Lost Sense of Time

We have been at sea for 6 days since Brazil. The day of the week no longer has any meaning. If you ask most people on this ship, they won’t have a clue what day of the week it is. Or in some cases, even what time it is. We have turned our clocks ahead 4 hours since Brazil. They just keep taking hours away from us. I have completely lost any type of sleep schedule.

I’ve had the chance this week to hear Archbishop Desmond Tutu speak in two of my classes. In my Religious Experience and Mysticisms class he spoke about silence and listening. He made some good points about how we’re such an accomplishment driven society, and how we always have on the TV or radio. We often avoid complete silence, but maybe we should embrace it at times. In my World Religions class the Archbishop spoke about some of his experiences in South Africa. I found it amazing that he could speak about seeing people die and suffer all around him, and still keep a positive outlook on life. He makes jokes whenever he talks, and is quite funny. When you see him around the ship, he’s always smiling and dancing around.

In light of our studies of South Africa, we are having a 24 hour simulated apartheid. Only those people who shaved their heads on Neptune Day (a celebration of crossing the equator) are allowed up on the 7^th deck by the pool, can eat in the 6^th floor dining hall, are allowed to use the public restrooms, and are allowed to use the elevators. Those of us who did not shave our heads can eat only in the 5^th floor dining room, and have to give up workout machines or computers in the computer lab to anyone who shaved their head should they approach us. It’s something that would never work on a campus at home, but because of our environment here, it works really well. I find it to be an interesting way to make the point. We can be told what apartheid is like, but by actually simulating it, we can understand it better.

Brazil

We have just spent 5 days in Brazil. I saw and experienced so much. Prior to arrival in Salvador we were given all kinds of warnings and told what precautions to take. We were told not to carry all of our money in the same place but to split it up in our socks, front pockets, and any other safe places, and not to bring good cameras or laptops off the ship. Pick pocketing is very common. We were told not to go anywhere alone, and as a female, we were told to travel with guys. I very much hate the idea of being incapable of taking care of myself and needing to have a guy around, but it really did make a huge difference. We were also told to drink only bottled beverages, not because the water’s not good, but because our systems aren’t used to it. We were also advised to take Pepto Bismol whenever we ate off the ship for the same reason.

While here I visited a Candomble community. Candomble is a religion that came here from Africa. It’s really a way of life. There is a strong sense of community and everyone takes care of each other. As part of their beliefs, they worship various Orixas. These Orixas are protectors of different things. Early on, when Candomble wasn’t allowed here in Brazil, Africans who had come here hid their religion behind the Catholic faith. They would use various saints as representatives of their Orixas. This way, it appeared that they were practicing Catholicism, but it was understood amongst members of the community that they were in fact worshiping their Orixas. While in Brazil, I also got a chance to attend mass at Bonfim which is a Catholic church where many members of the Candomble faith also celebrate. The mass was all in Portuguese, so I didn’t understand a word of it, but it was very easy to follow as it was a Catholic service. Outside there were people selling all kinds of little souvenirs including colorful ribbons that have a basis in Candomble. These ribbons are tied around your wrist with three knots. On each knot you make a wish, and in approximately three months the bracelet falls off and your wishes come true. These ribbons were also found tied all throughout the church. There was also a room in the church with a bunch of wax sculptures of various body parts hanging from the ceiling. These body parts represent body parts that need healing. For example, if you have a knee injury you might hang a wax representation of your knee in this room, and supposedly it will be healed. Overall I found the Candomble religion fascinating and saw signs of it all over town.

We also happened to be here for Carnival which is a huge celebration in preparation for Lent. I got to experience Carnival in a couple of different settings. I experienced a real high energy Carnival celebration where there were just people all over the place and you were dancing in a huge crowd. We watched some floats pass by on the main route, blaring their music, with people in elaborate costumes on top. Then we jumped into the parade in front of a float and proceeded to dance up the street. The energy was unbelievable. There was also a lot of touching and grabbing going on all around you. The Brazilian guys especially went after the blondes we were with, kissing them and grabbing at them to dance. Being a brunette, I blended in a bit better and wasn’t the target of much kissing. This is the setting where it was really nice to have a couple of guys around. It made such a big difference. I also experienced Carnival in a tamer, more traditional family setting. This was a lot of fun too. There were a lot more people dressed up in costumes. The parade was much smaller, with groups of women in elaborate dresses dancing up the street and marching bands rather than big floats. This was much less crowded and more relaxing. There were food carts all over the place selling popcorn, churros, drink, and all kinds of delicious street food. Everyone was out jut having a good time.

