Thailand!

Thailand!

The places I went in Thailand were Pattaya and Bangkok. Pattaya was a small (but growing) city about 20-30 minutes from the giant port that we were docked in called Laem Chebang. It was terribly annoying that the port was so big because the only means we had of getting out of the port (other than walking the 5 miles of winding and criss-crossing roads) was a taxi service which had the monopoly over our ship and so they could pretty much charge whatever they wanted per taxi. They were all in ca-hoots with each other so we couldn’t even play one against the other for the cheapest fair. It cost about 300-500 Baht (at an exchange rate of about 32 baht to 1 USD) to get out of the port to the mall which was really about a mile and a half as the crow flies from our ship. Very annoying but oh well.

Day 1: Vanessa, Adam and I all went to the Tiger Zoo and Mini Siam. Our tour guide’s name was Wicky and she told us that when women use the rest room in Thailand they call it “picking flowers” and for boys its “shooting the rabbit.” We had a good laugh about that. We were told that the Tiger zoo was a refuge for Bangle Tigers and that there were over 200 tigers living on the property. There were also crocodiles and elephants and we would be seeing a Tiger show, croc show and elephant show. The highlight of the trip however, was being able to hold and feed baby tigers and get our pictures taken. They were SO cute and because Vanessa, Adam and I were smart and went to take our pictures in the 20 minutes we had before the Tiger show instead of the 40 mins of free time we had after like everyone else, we were the first to hold them. We also got the tigers which were older so it was like having a medium sized dog sucking out of a bottle while sitting in my lap. It was quite the experience. (I also held a baby alligator, just for you dad!!) The tiger show ended up being an embarrassing and disturbing show of how whipped these poor tigers were. We were pretty much horrified at what we were seeing. 7 very large and fully grown tigers were shoved into a cage about the size of a small bathroom only it was about 4 feet tall. The best part of the show was the pig that came out at the beginning and end of the show that pulled a chord which dropped a banner which read either “Welcome to the Tiger show!” or “Thank you! Come again!” The pig didn’t flinch when the trainer walked near it. L Next we went to a croc show where the people stuck their hands, heads and various objects in croc mouths. It was so abruptly obvious that the crocs were sedated till the end of the next millennium that we were too disturbed to take pictures. We were then herded to the elephant show. This was my favorite part because the elephants actually looked like they were having fun and liked their trainers. There was a basketball game, an elephant walking on tight ropes, tricks with people in the audience and then we got to feed them bananas and take pictures with them. It was fun, but I don’t ever want SAS to go back and give that place any more revenue, those tigers deserve better. I’m not sure how to implement that change but it needs to happen. After that we went to a place that only Asians could think up and find amusing. It was an entire part of miniatures. Famous monuments from all over the world were in the front of the park (we basically walked through our entire trip and saw the monuments in the places we were supposed to go like Egypt and Rome) and then all of Thailand’s pride monuments and temples were init he back of the park in the area called “Mini Siam.” We got some funny pictures and bought dried mango and pineapple. We were then taken to the Gem Store: The Largest Gem Store in the World! We were taken on a “it’s a small world” type ride with animatronics which told us how gems were made, mined and manufactured into the beautiful jewelry we could purchase right in the shop! We were taken on a tour through the room where they size, polish, set and resize the stones and jewelry. It was surprisingly fun and interesting. The showroom was like nothing you’ve ever seen! It was HUGE and everywhere were people trying to sell you the jewelry. Thailand’s claim to gem fame is the Sapphire and rubies. They are enormous, clear and come in so many shades and colors you might think you were on a drug trip. Vanessa got an VERY pretty silver ring with Sapphire and cubic zirconium (I don’t think they were diamonds at least) for $24 USD; a very good price for that ring. We were then taken back to the ship. Vanessa and I hung out with Sandra and Heidi (some of the waitresses) at the pool bar and tried to watch Enchanted but were too distracted. Good night.

