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Until next time...

     Though it is difficult to grasp, the culmination of my voyage is rapidly approaching. The ship has returned to the Northern Hemisphere for the final time, and it is quickly approaching the final point of debarkation in Fort Lauderdale. Thus, the time has come for me to write my final entry into this blog. Thank you to everyone who read it; I hope you enjoyed!
     As I leave the ship for the final time, in addition to my eclectic array of old and new material possessions, I will be taking along with me an accumulation of memories that I pray to never forget. Unfortunately, I recognize that there is an undeniable tendency for memories to jumble and fade, and for the intricate details to fall beneath the horizon. While I have taken numerous steps to delay this, to an extent it may be inevitable—with time, older memories fade and they are replaced with newer, fresher memories. What will never fade, however, are my broad observations, my unique realizations, and my growing spiritual appreciation. A growing understanding of myself as a global citizen and my ideas on what that means must have implications in everything I do. No issue can henceforth be understood in the same context that I placed it prior to embarking on this journey around the world. So, as a final summary, I will not recount the memories of lying on a Vietnam beach, or of seeing the Taj Mahal, or even of playing with school children in Mauritius. Rather, I will recount why, in the broader scheme of life, each of these instances has had such a profound impact on the essence of my being.  Many of my observations are admittedly idealistic, but great change necessarily stems from the so-called foolish dreams of a naïve romantic. A child’s dream is only silly until it becomes a mature adult’s reality. As I learn and mature, so shall these dreams. Prayers for peace, dreams of serenity, and demands for tranquility shall only grow with time, and I know that in my life the world will join us in this pursuit. Thank you to my absolutely amazing parents for affording me this incomparable opportunity; thank you to each of you for taking the time to read and follow up on my life; thank you to everyone who has made these past few months to me all that they have been.
     There is a scene in my favorite TV sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, in which Ted, a sarcastic idealist, is spilling his heart out to his friend Marshall, a hopeless romantic, over a girl who is moving away the next day to study in Germany. Ted and the girl decide to break up, and with 24 hours to go until she leaves for Germany he feels completely helpless. Attempting to persuade Ted to have one more great night Marshall asks Ted how he would act if he knew he was going to lose his leg the very next day. Would he sit around and mope, or would he run, jump, and do cartwheels? Would he waste it, or would he live up his leg? Well, Teds response is deeper than one might understand at first sight. If I were going to lose my leg tomorrow, Ted notes, how would it be so strong that today I am able to do all those things. And, honestly if I were losing my leg tomorrow I’d probably be inquiring about prosthetics or other options.
   In addition to being a cute anecdote this teaches us that it is not really over tomorrow. Even as life on the ship comes to a screeching halt, the journey continues on. If the journey were ending tomorrow I may be uneasy, but knowing that the journey will continue through acts of spreading kindness is a constant reminder that this trip has merely just begun. Japan, China, Vietnam, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, and Brazil. They have all come and gone; now it is the U.S. A’s turn. Now comes the real test of worth. When I get home, and I have had the opportunity to learn too much, will I spread it or waste it. Will I teach others to run, jump, and do cartwheels, or will I simply lock it up as a fading memory of acrobats around the world?
Well, as long as people are willing to learn….
Godspeed 

Why my head looks like Challah

The last day,
        Recall a scene in HIMYM where Marshall asks Ted, “If you knew you would have one day left before you lost your leg, would you sit and more or run around, jump, dance?” Ted, inspirationally responds by saying that the scenario is ridiculous. If I were going to lose my leg tomorrow, how would I be able to do all that. AND, would I be getting a fake leg? See, his point was this, don’t be sappy, don’t be deep, just have fun. I think he was trying to tell Marshall that they should both get their hair braided. See the connection?
        Well, neither one got their hair braided, but I did. I look hotter than the Brazilian women I couldn’t stop checking out. Honestly, I didn’t do much else on this last day, walked around Salvador a bit, had lunch, walked some more and came back to the ship. It probably didn’t deserve a blog of it’s own. UNLESS I GOT MY HAIR DID.
I will have one recap blog coming soon.
Until then, peace out hombres/

