At Sea

UBUNTO- an African phrase that means “people are people through other people.” My friend Max that went on the voyage last spring stressed the importance of this concept. Having only been on the boat for two days I can already appreciate the meaning of this phrase. Though the boat is primarily made up of students (585) there are also faculty, staff, life-long learners (adults who audit classes and go on the voyage because they love traveling and interacting with students), crew members, and children of the staff that make up another 300 people. I have already begun interacting with the crew, kids, staff, and lifelong learners and it really is amazing how much you can learn from someone else.

Today is the first full day that we have been at sea. Last night the ship was really swaying and a lot of students got sick. Luckily I used my patch (my throat is SO dry now) and took some meds and they seem to be working. I’m pretty confident that I will throw up at some point over the next four months because of seasickness... it’s only a matter of time.

I ended up switching rooms to a room on the fourth floor with a window. My roommate’s name is Brooke and she goes to Berkeley but is from southern NJ. We have a lot in common which is great including having signed up for one of the same classes and two overnight trips in China and Cambodia.

We had orientation all day today and were lectured about everything ranging from joining various clubs to drugs and alcohol. Some of the key points from the various speakers were that Semester at Sea is a “get to” not a “need to.” Each student GETs the privilege of going on this voyage. Our theme for the voyage is sustainability, and how we can better sustain the world we live in. The speakers also stressed the importance of flexibility- the more flexible we are, the more we will gain from the experience. By the end of the voyage the faculty and staff hope that we will leave with full minds and full hearts.

The faculty and staff explained that we were an integrated learning community… SAS seems very NELP like in that regard. Though nothing could ever come close to describing NELP, both programs have many of the same values- living as one community, learning and living together, taking care of each other…

Here are some fun (if not unnerving) facts about the 2010 SAS Voyage:
• 66% females, 34% males 
• Our ship is 25,000 tons
• Fastest cruise ship of its kind
• The top five represented schools are: University of Colorado- Boulder, Chapman University, University of San Diego, Bucknell University, and the University of Virginia.
• Total of about 1,000 passengers including students, faculty, staff, crew, life-long learners and families of the staff/faculty
• There are about 20 children who come along on the voyage because their parents are professors- age range: 4 – 17 years old
• The MV Explorer is a SHIP not a BOAT
• Circumnavigating the globe is a VOYAGE not a CRUISE

My classes right now are: global mental health, global perspectives on work and family, and global studies. Global studies is a required course that preps the students about the countries we will be visiting. I got kicked out of my marketing class that I was originally signed up for because I had not taken a prereq class (which was not mentioned at all in the original syllabus). Now I have to meet with the registrar and hopefully get into another psych class.

I have been meeting a lot of nice, cool, people and it seems for the most part that everyone is in the same boat (literally) in not knowing other people. I also volunteered myself to represent our hall or in this case our “sea” and be on Sea Council. I figure it’s just another way to meet people and get involved. I registered to participate in “Vicarious Voyage” which means that I will act as a penpal correspondent with an entire classroom of middle school students. I also signed up for a boat family which is comprised of a faculty/staff/life-long learner and about 6-8 students.

So far I am having a great time and getting used to the ship. It’s kind of cool to look out the window and see nothing but deep blue ocean.

Hello Feuers! Jenny is doing well and we are about to have lunch in 20 minutes :D