Back to life at sea

Hello all! Let me give you an update on our shipboard life. Since we’ve left Croatia, most of the time has been spent writing papers and taking classes. Finally, we have a day off. But of course, this day will also be spent writing papers. The first one I wrote was about comparing sacred spaces in three distinct countries and how access to those spaces is not the same for each location, and that difference is reflective of the differences in politics, society, and culture. I talked about St. Isaac’s in St. Petersburg, Our Lady Cathedral in Antwerp, and Morsi Abu El-Abbas in Alexandria. Since we’re so busy, it’s been hard to digest everything that’s happened this summer. And besides, we’ve had some distractions. Last night was the Crew Talent Show and it was amazing. We’ve had two talent shows already for the rest of the shipboard community, and neither of them compared to this. Let me just say first that the crew has been wonderful this summer. I had heard rumors before the trip on face book groups that the crew did a great job but I had no idea how sweet, considerate, and helpful they all are. Most are from the Philippines and travel onboard each semester. Each morning when I go to breakfast, the crew working in the dining halls cheerfully greet us. Everyone happens to think that their steward is the best (yeah, no one’s got anything on crispin). We’re all sort of used to our rooms being cleaned every day and our beds being made. Some days, I’m guessing today will be one to of them, we tell our steward he doesn’t need to clean our room…because honestly, it’s not always necessary. But they are just fantastic. And honestly, the talent show was just as exciting as pulling into a port…they sang, they danced…wow…it was so entertaining, everyone loved it. I took a lot of videos so I’ll try to put something together to give everyone an idea…I’ve been making videos for each country but I don’t have the internet time to upload them…so when I get back to the states I’ll definitely put each one up…until then, I would highly recommend checking out this website: http://www.semesteratsea.org/voyages/current-voyage/summer-2008-photos-and-blogs.php. They have a great collection of slideshows with audio prepared by our very own photo mike on board ship. My favorite one is about Egypt…specifically because they have the audio of when we found out we were going to Alexandria…my eyes teared up when I heard it again…it was such an exhilarating moment…

I’d like to give everyone an idea of what life on board the MV Explorer is like. By now, everyone is used to the currents of the sea and not many people experience much seasickness anymore. Then again, we’re going to be on the Atlantic again so hopefully it will be calm. I don’t think I can emphasize the feeling of unity among our shipboard community enough…there is such a strong bond between us all, and it has made this trip all the better. Okay-so here’s a little bit of a schedule of my day when we have classes: wake up maybe around 7-730, head to breakfast, check email, do some reading, Global studies class (mandatory for all students, there are two sections) from 9ish till about 1030, then walk about 4 minutes to another classroom, where I have Ritual and Belief for an hour and fifteen. That brings me to about 12pm and it’s time for lunch. Then, I head back to my room to do work, maybe take a nap…until I have my third and final class, Women in Cross Cultural Perspectives, which is in the late afternoon. Each night we have “community colleges” which are a series covering a wide range of topics. I actually think I’ll be heading to one tonight, lead by one our professors from Charles University in Prague. OH! I didn’t really keep my blog up to date about all our interport lecturers we had, who were great and very informative, but remember I mentioned Masha Lipman? Who was from Russia? A couple days ago, CNN interviewed her about the crisis between Russia and Georgia. As our Global Studies prof said, “you heard it first at Semester at Sea.”


Okay that’s it for now! Today we had to wake up before 10 because of a lifeboat drill…the 600 students onboard were less than happy. But Saving Private Ryan is on so I’m procrastinating on doing work and watching this instead. Oh well. Talk later!