One year later...

One year ago I set sail on one of the most amazing adventures of my life. As I sit here reminiscing about all I've seen and done in the past year, I am at a loss for words. How can I sum up this crazy life I've led for the past 12 months?

In the past year, I lived for eight months on a ship that transported me to over 20 countries literally around the world, I earned my Master's degree, and moved halfway across the United States to begin a new job in the field of international education.

I have watched the sun set over 2,000 pagodas in Myanmar, climbed to the top of Table Mountain despite the driving rain, and experienced the quiet of a Japanese garden and the intensity of the Ghanaian heat. I've delivered shoes to elementary students in need, shook my fist at the Pacific Ocean's fury and relished in the calm Indian Ocean. I became an Emerald Shellback, eaten foods I cannot identify, watched several men throw a tree trunks around for fun and lived by the light of the eternal summer sunshine.

I accomplished my goal - and then some - of traveling to 27 countries by my 27th birthday. In all respects, I've won life's lottery.

The funny thing about travel, however, is that is leaves you yearning for more. Yearning for more vacation time and money to travel again, more opportunities to truly delve into a new culture, more chances to be inspired by whatever's just around the next corner or down the next street.

All I can say is thank you. Thank you, Semester at Sea, for allowing me to sail on not one but two voyages in 2014. Thank you to SIT Graduate Institute for providing me with the opportunity to continue my education and career in international education. Thank you to my family and friends for your continued support. Although I've been away for most of the past year and have missed seeing you, I could feel your support from halfway around the world and feel grateful to have you in my life.

I don't know what the future holds for me, but I do know that travel will always be part of my life. My Semester at Sea voyages have reignited that passion. I may let the grass grow up around my feet for little while but you can bet I'll be off on a new adventure soon enough. Stay tuned...

"May we always be Emerald Shellbacks. May we always be world travelers. May we always be the crazy wonderful people we became. May be always be friends.

May we always be Semester at Sea."

-Brady Gerber, Semester at Sea spring 2014 student

On the road again - one month after SAS

Believe it or not, one month ago today I disembarked the M.V. Explorer to end the summer voyage. I want to say "Where has the time gone?!" but to be honest, I've been so busy since I left the ship that it almost seems my time spent working for Semester at Sea was part of another life!

So, what have I been up to since disembarkation on August 21? I am happy to announce I accepted a position at Penn State University. My title is Education Abroad Advisor and I working on September 15. It was a pretty quick turnaround - after I got off the ship, I had to find a place to live in State College, PA, pack up all my belongings and move halfway across the country again.

Packing up the truck.

I was the only one small enough to crawl under the car to hook it up. Lucky me!

Ready to go!

Luckily, I was able to find an apartment and most of my belongings were still packed from when I moved them into my parent's basement before starting graduate school. After a somewhat minor accident with the moving truck in the Chicago suburbs, my dad and I made it to PA and I got all settled into my new home. (Somewhat minor accident = having driver's side mirror broken by a passing semi. I consider this a minor accident because no one was injured. However, not being able to see along the driver's side of the vehicle, plus having to have the mirror fixed in a town nearby Gary, IN, caused this accident to lead to the scariest hour of my life.)

Despite busily rushing to another job and area of the country, you may be wondering how I'm adjusting to life back in the good ol' U.S. of A. The answer is: overall, pretty well. However, here are a few things that have been challenging.

1. Grocery stores: These are WAY too overwhelming. No one needs that many options for cereal, spaghetti sauce, etc. More is not always better.
2. Cooking: Between grad school and living on Semester at Sea's ship, I have done very little cooking in the past two years. Unfortunately my cooking skills did not magically improve during this hiatus. My first dive back into the cooking arena was making pizza for my dad and I when we arrived in PA. I left the cardboard under the pizza and could have burned down my apartment. Not a great way to start off my cooking career again!
3. Commuting: Where is my five minute commute of running up the stairs to my office on the ship? You mean I have to drive or take the bus for 20 whole minutes?! Not cool.

Below you will find some pictures on my new apartment. I still have a few things I'd like to do, but for the most part I'm feeling settled.

The dilemma now is: do I continue on with this blog about my exciting new life in rural Pennsylvania or end it on a high note with all my Semester at Sea travels? The answer is unknown at this point so check back every now and again to see what I'm up to in PA. OR better yet: come visit me and we'll find something blog-worthy to do! :)

Living room of my new apartment.