If Jesus is playing Lebron I'm playing Dwayne Wade

Domo OBRIGATO Mr. Roboto’s,
           So on day number three we did a lot, a whole freakn, lot. Normally, it would consititute a 3-4 page blog. Today, however, finals are coming up and I am far to busy (Portugese for lazy) to write that much. Prepare for the quickest synopsis you have yet received. Don’t get too excited though, it’s not that short.
       8 am: I wake up, don’t brush my teeth because Tahlor and I both realize we forgot tooth paste, and I go down stairs for a really good complimentary breakfast. Meet up with the girls, Carly, Jill and Ivy, and by 8:30 load the bus for a day-tour of Rio de Janeiro.
        Real talk, it was awesome. There was an eclectic group on our trip with an older woman from London, his mother from Australia, a few from Argentina, and a tour guide who was extremely multilingual. We all joined together, and the day started with a trip to my boy JC.
        Christ the Redemer, as it is so called, is the second Jesus I have seen with a killer view. Problem is, this one was covered by scaffolding. Every few years it goes under routine repairs (hence the scaffolding—the cause was not that it was struck by lightning or that someone spray painted on it as SAS rumors would have you believe). The statue is on Corcovado (Camel—like Scottsdale) Mountain, and has a panoramic view of the entire city. It is much bigger than I had imagined, and was awesome. Whiel there, a man shooting some documentary asked me questions; one was if I was disappointed that Christ was covered. After ruling out the answer that Christ is always covered and it is our duty to uncover with through acts of worship and faith, I simply said, I was disappointed to learn that Jesus is not fully visible, but I pray for his quick return. Lechaim.
        From the statue of the original J-man we returned to Maracana stadium. It looked so much more massive in the day time. While we didn’t get a full tour one really interesting cultural tidbit is this: like we have the places, such as the NBA store in NYC, where you could compare your hand size to the likes of Shaq or MJ, here they have a place on the floor where you can compare your shoe size to that of Ronaldo or Kaka. It was really interesting to see.
        From the stadium we made two brief stops. The first was at the street where Carnaval takes place. Interestingly, it is such a significant cultural event that the bleachers for it are permanent. You can drive down the street thinking there will be some field or something around you, but realistically it is seating for Carnaval. The second was a church. I don’t know the name, and the reason is that when I asked our tour guide for al sit of what we saw, he gave me on in Portuguese. Quite helpful. It looked hideous from the outside, like a fake mountain made in the 1800s designed by an architect quickly losing his sense of vision. The inside, however, was huge. It fit 5,000 people, had gorgeous stained glass, and had really nice cross in the middle. They are starting to convert me. It was great.
        From the church we went to lunch at an all you can eat buffet where I had Sushi and some other goodies. Did you know (dun nun un dun nun un): Rio has the most Sushi restaurants per capita of any city in the world outside of Japan. At least that’s some SAS rumor, and though those tend to be drastically wrong, I’m going to believe this one. The tour concluded with a trip to the Sugar Loaf mountains. Another great view of the city, and a really tired Jordan.
We went back to the hotel, used internet for a little, napped for a little, used the sauna for a little, and went out to dinner. A great day, and another great day at the beach was going to follow.
        Well that day at the beach was stopped by friend rain. Jordan went to one of the world’s most famous beach towns, and never once stepped foot on a beach. Explainable? Easy. Day 1 we got in a late and had to scrounge around making plans, eating and going to a Soccer game. Day 2 we toured the city. Day 3, it rained yo. So, we went to the beach anyway, but before even stepping foot on the sand, we gave up and walked into a nearby hotel. Turns out we had some friends staying there, so we joined up with them, did some shopping (well, that involves buying stuff so I guess we did some looking), had lunch (I had the best fries ever) and had to go back to our hotel to check out.
        Flight home was fine, got back around 7, was safe, went out to some bar. They were having a country concert. In Portuguese. Talk about awesome. Stayed there for a while and went to bed. Tired, voiceless, and still very white I went to bed a very happy man. That tends to be a common theme when you’re on SAS. It also tends to be one when you have family and friends like I do (whoever doesn’t thank me for than closing, it means you don’t read this—this is your final test).

