Reflections on my 100 day trip around the world

Semester at Sea … The world is our Campus

"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." – Miriam Beard

When I think back on my experiences and how to sum up this voyage, it seems so indescribable. There are so many aspects of the trip, and each one played a significant role in the way I remember the amazing memories. It was one extraordinary event after another. I think the trip had an effect on me in a lot of ways, and will continue to teach me things the rest of my life.

I walked on 4 of the 7 continents … it was 100 days, 2,400 hours, 144,000 minutes, and 8,640,000 seconds full of an adventure of a lifetime! I visited 10 countries, close to 25 cities, and took a combination of ships, planes, trains, cars, buses, motorcycles, rickshaws, bullock carts, water taxis … almost every mode of transportation you can think of! I walked around the world and shook people’s hand from so many different backgrounds and cultures.

I feel so lucky to have been given this opportunity- how many people can say they circumnavigated the globe at 20 miles an hour in college? I have learned so much from each of the cultures, people, sites, sounds, and I don’t think I will ever look at a map the same way again! The countries on the map are not just a name- but they now remind me of stories …of memories … and of tons of pictures!

So if you had asked me before this trip if I would have loved every minute of this trip, I would have told you that I was nervous and really not sure if it was going to be one of the best decisions I ever made. I was scared to death to leave everything from home, to take time away from an incredible college that has amazing friends and activities that I love, to leave the ability to see and call my family whenever I wanted, and to recount every part of my day with them … that is what I was scared to death to do … and really I was very unsure of my ability to handle what I was getting myself into … traveling the world on a ship with people I had never met before! But now I have realized that I survived and succeeded! I went 100 days around the world- I don’t have a single regret- it was the best 100 days of my life and it will be hard to ever compare anything with this experience … suddenly I see why this means so much to me … it will be an experience that will be hard to recreate and explain fully to anyone.

My family has always had a desire to travel. We save our pennies during the year and plan for a big trip somewhere around the world each summer. It is something we have always looked forward to as a family, and something that I have appreciated more and more the older I get. Each place we travel to has something to offer and learn from. I think this trip has taught me to appreciate the value of traveling even more … the fact that my parents instilled in me a desire to travel, to see the world, and learn about other cultures is something that I will always be grateful for. It has made me a well-rounded person and given me an understanding of what the world has to share. I am very fascinated by people of different cultures and hope to continue the passion I have for traveling for the rest of my life.

This was definitely one of my best semesters of college! My parents helped me to prepare for the trip (and believe me I was prepared- I had done a lot of research on the countries and read message boards and past blogs) but I was not prepared to see what I have seen and experience what I have experienced. This trip was eye-opening in so many ways. I learned so much from my teachers and it was so special having a different kind of relationship with them. It was not unusual to talk with them at dinner, see them in their pjs in the morning, or be on the top deck sunbathing with them! Plus I learned so much from the other people on this ship … most of them are not conservative, not from the south, and see things completely differently than I do. That was a culture shock in itself, so I feel lucky to have been able to make friends and find people I had things in common with. That is always something that can be hard to do and I was so blessed to make some close friends on the trip … we all came from different backgrounds and all had different reasons for coming on the trip, but we all shared the experiences together, and it is something that I can always remember sharing with them.

My roommate always said, “What did I not learn?” This trip reminds you not to be so quick to judge people and their background … we all see things so differently and I think that is what makes the voyage unique. All the things I have seen and the conversations I had with people in so many countries remind me again how lucky we were to be born at the right time and in the right country. We are so blessed. This trip really demonstrates so many reasons why I am proud to be an American and to grow up at this time and to have the freedoms and opportunities that I have. Many of the people in the countries I have traveled to can only dream of having a fraction of what we have …… let alone have the opportunity to travel around the world.

