with my arms. At that point all other instructions went out the window.
What am I supposed to do now!?
I did ride the wave almost all the way back to the beach, laying on my stomach. Which was awesome.
Let's go again!!
This was a consistent cycle.
Wade out, turn around, catch a wave, and then completely forget what I was supposed to do. I kept putting my bum to the wrong side.
I fell off a lot.
The good news is that I did get to my knees at one point. Not necessarily using the right technique but it happened.
And it was fun.
At one point we had to get out of the water and walk back down the beach because the current had carried us so far.
Eventually, I started to lose control of the board. The wind was so strong and the waves were coming so quickly that it was flying everywhere.
It was then that I knew I was done. I was tired of getting a mouth full of salt water at every wave and my face was burning.
When I got back up to the snack bar the people from the other group were already done with yoga and were eating lunch. Some were eating the box lunch that we got from the ship and others had gotten food from the snack bar.
Our box lunches are not too thrilling, although apparently they used to be worse. In mine was some type of sandwich, a hunk of chicken, a piece of banana bread, an apple, and a protein bar. Yay for banana bread, I was definitely going to eat that.
But whatever it was that one of the girls was eating from the snack bar looked far better than the hunk of chicken and mystery sandwich.
So I got it. It was a steak and egg sandwich. Although they called it toast. Toast = sandwich. I think because it was a toasted sandwich. Either way, it was delicious. I also got freshly squeezed orange juice that I watched be made in front of me. It was heaven in a glass.
We were able to just sit and relax for about two hours before we had to go back to the ship. During those two hours the clouds cleared and the sun came out. It was beautiful sitting on the beach. None of us wanted the day to end. Getting back on the bus was sad.
On the drive back to the ship another girl, Rachel, was talking about how she wanted to go find wifi somewhere in the city. I had the same goal so we decided to venture out together.
We met at 6 o'clock, after a shower and a nap.
We were told that there was wifi in the little building right off the ship, but everyone was sitting in there so you couldn't get on it. We eventually found ourselves in a mall Starbucks. Sad, I know. But Starbucks guarantees wifi and we know that we can find them in almost every city.
We sat there for about an hour and a half. I didn't get everything done that I needed to but I did what I could. We then just headed back to the ship. We didn't stop anywhere or do anything. It was probably about 8:30 at night.
I hadn't eaten dinner because we had our food at the beach so late, and dinner on the ship ends at 7:30 so I wasn't really sure what I was going to do.
I also still didn't feel all that great. My sinuses still hurt and I was coughing. In comparison to the day before I was a million times better, but I still felt like I should go to bed early and not push it.
I went to Molly's room when I got back on the ship. She was supposed to have her phone interview for the Disney College program that afternoon. We had been working on her phone interview for a while. She was easily able to apply for the program and complete her online interview when we were in Paris but as soon as she completed her online interview it wanted her to schedule a phone interview. One problem: we don't generally have phones. She scheduled it for one of the days that we were in Ireland with the hopes that she could get a SIM card for the little phone that she brought with her. She then emailed the campus program and told them her situation.
When she just kept getting automated responses back asking her to call their office for assistance I emailed my recruiter. I am a campus rep for the University of Tampa and so am in contact with Amy, one of the College Program recruiters. She is awesome. I had been in touch with her a lot because of being abroad and because I asked her about Disneyland Paris. She immediately communicated with the interviewing team and worked it out so that Molly would be able to call them once she had time and a phone number.
Molly and her roommate were getting ready to go out when I went to talk to her. At that point I was feeling pretty good and I wasn't tired at all so I was torn about whether or not I should go with them.
I didn't. And I am glad that I didn't. Apparently almost every SASer went to a club that someone recommended to someone. It was called Urban Beach and they scammed the crap out of everyone. It was free to get in, and you were given a card, which you used to get drinks. You then paid the balance on the card when you left. But they didn't tell you that you needed to keep this card and the fee to get out without the card was hefty. A lot of students didn't have enough money and they wouldn’t let them leave. Apparently the police were involved at one point.
That does not sound fun to me at all.
Instead I got a cup of noodles from the snack bar, watched Bridesmaids and half of The Blind Side, and went to bed early.
The next morning I got up early for another field program. I did a scavenger hunt around the city! It was fun, although it rained. We were given places to go and things to look for at those places. We then had to answer questions about the things that we saw. We went to St. Georges castle and saw some beautiful churches. I learned that they love to eat sardines. I also learned that they love Cod, which they import from Cape Cod. Hilarious.
The city is very hilly. To go deeper into the city from the port you are constantly walking directly uphill. I was not expecting that and it was exhausting. The streets were narrow and then suddenly open up to a major street. Every thing was tiled. There were tiles on the building and tiles on the street. They love their tiles. It was very difficult to walk on once it was slick from the rain. We had to walk very deliberately and slowly or else we all would have wiped out it. It almost happened a few times.