Day 2: I got up early to head out to Bangkok with a trip that toured Bangkok. The bus ride was about 2 hours. We got to ride up and down the river that Bangkok is located on and we visited the Temple of Dawn and also got an hour long tour around some of the canals that people live off of. We saw water monitors (babies and big ones) and then we got to the temple. It was entirely decorated in statues and flowers and stuff made out of shards of porcelain and broken shards of glazed pottery. It was extremely tall and you could walk up some difficult steps to the top and look out over the water but my knee wasn’t having any of the stairs, so I wandered around the market at the bottom. We got back on the boat and went to lunch, which was at a really fancy and beautiful restaurant. The food was SO good and I was able to eat my green curry, YUM! We then went to the giant Reclining Buddha at the temple of Wat Po (46 meters long and 15 meters high) and the Grand Palace. I hardly took in what I was seeing  at the palace because the place was so big and I was supposed to meet up with some of my guy friends to stay in Bangkok with them. I had no idea how I was going to find them. My camera also ran out of batteries here and it was so incredibly hot. The emerald Buddha here was very inspiring though and we were able to just sit and take in the powerful reverence that it commanded from the people praying there. I was so relieved to find Jordan at the entrance that I almost cried. They stayed and found me! YAY! I left my tour group and went back to the waterfront with the group (Jordan, Sean, Chris, Nora, Ben and Karri) who hadn’t seen the river yet and some of them went and did an hour long boat ride  like I did earlier and Jordan, Sean and I wandered around the streets.  We met up and went back to the hostel. After that we decided to get massages (180 Baht or 5 bucks for an hour) and then we walked around the back packers district called Khosan Rd. There was a night market that sets up every night which was so much fun to wander around in. Every 100 ft or so there was a place to get your hair dreaded for 80 Baht (2.5 bucks) or a fake ID. We also got buckets of alcohol for 200 Baht. Now I don’t normally drink much and I drink even less in port but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to drink out of a kid’s bucket.  It was such a fun atmosphere and every other person there was from a different country. It was absolutely heaven for us.  We also got street vendor Pad Thai which they make right in front of you (the best pad thai I’ve ever eaten) and grilled corn. Who knew they liked corn but they do and the way they make it was just perfect. They also serve you your drinks out of plastic bags with a straw. Interesting but fun! We found a hookah bar with a live band that played one of the best (in context) line ups ever. They whipped out Green Day, Oasis, Goo Goo Dolls and several other bands like that while sprinkling a few of their countries famous songs in too. If our table wasn’t singing along to a song, the people next to us who were Thai were singing. We had a nice time there. (Ben lost the bet that they would play ACDC and Jordan won the bet that they would play Wonder Wall. Hilarious). The Hostel was tolerable but the worst part was the over active air conditioning machine and the fact that they gave us a single giant towel as a cover. Oh well.

Day 3: The next day was spent wandering around, going to the markets again, seeing the reclining Buddha with the boys who hadn’t seen it before and because it was St. Patty’s day we got some more buckets of alcohol with our lunch/dinner of more pad thai. I had to take the SAS bus back to the ship at 8 so I left them around seven, got my own Tuktuk to the giant mall and then passed out on the bus on the way back.

Day 4: Vanessa and I went to the Pattaya Elephant village on this day. It was a actual refuge camp for old logging elephants. They were mostly girl elephants and we got to ride them on their heads, and also once they strapped the seat things on them. It was good to see that they were happy, treated well and that they had elephant masters which lived with them and watched over them for their entire lives. (The elephant chooses the man and won’t lie down if she doesn’t trust the person.) Vanessa and I left the group at a 20Baht store and started our adventure of getting to Bangkok to celebrate Laura’s birthday at the hotels the Phuket trips were staying at. We walked from the store to the Pattaya bus station, which was a trip itself and bought a ticket to Bangkok for 113 Baht. I would like to point out that this was approximately 4 dollars at most and the buses we were supposed to take through SAS were 45 USD. Okay just saying, that’s completely ridiculous. We were dropped off at a bus station that was connected to the new skytrain station. We had more delicious pad thai from a man and woman running a small outside restaurant on the corner of the bus station parking lot. It was incredibly delicious. We then navigated the skytrain system ourselves and walked to the hotel were we were bumming a night’s stay off of our friends. We went out and celebrated Laura’s birthday (21!!)  on top of a 60 floor hotel at a “sky bar” and then found ourselves back at Khosan Rd where we danced in this “bumpin’” club. I’m still getting the bass lines stuck in my head. J

