Just a short little bit on Hawaii. I am writing this on December 6th and tomorrow I am going home, I really want to spend as much time as I can with my friends, so I am going to make this quick. Hawaii was great. I expected a cheesy vacation destination much like what I encountered in the Bahamas. Instead I was welcomed it the best way back to the USA. For only being there a night and a day my friends and I managed to meet many people and do lots of things. The best thing I did was to [View Full Entry]

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I wasn’t even ready for Japan when it came. But I mean really, have I been ready for any of this? For some people Japan was their most anticipated port. Not for me really, I was actually kind of dreading it given the amount of money I was told I would have to spend. None of my preconceived notions turned out to be true, and I should have known that from the start, give what this whole trip has taught me. On the first day immigrations took quite some time so we weren’t allowed to get off the ship until at [View Full Entry]

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Ever since I was in 12th grade and read an article about Hong Kong and how great the city was I have always said I would move there and life would be better. I’m convinced after being there it probably would. Hong Kong is a marvelous place, a mix of traditional and modern, both in the right amounts. Most of the ship (580 people) bailed on this wonderful city and went to Beijing, China. I decided way back in August when I needed to make the decision whether or not to purchase the Chinese Visa that I was going to spend [View Full Entry]

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Just like everyone said, this trip has flown since we left South Africa. I can’t believe we have just left Vietnam and that we’ll be in Hong Kong tomorrow. Vietnam was a pleasant port. It hardly compares in beauty, generosity, culture and just sheer coolness to Myanmar, but it definitely had its own charms. Our Vietnam experience began early in the morning when the ship started up the three-hour journey by river to Saigon, now known as Ho Chi Minh City. The passage was narrow and the turns were sharp, and I understand now why Captain Jeremy said this was hi [View Full Entry]

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Myanmar (Burma) was definitely one of the counties on this trip that I was most excited to visit. Not because I was anxious to experience a culture I had read so much about, but because I was going to experience a culture I knew nothing about. I wasn’t the only one that felt this way. As we sailed into Yangon, there was no one on the ship who had set foot on Burmese soil with the exception of our American interport lecturer, and even he did not know what to expect. This was not the first time Semester at Sea had [View Full Entry]

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I don’t think I’ve written yet about the Sea Olympics that occurred before we got to India…so here’s a little bit about it. We are divided up into “seas” and each one has their own RA. There are 9 all together, including the professors/staff/adult passengers who made up the “Vitamin C.” I am in Baltic, and we didn’t have very much spirit. But those of us that did made up for everyone else. The night before the Olympics we had an opening ceremony and a talent show. I was able to put my radio editing software to good use and made [View Full Entry]

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After some of my past journal entries this one is going to be relatively short. As our substitute for Kenya we went to Mauritius for three days. It is a small island/ country in the Indian Ocean near the north east coast of Madagascar. From what we heard previous to coming to Mauritius it is paradise. Mark Twain made some sort of quote about God creating Mauritius and then creating Heaven after and modeling it after Mauritius. Well, we all hope that wasn’t true. Don’t get me wrong, it was really nice. Beautiful white sand beaches and clear turquoise water and [View Full Entry]

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After reading my last journal entry you might have mixed feelings. You might agree that it does suck that we aren’t going to Kenya anymore, but at the same time you might just want to slap me on the face and say, “Get with it! You’re going all over the world!” I had this same dilemma inside, but I really was down that day when I wrote that entry. As nice as our ship is there is a lot that you are cut away from. When there is down time there really isn’t too much to do. You can’t just go [View Full Entry]

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Well yesterday was the lowest point of my trip. First I missed breakfast because I forgot to set my clock ahead an hour (we’ve had to do this 5 times in the past week!) Global studies was awesome, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was at center stage and giving a wonderful performance, he really is an encouraging and jovial man. But after that uplifting hour and a half, a visibly distraught Dean John had to address the shipboard community and break the news to us that we are no longer going to Kenya. We’ve known all along that the political climate in Kenya [View Full Entry]

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Brazil. Get me off this ship! The seas have been quite rocky and we are all ready to be on land! (I have yet to get seasick though. .knock on wood!) Thank goodness too the land we found was BRAZIL! The second stop on this voyage around the world and I have already experienced so much. On Monday morning when we arrived in Salvador we put down our anchor and waited to be allowed to dock. We had to have a health inspection because we had just come from Venezuela and then we all had to go through immigration (passport stamped!) [View Full Entry]

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