Talofa from Samoa!

Hi everyone!  Hope you all had a great weekend and Valentine’s Day!  Here on the ship, we crossed the International Date line between 2/12/15 and 2/14/15 so we missed the 13th.  Just never happened for us.  Isn’t that weird?   


So, this week we had two stops, Pago Pago, American Samoa and Apia, Samoa.  One of the first questions I had was what’s the difference between American Samoa and “regular” Samoa?  I found out that while American Samoa is still a US territory, what used to be called Western Samoa, after being fought over by Britain, Germany, and New Zealand, finally gained independence and are their own country and are now just called Samoa.  

View of Pago Pago from the ship 

First stop this week was Pago Pago.  Pulling up in the ship, the views were spectacular!  It is mostly lush green mountains.  Instead of going on a tour, I opted to explore on my own.  It was brutally hot, over 90 degrees with full humidity so within about 1/2 hour I was melting away.  I got some great photos on the way to the only hotel in town, Sadie Thompson’s hotel, named after the lady who was the subject of the 1920’s movie “Sadie Thompson” which apparently was a fairly scandalous story!  I got there about 10:30am and the restaurant opened at 11am, so I stood under the air conditioner for a full half hour trying to cool down.  Once I did sit down to eat, I had a fish sandwich made from a “wahoo” fish.  I didn’t know there was such a fish, but once I saw it on the menu, I had to try it!  It was delicious!  I stayed in the restaurant for about an hour and a half trying to get the guts to go back outside.  

Pago Pago, American Samoa

Finally I made the walk back to the ship, getting some more great photos in the process and a bit of heatstroke.  By the time I was about a block away I was seriously dizzy and walking funny.  I made it back, downed a ton of water, took a shower, and decompressed for about an hour.  Later, I was talking to one of the Indian staff (India being renowned for its heat) and he said his skin was burning from the heat.  I’m glad I wasn’t the only one!  

Me posing with one of the demonstrators at the cultural center

The next day was Apia, Samoa.  This time I had signed up for a tour that promised a cultural experience and a tour of an organic plantation.  We piled in the bus and they took us to the tourist center where they had re-created a traditional village for tourists to experience.  It was actually really well done!  We saw presentations on how to husk and open coconuts, prepare the traditional cooking fire, a kava ceremony, weaving, and tattooing.  They actually had a guy getting tattooed that apparently didn’t mind being on show.  It’s a fascinating process; the designs are pounded into the skin with a hammer, no machines.  Most of the tattoos I saw covered a good 25%-50% of the body, so I can’t even begin to imagine how long that would take!  After the tours, we got a chance to taste the food they had prepared for us.  We had fish, breadfruit, and taro leaves steamed in coconut milk on a taro leaf for a plate and a coconut with a straw in it for a drink.  It was one of the most amazing, inspiring meals I have ever eaten!  Just the whole experience of watching them prepare the food and feeling the history of it made it taste that much better!  

My incredibly tasty lunch! I just sat on the ground and ate it with my hands.

After that, we piled back in the bus and they took us to an “organic plantation” which was actually the home of the descendants of Aggie Grey, the woman who was the inspiration for James Michener’s “Bloody Mary” in the book and later the musical “South Pacific.”  So that was an unexpected surprise!  They took us all around their gardens and gave us fresh bananas, papayas, pineapple, oranges, and coconut to eat and an unbelievably refreshing lime juice to drink.  Fruit like that, just pulled from the plant on a tropical island is like nothing I have ever tasted before!  Incredible.  It was a couple of days of amazing food experiences from the fish burger to the Samoan feast to the fruit.  

At the organic plantation

We’re back on the ship for another day before we head to Suva, Fiji.  I got some great videos on the Samoan demonstrations, I hope you check them out!  The guy doing the demonstrations was hilarious!  You can find them on my YouTube channel and my Facebook page.  I also post to Instagram regularly (@suzernathy).  Until next time, take care and have a great week!  

Sunset from the ship leaving Pago Pago

P.S. The YouTube channel I have linked to is my martial arts page, not my personal page.  I don't have enough wifi on the ship to transfer the videos over.  If you are reading this later, and I have transferred them, here is my personal page.  

Hawaii

Photo of me in my fancy new shirt!  