Overall, I had a great experience in Brazil. Many of the locals are very nice. Communicating was a challenge, but you learned how to make gestures to get your point across, and that worked pretty well. There were some incidents with pick pocketing and a few girls being robbed at knife point, but there were many more stories of locals being helpful than hurtful. Many times locals would direct students away from sketchier areas of town and back towards safer ones. One thing that struck me was the poverty here. And what stuck out to me the most was that I would see a person sleeping on the street, and remember seeing them walking around the day before. There were also always people coming up to you trying to sell you something. I learned quickly that you can’t even touch what they’re selling unless you intend to buy something. If they can get it into your hands, it’s about as good as sold. As rude as it feels, you have to just ignore people. That was pretty hard.

Now we’re back on the ship for 8 days, on our way to South Africa!

Life on the Ship

This is our seventh straight day at sea. It’s strange to look out and see nothing but water and the occasional boat for days. At night though you can see more stars than you could ever imagine. And the past couple of nights we’ve been able to see the lights from Brazil’s coast. On Wednesday we crossed the equator, so we’re in the southern hemisphere now. We arrive in Brazil tomorrow! The days actually go by pretty quick. Classes are really interesting, but there’s been a lot of reading for them. I don’t think I’ve ever taken such reading-intensive courses. So that’s taken some adjusting to. We keep changing our clocks too. It’s been just about every other night that we change our clocks. The silly part of that is three nights ago we turned our clocks forward an hour, and last night we are turning them back an hour. While in Brazil we will be 2 hours ahead of New York. So I have found that also takes some adjusting to. I’ve also found that no one ever knows what day of the week it is. Our schedule runs on an A Day/B Day schedule rather than by week because of the schedule of ports, so weekday doesn’t matter. Our “weekends” are the days we’re in port. Saturday and Sunday don’t mean anything; as long as we’re at sea, we’re in class.

Since being Puerto Rico, we have had a chance to join different clubs, and start our own if we want. I’ve joined a Bible study, and we had our first meeting last night. It’s very informal. We’ve split into small groups and are going to meet as we can. There are also all kinds of fitness classes that will be starting after Brazil. There are kickboxing, pilates, and yoga to name a few, and they’re all run by students on the ship who are instructors back home. I also signed up to be “adopted” by one of the lifelong learners on board. This is a chance to get to know some of the adult students on board and create more of a community. Last night there was a spotlight dance. This is something I’ve never heard of, but the way it works is you wear a certain color to indicate what your relationship status is; red for taken, green for available, and yellow for somewhere in the middle. I thought it was interesting. Between the atmosphere and everything going on here, it becomes difficult at times to focus on schoolwork and very hard to get into a routine. Have to do it though! We took our first exam this morning.

On a final note for today, here are some interesting things about Brazil that we learned in our cultural pre-port:

Giving the “OK” hand gesture is a vulgarity in Brazil.

Kissing someone three times on the cheek is a way of saying you’re not married.

Kissing someone twice on the cheek is a way of saying you are married.

Rubbing your earlobe is an indication that you like something, often some type of food.

Crossing your index finger over your thumb as though you were signing the letter “t” is a gesture of “good luck” in Brazil.

Puerto Rico

We spent the past three days in Puerto Rico. We docked in the military port in Old San Juan early on the 7^th. Upon arriving, we were greeted by Governor Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá and the Secretary of State. I also finally saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The governor spoke briefly about Puerto Rico and its unique culture. All Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens, but they do not call themselves Americans. They are Puerto Ricans. They have their own culture and do not want to lose that. The feeling of the majority is that they like the current relationship that exists between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Following the Governor’s talk, we began the long process of having all of our passports stamped so we could leave the ship.