Day 5: Vanessana and I got free breakfast by saying we were on the trip and then split from the other girls to go to giant knock off mall called MBK. We also got there early and found a cool little internet café with free wifi if you buy a drink or something. We were completely lost for in the 7 floors of vendors and stores. We bought MAC make up for ridiculously cheap prices and decided at 1 that it was about time to head back to the ship. That gave us 5 hours before we had to be on the ship at 6. We made it to the bus station around 1:30 and couldn’t’ believe our luck when a lady in a bus pulled up and asked us if we were going to Pattaya. We were! So we hoped up on the bus and sat down. Turns out we didn’t get on the same one stop bus we were on the day before but on a bus that stops every 5-20 minutes at various stops along the way. We were freaking out thinking we weren’t going to get back in time, not to mention there was a weird Thai game show/MAD TV type show playing the ENTIRE time. After 3 hours on the bus (the entire trip was supposed to be 2) we finally recognized the name of the town the tiger zoo was in and we knew we were close to the ship so when the bus pulled over, stopped and the bus driver turned off the bus AND GOT OUT we decided to find a cab back to the ship. (This was at 5:15 and we were assured by another passenger that we were going to be at a stop by our port by 4:30 and at pattaya at 5, too bad that wasn’t the case.) The cab lady we got knew sorta where we were going by the card we were given to get back to the ship and she took us for 300Baht (we were expecting to pay 700 or more to get back from Pattaya) she finally understood what a rush we were in when we pulled up next to a tuktuk with other SAS kids in it all screaming that we had to go. There was 10 minutes until 6. Vanessa and I split up tasks such as turning in the passports (me) and paying the driver (her) and sprint dup the gangway to swipe our cards. We were in by 5:57. Three minutes to spare. For those of you not familiar with dock time, our punishment for being late, we have to stay on the ship for a certain amount of time in the next port. You get dock time for various wrongs you commit on the ship and for being 1-5 minutes late of on-ship time you can get 3 hours of dock time. Bad news. But we made it on and everything was jolly after that!

 

I would like to go back and experience more of Thailand because I feel like it’s a country with so much potential and interesting culture that I want to experience.

 

Hope you’re all well

Emily

Finally... INDIA!

 

My apologies if this is posted twice, our email has been screwy and deleting things.

Okay so, sorry its taken me so long to update about India! Its been almost 2 weeks! I feel bad :( but be prepared to have all the Asian countries be delayed until about mid April because starting now we have 5 or 6 days in port and then 2 days on the ship traveling. Its going to be hectic!!!

 

India Day 1: I left the ship for a few hours before my first FDP with Sean, Vanessa, Bev, Jordan, Alex, Laura and Sahar and we went shopping at Spencer Plaza. Because there were too many of us to fit into one rickshaw (THESE WERE SO MUCH FUN) we had to go in 2. Our driver split from the other and proceeded to tell us that Spencer's didn't open until 2pm and we should let him take us to a temple near by. We didn't buy it and told him we were meeting people at Spencer's so we just needed to go there. Eventually we got there and when he demanded 50 USD we freaked out because we thought we were paying 50 rupees (1 USD to 50 Rupees) and we ended up giving him 200 Rs and walking away with him mad at us. While walking away we got stopped by some other drivers claiming the mall didn't open until 12 and for only 1 dollar he would take us shopping somewhere else and then back by noon. We walked into the mall, which was very much open and searched for our friends. We found place after place, shop after shop of traditional India jewelry, silks, pashmena and trinkets. We bought some stuff, people bought saris and in a just bookstore called Landmark I found the new Fray CD for 8USD. WOOOOOOOOOO!!! (This bookstore was like a Barnes and Nobel with a Toys R' Us for a second floor.)

After shopping I went to a house of educated women and professors where we talked to two women writers and ate traditional food. Curries and rice cake things. It was all very good.

After THAT I went the Welcome Reception where they had more food similar to what I ate at the house but because it was mass produced for the 300 SAS kids there, it wasn't quite as good. Along with free henna everyone got the traditional red dot on our foreheads and a lae made out of a carnation and jasmine. We also got to talk to students that were brought from the nearby Colleges. We saw traditional dancing too. Very cool.

