Germany: March 26th

Halo from Germany (That's how they say hello)! German is a very difficult language to understand and speak. Although, I have mastered the word for thank you, danke. It is pretty much all I can say to people. If I bump into someone accidentally I will say danke, and every time the waiter clears my plate I religiously say danke. I use it for thank you, you're welcome, and sorry. It’s been fun to try and "speak German."

Anyways…when we arrived in Germany it was rainy and cold and has stayed this way for the two weeks that I have been here. So I am feeling your pain over here about winter going on and on. Today we have like 3 inches of snow on the ground. It’s so weird because we haven't seen snow since Alaska 3 months ago.

Our hotel in Berlin "Pension Funk" was the former apartment of Asta Neilson, an old German silent movie star during the 30s and 40s. After World War II most of her apartment had survived the bombings and was later turned into a hotel. Most of the furniture inside the hotel was either hers or was from that same period. In Berlin we went to a lot of what I would call "culture events" We saw a Tchaikovsky ballet, a Bach cantata, and orchestral\choral concert, all inside these grand old cathedrals and concert halls in Berlin. It was a good experience for me to sit through these events as I am not very cultured in the areas of fine arts.

We visited the National History Museum of Berlin, the Charlettenberger Palace, the Botanical Gardens, the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial, the Pergamon Museum and the Egyptian Museum.

One of my favorite things we did in Berlin was seeing the bust of Nefertiti. I don't really know why or how but upon leaving Egypt I have become fascinated with seeing her. So, I have been building up getting to see the Nefertiti in Berlin since we left the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. But it was one of those things that you are totally excited for and you build it up in your head, and then when you see it, it actually lives up to your expectations… definitely not a disappointment. The Nefertiti is gorgeous, if you have no idea what I am talking about you should look her up. The Egyptian Museum in Berlin is below average when compared with the one in Cairo. They really should give the Nefertit back to Egypt and keep it in the Cairo Museum. But what do I know about art and politics.

Another really neat thing I did in Berlin was the Check Point Charlie Museum. This is the site of the division between U.S. occupied West Berlin and Soviet occupied East Berlin (The site of the Berlin Wall). The museum documents the many ways in which attempts were made by East Germans to escape to West Germany. They tried insane things and many died in their attempt to escape through, over, or even under the Wall. Hot air balloons, construction vehicles, makeshift airplanes, and tunnels were used to smuggle people into West Germany. The museum was fascinating and I could have spent another two hours reading all the stories and looking through all the pictures.

We also had a few good nights in Berlin, including Saint Patrick's Day. But you will have to ask me about those when I get home.

After a week in Berlin, we left by train to go to the city of Hamburg. We are staying in Blankense, which is like a suburb of Hamburg. We spent Easter Weekend here, so many of the stores and little shops were closed for most of the time, which was sort of a bummer. We went to an opera in Hamburg, Don Giovanni. I actually liked it! Yeah, I know me like opera? Pretty weird, huh? I went to church on Easter Sunday, and of course the whole service was in German. But I tried to mouth the German words in the hymns and I new when they were saying the Lords Prayer because of the pauses, etc. It was definitely an experience! Easter was a hard day to be away from family, but we made the most of it here and even had an Easter egg hunt.

Monday we went to the city of Lubeck, where we saw many old churches: Saint Mary's and Saint Jacobs (where we went to Easter Monday service). Tuesday, we went to the city of Luneberg (that's a U with the two dots above it), where we again visited two churches with great big pipe organs. Then, we visited the concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen. This was a very solemn experience and one that I don't think I can put into words so I am not yet going to try. But 50,000 people died at Bergen Belsen even though it was not an extermination camp. It is also the camp at which Anne Frank and her sister died in just a few days before the British liberated the camp.

Well, I think that is it about Germany, and a lot of weight off my shoulders for getting out all these emails before I come home. I am really very excited to come home. Although, I have had a truly amazing experience and seen some of the most beautiful places in this world, nothing can compare to home. It’s not so much Ohio or Hiram it’s the people that live in these places, my family and friends that make up my home. I really miss you guys! And before I get all emotional on you, I have to go to class, the last one of this trip!