View as you walk in the front door of the apartment. I have a big patio with nice outdoor space.

Kitchen and dining room.

Bathroom. Small but just enough space for me.

Bedroom. I still need to hang up a few more pictures in here.

Bedroom in my new apartment.

Last post from the ship

Sailing back to Southampton, England.

Somehow the summer has flown by and it’s time for me to say goodbye to the M.V. Explorer and Semester at Sea. After nearly 31,000 nautical miles traveled around the world in eight months, I will make my last trek across the Atlantic by plane and return home to Iowa on Friday. As the next day or so will be busy with wrap-up activities and travel, this will be my last post from the ship and also likely my last post on this blog for a few days.

Last night was the Alumni Ball, an event celebrating the end of classes and the shipboard community’s transition from Semester at Sea participants to alumni. The shipboard community dressed in their finest for a fancy dinner and dancing. It is fun to see everyone dressed in their best enjoying the company of their shipboard peers for one of the last times.

This afternoon there are a number of activities planned including a re-entry program which will talk about how to adjust to life at home after completing an amazing program like SAS, a convocation ceremony, and our final pre-port session. After a fun final night on the ship, tomorrow morning we arrive in Southampton, England, and will all pile onto shuttle busses up to London Heathrow Airport. Our Semester at Sea journey will come to an end as we disperse back to our homes around the U.S. and world. 

On-ship field office team. From left: Julie Engerran, me and Lauren Hartig.

At the alumni ball. From left: Jennifer Mowad, me and Sara Karen Arlin, my supervisor from the Semester at Sea home office.

Vijay, one of my favorite crew members, and me.

Last port of call – Gdansk, Poland

Overlooking Gdansk from the top of Town Hall.

Aside from the day spent at Stutthof Concentration Camp, I spent the remainder of my time in Poland in the city of Gdansk. Since I didn’t know much about Poland before my arrival, I didn’t have any expectations and was surprised by how much I enjoyed Gdansk! Gdansk is a wonderful city with almost Dutch-like architecture and a nice waterfront. I spent two days wandering around the city taking in the beauty, plus eating about 200 pierogies (I’m not joking about this) and shopping for amber.

I also spent one day in the countryside exploring the Kashubian culture. The Kashubians live west of Gdansk and are a Slavic ethnic group. The Kashubians’ ancestors include Medieval Pomeranian people who arrived in Pomerania before the Poles. The Kashubians have they own language and culture and founded the city of Gdansk. Approximately 233,000 people in Poland declare their identity as Kashubian.

The area where many Kashubians reside is very agricultural, so it reminded me a bit of home, but it also included many lakes and waterways. I took a driving tour through the countryside and ended my tour with a Kashubian meal plus a dancing and music show.

Poland is the last port-of-call for the summer voyage and I felt a little melancholy as we sailed away on Sunday night. Just a few more days at sea before I return to the real world. Am I ready? To be determined.

So, the Russian and Poles have something in common - their love ornate decor. This is one of the main meeting rooms in the Gdansk town hall. Pretty crazy ceiling, right?!

View of Gdansk from the top of town hall.

Kashubian music instrument demonstration. The barrel has a long strand of horse hair attached at the end. When you pull the wet horse hair, a kind of drumming sound is created.

The tour participants got to try out some of the Kashubian musical instruments.

Kashubian dancers and singers.

Our Kashubian "snack" was a bread bowl potato soup with chocolate cake to follow. These people eat well!

WWII and Poland

The last port-of-call for the summer was Gdansk, Poland. I have to admit – I didn’t know much about the country of Poland prior to my arrival in the country, but I learned quite a lot by spending the last few days in this country. Poland is one of the largest and most populous countries in Europe. Poland is similar to the United States in that it’s a country of immigrants; during the 16^th century, many migrants including Germans, Jews, Armenians and the Dutch moved to Poland because the country guaranteed freedom of religion and religious tolerance. The country has a stable economy and has been a member of NATO since 1999 and the European Union since 2004. They are on track to adopt the Euro in a few years and the country has also joined a European border-less agreement, called Schengen, to open borders with Germany, Lithuania, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Poland has gained equal footing with its European peers but this has been a long time coming and the struggle to achieve independence and peace has created a somewhat dark history for the country. The country’s landscape is flat and agricultural and therefore allows for easy conquer. Poland has been invaded by just about everyone including the French, Germans and Russians since early on in the country’s history.