 

Day2: Went to 2 cities and visited a TON of temples. They were all very similar and I would pretty much have to show you the pictures before you understand the differences but I'll give you a quick list: 1- OLD, 46 sub shrines, famous because it was one of the first made out of stone and not wood or bamboo. 2- OLD; VERY TALL = TALLEST. 3- Silk Shop. Overpriced. Bathroom stop. LUNCH!!!! (It was at a straight up RESORT which is located in the second town we went to which used to be the port city for the Kings before it was destroyed by a typhoon in the late 1800's. Its a beach town and it was beautiful. The report was weird cause driving up to it there was trash everywhere, poverty and then you turn into the gate and are greeted by manicured lawns, flowering trees and upscale buildings.) Food = traditional and YUMMY. 4- Butterball stone (a giant round stone balanced on a flat, tilted rock surface) and a series of temples all related and home to the largest example of base-relief work in the world. The elephant was larger than life size. One of the stops in this part of the journey we met a bunch of Indian school children on a field trip that got enormous pleasure from high-fives and "one photo." They would get their picture taken, look at it, point and themselves, giggle and run away to another flustered SAS person with a camera. If you tried to take a picture with one or two there were instantly 30 of them around you. As fast as they came, they were gone. Very funny. This was also the start of the Hawkers trying o tell you very over priced stuff. VERY ANNOYING. 5- Shore temple located on the beach. Very pretty.. Lots of kids again. I bought a drum worth MAYBE 3USD for 9. Oh well. Bad mistake on my part. Long day but fun. I also saw a monkey on a leash dressed in drag. Complete with lipstick. It was sad. (but I still got a picture).

 

Day 3:   

Got up early and was out shopping with this girl named Jenna I have some classes with and had met a few times/she was on my trip yesterday. We were supposed to go with Chris and Jordan but they both were too sleepy so we went ourselves. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves because we got a rickshaw taxi for 50Rupees (1US) and I've paid 100Rs before for the same trip. But we got to the mall and almost nothing was open. We found one shop guy who was determined to get us to shop there but I needed cash so he sent us to an ATM where my card didn't work so he told us to go to another one. We wondered around a floor up and found a computer shop that was opening, ended going inside and I got the 160 hard drive for 52 USD. Good deal I thought, another girl I was with got a 720GB for 120USD, which... is also amazing but I didn't need that much memory. So then we were going to pay card for that but he said his machine wasn't working so he lead us to another ATM, which worked, we got back and bought that. Then we got side-tracked in a supermarket store called Nuts & Spices (dad, this was your kind of store!). The funny thing was the first shelf you saw when you walked in was full of Sugar free diabetic friendly snacks. They also had a number of nuts and dried fruits, cereal and I got some of those nature Valley oats N honey granola bars cause they are wheat free. Then we finally made it back down to the first guy, I bought some stuff from him. Then we wandered the entire 3 story floor looking for things such as mens plain undershirts in combo packs (I'm finding that to be a uniquely American concept), sandals for Jenna's fiancé, Vitamin B12 (for Jenna) and ended up with a lot of other things that we got for pretty good prices and I'm happy with all my purchases. I spent 100US but that's including the 50 for the USB drive and lunch (which is actually probably the cheapest thing I bought today. It was only 10Rs (about 20Cents) more than the cab ride there.) We got back to the ship around 3:30 after a stop at the post office and then ate dinner on the ship (the protein choice I had for no gluten was peanut butter and cheese cubes. The jerk pork and the vegetarian lasagna had gluten in it. My other options were pasta, potatoes, salad-which I eat copious amounts of anyway- and pears. Surprisingly pears and peanut butter are very good together). We found some more people to hang out with and we went to the place called Mocha. IT was a local hookah bar and coffee shop. It was SO chill. The decorations were all in jewel colors, it was all outside, the lighting was paper lanterns or lights with colored shawls over them. There were long bar/table things that you could sit at that had fountains at one end, the water traveled down the entire length of the table in a trough, onto the floor and then into a pool with flowers floating in it in the middle of the courtyard. There were covered booths and tables (which we sat at) and the menu had things like "Cookie Espresso- a chocolate chip cookie doused in espresso, milk and topped with whipped cream," "Mexican Crepes- chilies, cheese and deliciousness" they had coffee from all the really famous coffee countries, they had hot chocolate and so much delicious looking food. The shesha was the best part though, I don't think I've ever had more delicious hookah in my life. The flavor was blueberry and none of us wanted to leave it. haha.. the other flavor we got was a combo called Malicious of lemon and orange (I think) it was also good. Uhg it was good. My tea made me sick though. I got Chai and it wasn't chai I was used to and it was made with I think whole milk which while it was already stiflingly hot and I was in long sleeves (stupid? I think so) made me sick.

