Before coming, I thought I was going to be the only Colombian citizen; but we are three. We are 629 students from all around the world, and 84 of us are international students, from 46 different countries, the highest number of international students for any Semester at Sea voyage! That is exciting. Traveling with us there are also 40 faculty members, 30 staff members, 42 Lifelong Learners, and 84 family members.
http://www.semesteratsea.org/2015/01/21/spring-2015-by-the-numbers/
http://www.semesteratsea.org/2015/01/19/a-students-perspective-international-student-orientation/
My schedule is not bad at all. I have one class on A days and three classes on B days. I can't decide which is my favorite class. Every single class I learn new things and get to know better the other students. The lens course, Global Environmental Challenges has three professors and 73 students. Environmental challenges are viewed from the perspectives of a Biologist, an Economist, and a Political Science professor. At first I thought there were very few students interested in the Environment, but we started a club and it seems like we are going to be able to create a little community of students concerned about sustainability on board and who want to learn how to have a positive impact on the environment; we call it SEAS: Sustainability and Environmental Awareness Society.
Every night there are seminars, and professors from all areas talk about different topics such as astronomy, oceanography, videography, etc. Before every port, we will have cultural nights, where we learn a little bit about the history, economy, music, religion, and many other things of the country we will visit next. There are also movies and documentaries going on on the rooms' TVs and sometimes in classrooms, and several clubs all day long every single day. Some of my favorites are the 7 minute work out, Salsa dance, service club, and of course SEAS. We have a church service on Sundays.
The ship has been rocking a lot lately. Since we left Hawaii we have been avoiding a storm in the north, so traveled west and now we are going north, instead of traveling diagonally. Therefore, the ship was speeding up, the waves have been up to six meters high and sometimes things can get crazy. Sometimes it feels like someone is pushing me down to the floor and sometimes I feel like flying, and often things start flying around in my room at night. We have had five time changes that give us one more hour of sleep every time, which is great, although every time we change time zone, the next day everyone is tired one hour earlier. On January 18th we had an experience very few people have had. We crossed the International Date Line so on the 18th at midnight we change our calendars to January 20th instead of January 19th. January 19th basically did not exist for us.
I enjoy being outside in deck 6 or deck 7, just sitting there, watching the waves on the ocean and enjoying the sun. The weather has been beautiful. On deck 7 there is a small pool, a small court, an outside gym, a snack bar, and a ping pong table. I brought my racket and several balls, but I have only played a couple of times with some kids, family members of faculty, staff, or lifelong learners. But there are always a lot of students that want to play, and they run a small tournament. I am getting excited for the Sea Olympics and I will have to practice before playing that. Go Bering Sea!
Lonely Planet and Forbes travel guides can be used for two-hour periods to plan the trips, so we have been using them a lot for Japan, but we have not made many decisions yet. Many people are going to Tokyo the first day; we will stay at a hostel and see how everything goes. Also, since when we come back from Japan we only have two class days until we get to China, we are also figuring out what to do there. We already know where we want to go and my dad has been helping us a lot because the only resource here, besides the book guides, are email and Wikipedia.