Aloha from Hawaii!  Ok, so technically I’m not there anymore but I did visit Honolulu and La Haina.  Honolulu holds special significance for me because that is where my grandparents met.  I think it’s such a great love story.  In 1941, my grandpa was in the Army stationed at Pearl Harbor.  My grandmother had a job in some sort of fabrics, she never described it in very much detail.  For some reason I still don’t understand, her employer would send her to Hawaii to purchase (I assume) fabric and bring it back to California where she lived.  While she was there, the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, leaving her stranded in Honolulu with two children back home who I’m sure were scared to death their mother was dead and I doubt she had any way of contacting them, at least at first.  (She was a single mom)  My grandpa was stationed on the beach that morning, so he survived the attack.  Somehow they ended up meeting and (details are sketchy on this because I was a child and they never really talked about it) getting married to get back to the mainland.  According to the story, once they got back, they decided to go ahead and stay married.  I always thought that was funny, but in those days in their situation, it worked out favorably for both of them.  There is a lot I don’t know to the story but I think the essence of it, that my grandparents met as a direct result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, is pretty romantic.  A wartime love story.  

So after all that you’d think I’d visit Pearl Harbor.  I did not.  Mostly because the only available tour was really long and included a bunch of other stuff I’m not all that interested in.  Plus I had some errands to run and I needed some free wifi to get some work done so I went to the very un-romantic shopping mall.  I got everything accomplished I wanted to, then popped over to Waikiki beach for about 1/2 hour.  I got a shaved ice, which made me feel more like a tourist, then caught the shuttle back to the ship.  

Day 2 in La Haina, Maui was much more touristy.  I went on a submarine dive.  That was really cool!  We all got in a little boat which took us to the submarine, which was still submerged.  After a few minutes it popped up out of the water!  We navigated the very shaky ramp (the waters were choppy so it was moving quite a bit) to the submarine then climbed a ladder to get down inside.  Once inside, each person had one seat with their own porthole.  We went past a couple of reefs with an array of fish, then we got to the best part.  The company had their own sunken ship which functions as an artificial reef.  There were lot of fish there, and we even got to see a couple of sharks!  The tour was definitely well worth the money and the wait (over two hours from the ship to the submarine).  I also got to see my first whale: just the tail as it went back down in the water but it was still thrilling to see one in person.  I am looking forward to seeing more whales!  Close call of the day: some guy overestimated his maneuverability and first, fell into me and this little kid and scared the daylights out of the kid.  Then he turned around and smacked me in the face with his hand and knocked my glasses off and they almost fell overboard!  I’m sure glad they didn’t!  I have a spare but I’d like to keep it that way: spare.  I don’t want to lose my glasses! 

Back in port, I looked at the shops but they were all selling the same Hawaiian print dresses and shirts which are pretty but they don’t really fit my wardrobe with where I’m going.  I have to be really careful about buying souvenirs because it all has to fit in my bag.  I finally did find a cute clothing boutique and bought a great top that has an Indian print and some flowers.  I had some fish tacos and mac’n’cheese, a nice break from all the British food I’ve been eating.  No complaints, it’s just nice for a change.  So now we have five days at sea before we get to American Samoa.  

These days at sea are interesting.  The days are long, without the usual distractions of home.  So it becomes a game of filling up the time.  The first couple of days I spent a good while wandering around not knowing what to do.  But as time passed, I figured out where things are and when the various services are open, and began to form sort of a routine.  On the last sea day before Honolulu, I had the good fortune to meet the ship’s ballroom dance instructors, Brenda and Jeffrey.  They are a fascinating and talented duo, and I got to dance with both of them.  They invited me to their advanced ballroom class, so I am looking forward to that.  It also fills out my afternoon.  So I have line dancing in the morning, ballroom in the afternoon, then either a ballroom dance or a show in the evening to keep me entertained.  And of course the longer I’m on the ship, the more friends I make.  So it is getting easier.  

Me with Brenda and Jeffrey

Check out video of the submarine and the dive with these links!

At Sea!

Picture: Me boarding the Amtrak to San Francisco

Hi everyone!  I am writing to you from on board the Arcadia!  We are at sea right now, heading towards Hawaii.  Our first stop will be Honolulu.  But we have three more sea days before we get there.

This ship is in a British line of ships that does a lot of stops in Australia, so the mix of passengers is mostly British and Aussie.  That means all day every day I get to hear those wonderful accents.  I’m already starting to think in a British accent; by the time I disembark I’m sure I will be speaking it, at least a little!  

It’s only our first day at sea but already I feel like I’ve been here a lifetime.  When we’re at sea there’s not much clock watching. For me, schedule girl, this is taking some getting used to.  I only turn wifi on ten minutes in the morning and ten at night, so most of the day I’m unplugged.  The first day I still found myself picking up my phone and looking at it very often.  Then I realized, there’s nothing to look at!  It’s wonderful, I can feel my body start to relax as it realizes there’s nothing to rush for!  