We were outside of the sphere of American influence for several months, and we were challenged not to get caught up in the way we were at home before the trip. The trip definitely opened my eyes to my blind spots about the problems of the world. Ignorance is no excuse, and we learned it is alright to be intimidated by problems of the world. It is our job to have the passion to persuade and convince others to learn about the world. Plus it is important to not to ignore our responsibility to better the world.

There are some things I will not miss. First, is the fact that we had to use military time. By the end of the trip I finally got the hang of the 24 hour clock, but I still prefer our way of telling time. It will not be hard to go back to our clock! But I will also not miss the clock changes! I usually go to bed late and then additionally when we would lose an hour of sleep every other night … that did not help me the next morning! On the ship, time meant nothing to anyone … at home I can not go one day without looking at my planner … knowing what day it is and writing out my to-list for the following day … but I feel like I have gone 3 months without knowing the day of the week or month of the year … let alone what time it is!

I will not miss the potatoes, pasta, or rice! The food was not terrible but it certainly got old like any other cafeteria food! We got almost all our food for the entire voyage in the Bahamas, so most of the food had to be thawed throughout the voyage … that made for some interesting meals! I will be happy to go home to some meals that do not include potatoes, pasta, or rice!

I will not miss the water on the ship- filtered water from the sea … I now have an appreciation for good drinking water! I will not miss using hand sanitizer at every possible second and remembering to take my malaria medicine and pepto before I ate each meal! I will not miss the fact that we were isolated from influences of America- no news, no movies or TV shows, no advertisements … it was several months of separation from so many things that define our culture. I will not miss the 13 min. phone calls that cost an arm and a leg and trying to squeeze in everything I wanted to say before the time ran out. I will not miss the phone cards and trying to figure out how to use a different one in each port!

However, I will miss the 12th port, or the community on the ship … we all lived in very close proximity and formed a close bond together. All the way from the 9 month old to the lady who was 92, we were traveling around the world together and experiencing ports that many of us had never seen before. I will miss the connection I had with those people on my voyage, and the memories we shared together. I miss the 2 minute walk to class. I could roll out of bed and be in class in a matter of seconds! I will miss the wake up calls from the professors … whenever we had a time change, our global studies teacher would make an announcement that class was going to start in a matter minutes, just in case you forgot to change your clock! It was always a great way to start your morning!

I will miss our TV with 3 stations of movies and documentaries. I will miss the ship channel that I found myself watching to see where we were on the map or at what speed we were going! I will miss waking up next to the ocean and watching the sunsets off the back deck as we are ate dinner. I will miss the continuous rocking of the ship and how often it would rock me to sleep. I will miss the gorgeous weather and the view of the ocean for miles around me.

I will miss traveling somewhere new every five days, and looking forward to the excitement when we got off the ship for the first time in a port. I will miss my cabin steward and how spoiled I became when he cleaned our room and made my bed every single morning. I will miss the rest of the crew and their jokes and laughs as we got to know them throughout the voyage.

I will miss the silly moments with my friends and the late nights in our room and the fact that we saw each other nearly 24 hours a day! I will miss comparing events and memories of each port! One of my favorite times on the ship was the night that we got back on the ship after port. We would all gather in our room and pull out our favorite souvenirs to show each other … share pictures, and laugh at each other’s stories … it was a wonderful way to learn even more about each country and get an idea of what my friends’ experiences were and how it differed from mine. I loved that! Those nights were some of my favorite memories on the ship. I will miss my roommate and all the memories we shared over the past 100 days. I was so proud of her because she had never left the country before and was bold enough to travel around the world. I think we each gained a lot from one another.

I will miss getting mail set on my door after each port … mail day was big deal and something we all looked forward to! I will miss the daily announcements from “The Voice,” when we got our latitude and longitude and distance to the next port, plus all the daily activities. I will miss all of the activities when at sea … cutting off Jen’s hair at Neptune Day, and jumping into the pool with fish guts, movie nights, pre-ports, dances, barbecues (where we all ate enough for the week!), meal time, the Sea Olympics- cheering for the Mediterranean Sea, an Easter service from Desmond Tutu and hearing him talk in Global Studies, spending time with my “adopted family” on the ship, the snack bar, the pool deck, yoga on the back deck, the Ambassadors Ball and changing attire several times, waving hello and good-bye to all the ports!

