So, tonight I finally submitted my pre-sale field program choices. These are the ones that I will do through SAS that are either overnight, or in the first two ports. I signed up for...
Volcanoes National Park, Hilo, Hawaii
A visit to the Hawaii Psychiatric Hospital (for a class), Honolulu, Hawaii
Cambodia- Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat (during part of the time the ship is in Vietnam)
Taj Mahal (3 nights), India
I am really excited about these and about planning all of my independent trips in the rest of the countries. Having to figure out which pre-sale programs I wanted by tonight was tough since it fell right in the middle of all my finals... but I seem to have managed to find time to procrastinate nicely. Thank you to everyone who gave me great advice for what's good to do in each country!
31 days!
Edit (01/05/10):
In addition to the field programs through SAS that I am signed up for (which were confirmed today) I am currently signed up for two independent adventures
Hawaii: SKYDIVING! I know everyone doubts my ability to go through with this, but I WILL DO IT!! and have video proof for all the haters hopefully
China: Sleeping on the Great Wall trip to Beijing
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Speech From Fall '01 Voyage
I found this on someone elses blog that did SAS last spring and I liked it so I am posting it on here...
Professor Robert Fessler, end of the Fall 2001 Voyage:
"You're going home. No you're not. At least...not to the home that you left in January. When you get off the ship in Miami, you are going to know that. You already know it in your head, but when you get off the ship in Miami, you are going to know it in your bones. You are going to feel it in your skin. The world that you left behind isn't there any more.
There's a story that I like to tell my students about a fish in a fishbowl. There is a way in which a fish swimming around in a fishbowl knows nothing at all about water...because water is so much a part of the fish's life. It is surrounded by water...it is embedded in water. In that sense, the fish does not really KNOW water. If you want the fish to really understand water, you have to take the fish out of the fishbowl and say, "Look, that's water". Now if you put the fish back in...the water doesn't look the same any more. Well, in a certain sense, we've all been taken out of our fishbowls. You've been out of your fishbowl for three and a half months. Now you have to go back. It may not happen to you immediately. Caught up in the excitement of seeing your friends and your relatives...it may take a day. Maybe a week. But sooner or later there is going to be a moment. It might happen to you at the airport. It might happen to you in your hotel room. Maybe not until you get home. But sooner or later there is going to be a moment when you realize that the world just doesn't "fit" the way it fit before.
Many of your friends...even your good friends...are going to seem suddenly...strangely...stupid. You will want to talk about...India. And they will say, "Yeah, right. That sounds great". And somehow, that is just not going to be enough. And you'll say, "Yes, but I was in Chennai...let me tell you... the smells...the colors...and the babies... Let me tell you about the babies!". And your friends will say, "Uh huh." And you will watch their eyes glaze over as they smile and nod and glance over your shoulder. So you will try Japan. "You know, I was in Japan! I was in Japan right after the September 11, 2001, tragedy, and people comforted me, after we had bombed them years before. Can you believe that? I was in Japan!" And your friends will say, "Oh".And then your friends will suddenly get enthusiastic again as they begin to tell you all the things you missed while you were away. Like that big party...where everybody threw up on each other. And that really funny episode of Ally McBeal. And they will start telling you some of the lines...and laughing as they are telling them to you. And you will be crawling out of your skin.
And you will say, "But I saw beggars! I saw children begging! Did know that parents sometimes actually maim their kids to make them better beggars?". And your friends will say, "Awesome". And you will know that they don't get it. In fact, you might even begin to wonder if some of your friends really know what it means for something to be...awesome. Seeing a sunset while walking along a beach in the Seychelles Islands... that's awesome. Watching the ship crash through the great waves and have splashes of white and blue...that's awesome. Seeing the Great Wall zigzag off across the mountains into the mist...that's awesome. That big party you missed... isn't.