I spent Wednesday wandering around Old San Juan and checking things out. The San Juan area of Puerto Rico has a lot of things you would find in the States. We passed McDonald’s, Starbucks, Walgreen’s, Payless Shoes, and more. We also walked up by the forts, which are really impressive. Wednesday evening I went to Sacred Heart University, the Catholic University on the Island, for a welcome reception where we had the opportunity to interact with Puerto Rican college students. We were greeted by a bunch of students playing traditional music and performing traditional Puerto Rican dances. There was even one student up on stilts dancing around and hopping on one leg. The Puerto Rican students performed for us, taught us some salsa dance steps, and provided us with snacks.

On Thursday, a few of us took a taxi to Loiza. Before leaving, we had to negotiate a price with the taxi driver. The taxis here don’t run on meters like in the States. Instead, you’re charged a per person rate which you can negotiate to an extent with the driver before leaving. Our taxi driver was named Frankie and we learned he has three children. At one point, we were driving past a beautiful beach and Frankie pulled over, we all got out and crossed the street, and then he took our picture with the ocean in the background. At another spot we were passing vendors on the side of the road, and again he pulled over. He got out, and came back with fried plantain stuffed with beef for us to try. We finally made it to Loiza, which is a more traditional area of the island. It’s not touristy at all. We had lunch in Loiza, and then for $5 each, we rented these rickety bikes for an hour and a half from a guy on the side of the road. We road around a bike path that went through the forest and along the beach we had stopped at on our way. We also found a deserted beach along the path, and stopped for a while to swim. The waves were huge and the undertow was really strong so we couldn’t go out too far. We eventually headed back to return the bikes and then navigated our way home by the buses. I got back just in time to shower quickly and leave again for the Bioluminescent Bay. The bay is full of single cell organisms that give off light by the same chemical reaction that is found in fireflies. When the water around these organisms is disturbed, it pushes on their cell wall, and they let off a spot of light. After they let off their light, it takes a half hour for them to replenish the chemicals to glow again. In the bay we were at, these organisms are found in a concentration of 1.3 million per liter. There are only three places remaining in the world where they can be found in this concentration. Sadly, there were two other places that have been destroyed by pollution. These organisms require a very specific environment. Because of this, we took kayaks out to the bay so there wouldn’t be pollution from a boat. Upon returning to the ship, I met up with a few others on board, and we went out in San Juan for some salsa dancing. We found a bar where there weren’t a lot of Semester at Sea participants and had a chance to dance with some Puerto Rican students who were able to show us some other salsa steps.

Yesterday was much more low key. I slept in a bit and right after lunch headed to the beach with a few other SAS students. It was warm and sunny out. We spent a few hours there, and then headed out into Old San Juan for a bit. We stopped at a Starbucks for some free internet, stopped in a couple of shops, and then came back to the ship good and early so we wouldn’t be late. If you’re even in line at the time you’re supposed to be back, you are penalized with dock time. That means that at the next port you have a certain amount of time you’re not allowed to get off the ship. Apparently there were a few people who got dock time yesterday. I think the majority of people were nervous about getting stuck in line to get on and came back pretty early.

Overall, Puerto Rico was a lot of fun. I found that being here refreshed a little bit of my Spanish. I remembered more than I thought I did and was able to understand some things that were being said around me. At times people we were talking to didn’t understand what we were trying to say, so we struggled to find the Spanish words for our questions. It was a great experience.

Now it’s back to classes. Today began our 7 day stretch of class.

Off to Sea!

We have set sail, and have been at sea for 2 days now. The boat is really rocking! I tried to get away without taking anything, but after the first night, I decided that wasn’t going to work. So I’m using sea sickness patches. The rocking has been very soothing at night though, and I’ve been sleeping better than I have in weeks.

I met my roommate two days ago. We’re really different from each other, but she’s pretty laid back, so I think we’ll be able to live well together. I think we’ll both be very respectful of the other’s space. The cabins are pretty small, but there’s a surprising amount of storage area, so that’s good. We are all divided up into Seas based on where we live and who our Resident Director is. I’m on the Yellow Sea. Later in the semester we will have Sea Olympics and will be competing against the other seas. We had a fireboat drill before pulling out from Nassau. It was just long. Sunday night and all day yesterday we sat in orientation meetings. The captain and crew were all introduced, along with all the faculty and staff. All of us students don’t fit in the Union, which is where all the talks go on, so some of us have to sit in the other classrooms where we can watch everything on TV. I sat in a satellite classroom for one talk yesterday, and have decided I don’t really like it. I’m jut going to have to be sure to get to things early enough so I don’t have to.