See you all very soon! Like one day soon! :)

Peace,

Megan

Turkey: March 11th

Hello from Turkey! Well, actually from Germany because I didn't have time to write a big long one from Turkey. I know I come home tomorrow, but I figured I would try to pump these last two emails out.

Turkey was awesome and could possibly be my favorite country that we visited on this trip…but its close between Turkey and Thailand. For half of our time here we stayed in the capital city of Istanbul, where there is a lot of history (formerly Constantinople if you know the song). In Istanbul we visited the Hagia Sofia, the last remaining ancient wonder of the world that is still standing. It is a giant dome used originally as a cathedral and then later used as a mosque. It was built in the 5th century by Constantine as a way to introduce Christianity to the people. The inside was enormous, with great big doors leading in. Half of the structure was filled with scaffolding because they constantly have to repair. It would be neat to see it without any scaffolding, but I don't know if that will ever happen again.

We also visited the Blue Mosque, as Turkey is primarily a Muslim country. We took a boat ride down the Bosphorous River, which runs through Istanbul, and was very important in trade in the early days. On this boat trip Aysen, our tour guide for Turkey, brought along some local college students studying law at the university. Of course, I began talking away with them and asking them all kinds of questions. You know me. So after the boat ride they asked us if we wanted to go out with them later on in the evening. I was so excited to finally get to talk to a person my age and learn about their lives in Turkey. We met them at Taksim, which we are told is the equivalent to Time Square (It’s the most famous street in all of Istanbul for nightlife, etc.). So, we drank with them, and talked politics with them--I had a blast!

We left Istanbul and traveled down the southwestern coast of Turkey where all the ancient cities are. We visited Troy, Pergamon, Heirapolis, and Ephesus. It is really hard for me to separate what I saw at each one because they all sort of blur together for me, but I will try.

Troy I must say was a bit disappointing with out Brad Pitt :) It was not as well-preserved as some of the other ancient ruins we saw. The man who excavated Troy didn’t really take his time with the process and he was no archaeologist. At Troy, you can see several (I think up to 9) of the cities of Troy. The ancient city was often attacked and destroyed but was rebuilt many times because of its key geographical location.

Pergamon was next and was much more preserved. The ancient city of Pergamon sits atop a huge hill that you have to wind up to get there. Daises and buttercups were scattered over the ruins. It was really quite beautiful with the sunlight reflecting off the ancient marble... one of those moments. In Turkey there are the most beautiful blue skies I have ever seen. Wait until you see pictures from the ruins, you will not believe how bright blue it is! It’s definitely not the same sky we have in Ohio.

Ephesus was the last ancient city we visited and was the preserved the best of all the ruins I saw. Here there are so many areas of the city that are practically undamaged and some areas that have been restored. The most famous of these is the library of Ephesus, which was restores not too long ago.

We also spent a night in Izmir at a really fancy hotel …which was really nice.

I had little to no expectations for Turkey but I found that I loved it! Like most Americans I had no idea that so many ancient cities exist in Turkey. It was definitely a great experience to be able to talk to with people my age in Turkey. They asked us a lot of questions about people in the U.S. and what we thought about the upcoming election, Iraq, etc. It was interesting to see their perspectives and likewise I think for them to see ours. One guy, Baris told me that a few summers back he had cancelled his trip to the U.S. When I asked him why, he told me for fear of discrimination because he is a Muslim. It made me realize how much impact (positive and negative) one event or person can have over the views of someone else. I hope we gave them an honest and positive portrayal of American youth. They certainly showed us a good time in Istanbul. I actually chose to write about this encounter for the Travel Writing course I am taking. See, I actually am doing work over here. It’s not just all sightseeing!!

FYI I can’t find some of the punctuation on this German keyboard so my apologies for any grammatical errors :)

Also, I fly home tomorrow but I hope to be able to get the email about Germany out before I leave. Today is the last day of class so who knows how long it might go.

Peace,

Megan

UAE and Egypt

Hey Guys! It's me again… I am sure you are getting sick of these emails cluttering up your inboxes, but here I go again. I've been to two countries since I last wrote: Egypt and the UAE.

