30 Days to Departure!

The MV Explorer!

• It's crazy to think less than one month from now I will be living on a ship!  My visa's came in a few days ago, I have all my books ordered and all I have left to do is pack.  So, I guess now is a good time to write about all the stuff I forgot to in my last post...
  I have listed my itinerary below.  I tend to have people ask me what it is a lot and while I have no problem reciting it for them, it is probably smarter just to write it down.  I tend to have lots of people ask me which country I am most excited to visit and I still don't have an answer.  When I was first looking at applying to the program, I was really looking forward to visiting Japan, going to a tea ceremony and eating lots of sushi.  Now, after researching each country and seeing how different they all are from each other, I don't have somewhere I am most excited to go, because I am excited to go everywhere!  I want to be able to see how the cultures differ from each other, I want to visit the Great Wall of China and call my parents from the top, I want to see Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, I want to sail through the Amazon on a riverboat, and so much more.
  While on the ship I will be taking 12 credits.  Global Studies (which is required for all students), World Theater and Performance, World Literature in English, and Travel Writing.  I am really excited for the Travel Writing class.  I have never taken anything like it before and I would love to learn more about it!
• 

Embark at Nassau, Bahamas   (Jan 19)

Roseau, Dominica                   (Jan 23-24)

Manaus, Brazil                        (Jan 31-Feb 3)

Tema, Ghana                          (Feb 13-17)

Cape Town, South Africa       (Feb 24-29)

Port Louis, Mauritius               (March 6)

Cochin, India                          (March 12-17)

Singapore                               (March 22)

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam     (March 25-30)

Hong Kong, China                  (April 1-2)

Shanghai, China                      (April 5-7)

Kobe, Japan                           (April 10-11)

Yokohama, Japan                   (April 13-14)

Hilo, Hawaii                            (April 25)

San Diego, CA USA               (May 2)

Fall 2011 LipDub

Lip dub/ tour of the ship from the Fall 2011 voyage!  Soon I will be doing stuff like this...

Beginnings...

     This is going to be my blog for the Spring 2012 voyage of Semester at Sea.  I won't be setting sail until January, so there isn't much news to post at the moment...  Except that I am still waiting for my visas to arrive and staring out the window intensely does not seem to be speeding up the process.  So, until I have more exciting news, this is a poem I wrote for my Poetry Workshop class.  It seems like as good a way as any to introduce myself.

The Life of a Military Brat

I come from fried chicken and ice cold lemonade,

quilting circles and no secrets.

I come from grass skirts and luaus,

where we ate lobster caught just hours before.

I come from oranges and alligators,

beaches and water gun fights.

I come from crab cakes and mornings at the Smithsonian,

Black-Eyed Susans and Old Bay seasoning.

I come from climbing shoes and chalk bags,

multi-pitch routes and scaling Seneca Rocks.

I come from homeschool meetings

and the brown and green camouflage that I wear every Memorial Day.

I come from a German who became a slave

and an Indian princess who became a Disney movie.

I come from the art student captured by paint

and the Marine with his boots on.

I come from ruined soles and two thousand miles

of mud and strangers who called me Owl.

I come from jagged rocks and swollen river crossings

that almost stole my shoes.

I believe in people watching in airports,

and that staying still makes life too boring.

I believe in family Thanksgivings of eighty-six people

and carrying a book with me at all times.

I believe in six months long backpacking trips

and ice cream, preferably chocolate.

I believe in snowboarding down mountains as fast as possible

and making snowcream after a heavy snowstorm.

I believe in crying over the deaths of fictional characters

and bookshelves so tall they require a library ladder.
I believe in messy hair, the smell of a new book

and wearing pajamas whenever possible.

I believe in the silver cross I keep hanging from my neck

and being woken up in the morning by Golden Retriever tongues.

I believe in calling friends from the tops of fourteeners

and getting as many miles on my feet as I can before it’s time to go.