And you are going to hear yourself sounding pretentious. You won't FEEL pretentious, but you are going to hear yourself SOUNDING pretentious. You know, here on the ship, if you are sitting around with one of your friends or your roommate and you start a sentence like, "One night in Ho Chi Minh I was taking a cyclo back from the War Atrocities Museum....". That doesn't sound odd...here. But can't you just see your friends back home rolling their eyes? You are going to have to choose between sounding pretentious...and being silent. An you are going to long to be back here with us...where you can be normal.
Many of you have become independent on this voyage. Much more genuinely concerned about the world. About other people. Stronger. Braver. BETTER than you were in September. And the life that you had planned for yourself may not be big enough any more. You might be thinking about changing directions. A new major. A new career. Maybe even a new country. Who are you going to talk to? How are they going to understand?There are a thousand litle ways that the world is just not going to fit any more. And a thousand little reminders that it doesn't fit. WORDS are not going to seem the same. You will hear the word, "Havana City". Havana City is a place now...it's no longer just a word. Vancouver. It all comes back. It's not just a word. How could you posibly have imagined, back in September, that you would spend the rest of your life smiling whenever you heard the phrase, "plate tectonics"?
The world is never going to be the same again.So what do you do? Well, I think one of the things that you have to do is to forgive your friends. Looking at your pictures...listening to your stories...is not the same as having been th ere. You know that. You've looked at people's vacation pictures before. You know that pictures can't capture the experience. They are going to be looking at it and listening to it...you've lived it. It has changed you ...it hasn't changed them. So you have to be a little patient with them. You have to be a little forgiving if they don't quite get it.
But I think that you can only do that if they are willing to let you be the person you have become. It is not the places you have been to...and it is not the things that you have done that have to be shared. It is who you have become that has to be shared. You don't have to find people who have been around the world to understand you, but you have to find people to understand you. And if your old friends won't let you be the person you have become...get rid of them. Make new friends.
There are plenty of people out there. And I'll give you a good suggestion. You know those foreign students on your campus? Those strange people with the accents? You see them wandering around confused and not knowing what building to go into. Been there. Done that. Go talk to them.There are a lot of people out there who can confirm who you are ...and who you are becoming. Even if that is not clear to you now. In many ways, the person you will be six months from now is still brewing ...still developing right outside of consciousness. You don't know yet how much you have changed. And you won't know that for another six months or a year.
Other people who have been up here have suggested that you might want to try action. Find a cause...something that you believe in... and work for it. I agree with that. I think that's a good idea. But I am not worried about you. I don't think that you need to be urged to do that...you don't even need to be reminded to do that. I think you are going to HAVE to do that in order to feel at home. If the world does not fit any more, then you have to create a world for yourself that does fit...a place where you can feel at home.
I have been on this trip before...and gone home. So has Les... and Elaine...and Milt [academic deans]. We have all been taken out of our fishbowls and put back in again. And I think I can speak for all of them when I say ...come on in, the water's fine."
There's a story that I like to tell my students about a fish in a fishbowl. There is a way in which a fish swimming around in a fishbowl knows nothing at all about water...because water is so much a part of the fish's life. It is surrounded by water...it is embedded in water. In that sense, the fish does not really KNOW water. If you want the fish to really understand water, you have to take the fish out of the fishbowl and say, "Look, that's water". Now if you put the fish back in...the water doesn't look the same any more. Well, in a certain sense, we've all been taken out of our fishbowls. You've been out of your fishbowl for three and a half months. Now you have to go back. It may not happen to you immediately. Caught up in the excitement of seeing your friends and your relatives...it may take a day. Maybe a week. But sooner or later there is going to be a moment. It might happen to you at the airport. It might happen to you in your hotel room. Maybe not until you get home. But sooner or later there is going to be a moment when you realize that the world just doesn't "fit" the way it fit before.