We arrived in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) located nearest to Saudi Arabia. It is the wealthiest and fastest growing city in the world. Dubai was founded only 50 years ago along the Persian Gulf and it has grown outrageously fast, mostly due to oil. There was so much construction everywhere; every road it seemed has something new popping up on it (or the road itself was under construction). Because it is such as young city, all the buildings look brand new. Even the ones that look old are designed to look old, but they are really new. There is so much modern architecture. You have probably seen the famous hotel in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab, it's the world's largest hotel. It's the one on its own island and is shaped like the sail of a boat. Dubai is also currently building the world's tallest building. This building you can see from just about anywhere in or around Dubai.

We stayed in the UAE Youth Hostel. It was really nice for a hostel. We met these guys, (and I know what you're thinking and it's not even like that) who were carrying around a volleyball. So, I naturally asked them if they played because I wanted to play. They said just for fun, but that they did "Athletics," which I guess means track. Well, turns out they are members of the Algerian track team training for the Olympics and staying in Dubai for 10 months. Leah and I hit the ball around with them for quite a bit. Let's just hope they are better at running than they are at volleyball. :)

Also, in Dubai we had a free day, so a few of us decided to go to the Dubai Women's Tennis Invitational. We missed Federer and Nadal by just a few days. We would have seen Sharapova but she dropped out because of the flu. But we did get to see Muresmo, which was cool (I think she won Wimbledon a few years back). This was my very first tennis tournament, and it was a lot of fun. We had pretty good seats and could see the court really well because it was a small venue.

Another day in Dubai, we went on a desert safari in which we drove over the desert and got amazing pictures of the sun setting over the dunes. After they took us to a show where we ate dinner, we got henna tattoos and smoked sheesha (which is hookah). Sheesha is a cultural thing in the Middle East; most all restaurants offer it on menus. Then we got to see a belly-dancer. Inevitably, I got pulled up on stage, along with Lindsey, and I drug Leah with me. We had to "belly dance" in front of everyone. It was fun and we got into it. By the end, practically the whole class, including Denny, was up on stage with the belly dancer, and we have the whole thing on video. We were only in Dubai for a few days so we were really limited on what we got to see.

In Egypt, we saw all the sites: The pyramids, the sphinx, the Egyptian Museum, etc. All of this in one day. It was crazy to try and process all the information and the sights we were seeing. The pyramids really are all they are “cracked up to be.” It is amazing that they were built over 4000 years ago. I think that is really what impressed me the most--how old everything was and how well preserved most things were. We got to go into one of the pyramids, which is really tiny and you have to crouch down to get in there. Not really much to see inside, or of what we were allowed to see anyways. We took tons of pictures in front of the pyramids and the sphinx…all of them gorgeous of course.

Then we went to the Egyptian Museum. This is where King Tut's jewels and such are. We got to see the famous King Tut head piece that covered his mummy, no pictures here though which was a bummer. But, the elaborate detail of everything that was in his tomb with him was nuts!!! And everything was so well preserved. Hundreds of necklaces, jewels, gold boxes within boxes within boxes, gold chariots, beds, chairs, dried food (THAT IS STILL PRESERVED), tools. You name it King Tut needed it in the after life. His body was placed in so many decorated boxes and boxes. Similar to those dolls, I think they are Russian, that you have to open boxes upon boxes to get to the doll inside and when you do it's really tiny. You know the ones I'm talking about? The Egyptians used the same principle for ensuring safety of the body of their kings and pharaohs from robbers. The truly amazing thing about this was that Tut was found in the Valley of the Kings, his was the smallest of all the tombs found. He died at age 18 so you can only imagine the extravagance of other kings and pharaohs.

Today we went to a bizarre place with lots and lots of little shops selling necklaces, shirts, souvenirs, etc. And let me tell you, those Egyptian men running the shops they will charm you left and right. That's how they make their sales they just talk to you like a friend and get you to feel comfortable so you will trust them to give you a fair price. They are very good at it; they totally talked me into a price I didn't want to pay. But oh well, it's all about learning right?

Well that's all I have for now. It's off to Istanbul, Turkey tomorrow morning. Here we will meet back up with our other professor, David Anderson. I think everyone is really looking forward to having David and his wife back with us… they are so much fun. Turkey is the second to last stop on our journey and I can't believe we have less than a month left of our trip. The time has gone by so fast. We've just been so busy going and going and going I haven't really had a chance to process all that I've seen so far. I hope this email finds you all well and don't worry Spring is coming soon. Today starts March after all :)

Peace,

Megan

Feb 24: Maldives

Hey All!