We were challenged every day academically, emotionally, mentality, physically … to the point that you wondered if you would be able to handle another country in a few days with a completely new culture, language, expectations, and sites to see, things to learn, and try to remember every detail that you learned from the experiences … sometimes that was hard, but overall it just made all the memories even better … you were forced to wake-up every morning with a smile on your face and thankful to be on this trip and wonder what the day would have in store. Trust me- I made the most of everyday!

The ship had become my home for the last three months and it felt strange to leave the bubble of the ship … all the people looked familiar and we all went through the same experience … the night I saw the ship pull into the Bahamas I knew I was in for the trip of a lifetime … we would call it our home … it was always a sigh of relief to see fellow students when we were in the port- and I was always glad to be back on the ship after leaving a port … it was a safe haven and a place full of amazing people.… We learned there is enormous disintegration of community in our own country. So community was something that was stressed on the ship, and we learned how to expand our sense of community on the ship, which helped us to expand our sense of the world as its own community.

From the trip I think I gained a more critical eye when looking at the countries and questioning why things are the way they are. I learned so much about family traditions and how families make decisions based on the values they have been raised with. My family professor always said we were looking at the world with different lenses and we were learning how to observe from different points of view. In Brazil, family means more than anything, and in India families are huge and steeped in traditions. There are enormous weddings and large extended families. We studied the Asian cultures and learned how close people are to their families and the importance of children in their culture. We looked at the one-child policy in China, and studied how intense pressure is placed on Japanese students by their families to succeed in school. I have loved learning so much from my classes … because we had to write observations and journals each time we came back from a port, I think it is a different way to see the world … and I hope to continue that when I get home. It has a given me a new appreciation for learning from my environment.

I also learned from Desmond Tutu by listening to his personal stories from South Africa. It taught me a lot about dedication and how much passion it takes to achieve life goals like he has. I think he was a great attribute to the trip. He always reminded us that we have to be more aware of our surroundings and the problems that exist in the world today.

One of the other things we talked about on the ship was universal happiness. It is amazing to think about the fact that a smile and a wave can be universally read the same way around the world. I loved “smiling” at people in each port and getting almost the same reaction. It teaches you to have an understanding that we are more alike than we think.

I also learned about all the educational systems around the world and how I can apply some of those ideas in my classroom someday. And how lucky we are to grow up with the education we are given in the United States. So many countries we visited barely had enough resources to educate half of their students. Or that so many families are struggling in poverty that families cannot afford for children to go to school and children must work on the street. Or in the Asian cultures there are intense tests that determine the rest of their future. The competition is high and they have little choice in what happens after the test results.

My music class was also very interesting. It was easy to find music to listen to or cultural performances in each country because I enjoy those kinds of things. I learned a lot about how music truly defines a culture and is very representative of the people and events in the countries. I would recognize instruments or hear parts of the music that sounded familiar in class. It was such neat way to see the countries because I was focusing in or concentrating on a certain area … plus my friends and I would share what they were studying in each country and soon I had well-rounded view of the countries.

When I go home I will be back in a completely different reality … there will be my cell phone, which just recently I had a hard time remembering the number, remembering how to drive again … having to wear a seat belt in cars … being able to watch TV and go to a movie theater … being able to surf the internet and check email without it being an hour proposition …… drinking fresh water that is not salty ….. knowing that none of my stuff will suddenly shift around my room in the middle of the night …… forget that there is no bargaining allowed when I go shopping and not have to do quick conversions in my head when buying something! Just as soon as I was able to remember the exchange rate for a country, it was time to leave and learn a new one! I am happy to go back to US dollars.