Many of your friends...even your good friends...are going to seem suddenly...strangely...stupid. You will want to talk about...India. And they will say, "Yeah, right. That sounds great". And somehow, that is just not going to be enough. And you'll say, "Yes, but I was in Chennai...let me tell you... the smells...the colors...and the babies... Let me tell you about the babies!". And your friends will say, "Uh huh." And you will watch their eyes glaze over as they smile and nod and glance over your shoulder. So you will try Japan. "You know, I was in Japan! I was in Japan right after the September 11, 2001, tragedy, and people comforted me, after we had bombed them years before. Can you believe that? I was in Japan!" And your friends will say, "Oh".And then your friends will suddenly get enthusiastic again as they begin to tell you all the things you missed while you were away. Like that big party...where everybody threw up on each other. And that really funny episode of Ally McBeal. And they will start telling you some of the lines...and laughing as they are telling them to you. And you will be crawling out of your skin.
And you will say, "But I saw beggars! I saw children begging! Did know that parents sometimes actually maim their kids to make them better beggars?". And your friends will say, "Awesome". And you will know that they don't get it. In fact, you might even begin to wonder if some of your friends really know what it means for something to be...awesome. Seeing a sunset while walking along a beach in the Seychelles Islands... that's awesome. Watching the ship crash through the great waves and have splashes of white and blue...that's awesome. Seeing the Great Wall zigzag off across the mountains into the mist...that's awesome. That big party you missed... isn't.
And you are going to hear yourself sounding pretentious. You won't FEEL pretentious, but you are going to hear yourself SOUNDING pretentious. You know, here on the ship, if you are sitting around with one of your friends or your roommate and you start a sentence like, "One night in Ho Chi Minh I was taking a cyclo back from the War Atrocities Museum....". That doesn't sound odd...here. But can't you just see your friends back home rolling their eyes? You are going to have to choose between sounding pretentious...and being silent. An you are going to long to be back here with us...where you can be normal.
Many of you have become independent on this voyage. Much more genuinely concerned about the world. About other people. Stronger. Braver. BETTER than you were in September. And the life that you had planned for yourself may not be big enough any more. You might be thinking about changing directions. A new major. A new career. Maybe even a new country. Who are you going to talk to? How are they going to understand?There are a thousand litle ways that the world is just not going to fit any more. And a thousand little reminders that it doesn't fit. WORDS are not going to seem the same. You will hear the word, "Havana City". Havana City is a place now...it's no longer just a word. Vancouver. It all comes back. It's not just a word. How could you posibly have imagined, back in September, that you would spend the rest of your life smiling whenever you heard the phrase, "plate tectonics"?
The world is never going to be the same again.So what do you do? Well, I think one of the things that you have to do is to forgive your friends. Looking at your pictures...listening to your stories...is not the same as having been th ere. You know that. You've looked at people's vacation pictures before. You know that pictures can't capture the experience. They are going to be looking at it and listening to it...you've lived it. It has changed you ...it hasn't changed them. So you have to be a little patient with them. You have to be a little forgiving if they don't quite get it.
But I think that you can only do that if they are willing to let you be the person you have become. It is not the places you have been to...and it is not the things that you have done that have to be shared. It is who you have become that has to be shared. You don't have to find people who have been around the world to understand you, but you have to find people to understand you. And if your old friends won't let you be the person you have become...get rid of them. Make new friends.
There are plenty of people out there. And I'll give you a good suggestion. You know those foreign students on your campus? Those strange people with the accents? You see them wandering around confused and not knowing what building to go into. Been there. Done that. Go talk to them.There are a lot of people out there who can confirm who you are ...and who you are becoming. Even if that is not clear to you now. In many ways, the person you will be six months from now is still brewing ...still developing right outside of consciousness. You don't know yet how much you have changed. And you won't know that for another six months or a year.
Other people who have been up here have suggested that you might want to try action. Find a cause...something that you believe in... and work for it. I agree with that. I think that's a good idea. But I am not worried about you. I don't think that you need to be urged to do that...you don't even need to be reminded to do that. I think you are going to HAVE to do that in order to feel at home. If the world does not fit any more, then you have to create a world for yourself that does fit...a place where you can feel at home.
I have been on this trip before...and gone home. So has Les... and Elaine...and Milt [academic deans]. We have all been taken out of our fishbowls and put back in again. And I think I can speak for all of them when I say ...come on in, the water's fine."