Our team didn't win the scavenger hunt but we did come in second.
I went back to the ship for lunch and met up with Molly, who was struggling from the night before. They had brownies at lunch. Real brownies. They tasted like I baked them in my own kitchen. They were delicious. Struggling Molly ate bread rolls and brownies and then I made her get ready to go exploring. As soon as we stepped out on the fifth deck, where the gangway was, we were greeted by a monsoon. It had gone from a tolerable sprinkling to a full out down pour.
After debating for a few minutes I decided that we were going to go for it. Molly was not happy. But by the time we had got down the gangway it had already let up a bit.
We went over one block to some stores that I had seen at the end of the scavenger hunt. We went in a bunch of different stores and got postcards, pins, and magnets.
Those are the three things that I am consistently buying in every country. I thought it was going to be really hard to find pins but I haven't struggled at all yet. Once we leave Morocco I might struggle a little more. Pins are one of my favorite things to collect, and they are fairly cheap, so I have gotten three or four in each country. Plus the nine I bought at Disney. I am already thinking of creative things to do with them when I get home.
I bought a SIM card. I had been calling my parents via Skype when I could, but that requires a wifi connection and was getting frustrating. With the ten euro SIM card I was able to call them while sitting on a bench in a park. I talked to my dad for about twenty minutes, he was doing a hayride up in Granby, the town my grandparents live in. I talked to my grandpa too. It was cool to be sitting in a park in Lisbon, Portugal and talk to someone as far away as he was. And the connection was perfectly clear.
We found food soon after that. We went to an italian restaurant and I got the tastiest spinach tortellini. I don't know what was in the cream sauce but it was phenomenal. Molly got pizza. We ate leisurely, mostly because it starting pouring rain again.
We walked back to the ship in a lull. We timed the rain well the whole afternoon.
Back on the ship we got comfy, finished the rest of The Blind Side and then watched The Big Bang Theory.
In one of the episodes they talked about bouncing the signal to turn on a light around the world. One of the places it bounced was Lisbon, Portugal. We kinda freaked out, it was a surreal moment. I have watched that episode many times and never even noticed that they said that because it had not meaning to me. Now, we were sitting there. Traveling is awesome.
At 21:30 we went to a talk held by our interport guest. His name is Cliff Roberts and is a SAS alum. He works for William Morris Endevor, which is the world's largest talent agency. He represents celebrities like Ben Afflek, Emma Stone, Will Ferrall, Hugh Jackman, Michael Bay, Tyler Perry and Lady Gaga. They represent people from all industries as well as people from every aspect of those industries.
Just the other day he was in London on the set of Exodus, the new Ridley Scott film about Moses, starring Christian Bale. He helped the writers of The Conjuring get that film off the ground the past few years. He told us that they bought the rights to all of the Warren material The Warrens were paranormal investigators, and so they had the rights to all their stories, but it came with a producer that was impossible to work with. Cliff argued with this guy everyday for a year, which felt redundant and ridiculous but it ended up being worth it because The Conjuring because the second most successful horror film.
In his own words he, "Helps people who write and direct and act make interesting material."
He started out with a life path of being a lawyer but he then combined his love of movies with his love of being an advocate for people and became an agent. He gave some great life advice:
- Be passionate enough to do the work and then be creative enough to figure out how to get credit for the work.
- Know your audience. While it is good to dress for the job you want it doesn't apply to interviewing. Interview for the job you are being interviewed for, not the job you eventually want.
- Go through life with the attitude of "We're going to go do something special today."
- Don't let life get in the way.
I love the last one. He invited a few people who had been on his voyage to come and join him this weekend but they all were busy with life. He was busy with life too but he made it work. Because it is the weekend and he is in the middle of the ocean with no service this is the most time off he has had in ten years.
We had a great question and answer session. He even thanked us at the end for being so engaging and involved. He was one of the first people that we have been able to talk to who actually answered our questions. Some of the other sessions I have sat in on with diplomats and professors from other countries, they never seem to actually answer the questions that students ask.
He also just kept naming famous people that he has worked with and movies that he was involved in that made us all swoon. It was pretty cool. His job would be pretty cool.
I love the idea of living life trying to do something special everyday. Cliff told us a story from his voyage when he was in Kenya at a casino 45 minutes from the ship. On-ship time was 22:00, the ship was going to leave at 0:00. It was past 22:00 and he and his friend didn't have enough money to take a taxi. They put all of their money on one color on Roulette and won. And then won again. They made it back with 10 minutes to spare.
He said that there are few times in his life that made him feel the way he felt that night.
I think SAS brings that feeling out of you. We live every moment that we are in port trying to make, create, or experience something special.
And we are just getting started.