Back on the boat by 8ish and then hung out at the piano bar with Sandra and Heidi (2 of the bar waitresses) until about 12 when they closed. We just talked about India, I showed them pictures and they gave me food. It was a good trade off.

 

Day 4:

Today at the disabled home, "Samarpana: Home for the Mentally Challenged & Spastics" we played with, interacted with and fed a number of the 45 children and adults 3-65 that live there. They are all really very nice and the people running it (there are only 5 staff members) have hearts of Gold. The main woman had such patience. She was amazing. I got to play with this one girl/young lady who lived there named Pria. She couldn't speak and she was slow with some physical impairments but I played a version of patty-cake with her that was basically me tapping her palms with mine (and vise versa) and counting or making funny sounds. I started doing scales every time I patted her hands and when I got to the top most note I would pat her head and say "BOOP!" She loved it. I eventually got to the point where I would get to higher notes after doing some kind of little "bee-bop-dee-dooby-doo" song I would speed up the pace and pitch of the notes and then pat her head. She would get really excited and laugh when I started with the speeding up and flinch like she was expecting it and then I would hesitate, her not knowing when I would bop her head and when I finally would she would just giggle. She was so cute.  After we served breakfast we did the hokie-pokie, I'm a little teapot and the Itsy bitsy spider as a group for all the "inmates." (We couldn't figure out why there were called inmates, we figured it was just a local custom and nothing like they were implying they were in prison.) I played with Pria then because I noticed she was clapping along while we were singing and she had really good rhythm. Then we split up into groups and a number of jobs they needed getting done. Some kids worked in the kitchen cleaning up after breakfast, I washed clothes and dusted spiders and dead bugs out of windows and window pains, some kids even clipped nails and toe-nails. They served us Cardamom tea and chocolate filled cookies. I politely refused after my experience with the milked tea the night before and I couldn't eat the cookie even though it looked sooo good. They gave us handouts as we were leaving to make donations and they have a website that you should check out- www. samarpana.org. All donations (which to be honest are very reasonable) are tax deductible. I'm suggesting it. ($100 is a teacher's salary for a year or a year's supply of milk.)

After this place, I went out with Jordan, 2 girls I hung out with the night before at Mocha and a kid named Britin and we went shopping and then met up with Heidi, Roshan (another bar worker who is actually from India) and a girl named Whitney at the Mocha again. We smoked and ate the food for dinner. It was SO GOOD.

 

Day 5: I went to another home for mentally challenged children. We wer split up, given tours and my group was put to work in the garden. We cleared an entire garden and then ate our lunch off of banana leaves. After lunch we played with the kids. It was really fun.

 

I have to go eat! Time to leave.

 

Lots of love to everyone!!!    Emily

 

 

Tropical Paradise...

Okay, sorry about that silence....

 

In Mauritius I hopped on a bus with about a hundred other SAS kids and we drove for an hour on crazy roads with lots of traffic through what looked like townships from South Africa. Many of the buildings were made of Tin siding and the residents were struggling in poverty. It wasn't until about 45 minutes in and we turned a corner on the island (which is only 40 miles wide to begin with) that we saw the "resort" aspect with lots of grandiose houses on the beach. Gorgeous!

We were separated onto 4 catamarans and after everyone was lubed up with sunscreen and our shoes were stored away (along with our clothes, because who walks around on a catamaran in more than a bathing suite?) we took off into a bay where in less than 5 minutes we saw a pod of dolphins. They would all come up for 10-15 seconds several times then disappear and pop up in another random spot. After about 20 minutes there the crew started up the grills and the drinks were a-pourin'. They were making us what they called Jungle Juice which was rum (there are an astounding number of sugar plantations on the island so rum is plentiful) sprite, orange juice, lime stuff and vanilla stuff. It was good, I didn't have one though. I stuck with Coke-Light. :)