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
sun v. snow
Currently in Wisconsin, the snow hasn't stopped for 36 hours, and there is a blizzard warning. According to weather.com "This will be the first major winter storm for Wisconsin... and will likely have a significant impact on society." I don't know what they know that I don't about a blizzard. I love the snow and can't wait to play in it... but I can't wait for 39 days from now when I will be in the opposite weather on a ship.
Monday, December 7, 2009
“People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home.” – Dagobert D. Runes
That million dollar question of what would you do if you were given a million dollars is one of those weird ice breaker questions that I have heard a lot in college. It usually is joined by, what three things would you want with you if you are stuck on an island and if you could be a utensil, what would you be {side note: one would think that we would get some kind of reward for going to college and finally start to see some more thoughtful icebreakers, but once a semester I still find myself saying I would want to be a fork, I still haven't thought of a reason for why}. But the what would I do with a million dollars question is an interesting one. For the sake of this post, I am going to change it to what would you do with unlimited amounts of money. The answer is that I would ideally create a better world. But I don't think that even money can solve the problems that our world faces. Sure, we can create homes and provide food for all those without, but ultimately society reaches a limit, and the important things in life become materialistic and relative to what others have or don't have.
Now that I am into my junior year and my classes have dwindled down to the ones that I actually enjoy learning, I have spent a lot of time focusing on the issues that affect people on a long-term, multi-generational scale in the United States. I have learned a lot about how the smallest opportunities can contribute to your future, and the future of your children and even grandchildren. So I think, that when it comes down to it, the way to ultimately change the world is through opportunities. Opportunities come in all shapes and sizes, they can be a proper education, an income that allows a person to put food on the table for their children, or simply the opportunity to see how contributing a few minutes of your time to helping someone can change their lives. For me, Semester at Sea is all about the opportunities. When the majority of people I spoke to couldn't imagine why I would want to spend my semester abroad traveling to Asia, Africa and South America rather than go to a luxurious European country, my answer was always that it is an amazing opportunity. Hopefully, I will be able to share my opportunity of going on SAS with those less fortunate than I am by creating opportunities for them through the service projects at the ports.
So by now you might be thinking, why would I choose the quote that is titling this post? I recently wrote an extra credit paper for a class on Racial Ethnic Families in the US about how I grew up in a town 40 miles away from a city that is known for its extremely diverse population, also known as New York City. I wrote about how even though I lived so close to this place that has such a large cultural mix, I have spent my life gaining experiences with people that fit a certain mold that I can directly relate to. I can walk around Chappaqua on most days and the only people that I interact with that are not white work as bus boys and do the chores for us that we don't want to do. Most people, in fact, ignore them. In Wisconsin, it is even worse. We don't even have the people that are commuting from NYC to throw a little diversity into the Madison population. My freshman year, the chancellor made a very excited point of saying that there are finally over 1000 non-white undergraduate students at Wisconsin out of 28,000 undergraduates. So really, I have never stepped outside my comfort level. I have surrounded myself with people that are also part of the majority race in the US. So all-in-all, I have not had enough opportunities to interact in a diverse world and gain the knowledge and insight that I hope to be able to apply when working with diverse populations of children. Just to clarify, I am not saying that I am not appreciative of all the opportunities that my parents have created for me and the life that they have allowed me to live. However, it becomes more and more apparent every day that I have been so sheltered and taken care of, and that it's crucial to see what a lack of opportunities leaves others with in order to fully appreciate my own life. I hope to be able to bring back new perspectives on the world, as well as on my world, after traveling the globe, and to be able to spend the rest my life appreciating everything. I think it is so important to have these cultural interactions early in my life so that I can share them with others throughout the majority of my life. So on that note, I plan on traveling to faraway places to watch in fascination, the kind of people that I have [been blind to] at home.