So don’t ask me what my favorite country was or my favorite memory because I would have no idea how to explain … only that the entire trip was incredible!!! I know that many of you will be bored by my stories and not want to see all of my pictures and videos but you can just smile and nod. I learned that the average person only listens for about seven minutes before their eyes start to glaze over! That would amount to about one story from one of the many countries I traveled to. So I will just need to pick a few to share!

The trip definitely had a lot of “firsts” for me! Puerto Rico started the trip off with a bang! I saw Carnival in Brazil- the biggest party in the world! I met Mom in South Africa and we sat on ostriches, fed elephants and went on a safari! I had never heard of the country Mauritius before, and now I can find it on a map and say I toured the whole island! India was unbelievable and I took a boat ride on the Ganges River and stood in awe at the Taj Mahal! Malaysia was different than I expected and I got to go to Kuala Lumpur with my two closest friends! Vietnam was amazing because I did so many things I thought I would never experience- motorcycle rides, crawling through small Viet Kong tunnels, and visiting the Mekong Delta! Hong Kong was fascinating because it was so modern and fast paced! China was incredible because I got to climb the Great Wall again, as well as enjoy the sights of Beijing, like the Temple of Heaven and the Forbidden City. Plus I made a connection with a wonderful Chinese University student! Japan will always be one of my favorite countries- there is something about the culture that impresses me every time. I visited Hiroshima again and saw the ancient city of Kyoto! Plus I met a close friend, Hiromi, in our port city of Kobe! How can I compare any of these countries? Each one brings so many memories and stories that make each country unique!

On the trip someone gave us this quote, that “The real voyage of discovery does not consist of seeing new places, but of having new eyes.” It truly was a voyage of discovery. There were important life lessons learned and the way we defined ourselves became very visible during the journey. I think many of us surprised ourselves and found ways to gain independence and confidence from the trip. I know that I can take care of myself- I can walk into a foreign country and see the sites. I feel like I was separated from everything I knew and was familiar with, and I survived a trip around the world! Sometimes trying to make sense of all the things I learned can be overwhelming. What a crazy idea- take a bunch of college students- put them on a ship- and sail around the world! It is amazing what they can learn!

One of our professors told us that we would be walking off the ship with the world in our hands. I love that analogy because I think it expresses so very well one of the fundamental themes of the trip. In reality, the world is very small. It is important in today’s day and age to be mindful of that, and remember to keep an open mind. We are all connected in so many ways, and yet sometimes it takes a trip around the world to see that, where you are thrown into varied lands and cultures. Only then can you begin to see the similarities and understand that we all truly want the same things in life. It was a “Times Ten Experience” and holds memories I will carry with me the rest of my life!

“I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.”
-- Susan Sontag

Pictures from San Diego !!!!

Looking at the ship in the San Diego harbor for the last time!

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I made it off the ship with all my luggage and have a sign from my sister!

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My roommate and I trying to squeeze in the car with all our luggage!

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My sister and I in my cabin on the ship!

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A fantastic day at the zoo!

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The polar bear looks to the camera!

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Can you guess how many stripes on the zebra?

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This was an animal that I had a never seen before! What a combination!

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The famous panda bears at the zoo!

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He is very good at staring right back at you!

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This animal was always sleeping!

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The animals were always looking around at all the people!

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The leopard with all his spots!

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Balboa Park in San Diego!

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The beautiful coast of San Diego!

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My sister and I visiting the seals!

Taking a trip to visit the beach!

My grandmother, my sister, and I in the city!

Days at Sea After Hawaii….

Now back on the ship, we had several days of final exams. There was so much happening on the ship every night that it was hard to concentrate and get everything done! The first day was a study day for classes that are on “A Days.” I was able to sleep in a little and then spend the rest of the day studying and beginning to get organized. I had accumulated a lot of stuff the past few months and it was going to be interesting to see how I was going to get off the ship with all of these things! It was going to be a real challenge! So I spent some time packing souvenirs and putting things away that I did not need. Then I had two tests to study for….one for my family class and the other for my music class.