World War II had an especially disastrous effect on the country. Poland was invaded by both the Germans and the Russians and some of WWII’s most horrific war crimes were carried out on Polish soil. Poland had the largest population of Jews of any country in the world which counted over three million people, of whom 90 percent were murdered by the Nazis. Throughout the war, Poland lost about 20 percent of its population and the country was essentially left in ruins.

The ship was uniquely position for World War II history, although you don’t have to go very far in Poland to find something related to WWII. The ship docked in Westerplatte, the site of the first Nazi invasion of Poland and therefore the location of the first battle of WWII. There is a monument marking the first WWII battle site and also commemorating the Poles who lost their lives in this fight.

Single track railway leading to Stutthof.

Nearby to Westerplatte is Stutthof Concentration Camp, the first concentration camp built by the Nazi’s outside Germany. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to this camp. Did I want to end my time with Semester at Sea by visiting a location with such a dark history? In the end, I visited the camp with two faculty members I’ve befriended this summer and I’m glad I went. Although visiting the camp was a difficult experience, it was incredibly moving and informative and something you should do if you want to understand the atrocities carried out during WWII.

Stutthof is located in a forested area that is eerily beautiful. If the area didn’t include the remains of a concentration camp, it could be the site of a national park. Getting to Stutthof was a journey which included two long bus rides but I knew I was getting close when I saw the single track rail line continue to zigzag across the paved highway. Although many of the camp’s buildings fell into disrepair after WWII, several still remain including the guard houses and office buildings, the barracks, the gas chamber and the crematorium.

Although I felt a little weird taking pictures at the camp, I did snap a few and I will let those posted below speak for themselves. However, I wanted to share a few things that really moved me/creeped me out about this visit to Stutthof.

When I first arrived at Stutthof, I left the nearby bus stop and walked down the road leading to the camp. On the way to the camp, I noticed a very nice, large home on the right-hand side of the road. There was an information sign stating the home was constructed by the camp’s prisoners and once housed the camp’s commanders. Ok fine, I can see how the commanders would want to live close to their “work place.” However, the home seems to still be inhabited; my tip-offs were the satellite dish attached to the front porch and the scarecrow and growing garden in the front yard. Seriously, who would rent/buy a home with such a history?! Seems like some bad karma would come from making such a purchase. No thank you.

Front gate of Stutthof Concentration Camp.

After arriving at the camp, I wanted to use the restroom before going through the camp’s exhibits (remember the long bus rides?). I asked at the information desk where the restroom was located, thinking the facilities would be in the information building/bookstore. Nope, I was wrong. This is the response I get from the staff member: “Go through the main gate and turn right just before the second gate with barbed wire.” The restrooms are located halfway through the camp just off the barracks. Is it just me or does it seem a little disrespectful to put the bathrooms in the middle of the camp? Possibly some poor planning here by the site designers.

Stutthof was a concentration camp in which prisoners became experimental study guinea pigs and the medical/experiments room is located in still-standing barracks. This room was the creepiest of all and I could only stay for about 30 seconds before being driven out by my own fear. Think of the worst possible medical setup possible, times it by 100 and this is what this room consisted of. Only the mind’s imagination limits the horrors that most likely occurred in that room.

A few hours at Stutthof was enough for me and I feel incredibly fortunate that I got to leave the concentration camp and resume the remainder of my tourist activities in Poland. It cannot be forgotten that thousands before me were not afforded this privilege and only left Stutthof as the ascended into the afterlife.

My shoes in the reflection. Remains of the prisoners' shoes as they were once piled around the camp.

Rail cars used to transport prisoners to Stutthof Concentration Camp.

Memorial to those who perished in Stutthof Concentration Camp.
The memorial is partially made from the ashes of the victims.

Memorial to the victims of Stutthof with one of the guard towers seen off to the right.

Guard tower and fence of Stutthof Concentration Camp.

Path leading to the gas chamber and crematorium at Stutthof.