So for the past 5 days I have been in a little place called paradise. Better known as the tropical islands of the Maldives, which are off the western coast of India and Sri Lanka. There are more than 120 islands that make up the Maldives, some of which are not inhabited. These islands are made from corals and are surrounded by gorgeous bright blue water. Picture a beach paradise with palm trees and that's the Maldives. We are staying in the capital city/island of Male (Maul- ee) where there is virtually no beach. It is mainly used to conduct business and serve as a port for the fishermen. Fishing and tourism are the two main industries here in the Maldives. But we have been getting off the island by boat and visiting other islands for snorkeling and scuba diving.

We have seen many interesting species of fish including box fish, more triggerfish, etc. Yesterday, we saw a 6-foot white tip reef shark while snorkeling, which was amazing. It was just circling beneath us in and out of this little cave in the coral. I really wanted to see a shark and we did! We also saw turtles, moral eels, octopus, spotted eagle rays, and these huge Napoleon fish. The Napoleon fish are so big I thought that it was two fish just one lying on top of the other, and I kept asking Denny what were those fish that were lying on top of one another? He just looked at me like I was nuts! But anyways, they are 2 meters long and about a half meter tall ...They are huge green fish with a big bump on their head. My mask must have been fogging up because I could have sworn they were two different fish. But they were so neat.

So the others have been doing a lot of scuba diving, which I am really bummed that I couldn't go (I blew my ear drum and couldn't complete the course at Hiram). Because every time they come up from a dive they are so giddy with excitement about what they saw. Steven Shaak on our trip has an underwater digital camera though, so I guess I get to scuba vicariously through him. :) We have been having class a lot here, and have started a new book for our interdisciplinary course "Night Thoughts of a Classical Physicist". I guess you can't complain too much about having class in a 90 degree paradise now can you?

I guess that's all she wrote for the Maldives, except for if you ever get the chance to come…do it! It is so gorgeous here it blows my mind (but very expensive and high class so that's a bummer).

I hope February has been kind to everyone. I heard this is a pretty bad winter for Ohio, so I hope you are all staying safe and warm.Take Care!

Peace,

Megan

PS -Tomorrow we leave for Dubai and we are only there a few days then we are off to Cairo, Egypt for only a few days. So you may only get one email from me at the end of those two places. I will try my best though to get emails out in each.

Feb 19: India

So it's been 2 plus weeks since I have written home. So much has happened since my last email in Thailand it feels more like 2 months have passed. We've been in India for a little over 2 weeks now (since Feb 4th I think) and we have been all over this country. We flew into Delhi from Bangkok. Delhi is India's capital city but we only spent one day here and stayed at the YMCA. As soon as we got out of the airport in Delhi the culture shock hit me so hard I nearly fell over. Everything about this country is completely different from ours… the food, culture, etiquette, bathrooms, lifestyles, etc. I was first taken aback by the large mass of people outside the airport, seemingly just waiting around (it was early morning). Hundreds of taxis, buses, tok toks, cars, and motorcycles buzzing around a parking lot the size of Price Gym with absolutely no traffic rules. They were all honking their horns and playing an unfriendly game of bumper cars. Mastering the art of honking at every person, or vehicle, which comes within 15 feet of you is a must for driving in India. The people here probably need to replace their horns before they need to get oil changes. I didn't really get to see much else of Delhi because I used this day to catch up on sleep and journaling.

From Delhi we went by train to Mussoorie, which is located at the foothills of the Himalayas. Here, we traveled an hour up a mountain to the Woodstock School. The School was founded my Christian missionaries so their children would have a place to go to school. It is a boarding school and now only 5% of its students are Christian. At Woodstock we got to meet many students, including the journalism class who actually wrote an article about us in their school paper. At Woodstock there are no heaters so the students were hats, gloves, and coats in class. And the worst part about all of this is that they don't have heat in their dorms either! It was freezing up there, plus this is India's coldest winter in 45 years. Also while there, we did a presentation to a fifth grade class who was studying biomes. My group chose Coral Reefs as our topic. We even did a game (go figure my group doing something competitive) to illustrate the effects of global warming on the reef. We also had many underwater pictures from our previous dives and snorkels in Hawaii and Thailand. The kids really enjoyed our presentations, especially our game. To me, this was the most rewarding thing we've gotten to do all trip.