GOALLLL

Hi there, Face here,
I think I may have used that opening line once, but I liked it so I’ll use it again. Plus it will be a test to see if anyone actually reads this Pulitzer Prize winner. So day 2, off to Rio.
      Got up at 8:30, got some breakfast, and headed to the airport to catch a noon flight. Got a milkshake, learned to play Sudoku (and got pretty freaking good), and caught a cab to the hotel; besides that the day until 2:30 was pretty uneventful. From 2:30 to four we got situated, went to an ATM, and really didn’t do much. 4 o’clock the fun starts. We get tickets to that nights soccer game—tickets were expensive, but seeing Brazilian soccer in the world’s largest stadium is priceless. Or so we thought. As we strolled around we went into a tourist agency to inquire about a day tour for the next day; there prices seemed reasonable so we asked them about the soccer game and they told us they could give it to us for $40 dollars less. They told us that we could get our money back from the other place, we just had to threaten to call the cops. So, I strolled back to my hotel, demanded that they lower the price, and after a while, they agreed to drop the price by $30 and upgrade us to a better section. GOOOOOAL. We went to a beach front shack for a quick dinner, at 7 met up with our friends to go to the game.
          The game was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever been to. It was at Maracana Stadium. The stadium was, for a long time, the biggest in the world with a record crowd that eclipsed 200,000. Now, in an effort to make it look nicer and less like it was built in the 50’s (which it was) they are reducing capacity by half, and when construction is done it will hold just 80,000 (it’s going from two Big Houses to one Camp Randall—sounds like a pretty amazing trade off to me). There were about 15,000 at the game because it wasn’t of that much importance. If, however, you were to judge by how loud it was, you would probably assume there were 100,000 people squeezed into Camp Randall for a game against Michigan in which the winner goes to the Rose Bowl. AND Wisco won.
       The game began with us quietly sitting in our own section; it ended with me in the middle of the cheering section, think student section, shirt off leading cheers in a language I don’t know. I remained up top in the expensive seats (higher up=more expensive in Brazil because you avoid stampedes), but got really into it. Like, more into it than I get at Maccabiah. Only one of my friends joined me, the others were afraid a riot may break out, but none did and it was well worth it. I did not do much today, but what I did will probably go down as my greatest memory of SAS. Andalay!!

At Least the Rain Drops Weren't Gun Shots or Jail Locks, Oh What a Good World It Is