Anchors Away: TEDx and Semester at Sea

The shipboard community has the privilege of participating in a number of unique events each voyage and this summer, TEDx was one of these opportunities. Early in the voyage, a TEDx committee was formed and applications were accepted for speakers. The competition was tight and in the end, nine speakers were chosen. Seven speakers presented their talks at the official TEDx event on August 5 and two speakers including my field office co-worker Julie Engerran presented at a TEDx salon, an event aimed at building anticipation for the August 5 event.

I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to hear from these nine talented individuals and thought you might want to hear from them too! A recording of my co-worker Julie’s talk can be found on Semester at Sea’s blog “News from the Helm.” Julie spoke about her recent cancer diagnosis and how she was able to turn this seemingly negative event into an opportunity for positivity. Listen to her inspiring talk here.

Although recordings are not available yet for the talks given on August 5, you can read all about the other speakers and their topics also on SAS’s blog here.

My co-worker Julie Engerran on the right giving her talk. Photo taken from Semester at Sea's blog "News from the Helm."

Estonia…why not?!

Tallinn, Estonia, is only 2 hours by ferry from Helsinki. This foreign land was so close I could nearly taste it, so I decided – why not add another country to my list this summer?! Although I was only able to spend one day in Tallinn, I’m very glad I visited and would recommend to anyone interested in learning more about the Baltic States.

Estonia is very different from its Scandinavian neighbors. The most northern Baltic State, Estonia re-gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Estonia now one of the most prosperous former Soviet republics, has joined the European Union and adopted the Euro and is home to quite the technology industry. You can thank the Estonians every time you use Skype – they are the creators! Talk about development since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Estonians have been busy for the past 20 years!

Tallinn is a medieval walled city which is one of its draws as a tourist location. I spent the majority of my time inside the old city walls. I first took a tour of the city which told me more about the history and culture of the area and spent the remainder of the day meandering through the cobblestone, winding streets of the old city. For lunch, I ate at a restaurant set up to be exactly like a restaurant in the 1700s. This meant no electricity and therefore no air-conditioning but the food was excellent. I tried many new foods during this meal including wild boar and elk stew, which was actually quite tasty!

Now, one day in Tallinn was not quite enough but unfortunately that was all the time I could spare. I would love to go back to explore other areas of Estonia and also visit the other Baltic States Latvia and Lithuania. I guess I’ll have to start saving my pennies for another trip to this area of the world!

Want to see more pictures of Estonia? Check out Semester at Sea’s blog post titled “Photo Essay: Exploring Estonia” to learn more about the shipboard community’s adventures in Tallinn.

Overlooking the Tallinn skyline.

Tallinn skyline.

My lunch location, complete with candle chandeliers and costumed servers! 

The corridors of Tallinn, Estonia.

Tallinn town square.

4 things to do in Helsinki, Finland

I feel that Finland is sometimes overshadowed by its Nordic siblings Norway and Sweden but it is a very nice and interesting place to visit! The ship docked for four days in Helsinki, a walkable, small city located in a country for whom Santa Claus is a national hero (you know, reindeer can’t live on the North Pole because it’s too cold. However they thrive in Finland and therefore, this is where Santa really lives). Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union with one million of the country’s five million inhabitants living in Greater Helsinki. Although Helsinki is the country’s largest city, it still feels small and quaint. If you’d like to visit Helsinki, here is what I recommend you do:

--Churches: There are a number of interesting churches to visit in Helsinki. The first is the Lutheran Cathedral which demands attention on the Helsinki skyline. The church was initially built in the 1800s but was recently refurbished. The exterior is more ornate than the interior, which reminds me of the Lutheran church I attended growing up: reserved and unassuming with green furnishings (not sure what the significance of the color green is for Lutherans but this is always what I find).

Lutheran Cathedral in Helsinki.

View of the Lutheran Cathedral on the Helsinki skyline.

I also visited the Church on the Rock, which is a church literally dug into the side of a rock. The Rock Church is minimalistic, unlike the Uspenski Church. Upsenki is a Russian Orthodox church and if you read my postings about St. Petersburg you understand how much Russians like their ornate furnishings. Upsenki was a bit more reserved than the churches I visited in St. Petersburg but much more decorative than the other Helsinki churches. P.S. all of these churches were free (big thumbs up!).

Inside the Church on the Rock in Helsinki.