Now that I am into my junior year and my classes have dwindled down to the ones that I actually enjoy learning, I have spent a lot of time focusing on the issues that affect people on a long-term, multi-generational scale in the United States. I have learned a lot about how the smallest opportunities can contribute to your future, and the future of your children and even grandchildren. So I think, that when it comes down to it, the way to ultimately change the world is through opportunities. Opportunities come in all shapes and sizes, they can be a proper education, an income that allows a person to put food on the table for their children, or simply the opportunity to see how contributing a few minutes of your time to helping someone can change their lives. For me, Semester at Sea is all about the opportunities. When the majority of people I spoke to couldn't imagine why I would want to spend my semester abroad traveling to Asia, Africa and South America rather than go to a luxurious European country, my answer was always that it is an amazing opportunity. Hopefully, I will be able to share my opportunity of going on SAS with those less fortunate than I am by creating opportunities for them through the service projects at the ports.
So by now you might be thinking, why would I choose the quote that is titling this post? I recently wrote an extra credit paper for a class on Racial Ethnic Families in the US about how I grew up in a town 40 miles away from a city that is known for its extremely diverse population, also known as New York City. I wrote about how even though I lived so close to this place that has such a large cultural mix, I have spent my life gaining experiences with people that fit a certain mold that I can directly relate to. I can walk around Chappaqua on most days and the only people that I interact with that are not white work as bus boys and do the chores for us that we don't want to do. Most people, in fact, ignore them. In Wisconsin, it is even worse. We don't even have the people that are commuting from NYC to throw a little diversity into the Madison population. My freshman year, the chancellor made a very excited point of saying that there are finally over 1000 non-white undergraduate students at Wisconsin out of 28,000 undergraduates. So really, I have never stepped outside my comfort level. I have surrounded myself with people that are also part of the majority race in the US. So all-in-all, I have not had enough opportunities to interact in a diverse world and gain the knowledge and insight that I hope to be able to apply when working with diverse populations of children. Just to clarify, I am not saying that I am not appreciative of all the opportunities that my parents have created for me and the life that they have allowed me to live. However, it becomes more and more apparent every day that I have been so sheltered and taken care of, and that it's crucial to see what a lack of opportunities leaves others with in order to fully appreciate my own life. I hope to be able to bring back new perspectives on the world, as well as on my world, after traveling the globe, and to be able to spend the rest my life appreciating everything. I think it is so important to have these cultural interactions early in my life so that I can share them with others throughout the majority of my life. So on that note, I plan on traveling to faraway places to watch in fascination, the kind of people that I have [been blind to] at home.
The Result Of My 2:00 AM Procrastinating
It seems that all I have done in the past few months in my down time has been to research and plan every little thing that I can for Semester at Sea. I have my visas done, my paperwork in, I have read through the field program book 3 times, harassed my mom endlessly for a few days to make sure to pay (THANKS MOM!), created my blog, checked the SAS Spring 2010 facebook groups at least a few times a day for new ideas and thoughts on the trip, and basically everything else under the sun that has to do with SAS as to not do my work... {side note: Mom and Dad, old habits die hard, sorry college didn't change me more.} If you want to get a taste of what goes through my mind within just a short few minutes, keep reading about the process of creating this blog and a few other random thoughts. If you really don't give a shit and are only reading this to make sure I am still breathing, this is where you should stop.
So, when I first created my blog, the first thing I thought about was a witty title or one that contained a pun. But Ali at Sea was too cliche-- it was also taken as a domain name. When I finally thought about Where in the World is Carmen San Diego (who knows how I even ended up at that thought), I realized that it was perfect. Not only am I traveling the world, but my entire family has taken bets on whether I will be making it home alive, getting lost in the different countries, or just deciding to stay in a place like South Africa until I miss the luxuries of home. The title also ties into the fact that I am a five year old at heart, and I used to love the computer game of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. So it might not be witty, it MIGHT be cliche (I have yet to seen someone else's blog title as it but I'm sure they are out there), but I think it is a pretty good fit for me.