In the evening we had a barbecue for dinner on the 7th deck. It was one of the best dinners during the voyage and very much looked forward to. We had hamburgers and corn on the cob….plus ice cream….a very big treat! It is so nice when everyone is on the deck together and eating a wonderful meal! Later on that night we watched the children on the ship perform a short play for the ship community. It was hilarious … the captain took part in it and helped solve the mystery of pirates on the ship! It was really cute! Then I spent the rest of the evening studying … not my favorite thing to do!!!!

The following day I had my exams….music was really hard - 8 pages of short answer questions … but my family class exam was thankfully not as a difficult. I was happy to have them over and done with! In the afternoon I had my last education class and we had a party and wrapped up the class … it was a nice closure to the class. I really enjoyed my professor … he was very inspirational. I was very lucky to have him as my professor on the ship. The rest of the day was spent packing, emailing, and getting some things accomplished. I had dinner with my adopted family and talked about our day in Hawaii. It is always nice to eat a family meal with them … they even gave us some snacks for our final exam studying!

We also had a bazaar that night where you could buy or sell anything that you purchased on the trip and then decided you did not want anymore. It was so funny to see what people would sell! Candy, clothes, purses, shoes, t-shirts, flags of the countries we visited, the list goes on … it worked out well for people and it was a lot of fun! I spent more time packing and socializing with friends … we planned on spending the last few days watching movies, getting sun, and catching up on our blogs!

The hard part is that I am still on a strange time zone … we continue to change the clocks almost every night and I am still on another time zone. We figured it out to be somewhere between Japan and Hawaii. We go to bed at 5 am because none of us are tired … it is going to be a rude awakening when I get home!!!

The next day I slept in and then went to get a massage with my roommate. Neither of us had one before so we planned this as a treat after final exams. I got a hot stone massage … it was relaxing. I spent part of the day getting some sun outside and then I got in line to get an autograph from Desmond Tutu. The line wrapped all around the dining hall and I was lucky to actually get an autograph and picture!

In the afternoon I went outside to get some sun; then we had dinner, and then went to listen to a speaker. He was from a university in LA and was talking to us about transitioning when we got home and how to continue to use some of the things we learned while traveling. He was a comedian and told some amazing travel stories. It was a great evening.

The next day I spent several hours outside, packing, and the best part was that it was taco day! It is a very exciting meal in the dining hall and people were flocking to the tacos! Plus it was favorite voyage t-shirt day on the ship! Some of the shirts were crazy and I don’t think I had ever seen them before! I wore a shirt from the Taj Mahal!

In the evening we had a disembarkation meeting. We went over the logistics about getting our luggage off and how we would leave from the ship. Then they made a big joke about reentering the US. Just like we had done in any other country, we went over some typical words from the language … hello, what’s up?, hi … plus we went over food customs … be as messy as you want and the typical foods are pizzas and hamburgers! Then we got an update on some of the highlights from the US in the past few months. They went over politics, news, and media news … everyone laughed when we heard the top 3 hits on the radio…2 of the songs we had never even heard of the bands … plus movies sounded so foreign because nobody had ever thought about going to see a movie in three months. Then we heard about the newest updates on TV … American Idol and Grey’s Anatomy.

It was a strange to hear all these updates on topics that I would typically know all about … it reminded all of us how we had been living in this bubble for the last few months … just floating in the middle of the ocean and in our own reality. So as we received a pre-port to our own country, as much as it was a joke, there was some seriousness to the thoughts and feelings about coming home. The fact that reality is going to hit hard and come all too fast … more responsibilities, and tons of stories and pictures to share. It was all coming too fast for me! As much as I want to be with my family, talk to them in person, show them my pictures, see my house and cat, talk to friends, I wouldn’t mind staying just a little longer … maybe even go around the world again!