Front entrance of the Church on the Rock.

Upsenki Church in Helsinki.

--Suomenlinna Island: A UNESCO World Heritage site, Suomenlinna Island was once one of the greatest sea fortresses in the Baltic. Work began on the Suomenlinna fortress in the 1700s by the Swedes but it took forever to complete. When the Russians showed up in the early 1800s, the fortress wasn’t finished so Swedes didn’t even put up a fight and conceded Finland to the advancing army. And so began Russian rule of Finland. I only spent a half day on the island but you could spend the whole day if you brought a picnic lunch and checked out the sites including the beaches and swimming holes.

Inside the Suomenlinna fortress.

Monument on Suomenlinna Island.

View of Helsinki from Suomenlinna Island.

--Markets: Market Square and the Old Market Hall were full of freshly picked raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Fresh fruit may not sound like anything to write home about but I’ve been living on ship rations basically since January and cannot eat another melon variety. Berries were calling my name in Helsinki and these markets were the places to get them! Market Square also has a section selling souvenirs. Available souvenirs include reindeer items including antlers, skins and jerky (no, I didn’t purchase skins or antlers but reindeer jerky was good!).

View of Market Square from the Upsenki Church.

--Go to Tallinn, Estonia: Tallinn is only a two hour ferry ride from Helsinki so I spent one day in this city. Why not add another country to my list this summer?! Read more about Tallinn in my next blog post.

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!

On to Stockholm, Sweden

After an exciting, fun-filled few days in St. Petersburg, the ship transitioned to Stockholm, Sweden – the land of music group ABBA, clothing retailer H&M, and tall, blond, friendly, beautiful people! Talk about a culture shock! Just the architecture alone told me I wasn’t in Russia anymore – grandiose, baroque buildings covered in gold were behind me and I now saw the more subdued, reserved beauty of Sweden.

Stockholm is a lovely, very walkable city made up of several islands which are connected by bridges or ferries. The weather was wonderful and sunny the whole time I was in Sweden so I saw Stockholm in all its glory (I hear winter is another story; I don’t intend to personally find out!). Stockholm has a number of sights to visit and see, but the city exudes a calm and relaxed nature. This is the first city I’ve visited this summer where I felt comfortable just “being” instead of running around like a tourist trying to see everything I can in just a few days.  It was nice to move at a more relaxed pace and be able to stop and smell the roses, so to speak.

So, how did I spend my four days in Stockholm? Let me show you through these pictures:

View of Stockholm from Djurgarden Island. Djurgarden Island features great museums like the living history museum called Skansen, the ABBA Museum and the Vasa Museum. I visited both Skansen and the Vasa Museum.

"Mama Mia! Here I go again..." My co-worker Julie Roa and I posing outside the ABBA Museum in Stockholm.

View of Stockholm with the Vasa Museum in the foreground.

The Vasa warship. The Vasa warship sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628 - just minutes after sailing from Stockholm. The ship was salvaged in 1961 and is the only preserved 17th century warship in the world. It looks like a ship straight out of  the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Another view of the Vasa warship. The ship sunk because it was loaded down with too many cannons.

The back of the Vasa warship is very decoratively carved.

The shield of Sweden on the back of the Vasa warship.

Me in front of Drottingholm Palace. The Palace is located on Lovon Island and is the home of the Swedish royal family. "Drottingholm" literally means the "Queens Islet."

View of Drottingholm Palace from the gardens in the back.

In addition to Drottingholm Palace, the Swedish royal family has a palace right in the heart of Stockholm. Everyday they have a changing of the guards ceremony which puts the English changing of the guards ceremony in London to shame!  45 minutes of pomp, circumstance and music-playing. By the end of the ceremony, we all had the same feeling as these guards: "when is this thing going to end?!"

The band playing Swedish tunes from on horseback during the changing of the guards ceremony.

The drummer playing from horseback during the changing of the guards ceremony.

If it weren’t for the snowy, dark, cold winters, I would finagle a way to move to Stockholm – I liked it that much! My great-grandfather was from Sweden but being a few generations removed must have created wimp out of me, and I’m not sure I would physically survive a winter in Sweden. Perhaps that’s what makes this country so special – only the hardy and truly dedicated live in this foreign land and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to share a much appreciated short summer with the Swedes.