Sitting here, looking out at the sea, I am awestruck at this massive body of water that we are on.  I never really think about the sea but it is so incredibly powerful and vast.  I imagine all the animals swimming underneath us; the whales, dolphins, jellyfish, sharks, and it blows my mind to imagine all that life and energy right underneath this huge ship which by the way also blows my mind.  What an incredible feat of engineering to coordinate energy, water, food, pipes, navigation, and all the cruise programs together.  I can’t even begin to imagine the logistics involved.  And yet from my perspective it is executed beautifully.  I know that is the result of very hard work from all the crew members I see running around all the time.  

This is the first leg of a long and exciting journey for me.  Next time I should have an update on Hawaii.  I’ve never been there, so I am very excited to see it!  Have a beautiful week!

Reflections on my first solo trip

It’s officially less than a week to launch!  I am so ready, so excited!  I was thinking about the first time I travelled somewhere completely alone.  I went to go see a friend graduate from basic training at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA.  I was around 25-ish.  I was working at an answering service that was terrible about leave so when they denied my request, which I knew they would, I just said too bad, I’ve already bought the plane ticket, I’m going.  (Before you judge, this was also the company that didn’t want me to go to either of two funerals that happened that year.  Of course I went.  They just categorically denied everything.  Oddly enough, they never fired me.  Go figure) 

So I got to the airport, very excited and a little nervous, got in the line and was asked to please step out of line and follow the agent because I had been flagged for a random security check.  They took me into a room and asked me to dump my bag out onto the table.  Once they had inspected all my stuff they informed me I could now repack my bag.  Great.  So I did, and graciously exited the room and got on the plane.  I had a layover in Atlanta to get on a little puddle jumper to Columbus.  Between flights, I was once again asked to step out of line and follow the agent.  They did their thing (I can’t even remember what anymore, since I had checked my bag) and I got on the next flight.  I thought, well, at least that’s over.  I got to Columbus, retrieved my bag and found my hotel.  I got to my room and settled in and it hit me: wow, I’ve never had a place all to myself before!  (This was before I moved out a few years later, I was still living with my grandmother.)  I just sat there and looked around the room.  It felt so good! I loved the peace and the freedom to do whatever I wanted.  I wrote some in my journal and settled in for bed.  

The next morning, I got up nice and early because I still had to figure out how to get on post.  I found a taxi driver and he took me.  Those of you who know me really well will laugh at this part: I was an hour early!  I don’t take chances in those situations, I wasn’t going to miss that graduation even if I had to wait an hour.  It was really cool though, because in the distance I could hear the soldiers going through their drills and singing their cadences. They looked like a line of ants from so far away.  It was quite surreal, like a frozen moment in time.  Soon enough, the ceremony started. If you ever get a chance to see a military graduation, take it.  They are very impressive!  After what seemed like hours, they finally released the soldiers to their families and friends.  We took photos with drill sergeants and friends and after awhile escaped.  We took a taxi to downtown Columbus, which is gorgeous.  My friend said the first thing he wanted to do was go to Applebee’s and eat a huge meal and get a blondie for dessert.  He said he had been dreaming about that dessert all through his basic training.  So we did.  We walked around downtown Columbus and took pictures, chatted, and had a great time.  He looked so good in his Class A uniform!  All too soon it was time for him to return to training, so we said our goodbyes and I watched them line up.  That was a pretty intense moment.  There was one soldier kissing his girl in the parking lot a little too long; I bet he got in trouble for that later!  

I went back to my hotel room, packed up and got ready to leave.  I was one of the best trips I have ever taken, not because of the location, but because it was a game changer for our friendship, something we would always share, and proof that I could find my way around a new city all by myself.  That was very empowering. I was looking forward to the flight home, so I went to the airport and got in the line.  When it was my turn to get scanned, a nice agent asked me to please come with him.  I thought, oh no.  I’m flagged all the way back too?  Yep, you guessed it.  I got the privilege of dumping my bag, watching as they inspected my belongings, and the additional honor of repacking my bag after they had rifled through it.  Sigh.  I’m not mad, I know they were just doing their jobs, but it does make kind of a funny story!  Aside from getting checked at every point, the ride home was uneventful and I returned to my answering service job.  

In my short time travelling so far, I have found that some of the least expected journeys provide the most life changing experiences.  This was certainly the case with my Ft. Benning visit.  