That evening we watched a slideshow from the ship photographer. He is the one putting together the yearbook, so we saw some of the pictures he had taken in each port. It was fun to look back at some of the pictures from Puerto Rico and Brazil. It seemed so long ago! We also enjoyed picking out people we recognized in the pictures and remembering the places each picture was taken. Later on that night we watched a ship-wide talent show. It was interesting to see what people performed as their talent! There was the usual singing and dancing, but then there were the strange acts that really made you wonder if you had lived with these people for the past few months! It was extremely entertaining and definitely a great way to end the night!

The last day was a blur! I was trying to finish up packing because we had to put our main suitcases out in the hallway. It was interesting trying to squeeze everything in! I think my roommate enjoyed watching me try!

In the evening we had convocation and a graduation for the seniors. One of my close friends was graduating so we all went to watch the ceremony. They gave all the graduating seniors a paper rice hat from Vietnam to wear as a cap. They put Univ. of Virginia ribbons on the hat to make it look like an official tassel! It was a very nice ceremony. Several students shared personal stories, and almost all the academic deans spoke about the experiences of the semester. Each one had something a little different to say, but it was amazing to hear how much everyone enjoyed the voyage and the memories they would be taking home. I am so glad we had the ceremony … it was a nice way to close the trip.

After convocation my friends and I spent the evening together. We took pictures all over the ship and just enjoyed each others company. Some of us even explored the crew quarters of the ship … it was fun to sneak around some areas we did not know existed! I think everyone was not sure what they should do … recap everything that happened or just pretend it was another night on the ship. Finally early in the morning we went to sleep for a few hours in my cabin! Two people were in the beds and the other two were on the floor between them - it was a final slumber party!

A few hours later we had to get up to watch the ship pull in. At breakfast we could see land approaching! We were very close to San Diego! Everyone pulled out their cell phone and started to make phone calls to everyone they knew! It was hilarious watching everyone go down their call list and say hello to people they had not talked to in months! Soon everyone raced to the decks to watch and get ready to scream and wave. Earlier in the week everyone made big signs to hold up when we pulled in! Most people were crying as the ship continued to get closer and closer. Then the ship’s horn started to blast! We could see a crowd of people in the distance! There was no turning back! It was exciting- yet it all came too fast for me! There was so much anticipation and nervousness that I think we were surprised when we finally hit land! But we made it and screamed and waved to all the families below!

The ship had to be cleared by authorities before anyone could get off. Then we disembarked the ship based on our place at the Sea Olympics! The Mediterranean Sea was towards the end, so I had time to wait on the ship. We made more phone calls, ate our last meal, and even took a nap. Finally our sea was called. My roommate and I said good-bye to our cabin and I struggled out the door with an armful of souvenirs! I looked ridiculous! I had Vietnam rice hats on my head, a bookbag, a duffle bag, and carried several more sacks! Getting off the ship was one of the worst experiences of my life- I was not sure if I was going to make it! But I did, and my sister and my grandmother were waiting for me when I got off! It was so exciting! Familiar faces! I got plenty of hugs and kisses! It was so special to have them there to pick me up! I was so happy to see them! One hundred days at sea and one hundred million memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land.” -- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Pictures of Hawaii and Ambassador's Ball!

My group out on the deck for pictures at the Ambassador's Ball!

My roommate and I pose together!

My sari blew off, so I threw it around my neck!

Another picture together during the evening!

Eating our fancy dinner at the ball!

The theme of the ball out on the deck.

The buffet where the food was amazing!

I wish I could have eaten the chocolate Taj Mahal!

My friends and I with the Captain!

The Aloha Tower in Honolulu!

The beautiful palm trees!

The Hawaiian leis!

Sunset at Waikiki!

Waikiki beach where we went swimming!