After Mussoorie we went by train to Jaipur, also known as the Pink City. It is called the Pink City because when King Henry VI (Maybe?) was visiting India, the people of the city wanted to show their welcoming nature and decided to paint all the city buildings and walls pink to symbolize hospitality. We were able to do many things in Japiur including going to an observatory and the City Palace.

After Jaipur we went to Bharatpur. Bharatpur is home to India's largest bird sanctuary, in Keolado National Park. At this bird sanctuary there are around 300 different species of birds. However, because this area hasn't had sufficient seasonal rain in the form of monsoons for 10 years many of these species have gone elsewhere when they migrate from the north. We saw mammals here as well including jackals, jungle cats, bluebulls, wild boar, and sour deer. We had a guide who took us through the whole park on bicycle (a very old and rickety bicycle) but we had a great time.

From Bharatpur we traveled by bus to Agra, home of the Taj Mahal! We got to the Taj just before sunrise. We all snapped a million pictures from all different angles and reflecting pools while the sun began to shed its light on the marble masterpiece. The Taj was an amazing site and something I can't really put into words-but it was definitely one of those powerful spiritual experiences. The entire thing is made of white marble. You have to wear these bootie things over your shoes when you walked up to the Taj. Also, around the Taj Complex, only electric vehicles are allowed because the smog is beginning to turn the marble yellow.

After Agra we went to Ranthambhore National Park. Here we went on a Tiger Safari but no luck on seeing any tigers. Many monkeys, jackals, antelopes, etc though. We got to ride on top of this open air safari bus that seats like 20 people. It was about 40 degrees though so we bundled up and they even gave us blankets.

We left Rhanthambhore and headed via overnight sleeper train down to Mumbai, previously known as Bombay. Here in Mumbai we stayed at a Hiram alum's sea side bungalow. Mahendra "Max" Chinai, class of 1949. He is a very caring man putting all 18 of us up in his house known as Daria Mahal. It is very well known here around Mumbai area, as is Max. While in Mumbai we visited a fish market and even went out on a traditional fishing vessel, no fishing though which was a bummer. We also did a lot of shopping while in Mumbai and Max arranged for us to be driven around in taxis (we were pretty much living the high life here) :) One of the days we got to go to a traditional Indian wedding. Max rents out the use of his house and gardens for weddings all the time. We got to witness all the unique traditions of an Indian wedding; they are so different from American weddings; a lot more dancing and games than at an American wedding. It was such an interesting and cultural experience. The women's sarees were all vibrant and colorful and beautifully decorated with gold thread and beads. There is no such thing as a dull saree. The traditions of Indian weddings are much different; however, the amount of good food is the same. The wedding guests were very friendly and welcoming to us.

Tomorrow we leave for the Maldives, tiny islands off the west coast of India. More to come from here!

Take Care,

Megan

Tok Toks in Thailand

Hello from Thailand!

The long plane ride was rough! 22 hours in a plane. We had two layovers, one in Japan and one in Taiwan. I was only able to sleep a few hours out of the whole flight! We landed in Bangkok where we spent only two days. Bangkok was very dirty; my lungs would fill with smog every time I walked outside. There are so many people in Bangkok 5.2 to be exact. There are so many street vendors selling anything you could want: food, drinks, fruit, appliances, etc. We have eaten off the street vendors and the food was awesome. Pad Thai is the best, with fresh pineapple being a close second.

One funny story from Bangkok:

Only being out in the city for about an hour I already got scammed... WE were turning the corner at a busy intersection and all these vendors start bombarding us. This one lady comes up to me and puts a bag of corm in my hand. I try to get away but she insists that I feed the birds. And so after a few moments of trying to get around her, I take the bird seed and go over and throw it down for the pigeons. Well, then she comes up with a second bag puts it in my hand and then shoves me to feed them again, I finally start catching on to her scheme, but it way too late. The lady wants me to pay her a dollar for feeding the birds. I try to walk away, and Troy was trying to help me, but she tracked us both down screaming "MONEY" at us. WE finally break away and don't pay the lady anything. But we honestly didn't have any money to give this lady. But it was a lessoned learned, I won't even take flyers now from people on the streets.