We went to another spot and parked it where we were handed fins, masks and a snorkel and told to explore. We were stopped over a coral reef and while it wasn't one of those immensely colorful reefs the colors on some of the fish were vibrant blue and yellow. There were a few yellow corals but for the most part there was brown. There was the occasional heart-wrenching bleached coral too. :( We got to swim around for a while and then the party poopers started getting out after about 30 minutes. I wanted to keep swimming. I barley got to explore the shallow corals (apparently there were sea urchins that I missed.) But we got out and salivated over the kebabs cooking on the grill. While on the move to the next stop lunch was served. Garlic bread, rice, potato salad, salsa and carrots (which we were told not to eat because it was washed in the water which is apparently a carrier of the "Traveler's diarrhea")  pineapple, chicken kebabs and grilled fish. I tried the fish, I ate the fish. I LIKED?!... THE FISH!? The salsas were SO GOOD. There was a red one that tasted a bit like tomato sauce that was a little spicy and it had some chunky v veggies in it. HOWEVER, the best thing at that lunch was by far this green chili paste/salsa. It looked like chopped green chilies, garlic and olive oil. My mouth has not burned with such deliciousness since leaving home. They hardly spice ANYTHING here. Its sad. :(

After lunch all four boats tied themselves together and we just had a ball jumping off the front of the boats and splashing around. Erin and I found that we were over some corals and sea grass and we got the masks back out and dove around. Its amazing how many different species of animals can live on such a sandy, monotone backdrop. There were several species of fish, crabs, and a relative of the sea horse that was mostly white and had gray/black spots. It was shaped like a snake but had the head of a sea horse. It was really fast and fun to chase. Another cool thing I found that was hanging around the coral the anchor was attached to was a small eel. It almost bit my finger... but to be fair I was going to poke it's tail. There were angelfish, damselfish and (DAD SHOUT OUT TO YOU!!!) a humuhumunukunukuapua'a. We saw several. They had bright blue faces and gray, black and yellow bodies. There were 3 small squid too. TO be honest, I think they were the same species that we dissected in zoology and biology. But that's okay. The water wasn't amazingly clear, that water was further around the island, but it was warm and a very cool "sea green" ... duh. hahah. The colors of my room were EVERYWHERE here. This island was absolutely gorgeous. I loved it. My tropical ecology teacher and her husband (a marine biologist) were there and I dove around and explored with her. For nerdy me, it was really fun and re-sparked my interest in marine biology.

After swimming probably for about an hour or more we were herded back onto the catamarans and we headed back to the shore. Another hour back to the port, then and Erin and I headed out in search of t-shirts to throw away for India. We were unsuccessful, but the pina colada and margarita (respectfully) we got at the bar we met everyone else, at were delicious. Also, on the boat they were having another BBQ so Erin and I went back for dinner expecting hamburgers and ribs like Neptune day... we were disappointed. Neither of either were served but they had BBQ chicken (and lets be honest the sauce is what makes it good) and "sirloin stake." Also, the corn bread we got this time was very, very good. Again with the amazing display of fruits and of course I stole like 6 pieces of fruit. YUM!

 

Today was Sea Olympics. FUN TIMES!!! Our sea, the Aegean Sea was Green and we had some AWESOME cheers. We got a lot of Bronze medals, a couple silvers (including for mascot and flag) but the kickers were GOLD in Volleyballs and and and SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING!!!! THATS RIGHT!!!! WE WON GOLD! It was awesome! We started with Thriller, went into Can't Touch This, then a song called I Touch Myself, followed by the Nutcracker Suite, All I Want For Christmas (by Mariah Carry) and we finished with Jaws and "Bye Bye Bye" by N*Sync. I had a ballet leg/vertical solo during the nutcracker. I even brought my noseclips and added those. It was so much fun. It was incredibly hot out and VERY humid (more so than in the Atlantic if that's possible). There were events all day long. I think highlights were volleyball, pictionary, tug-o-war, paper boat float, flag competition, mashed potato sculpting and synchro. Overall it was pretty good. Other than the fact that the pink team were cheaters and they won EVERYTHING and then they won over all. On medals alone we were supposed to tie for second but there were penalties for unsportsmanlike behavior, cussing and the like. Somehow we lost like 500 points. I don't know how but there are rumors someone in dodge ball accidentally kicked another kid in the face... oops. Oh well, second place doesn't get anything other than knowing they were second.

 

So funny this is happening to me. I've developed so many freckles on my face from being in the sun that when you see pictures of me there appears to be a band of darkness that's smeared from one side of my face to the other and over the bridge of my nose. Its like one big long freckle. Kinda humorous.

 

Hope you're all well.

Em