Mid-voyage reflections…a little late

I have been wanting to post a mid-voyage reflection for some time now but the fast pace of the voyage has left me nearing the end of the summer with still no time to reflect! In an attempt to let you know how I’m faring, here’s a quick rundown by the numbers:

• In the past 58 days, I have visited 14 cities in 10 countries.
• The total number of countries I’ve visited in my lifetime is 32. My summer work with Semester at Sea has offered me the opportunity to add 5 countries to my list and I’ll add one more before this voyage is complete. My goal was to reach 27 countries by my 27^th birthday and check – this goal has been achieved!
• This summer I have taken 1,942 pictures. I have taken 7,830 pictures since I started working on the M.V. Explorer, Semester at Sea’s ship, in January. (Thanks, Mom and Dad, for giving me a new camera AND an external hard drive for Christmas. These were worthy investments!)
• When I depart the M.V. Explorer on August 21, the last day of the summer voyage, I will have spent 176 days of 2014 living on a ship.

It is very rare for a Semester at Sea staff member to complete two voyages back-to-back and I’ve been asked many times by my summer co-workers how the voyages compare. The answer is they don’t. Each voyage has its own personality and it’s hard to draw comparisons across the two.

Sailboats in Helsinki, Finland.

Another question I get quite often is whether it’s was difficult to come back for the summer voyage and the answer is it was and it wasn’t. It was great to come back to the ship in June; it’s amazing how fast a place like the M.V. Explorer can become your home so when I saw the ship again this summer, I felt like I belonged once again. However, coming back was also challenging. The spring faculty and staff became my family so when I got on the ship in June, I half-expected to see my “family” again. They weren’t there, even though I kept searching, so this was a difficult transition. It has been difficult to be away from my family and friends who are back on land for so long. I’ve grown travel weary and am ready to be in one place for longer than four days at a time. I can’t eat anymore pasta or potatoes – staples on the ship’s dinner menu – and am looking forward to choosing my own meals again in just a few weeks.

Don’t get me wrong – the opportunity to travel the world and gain experience vital to my career in the study abroad field has been amazing. I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to make friends and connections around the world and look forward to continuing these connections post-Semester at Sea. I have no regrets. The final question I get often is: would you work for Semester at Sea again? The answer is yes. One thousand times – yes. This is a life-changing experience and I can’t wait to be part of it again…after a nice long break!

IPAD 1.5

The summer voyage has a unique aspect called IPAD days which greatly affect the voyage calendar. Although you may know an “IPAD” to be an Apple device, on the summer voyage IPAD stands for In-Port Academic Day.

Semester at Sea conducts classes when we are sailing between ports-of-call and often times, there is a greater need for class time than the amount of time it actually takes to get from one port to the next. Therefore, the ship ends up doing donuts in the ocean to ensure there are enough sea days and time for classes.

Instead of doing donuts in the ocean this summer, Semester at Sea has decided it is more economical to spend the days in port and just stay on the ship (fuel prices are greater than the port fees evidently). Therefore, there will be about 8 in-port class days during the summer voyage where the ship will be docked in-port but shipboard community will not be allowed to disembark because it’s a class day.

Our arrival in Lisbon demonstrates the IPAD concept. We arrived in Lisbon around 14:00 on Thursday but were not allowed to disembark the ship until Saturday morning. We had 1.5 IPAD days upon arrival in Portugal. At first, I thought being stuck on the ship would really stink but I actually didn't mind it. It’s nice to have dinner with the view of Lisbon right at our fingertips! Maybe I’ll change my mind by the eighth IPAD day of the voyage but for right now, it’s been wonderful!

More on my time in Lisbon in the next blog. Hint – this is a beautiful city!

Sunset over Lisbon as seen from the Garden Lounge dining room. Great view, right?!

Coming into port in Lisbon, Portugal.

Lisbon, here I come!

We've arrived in Lisbon!

Active in South Africa

I’ll admit – I have not been able to work out as much as I’ve would have liked while working on this ship. Considering I live on a ship and it takes about 5 minutes to get from forward to aft and 2 minutes to get from port to starboard, I’ve been leading a pretty sluggish life for the past few months. This is very different from my life on land, where I work out or go running or hiking as much as possible. My active-land-self signed up for two trips in Cape Town: Bicycling in the Winelands and Hiking Table Mountain. The trips ended up being back-to-back and my sluggish-ship-self was kicking my active-land-self all the way up Table Mountain! Needless to say, I survived both trips!

Lanzerac, our first tasting stop.

Bicycling in the winelands took me to Stellenbosch, a university town about an hour from Cape Town. Stellenbosch is an interesting town because during apartheid it was inhabited by white people and the university only accepted whites; although the university is now open to all races, the town and university has very little diversity. Stellenbosch has a Dutch feel to it, so it reminded me a little of Pella, but instead of being surrounded by cornfields Stellenbosch has mountains and wineries nearby.

Yum!