Greetings fellow earthlings,
    BRASIL! Brazil: One of the four growing tigers (China, India, and Russia). The world’s fifth most populous country. The world’s greatest soccer players and the most beautiful women. Home of Havaianas, Copacabana and Ronaldinyo. But, you can read all that in a book—what’s it really like? Is it dangerous like in the film City of God, or is it and up-and-coming country set to host the Olympics and the World Cup? This is the final rendition of Jordan Went to Sea Sea Sea, so, let’s find out.
   The day was Wednesday April 21st 2010. It was a sunny day in Salvador, Brazil. Well, that didn’t last very long but we’ll get there. Let’s start at the top. I was kind of nervous getting off the ship—I have been safe this whole trip; on the one hand law of averages says something is bound to happen, on the other so does the trend that all other laws are not enforced.  I strapped on my money belt, joined up with Tahlor, Pierce and Griffin and headed into town.
   Salvador is situated on a hill with the historic district, referred to as Cidade Alta, on top and the bay area, Cidade Baixa, down by the water. Our boat was in the lower area and to get up to the old city, a world heritage site, we had to find the elevator. No one told us that even in the day 2 blocks away from the elevator was a pretty unsafe area. So, we walked into this unsafe area, saw run down houses, scores of homeless people, and general disarray. Luckily, we got out unscathed, and eventually found the Lacerda Elevator. The elevator cost 15 cents, and with no bills lower than a 20 getting up proved to be more difficult than expected.
TO get smaller bills we walked over to the adjacent Mercado Modelo; a cute little market that had many crafts and souvenirs. Someone bought a little gismo or gadget as we all used the change to pay the fee and enter the elevator. After being elevated we took a left and walked into the heart of town. There are two large square connected by the Salvador Cathedral which are filled with street peddlers and vendors. We walked around a bit with our first stop being the San Francisco Church. A beautiful piece of baroque architecture, it started a trend of flat front buildings, where the exaggerated art and architecture was truly on the inside.
We continued down one of the streets, went into a craft shop or two, and noticed that it was about to rain. Hoping to make the best of our time we figured we’d eat while it rained and then continue on with our day. So we ate, and, lo and behold, it stopped raining. We continued walking but saw that it was about to rain again so we walked into a market and, lo and behold, after 15m inutes it stopped raining. So we continued on to the famous area of Salvador with all the colorful houses (ala Cape Town), and what we saw next changed my life. Well, I may be exaggerating but it was awesome.
     Remember the strange dude I told you about who sat next to us at the restaurant? You know, the one with the crazy braided Brazil hair, the flamboyant Brazil outfit, and the girl friend who was barely wearing any clothing? WHAT?! I forgot to tell you. O well, now there’s not much to tell I guess. So, turns out he’s not some crazy, but actually a famous Brazilian dancer. AND he is Salvador filming Brazil’s commercial for the world cup. As we arrived they started filming again (after their brief lunch break) and it was awesome. Hot Brazilian women dancers, men doing awesome stunts, really cool, can’t wait to see it on TV. But wait! There’s more! At one point they brought out all the flags of the teams who have made it to the world cup; seeing that we were there, they asked us to hold the flag, and a group of us got to dance with them while waving the American flag. Hopefully that part makes the commercial and I’ll be world famous. Catch me on the TV any given Sunday, win a Super Bowl and ride off in my Hyundai.
   With not much to see in the surprisingly small Upper part of town we headed to the elevator and were planning on taking a cab to the Bay Area. However, once we got out of the elevator it started pouring again. SO, this time not caring about our time, just not wanting to get wet, we chilled in a little ATM machine, 3 of us, and waited 15 minutes for the heavy rain to subside. Then, we took that cab.
Once we got to the new part of town we went into the lighthouse, walked around that museum for a bit and continued on to wander town. But then we saw it. Glimmering in the sun light that suddenly began to peak through those dreary clouds. SUBWAY. How could we not. I don’t want to remember how awful the Tuna was, so I will not mention that. Instead I will note that I had subway in Hawaii, China (3 or 4 times), India, and Brazil. China was the best one, but America still wins. So we ate quickly and continued our aimless walk.
   Unfortunately, two blocks in it started to pour again. At this point you may be wondering, did you guys contemplate buying a poncho, umbrella, or any form of protection? The answer is no. The reasoning is simple. Well, I assume it’s simple, but I have no clue what we were thinking so I couldn’t tell you. Anyways, after about 10 minutes we left our overhang and walked to a little statue of Jesus on a hill. I’m just saying, Jesus gets some awesome views in this country. I guess it’s not a rough life being 2 billion peoples Messiah.
   At this point we were gross, so we went back to the ship, showered, got dressed, and headed out to a steak dinner. Keeping kosher comes in handy when all your friends get a $140 bill. Score one for the good guys. Overall it was an amazing day, though Salvador was an unremarkable city. It felt dangerous (I heard at least 40 stories of people being robbed), dirty and not very large. But, we saw all the hot spots, got s’more gifts, ate Subway, and had a heck of a day. The last port was off to a great start. 

Complexity in simplicity

   Wednesday came way too soon and it was our final day in Ghana. I went to breakfast and at 8am took the shuttle into Accra. I took the same shuttle the day before but I had Andrew and Lizzy Finn (two lil staff kids) to entertain me—this time I was just exhausted. We got in by 9, walked around the Kofi Citizen Center (aka the purple hotel where the shuttle dropped us off) and finally met up the Dada and Isa around 10! Awesome. The day started with a trip back to the market—people needed stamps to send postcards home (don’t get excited, I’m not talking about myself, sorry).
    We walked around the market for a bit, and, much to our fight, Dada and Isa cameo ut with even more gifts for us. This time they just threw stuff in our bags. We fought but they claimed “the orders have come from the top.” I still don’t know what that means.  We walked around the market and then around Accra for a while. Some in our group waned CD’s so we stopped for that, others wanted to go to the beach but unfortunately we didn’t have time. I just wanted to chill with the guys because they are seriously amazing.
    We went to lunch by 12:30 but chilled for so long we didn’t leave until 2. We walked around for a bit more and then caught the shuttle back to Tema. Right before getting on the shuttle I saw a man selling a shirt I liked—I didn’t have any money left so I took the grateful red shirt off my back and made a trade—I think I can find a Wisconsin basketball shirt more easily than a Ghana one hahah. I thought about exaggerating this day, making it sound more exciting than my blog currently does, but, honestly, its simplicity is what made the day so special.
    These two guys just chilled with us and we became legitimate friends. We didn’t have a plan, we didn’t do much, but we hung out. We were the first Americans they had ever hung out with and they our first Ghanaians. Tom Friedman claims the world is flat, but I beg to differ. The world is very round and the only way to truly realize that is to open up both your arms and fully embrace it. Dada and Isa taught me that from the very first moment that we met.
Until next time, see ya!