In the orientation meetings, they really emphasized safety and how safety on a ship is different than on land. Fire is so much more dangerous on a ship than on land because when you’re out at sea, there’s no place to escape to. The also talked about how you shouldn’t be jumping into the pool or sliding down railings because of the boat rocking. And then there’s the obvious, don’t sit on the edge of the boat or you might fall over. They also have a zero tolerance policy here for things such as drugs, and will be having random drug testing. If caught, it’s automatic dismissal from the program.

Everyone on board the ship takes a Global Studies class all together everyday. That class started yesterday. We’ve started by going over the Bahamas and Caribbean, and today went over some information on Puerto Rico. I also had a chance yesterday to meet all of my professors. They all seem pretty nice. Everything is very informal here, and they tell us to use their first names. Last night I had dinner with one of the professors who is actually from Sherrill, NY (my hometown) and his wife. The professors all encourage a lot of student-professor interaction both in and out of class. All of our A Day classes started today. I had Religious Experience and Mysticism this morning. We have the next 3 days off because we’ll be in Puerto Rico, so my other classes won’t begin until Saturday.

Overall thing are going well. It’s sunny and warm here. Wandering around the deck you see people all over lying out in the sun doing schoolwork. It’s pretty awesome. That’s it for now!

The Journey Begins

I’m here in Nassau, and everything’s going great! It all seems so surreal. I can’t believe I’m actually here! I flew out of Syracuse, NY at 6:20 this morning, had a 2 hour layover in Washington DC, and then after sitting on the runway for an hour, and being told there were engine problems but it was ok because they just finished fixing them, we took off for Nassau. It’s not exactly what you want to hear right before taking off, but we made it here.

I’ve already met all kinds of great people. I met three people at the airport and the four of us shared a taxi to the hotel. I’m staying at the Atlantis Hotel on Paradise Island. It’s gorgeous! This hotel is so big. I spent time exploring this afternoon with a few people I’ve met. There are aquariums all over the place with all kinds of fish, stingrays, and even sharks. The people here are from all over. The two girls I’m sharing my hotel room with are both from Texas. Tonight a whole bunch of people going on Semester at Sea met up in the lobby of the hotel and we all mingled. I met a bunch of people from all over, including Maryland, California, and Canada. And I’ve come across one other person from RPI, Peter Floess. From what I’ve seen tonight, it appears there are a lot more females thank males on the trip, which will definitely be a change from RPI. And people have all different majors that I’m not used to encountering at RPI. I think it’ll be a nice change. Anyway, I’m absolutely exhausted from traveling all day and am calling it a night. I board the ship bright and early tomorrow morning!

Almost Time to Go!

Hello everyone! As my trip is fast approaching, I have been very busy getting everything ready. Packing has been a nightmare! Trying to pack everything I’m going to need for 3 months into 2 suitcases is a lot harder than I anticipated. I have packed the bags, unpacked them, gone through them to decide what I can leave home, and repacked them several times. I think I’ve almost got it under control though, and with only 2 days left, I'm getting really excited.

Here's a brief overview of the program:
Semester at Sea is sponsored by the University of Virginia. I will be spending 100 days traveling around the world with other students and professors. And Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be sailing with us also! So that is very exciting! We will be sailing out of Nassau, and will stop in Puerto Rico, Brazil, South Africa, Mauritius, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Hawaii, and will end up in California. While we are at sea, we will all be attending classes. I am going to be taking Global Studies, Intro to World Religions, Mysticism and Religious Experience, and International Political Economy. While we are in port, there are no classes so we can spend time exploring the countries. Parts of our grades are based on field work we do in the countries and journals we keep. Check out the links on the side of this page to learn more about the program, take a tour of the ship I will be calling home for the next 3 months, and see a more detailed itinerary. Stay tuned for stories of my trip!

(Props to Kristen for naming my blog)