After cycling around the university as well as through town, we stopped at Lanzerac winery for a tasting. Lanzerac was the first winery in South Africa to make Pinotage wine which is a cross between Pinot Noir and Hermitage (otherwise known as Cinsaut) and is South Africa’s signature wine. It is very tasty and I would recommend trying it if you get the chance!

We rounded out the day with two additional tastings in Franschhoek, a small town nearby. The mountain biking became more difficult as we proceeded to the final winery, not because we had already done two tastings but because the road conditions deteriorated!  Biking uphill into a driving headwind on a washed-out gravel road is not fun, but we made it and overall it was a good day featuring some very tasty wines.

After a much needed night of rest, I woke up to pouring rain on my last day in Cape Town and the day I was supposed to climb Table Mountain! Great, just my luck. However, we only had to hike in the rain for about 30 minutes and then the day cleared up! The hike was beautiful but strenuous and included several stream crossings as well as using ladders to get up the mountain. Including a quick lunch break, we hiked – rather climbed – for 4.5 hours up the back to Table Mountain and finally reached the top. What views!

Biking through the winelands. We had to walk our bikes here because the path was too sandy.

Winelands near Franschhoek.

Hiking up Table Mountain. Good thing we had a guide - these signs meant nothing to me!

My view during our lunch stop.

Hiking in the clouds.

South Africa's national flower  - The King Protea.

We're almost to the top of Table Mountain!

View from the top of Table Mountain, looking down at Cape Town.

View from the top of Table Mountain. Just over my right shoulder you can see Robben Island in the distance.

My fearless hiking group. We made it despite the rain!

Chinese curveball

On the evening of February 5, I went to bed thinking that when I woke up I would be in Shanghai, China. I had prepared myself to throw open the blinds and see the beautiful Shanghai skyline. On the morning of February 6, I woke up and saw this:

Where are you , Shanghai?

Gray skies. Gray water. Gray ships off in the distance. No Shanghai skyline. I thought “the ship must be docked in a fashion so that I see out onto the water rather than overlooking the skyline.” I went up to breakfast in the Garden Lounge, which has picture windows throughout, and no Shanghai skyline could be found. Hmmm…

It turns out China threw me a curve ball. After spending 4 months studying abroad in this crazy country, I should have known better than to think our arrival would run smoothly!

Docking in Shanghai is difficult because in order to get to the pier, the ship has to navigate up the Huangpu River. The pilot boat was supposed to arrive around midnight to help steer the ship safely into the city.

Well, the pilot boat didn’t show up until after lunch-my guess is the pilot boat drivers had a long night with some good baijiu and didn’t feel like getting up in the morning. Steering the ship safely into Shanghai took about 6 hours so we arrived right around suppertime in a driving rain storm. Although the weather was cold and wet, I got some great shots of the Shanghai skyline.

This photo was taken while I’m standing outside the faculty/staff lounge on the 7^th deck-what a view, right?!

Immigration took around 3 hours to complete, so 13+ hours behind schedule I finally stepped of the ship and into China for the first time in 5 years. Where did I go?! Straight for a drink with some of the other SAS faculty and staff. Much needed after a long day of anxiously waiting!

 My trip in China is off to an interesting start. Wonder what else China will throw my way?!

View of the Shanghai skyline from the Bund.

This photo almost looks fake but it's real. No editing or anything, just Shanghai lights and fog!

I’m about done with you, Pacific Ocean

I have been at sea for 10 days with one more day to go until we arrive in Yokohama, Japan, and I am very ready to get to Japan. This has been one long crossing and I’m excited to see dry land again.

You may be wondering how I've been spending the last 10 days on the ship. Well, the answer is staying indoors. You may have heard about the big waves seen off the coasts of Hawaii and California. These big waves were produced by a monster storm as it crossed the Pacific Ocean. The ship was set to sail directly through the storm but the Captain changed our course to avoid the worst of it. Although we missed the worst of the storm which included 40 foot swells, we did catch the backside of the storm and have had rocky seas for the past few days. The swells have been as high as 14 feet and waves have crashed up to the 5th deck as the ship rocks and rolls. High winds and heavy rains have prevented us from being out on the decks and I’m starting to feel a bit stir crazy.

No go on getting out onto the decks. Boo, Pacific Ocean.

The Semester at Sea ship, called the M.V. Explorer, was once the fastest ship of its size. The ship is small and speedy and I understand the reason for its purchase because it has to carry 700 students all around the world in just a few months time. However, after 10 days of rocking our way across the Pacific I am voting for slow and steady rather than small and speedy.

View of the M.V. Explorer from the Port of Hilo.

I can deal with the rocking but the sounds are what really get me. The ship creaks as its rocked back and forth. A huge “boom” sounds throughout the ship when the ship drops down off a wave and crashes into the next. The sounds of crashing silverware and dishes as well as the opening and slamming shut of drawers are heard when walking through the halls.

We've been told that the Pacific will be the worst of the rockiness and I’m glad! I’m not sure I could take four whole months of this! I have to keep telling myself: one more day until land, one more day!

View of the waves yesterday from the window in my room.