We spent the first couple days just sight seeing around the city. We visited many Buddhist temples which included seeing many famous Buddha depictions: The Emerald Buddha and the Golden Buddha. We also took a canal trip down the river in Bangkok. The water was a thick brown-no wonder they don't let you drink the water here. :) We took rides on tok toks, which are like knockoff golf carts that go on the streets. This was fun, but the drivers were all a little crazy.

Next we took an overnight bus (again didn’t sleep) down to a port city about 7 hours south of Bangkok. Here we boarded up onto a ferry which took us to Kho Tao, where we are currently. Kho Tao is beautiful, a huge step up from Bangkok. We are staying in bungalows that in the U.S. would probably cost 200 bucks a night. Everyone in Thailand is very friendly and the language barrier here isn't so bad. Most of the locals who work in restaurants, hotels, etc speak a little English.

We just got in from snorkeling, well I went snorkeling, and the rest of the group went Scuba diving. We saw tons of cool fish, and the reefs here are in great shape, not a lot of coral bleaching at all. The sun is extremely hot, but I have been wearing my sunscreen Grandma.

Tomorrow we leave to go camping in the rainforest and also to visit some caves. Should get to see a ton of wildlife!

Hope all is well in good old Ohio, and that you are all braving the winter :)

Peace,

Megan

In Hawaii. Next Stop: Thailand

Hey to all!

I am currently in Honolulu in a hotel. We are leaving tomorrow morning for Thailand! A 22 hour flight.. Eeek! We spent mostly all of our time on the island of Maui, in the city of Kihei. We stayed in condos that we directly across from the beach. We spent most of our mornings at class in Denny's condo, and then the afternoons snorkeling. We snorkeled three times already and I am definitely sharpening my snorkeling skills. We've seen many reef fish including triggerfish, trumpet fish, butterfly fish, and tang. We've also seen sea turtles and eels.

Apparently, those humpbacks we saw up in Alaska have also decided to make the journey to the warmer waters of Hawaii. The humpbacks head south in the winter to breed and birth their young,so we were in Hawaii during the whale season. There are about 10,000 humpbacks in the coastal waters of Hawaii where they are protected. As we were snorkeling one day at Black Rock Beach we saw 3-4 humbacks breach(jump out of the water) just about 200 yards off shore. Just like in the Pacific Life commercials :) Lots of people in the group got greats pics, howevere I was not one of them. We also went on a whale watch in which we saw sooo many whales, too many to count. And we also saw some bottle-nose dolphins.

On our free day in Maui I layed on the beach all morning and then ran on the beach with Leah. We got super sunburned. I guess my Ohio skin was not ready for Hawaii. So now I am peeling ridiculously and putting on a ton of sunscreen. (Don't worry Grandma Yoho).

Also on Maui we did a 12 mile hike down into the center of a dormant volcano called Haleakala (Holly-awk-a-la). It felt like we were on a different planet when we were in there, just picture Mars but black. The hike took 6 hours and the last hour and a half was straight uphill via switchbacks, and my calves felt like rocks the next day. (FYI Vball girls- I still have my traps though) The volcano was freezing at the top when we started and when we finished like 40 degrees!!

I have also gotten to jump off some cliffs while in Hawaii, which was soo much fun. At Black Rock I got to swim out to the rocks, climb to the top, and jump off with the native Hawaiians. (Some natives are nice, others hate tourists). We've been doing a lot of class time in Hawaii in preparation for Thailand and India in which we will not be in the same place for more than a few days at a time. All is going well so far, but the true test will come in the next few weeks as we will experience new culture and new food!

Thanks so much for responding to my emails, it really makes my day to hear from all of you at home :) Sorry if I do not respond to everyone personally, I am trying but internet access is a pain in the butt to get. I miss and love you all dearly! I will write when I can..

Next stop = Thailand

Peace,

Megan

Oh yea, and you can look at some of my Alaska pictures at this website:

http://5259.photobucket.com/albums/hh316/biometrip/