Horse Therapy

At least a year ago, I read an article on equine therapy in an Oprah magazine.  It was so fascinating, I decided I wanted to try it someday.  I did some looking around but I didn’t find anything in Sacramento so I just put my desire out to the universe and figured I’d find it when it was time.  Interestingly enough, it was the migraines that forced me onto psychology.com to look for a therapist.  I was doing anything and everything I could think of to ease the pain.  In my search, I found a provider that offered equine therapy!  I couldn’t believe it!  So I sent an inquiry and soon began to experience my dream come true, working with horses on an emotional and spiritual level, not just riding them (although that’s fun too).    I have been going about once a week for about a month now, and it is everything I had hoped for.  

I meet with two therapists who work as a team, out in an arena with (I think) eight horses.  They are smaller than the trail horses I have ridden, although not ponies.  The first day I walked into the arena most of the horses immediately came over to check me out.  Just standing there and petting them and seeing all their different personalities was so cool!  I burst into tears of gratitude.  In the weeks that have followed, the therapists usually have an exercise for me like setting up barrels in a certain configuration and walking the horses in patterns.  It’s kind of like a live biofeedback program.  Horses sense energy, and they are too big for me to move by force, so I have to learn how to communicate with them to convince them to do what I am asking for.  To do that, I have to reach down inside and pay attention to what I am feeling.  And they all respond differently.  I was doing really well with one horse who is pretty easygoing and seems to like verbal praise.  Then the therapists upped the ante and put me with a stubborn horse.  This horse wasn’t interested in sweet talk, he wanted a leader.  So we didn’t budge until I figured out how to exude leadership with my energy, not my words.  Through all this, the therapists are asking me questions and learning about my background and zeroing in on my emotional issues.  They are quite good at their job and observe and point out things that I would never have thought of.  I am going to get in as many sessions as I can before I leave for Bali.  

For those of you who don’t know, I am a big advocate for therapy.  We get physical checkups all the time but rarely do we go inside our heads to see what’s ticking.  I have found that many of my health issues are psychosomatic, or caused by stress, and once I resolve whatever is going on in my head, my health improves dramatically.  Of course eating right and exercising and all that are vitally important, but I think mental health is as well.  So I am very open about the fact that when I don’t feel right, I get help from someone who is objective and can point out my mental blind spots.  And in case you were wondering, therapy is covered by most major medical insurance programs, so it’s not even expensive.  You can pay a co-pay just like you would if you were going to the doctor.  If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them!  

Perspective

This week was Thanksgiving.  Of course this brings up all that we are thankful for.  But why are we thankful?  I have found that perspective plays a big role in how we view things.  A few years ago, I was up all night with an excruciating toothache.  I was to get a root canal in a day or so but in the meantime my head was on fire.  So at 3am I got up, crying from pain and frustration, put on my coat and set out for a 24 hour Rite Aid.  This was in December and it was extremely cold for Sacramento.  I got in the car and drove out of the parking garage to the street entrance when I saw something in the visitor parking.  It was a bundle of blankets, a person sleeping there in the bitter cold.  At that moment I had an epiphany: I may be in pain but I am going to drive in my nice car to a 24 hour store, buy all the toothache remedies I can find with my money that I have plenty of, drive back home to my nice house and crawl under the covers, safe and warm.  And in a day or two I will get a root canal which I can afford to pay for, and everything will be fine.  And this person has to sleep in the bitter cold in a parking garage.  Perspective.  

Change

I have great news!!  The condo is sold!  The paperwork is signed and the keys are handed over.  Yay!  That was a big hurdle to get over.  Also, while working with various health specialists I have managed to get my headaches down to about 10% of the pain and it only lasts short periods.  So I am extremely relieved to be out of the majority of my pain.  I didn’t appreciate being pain free until I wasn’t.  Now I am thankful every moment I don’t have a headache.  Perspective is pretty amazing.  So now what?  I still have a few more logistics to sort out before I can really and truly launch into whatever it is I am going to do next.  I have some ideas but nothing really solid yet.  I am looking forward to find out so I can tell you and start the next leg of my adventure!  

In the meantime I am finding inspiration right here in Sacramento.  The fall leaves are a reminder that change and even death are a natural part of the cycle and that nothing ever goes away completely, just like the leaves that are turning will fall to the ground and become part of the tree once again.  Everything we experience becomes part of our life.  So when things are confusing or not going our way, sometimes we need to let ideas or circumstances “die” in our lives so that they may be transformed into the next season for us. But the path isn’t always straight.  Sometimes it takes us to unexpected places.  If you can keep the faith and an open mind, you might discover something even better than what you were looking for.