Tonight, I decided to put a halt to finals studying, and check up on what people were discussing on the FB discussion boards for SAS. There was a whole topic of blogs, and people had posted theirs so that everyone could follow each others. As I was looking at everyone else's beautiful visual masterpieces of a website, and eloquently written posts, I realized that I was far behind. And by far behind, I mean there are some people that I would have to go back to kindergarten and learn how to write a sentence again in order to write out my thoughts as well as them (take that sentence for instance, I am sure there are loads of mistakes). So I went at work to at least try to make mine better, and changed the layout and coloring so that it was less bright orange and blue (had to represent my mets when I first created it) and more adult, with the occasional bright colors snuck in. So herein lies my new and improved blog, the subject of procrastination and the need to spill my thoughts.
So, when I first created my blog, the first thing I thought about was a witty title or one that contained a pun. But Ali at Sea was too cliche-- it was also taken as a domain name. When I finally thought about Where in the World is Carmen San Diego (who knows how I even ended up at that thought), I realized that it was perfect. Not only am I traveling the world, but my entire family has taken bets on whether I will be making it home alive, getting lost in the different countries, or just deciding to stay in a place like South Africa until I miss the luxuries of home. The title also ties into the fact that I am a five year old at heart, and I used to love the computer game of Where in the World is Carmen San Diego. So it might not be witty, it MIGHT be cliche (I have yet to seen someone else's blog title as it but I'm sure they are out there), but I think it is a pretty good fit for me.
Tonight, I decided to put a halt to finals studying, and check up on what people were discussing on the FB discussion boards for SAS. There was a whole topic of blogs, and people had posted theirs so that everyone could follow each others. As I was looking at everyone else's beautiful visual masterpieces of a website, and eloquently written posts, I realized that I was far behind. And by far behind, I mean there are some people that I would have to go back to kindergarten and learn how to write a sentence again in order to write out my thoughts as well as them (take that sentence for instance, I am sure there are loads of mistakes). So I went at work to at least try to make mine better, and changed the layout and coloring so that it was less bright orange and blue (had to represent my mets when I first created it) and more adult, with the occasional bright colors snuck in. So herein lies my new and improved blog, the subject of procrastination and the need to spill my thoughts.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu
In less than 2 months, I will be traveling around the world on Semester at Sea. For those that don't know, it is a former cruise ship that was converted into what is basically a floating campus. There are classrooms, a "union," a library, computer lab, etc. I take classes while the ship is traveling between countries, and get to travel within the countries that we stop at. There are about 700 students on the ship, as well as professors and lifelong learners.
Classes:
Global Studies
Contemporary Moral Issues (a philosophy class)
Global Mental Health
Small Team and Group Communication
Ports:
San Diego, California, USA
Ensenada, Mexico
Hilo, Hawai'i, USA
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
Yokohoma, Japan
Kobe, Japan
Shanghai, China
Hong Kong, China
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
[Angkorwat, Cambodia]
Chennai, India
Cochin, India
Port Louis, Mauritius
Cape Town, South Africa
Tema (Accra), Ghana
Salvador, Brazil
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Right now, I am in the process of selecting my field programs, which are the trips and service projects that I will do through semester at sea. On the side, I am talking to people about independent trips which will most likely make up the majority of my traveling within countries.
Days until I leave: 46
Classes:
Global Studies
Contemporary Moral Issues (a philosophy class)
Global Mental Health
Small Team and Group Communication
Ports:
San Diego, California, USA
Ensenada, Mexico
Hilo, Hawai'i, USA
Honolulu, Hawai'i, USA
Yokohoma, Japan
Kobe, Japan
Shanghai, China
Hong Kong, China
Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam
[Angkorwat, Cambodia]
Chennai, India
Cochin, India
Port Louis, Mauritius
Cape Town, South Africa
Tema (Accra), Ghana
Salvador, Brazil
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Right now, I am in the process of selecting my field programs, which are the trips and service projects that I will do through semester at sea. On the side, I am talking to people about independent trips which will most likely make up the majority of my traveling within countries.
Days until I leave: 46
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